Chapter 10 - THE TWELVE ROSESThe first door opened.
Then the second.
Then the third.
Twelve steel doors.
Twelve rooms.
Twelve children.
All with the same face.
Sienna stared in horror.
One girl stepped into the corridor.
Then another.
Then another.
They were different ages.
But they all had her eyes.
Dante backed away.
“What did your father create?”
Gabriel looked at him.
“No.”
He looked at Sienna.
“What your father created was an army.”
Sienna shook her head.
“I don't understand.”
Gabriel walked closer.
“Because Black Rose was never destroyed.”
He pointed at the girls.
“It was replicated.”
Damian, wounded but laughing, appeared at the end of the corridor.
“Welcome home, Elena.”
Sienna turned.
“No.”
Damian smiled.
“You spent years thinking you were the survivor.”
He spread his arms.
“You weren't.”
The twelve girls walked forward.
Each stopped at the same distance.
Each looked at Sienna.
Then all twelve spoke together.
“We remember.”
Dante's blood ran cold.
“What do they remember?”
Damian laughed.
“Everything.”
Suddenly every light in the facility switched on.
The screens displayed names.
Judges.
Police chiefs.
Senators.
Prosecutors.
Bankers.
Gang leaders.
Journalists.
Every major power player in Chicago.
Sienna stared.
“They're compromised.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Black Rose spent twenty years collecting secrets.”
Dante looked at the screen.
“And now?”
Gabriel's expression darkened.
“Now they're going to use them.”
The timer flashed.
00:01:12
Rocco shouted:
“We need to leave!”
Dante looked at Sienna.
“Come on.”
She didn't move.
“What?”
She looked at the twelve girls.
“They won't survive.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“They're not yours to save.”
Sienna turned toward him.
“They're children.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“They're copies.”
Sienna's face hardened.
“I don't care.”
She walked forward.
One of the girls looked at her.
“Are you our mother?”
Sienna stopped.
She had no answer.
Then the girl asked:
“Are we you?”
Sienna knelt.
“You are yourselves.”
The girl's eyes filled with tears.
“No one ever said that.”
Sienna held out her hand.
The girl took it.
Then another came.
And another.
Soon all twelve stood around her.
Dante watched.
For the first time, he understood.
Sienna wasn't the weapon.
She was the one person who could choose what the weapon became.
“Rocco!”
“Yes?”
“Get everyone out.”
“What about you?”
Dante looked at Sienna.
“I'm staying.”
Rocco shook his head.
“Boss…”
Dante pointed toward the exit.
“Go.”
Rocco obeyed.
Gabriel stared at Dante.
“You'll die here.”
Dante looked at him.
“Maybe.”
Then he glanced at Sienna.
“But she won't.”
Damian raised his gun.
Everything happened at once.
Gabriel fired.
Damian fired.
Dante tackled Sienna.
Glass shattered.
The timer reached:
00:00:31
The central machinery began overheating.
Sienna saw the control panel.
She ran.
Damian tried to stop her.
One of the girls stepped in front of him.
He froze.
She looked exactly like Sienna at ten years old.
“You don't control us anymore.”
Damian lowered his weapon.
For the first time, fear crossed his face.
Sienna reached the console.
The system asked:
DELETE SUBJECTS?
She looked at the twelve girls.
Then chose:
NO.
Next:
RELEASE ALL RECORDS?
She pressed:
YES.
The system began transmitting.
Every file.
Every name.
Every secret.
Every crime.
Every politician.
Every judge.
Every Black Rose operation.
Chicago's entire underground world began receiving the same message.
BLACK ROSE IS ALIVE.
The timer reached:
00:00:10
Dante shouted:
“Sienna!”
She looked back.
He held out his hand.
“COME ON!”
She grabbed it.
They ran.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
The facility exploded.
The ground beneath Russo Tower shook violently.
Windows shattered hundreds of feet above them.
People screamed in the streets.
Fire erupted from underground vents.
Then silence.
Six hours later, dawn broke over Chicago.
News helicopters circled Russo Tower.
Police flooded downtown.
Federal agents arrived.
Politicians vanished behind lawyers.
Gang leaders stopped answering phones.
The Black Rose files had spread too quickly to contain.
Chicago was changing.
But inside a safehouse, Sienna sat beside a hospital bed.
Dante was asleep.
His shoulder was bandaged.
Caterina sat nearby.
Gabriel was gone.
Nobody knew where he had disappeared to.
The twelve girls had been moved to a secure location.
For the first time, Sienna wasn't alone.
Dante woke.
He looked at her.
“You stayed.”
Sienna smiled.
“So did you.”
He sat up.
“There is something you should know.”
“What?”
He reached under the pillow.
Pulled out an envelope.
Sienna frowned.
“What is that?”
“It was delivered this morning.”
“From who?”
Dante handed it to her.
No address.
No name.
Only a black rose drawn on the front.
Sienna opened it.
Inside was a single photograph.
Dante's face changed.
It showed a woman.
Standing beside Lorenzo Russo.
Alive.
Sienna stared.
“Who is she?”
Dante whispered:
“My grandmother.”
“But Caterina said she died before you were born.”
“She did.”
Dante turned the photograph over.
There was a date.
October 13, 2023.
Tomorrow.
Then beneath it, six words:
SHE KNOWS WHAT YOU REALLY ARE.
Sienna felt the blood drain from her face.
She looked at Dante.
“The war isn't over.”
Dante stood.
Outside, Chicago screamed with sirens.
He looked through the window.
“No.”
He turned back to Sienna.
“It just started.”
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Dante answered.
A woman's voice spoke softly.
“Dante Russo.”
He froze.
“Who is this?”
The woman laughed.
Then said:
“You have my granddaughter.”
Sienna's heart stopped.
The woman continued:
“And now…”
A pause.
“…I want her back.”
The line went dead.
Dante looked at Sienna.
She whispered:
“Who was that?”
Dante stared at the black rose photograph.
Then he said the one thing that made her blood turn cold.
“The woman who started Black Rose.”
Outside the window, a second explosion thundered across Chicago.
May you like
And somewhere in the city, twelve girls with Sienna Cole's face opened their eyes at exactly the same time.
The next phase had begun.
