Chapter 7 - HelixThe mansion became a battlefield.
Gunfire erupted outside.
Security alarms screamed.
Admiral Reed pulled me behind the fireplace.
“Stay down.”
Grandmother sat perfectly still.
“You've aged,” she said.
I stared at her.
“People tend to.”
She smiled.
“Still your mother's daughter.”
A blast shook the room.
The library doors splintered.
Three soldiers entered.
Black uniforms.
No insignia.
No markings.
Reed fired first.
Two dropped.
The third disappeared behind a wall.
I moved toward Grandmother.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
“Then move.”
She followed me through a hidden passage.
I had forgotten the tunnel existed.
My childhood mansion was full of secrets.
Walls opened.
Passages connected rooms.
There had been times I thought the house itself was hiding things from me.
I had been right.
We descended into darkness.
Admiral Reed followed.
“How long has this tunnel existed?” he asked.
Grandmother answered.
“Since before the war.”
“Whose war?”
“The one we're still fighting.”
We reached an underground chamber.
Computer terminals lined the walls.
Most were ancient.
Some were newer.
I stared.
“What is this?”
Grandmother touched one keyboard.
The monitors flickered.
A logo appeared.
HELIX
Then a list of names.
Military officers.
Scientists.
Politicians.
Corporate executives.
And at the bottom:
ELENA VALE
I froze.
“Why am I on this list?”
Grandmother didn't answer.
Reed did.
“Because they were tracking your development.”
“What?”
“Your mother enrolled you in an experimental program as a child.”
I stared at him.
“No.”
Grandmother finally spoke.
“She thought the program could help understand what Helix had done to her.”
My mind raced.
“All those evaluations.”
“Yes.”
“The tests.”
“Yes.”
“The military aptitude program.”
“Yes.”
“They used me.”
“They studied you.”
“Why?”
“Because you had unusual resistance to behavioral conditioning.”
I looked at Reed.
“You knew?”
“Not all of it.”
He looked uncomfortable.
“But after the South China Sea incident, we found fragments of your records.”
I turned to the monitors.
My photograph appeared.
Age six.
Age twelve.
Age seventeen.
Age twenty-two.
My life mapped in data.
Then one file caught my attention.
HELIOS SUBJECT 07
I opened it.
A video appeared.
My mother.
Alive.
Sitting in a laboratory.
She looked directly into the camera.
“Elena, if you're watching this, I failed.”
I stopped breathing.
My mother continued.
“I need you to understand something.”
A tear rolled down her cheek.
“You were never selected because you were useful.”
She paused.
“You were selected because you were dangerous.”
The video skipped.
“Helix predicts behavior.”
Another skip.
“But you consistently produced unpredictable outcomes.”
Another skip.
“Compassion.”
“Defiance.”
“Sacrifice.”
She smiled sadly.
“You choose people over systems.”
The screen flickered.
“And that is why they will always fear you.”
I whispered:
“Mom.”
The video continued.
“If Richard tells you I betrayed him, he is lying.”
I turned toward my father.
He had followed us into the chamber.
He looked broken.
My mother appeared on screen again.
“Your father betrayed me.”
I stared at him.
“He gave them access to my research.”
Father covered his face.
“I was trying to save you.”
“You failed.”
The video ended.
Nobody spoke.
Then another screen activated.
A countdown appeared.
00:19:32
Reed stepped forward.
“What is that?”
Grandmother looked at me.
“The system has detected a live Helios subject.”
My blood ran cold.
“What happens at zero?”
Grandmother answered.
“They launch the final phase.”
“What final phase?”
She didn't blink.
“The world will believe you're dead.”
“And then?”
“They will replace you.”
“With whom?”
A photograph appeared.
I stared.
My own face.
But not me.
Same eyes.
Same hair.
Same birthmark.
My skin crawled.
“What the hell is that?”
Grandmother whispered:
“Your sister.”
I turned.
“Vivian?”
“No.”
Grandmother's voice dropped.
“The girl you call Vivian isn't your sister.”
Everything stopped.
“What?”
“She was created.”
Admiral Reed stared at her.
“That is impossible.”
Grandmother looked at me.
“In Project Helix, bloodlines were never what you thought.”
The countdown reached ten minutes.
Then the screen displayed one final message.
SUBJECT ELENA VALE MUST BE TERMINATED BEFORE PHASE TWO.
I looked toward the tunnel entrance.
Footsteps approached.
Someone was coming.
Grandmother closed the computer.
“We have to leave.”
“Who is coming?”
She looked at me.
“Your real enemy.”
The footsteps stopped.
A man's voice echoed through the chamber.
“Elena.”
I knew that voice.
Marcus Bell.
“You wanted answers.”
He stepped into the light.
“I'll give you all of them.”
Then he removed his mask.
May you like
And I recognized the face beneath it.
It was my brother.
