Chapter 8 - The OperationLuca barely spoke on the drive.
The city passed outside the armored windows.
Lights.
Buildings.
People.
All of Manhattan moving as though the world were normal.
Inside the vehicle, Luca felt like he was sitting at the center of an explosion.
“They want Emma's mutation,” Marco said.
“Yes.”
“To cure you?”
“No.”
“To control you.”
Luca looked at him.
Marco understood.
“If they can manipulate the gene, they could trigger your heart whenever they wanted.”
“Exactly.”
Mara spoke from the front.
“There is another possibility.”
Luca looked up.
“What?”
“The procedure could also stabilize you.”
Silence.
Luca stared.
“You mean cure me?”
“Not a cure.”
“Then what?”
“A treatment.”
“Experimental?”
“Yes.”
“Would it work?”
“I don't know.”
Marco laughed bitterly.
“That's reassuring.”
Mara ignored him.
“If the Valtieri have perfected the procedure, they may be able to alter the defective cardiac cells.”
Luca's eyes hardened.
“Then why do they need Emma?”
“Because her mutation is different.”
“She has the gene but not the disease.”
“Exactly.”
Luca looked out the window.
His daughter wasn't merely being kidnapped.
She was being hunted because her body contained a biological key.
A key powerful enough to change his life.
Maybe theirs.
The vehicle stopped.
An underground entrance stood beneath an abandoned courthouse.
Marco checked his weapon.
“Ready?”
Luca opened the door.
“Never.”
They entered.
Two guards.
Down.
Then four.
Down.
The deeper they went, the colder it became.
Finally, they reached a glass corridor.
Behind the glass were laboratories.
Scientists.
Machines.
And at the center…
Emma.
She sat in a medical chair.
A monitor was attached to her tiny finger.
Luca's entire body went rigid.
“Emma.”
Her eyes lifted.
“Daddy!”
She struggled against the straps.
Luca stepped forward.
A gun appeared against his temple.
Adrian stood behind him.
“Don't.”
Luca turned slowly.
“You.”
Adrian looked older than he had in the photograph.
Thirty-two.
Scar across his cheek.
Same eyes.
Same blood.
But something colder.
“You're not taking her.”
Adrian looked through the glass.
“I've spent my whole life watching my heart deteriorate.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Adrian laughed.
“You have no idea.”
Luca stepped closer.
“Then let her go.”
“Can't.”
“Why?”
“Because the procedure started.”
Luca's blood froze.
“What procedure?”
Adrian looked at Mara.
“She knows.”
Mara closed her eyes.
“They've already taken the sample.”
Luca turned toward the glass.
Emma's tiny arm was connected to a machine.
A scientist was monitoring a stream of blood.
Luca exploded.
He attacked Adrian.
The gun went off.
The bullet missed.
They crashed into the floor.
Marco shot the lights.
Darkness.
Glass shattered.
Alarms screamed.
Luca reached Emma.
He ripped the restraints apart.
“Daddy!”
He held her against his chest.
Her tiny arms wrapped around his neck.
For three years, he had imagined this moment.
He had never imagined it would happen in the middle of a war.
“I'm here.”
Emma cried.
“I knew you would come.”
Luca closed his eyes.
Then a voice echoed over the speakers.
A woman's voice.
His mother's.
“Luca.”
He froze.
Emma looked up.
“Daddy?”
The voice continued.
“You have no idea who I am.”
Luca stared at the ceiling.
“Mum?”
Silence.
Then:
“Your father lied to you.”
The doors slammed shut.
Gas flooded the corridor.
Luca collapsed to his knees.
Emma slipped from his arms.
May you like
And the last thing he heard before losing consciousness was his mother's voice whispering:
“I'm sorry, my son.”
