CHAPTER 7: THE GIRL WITH THE COUNTDOWN
00:57
The numbers blinked in angry red.
Victor stared at the device strapped beneath Emma's jacket.
It wasn't large.
Barely the size of a smartphone.
But every instinct told him it was real.
Very real.
Lily instinctively pulled Ethan behind her.
"No..."
Emma whispered, her voice breaking.
"I thought... I thought I disabled it."
Victor forced himself to stay calm.
"When did they put this on you?"
Emma closed her eyes.
"I've worn one since I was nine."
Silence.
Victor thought he had misheard.
"What?"
"They said if I ever tried to leave..."
She looked at Ethan.
"...or if I ever told anyone the truth..."
"They would kill me."
Victor's grip tightened around the bomb.
"What kind of monsters..."
Emma interrupted him.
"They're not monsters."
"They're patient."
"They never need to chase people."
"They simply wait until fear does the work for them."
00:41
Victor examined the device.
No wires.
No screws.
Just a sealed titanium casing with a tiny fingerprint sensor.
Professionally built.
Military grade.
Removing it by force would almost certainly detonate it.
Lily whispered,
"Can we jam the signal?"
Emma slowly shook her head.
"It's not remote."
"It activates when they decide."
Victor frowned.
"How?"
Emma pointed toward the timer.
"They already decided."
Victor took a deep breath.
"There has to be a failsafe."
Emma gave him a sad smile.
"There is."
"What is it?"
"They told me..."
"If the timer ever starts..."
"...only one person can stop it."
"Who?"
Emma looked directly at Victor.
"You."
Victor frowned.
"Me?"
Emma nodded.
"They always called you..."
"The First Key."
Before Victor could ask what that meant...
The timer suddenly stopped.
00:30
It froze.
For three endless seconds.
Then the screen changed.
A single message appeared.
LOOK UP.
Victor's instincts exploded.
"DOWN!"
The ceiling above the maintenance tunnel burst inward.
A flash grenade crashed onto the floor.
BOOM!
White light swallowed everything.
Victor couldn't hear.
Couldn't see.
Only a high-pitched ringing remained.
Shapes moved through the smoke.
Black uniforms.
Night-vision goggles.
Silenced rifles.
Professionals.
Not ordinary mercenaries.
The first guard fell before he even fired.
The second collapsed a heartbeat later.
Every shot was precise.
Controlled.
Victor dragged Emma behind a concrete pillar while Lily shielded Ethan.
The attackers advanced without speaking.
No panic.
No hesitation.
Like machines.
Then one of them spoke.
"Target One confirmed."
Another answered through an earpiece.
"Target Two confirmed."
Victor frowned.
Target One?
Target Two?
Not names.
Designations.
The lead attacker raised his rifle.
"Capture the girl."
"Kill everyone else."
Victor fired first.
The bullet struck the attacker's shoulder.
He didn't scream.
He simply switched his weapon to his other hand and kept moving.
Victor realized something horrifying.
They had trained for pain.
Emma suddenly grabbed Victor's wrist.
"Don't shoot the helmets."
"What?"
"The visor."
Victor fired again.
This time, the bullet shattered the attacker's visor.
Instantly, the man stumbled backward.
His breathing became erratic.
Within seconds, he collapsed.
Dead.
Victor stared in disbelief.
Emma shouted,
"The helmets feed them oxygen!"
"They're wearing toxic filters!"
Victor didn't understand.
But he aimed for every visor after that.
Glass shattered.
Attackers dropped one after another.
Within two minutes...
The tunnel fell silent.
Victor approached the nearest body.
He removed the helmet.
Everyone froze.
The man's mouth had been sewn shut.
His tongue...
Had been removed.
Lily recoiled in horror.
"Oh my God..."
Victor searched the uniform.
No identification.
No fingerprints.
The fingertips had been burned smooth.
Professional erasure.
Then he noticed something else.
Behind the man's left ear.
A tiny tattoo.
A black raven.
Number Seven.
Emma whispered,
"They're Disciples."
Victor looked at her.
"What does that mean?"
"They're children taken by the Twelve Families."
"They're raised from birth."
"No names."
"No families."
"No voices."
"Only orders."
Victor stared at the dead man.
He couldn't have been older than twenty-five.
A child turned into a weapon.
Suddenly, Ethan pointed toward another fallen attacker.
"Daddy."
"He's moving."
Victor spun around.
The wounded man was reaching into his vest.
Victor aimed his pistol.
"Don't!"
Emma shouted.
But it was too late.
The man smiled.
Then crushed a small capsule between his teeth.
Foam filled his mouth.
Within seconds...
He was dead.
Victor searched the body.
Every pocket.
Every compartment.
Nothing.
Except a photograph.
He unfolded it.
It showed Emma.
Age eight.
Standing beside another little girl.
The girls looked almost identical.
Victor frowned.
"Who is this?"
Emma's face turned white.
"No..."
Victor looked at her.
"You know her."
Emma slowly nodded.
"My sister."
Silence.
Victor blinked.
"No."
Emma looked at the photograph with trembling hands.
"I wasn't alone."
"There were two of us."
Victor struggled to understand.
"You're twins?"
Emma shook her head.
"No."
"She wasn't born with me."
"We grew up together."
"They raised us as sisters."
Victor looked back at the photograph.
The second girl had blonde hair.
Blue eyes.
A familiar smile.
His heart stopped.
He had seen that face before.
Many times.
Framed in magazines.
Standing beside him at charity galas.
Laughing at his dinner table.
Victor whispered,
"Serena..."
Emma slowly closed her eyes.
"Yes."
"The woman you almost married."
"She grew up beside me."
Victor felt sick.
"She knew who you were."
Emma nodded.
"She always knew."
"And she let me believe she wanted to save me."
Victor suddenly remembered something Serena once said.
"Family isn't about blood."
At the time, it sounded romantic.
Now...
It sounded like a confession.
A vibration came from Victor's pocket.
His phone.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A calm male voice spoke.
"Good evening, Victor."
Victor recognized it immediately.
The same distorted voice from the underground bunker.
"You've met your daughter."
Victor said nothing.
The man continued.
"She's beautiful."
Victor's voice turned cold.
"If you touch either of my children again..."
The man laughed softly.
"You still think you have two children."
Victor froze.
"What?"
"You should read the last page of Elena's journal."
The line went dead.
Victor immediately pulled the journal from his jacket.
He flipped to the final page.
Unlike the others...
This page wasn't written by Elena.
The handwriting was different.
Sharper.
More deliberate.
Only one sentence filled the page.
Victor... if Emma has found you, then Serena already knows where Ethan is.
Victor's blood ran cold.
He looked around.
"Lily?"
No answer.
"Lily!"
The maintenance chamber was suddenly silent.
Too silent.
Victor's heart pounded.
"Ethan?"
Nothing.
Emma turned pale.
"They're gone."
Victor sprinted toward the tunnel entrance.
It was empty.
No Lily.
No Ethan.
Only Lily's broken necklace lying on the ground.
Beside it...
A small white card.
Victor picked it up with trembling hands.
On the front was a single sentence.
May you like
One child for another. Choose wisely.
END OF CHAPTER 7
