Chapter 7 - The Woman Who DiedThey reached the city before dawn.
Voss's address was an abandoned hospital.
The building had been closed for years.
Mara entered first.
Evan followed with Lucas.
A voice echoed through the hallway.
“You took your time.”
Voss stepped from the shadows.
Older than the recording.
Alive.
Evan raised his gun.
“You're hard to kill.”
Voss smiled.
“So are you.”
Mara stared at her.
“I saw your obituary.”
“Helix wrote it.”
“Why?”
“To make me disappear.”
Voss examined Lucas.
The boy looked at her with uncomfortable familiarity.
“I remember you.”
Voss crouched.
“You shouldn't.”
“But I do.”
“What did I say?”
Lucas swallowed.
“You said my father would save me.”
Voss's face tightened.
“I never met your father.”
“But you knew him.”
“No.”
Lucas touched his temple.
“You're lying.”
Evan watched her carefully.
“How do you know him?”
Voss sighed.
“Because I helped create Subject Zero.”
The words hit the room like an explosion.
Evan stepped closer.
“You made me?”
“No.”
“I was born.”
“Yes.”
“Then what did you create?”
Voss looked at Lucas.
“The memory architecture.”
She explained that Helix had discovered a rare neurological pattern in Evan's family.
Certain traumatic memories were unusually stable.
They believed those memories could be genetically encoded.
But their experiments had failed.
Until Evan.
Then Lucas.
Evan asked:
“What happens if they take him?”
Voss answered quietly:
“He will become a living archive.”
“Of what?”
“Everything Helix has ever hidden.”
Mara stared.
“That's why they want him.”
“No.”
Voss looked at her.
“That is why everyone wants him.”
Suddenly, a gunshot came from upstairs.
Voss moved instantly.
“Down!”
Glass shattered.
Bullets tore through the wall.
Evan pushed Lucas behind a concrete pillar.
Mara fired back.
Voss grabbed a weapon from beneath her coat.
“How many?”
Evan asked.
“Too many.”
They moved through the hospital.
A man appeared at the end of the corridor.
Evan shot the weapon from his hand.
The man collapsed.
Voss looked at him.
“CIA.”
Evan stared.
“You said don't trust the police.”
“I didn't say trust anyone else.”
They reached the lower level.
There was an elevator.
Voss entered a code.
The doors opened.
Inside was a laboratory.
Still powered.
Still clean.
Still waiting.
Lucas stopped.
“I've been here.”
Voss froze.
“You couldn't have.”
Lucas touched the wall.
“I know this place.”
He walked toward a glass chamber.
Inside was a metal chair.
He whispered:
“That’s where they put him.”
Voss looked at Evan.
“How?”
Lucas turned.
“They brought my father here.”
Evan felt his chest tighten.
“When?”
Lucas shook his head.
“Before I was born.”
Voss stared.
“That's impossible.”
Lucas pointed at the chamber.
“He told me to remember.”
Evan whispered:
“Who?”
Lucas looked directly at him.
“You.”
The lights suddenly turned red.
A voice announced:
CONTAINMENT BREACH. SUBJECT ZERO LOCATION CONFIRMED.
Voss's expression changed.
“They've activated the facility remotely.”
Mara grabbed Lucas.
“Can we shut it down?”
Voss shook her head.
“Not from here.”
Evan saw a monitor.
A countdown appeared.
09:59
“What's that?”
Voss looked at the timer.
“Self-destruct.”
Evan stared.
“Ten minutes?”
Voss nodded.
“And if we stay?”
She looked at Lucas.
“We die.”
Then the elevator doors opened behind them.
A man stepped out.
Black suit.
Silver Helix ring.
Evan recognized him.
His father's oldest friend.
A man who had attended his funeral.
The man smiled.
“Hello, Evan.”
May you like
He lifted his gun.
“You've grown up.”
