Thick, suffocating gray smoke spewed violently from the canister, instantly filling the narrow chamber with a burning, blinding cloud.

I choked, my eyes searing with intense pain as involuntary tears streamed down my face. Beside me, Julian gasped, his grip tightening around my hand as he violently shoved me toward the open hatch.

«Go! Down, now!» he screamed through a raspy, tortured throat.

Without a second thought, I swung my legs over the ledge and dropped into the abyss. My sneakers slammed hard onto the cold iron rungs of the ladder, the skin on my palms burning as I slid rapidly down the vertical shaft. Overhead, a muffled explosion boomed—Evelyn’s mercenaries breaching the stone door above—followed by a frantic volley of suppressed gunfire.

«Julian!» I shrieked, looking up into the choking fog.

A second later, a heavy weight plummeted from above, slamming directly into me. We both lost our footing and fell through the dark, crashing onto a damp gravel bed five feet below. Julian groaned beneath me, his warm blood soaking through his shirt onto my bare arms, but he forced himself upright, dragging me with him into a crouch.

We were in a low, arched brick tunnel that reeked of damp earth and river stagnant water. Dim green emergency strips embedded in the masonry flared to life, casting an eerie glow along the subterranean passage.

«They’ll be down the shaft in seconds,» Julian panted, clutching his side as he pulled a small, silver tracking receiver from his coat pocket. The small screen flickered, a red dot pulsing rapidly, moving northeast away from the estate grounds. «They’re using the medical transport helicopter. Evelyn’s taking her to the harbor.»

«She said my father didn’t save me,» I choked out, wiping the stinging residue of tear gas from my swollen eyes, my heart hammering like a trapped bird against my ribs. «Julian, what did she mean? Who created us?»

Julian’s face tightened, a dark shadow crossing his features that had nothing to do with the dim tunnel light. «My father wasn’t just a partner, Maya. He was a financier for a black-budget defense syndicate called Apex Genesis. Your father was their chief genetic strategist. You aren’t just a child… you are an active biological weapon key.»

A sharp, electric shock of dread swept through my veins, freezing the breath in my lungs. Before I could process the terrifying weight of his words, the hollow thump of heavy tactical boots hit the metal rungs behind us.

«Move!» Julian shoved me forward down the winding brick tunnel.

We sprinted through the dark, subterranean maze, our footsteps echoing loudly against the damp stone walls. Every lungful of damp air tasted like copper and rust. Behind us, the shouts of armed men grew louder, accompanied by the distinct beam of high-powered tactical flashlights cutting through the darkness.

Up ahead, the tunnel ended abruptly at a massive iron storm grate overlooking a roaring, subterranean drainage outlet. Sunlight streamed through the thick iron bars, blinding after the oppressive darkness of the tunnel.

Julian lunged for the rusty winch mechanism beside the grate, straining with all his remaining strength to turn the seized iron wheel. The chains groaned, screeching with decades of rust, but the heavy grate lifted only two feet off the wet concrete before jamming with a sickening metallic snap.

«It’s stuck!» Julian yelled, his strength visibly failing as blood oozed heavily through his fingers.

I dropped to my stomach, sliding headfirst beneath the narrow two-foot gap of the raised grate, ignoring the sharp iron scraping against my back. On the other side, a narrow ledge hung directly over the churning gray waters of the river channel, fifty feet below the steep concrete embankment.

«Julian, give me your hand!» I reached back through the bars, screaming over the sound of rushing water.

He reached for me, but a harsh crimson laser sight suddenly painted the center of his chest.

From the shadows of the tunnel behind him, a tall figure stepped into the green light. It wasn’t one of Evelyn’s tactical guards.

It was my father.

He wore a tailored dark suit, completely unbothered by the damp sewer filth, holding a sleek matte-black sidearm pointed directly at Julian’s head. His eyes were cold, devoid of the gentle warmth I had cherished my entire life.

«Father…?» The word tore from my throat, fragile and broken. «You’re alive?»

He didn’t look at me. His gaze remained locked on Julian. «Step away from my daughter, Julian. You’ve fulfilled your purpose in bringing her back to the grid.»

Julian didn’t back down. Despite the laser dot burning against his chest, he stepped directly between the gun and the grate, blocking my father’s line of sight. «She isn’t your property, Arthur. And Evelyn already has the baby.»

My father let out a dry, chilling chuckle that sent ice through my veins. «Evelyn has a decoy, you foolish boy. The helicopter is a distraction. My team secured the infant twenty minutes ago.» He finally shifted his icy gaze to me, a terrifyingly serene smile spreading across his face. «Come out from behind the grate, Maya. It’s time to meet the real architects of your life.»

My jaw trembled, my entire world collapsing into a nightmare of deceit. «Where is my baby?» I demanded, my voice raw with pure, unfiltered agony.

My father raised his wrist, tapping a sleek smartwatch. A live video feed projected a holographic blue display above his forearm. In the tiny video screen, a sleeping infant lay inside a high-tech glass incubator, wrapped in a blanket marked with an unfamiliar crimson crest.

Beside the incubator stood a woman whose face was entirely concealed behind a polished silver mask.

«She is safe, Maya,» my father whispered smoothly. «Provided you surrender the encryption key embedded in your blood. Otherwise, the life-support in that pod disconnects in sixty seconds.»

Julian suddenly lunged backward, slamming his body weight against the jammed iron winch handle with a desperate roar. The snapped chain violently snapped back, releasing the massive iron grate, which crashed down with a deafening, bone-shattering thud between Julian and my father.

The heavy iron door slammed closed, pinning Julian underneath its crushing bottom edge.

«Maya, jump!» Julian screamed, coughing up a spatter of crimson as the weight crushed his ribs. «Jump into the river! Don’t let him take you!»

My father stepped up to the thick iron bars, unhurried, raising his weapon and aiming it directly through the grate at Julian’s temple. «You have five seconds, Maya. Jump, and Julian dies right now. Stay, and your daughter dies in forty seconds.»

My hand hovered over the icy edge of the concrete drop, the roaring river waiting far below, as the holographic timer above my father’s wrist rapidly ticked down: 00:39… 00:38…

Then, a quiet, metallic click sounded from the dark pocket of my own jacket—a device I hadn’t realized was planted on me had just activated, pulsing with a bright, blinding purple light.