The child next to her didn’t speak. He simply kept that unnerving, hollow smile fixed on her face as he slowly reached up with his left hand, revealing a tiny silver metallic patch adhered behind his ear, glowing with a soft, rhythmically pulsing blue light.

«Who… who are you?» Elena’s voice broke into a terrified whisper, her entire body locking up in visceral horror as she pressed herself flat against the taxi door.

The boy’s smile vanished instantly, replaced by a expressionless, robotic calm. «Target confirmed. Asset locked,» he muttered in a flat, monotone voice that didn’t sound like a five-year-old child at all, but rather a recorded playback.

Before Elena could react, the cab driver slammed the power locks down with a loud, metallic clack. The taxi veered sharply off the main avenue, tires screeching as it plunged into a subterranean delivery tunnel beneath the city’s commercial district.

«Did you really think Arthur Vance would leave his ultimate leverage to chance?» the driver asked, his voice low and smooth as he glanced in the rearview mirror.

Elena caught the driver’s eyes in the mirror, and the breath hitched in her chest. The eyes belonged to Julian—his face concealed behind a tactical mask, but those razor-sharp, calculating hazel eyes unmistakable.

«Julian,» she gasped, her hands trembling as she fumbled frantically with the child locks on the door handle. «What have you done with Leo?! Where is my son?!»

«Leo is safe for now, provided you follow instructions,» Julian said coldly, accelerating down the pitch-black tunnel. «The boy sitting next to you isn’t human, Elena. It’s a prototype synthetic drone—a tracker programmed to deliver a lethal neurotoxin through skin contact the moment your pulse exceeds a hundred and eighty beats per minute.»

Elena’s heart pounded against her ribs like a sledgehammer. She looked down at the child’s small hand, which was now moving with unnatural, mechanical speed toward her wrist.

Panicked, she ripped off her silk scarf and threw it over the child’s face, using the fabric to block its reach while shoving the decoy sideways against the door. The synthetic boy didn’t cry or struggle; it simply readjusted its movements with terrifying precision, its fingers tearing through the silk.

«You have thirty seconds before the proximity sensors override and detonate the payload,» Julian called out, dark humor lacing his tone as the cab burst out of the tunnel and onto a secluded private helipad overlooking the harbor.

A sleek, unmarked black helicopter hovered just ten feet above the pad, its rotor wash whipping dust and debris into a blinding frenzy. Standing on the landing pad directly beneath the spinning blades was Marcus Vance, blood dripping down his arm from a bullet wound, holding a smoking grenade launcher.

Marcus raised the launcher and fired directly at the cab’s front grill.

The explosive round impacted the engine block with a deafening roar. The front of the taxi crumpled instantly, flipping the vehicle onto its side in a hail of shattered glass and twisted metal.

Elena was violently thrown against the roof as the cab slid across the concrete before coming to a grinding halt inches from the water’s edge. Dazed and bleeding from a cut on her temple, she kicked violently at the shattered rear windshield, hauling herself out into the open air just as the synthetic child began to emit a high-pitched, electronic whine.

«Elena! Jump!» Marcus roared over the deafening noise of the helicopter blades, sprinting toward her through the smoke.

She scrambled over the twisted metal hood, but before she could make a run for it, Julian kicked his way out of the driver’s side door, his gun drawn. He fired two rapid shots, hitting Marcus squarely in the shoulder. Marcus went down on one knee, dropping his weapon onto the pavement.

Julian stepped toward Elena, his eyes burning with frantic desperation. «He’s lying to you, Elena! Marcus isn’t trying to save you—he’s the one who gave the order to snatch Leo!»

«Don’t listen to him!» Marcus yelled, coughing up blood as he struggled to stand. «Check your pocket, Elena! Check the phone!»

Trembling uncontrollably, Elena raised the cell phone still clutched in her hand. The line to her real son was still open.

«Mommy?» the real Leo’s voice whimpered softly over the speaker, amidst the sound of wind and roaring waves. «Mommy, the man in the blue shirt said you were coming… he said Uncle Marcus was taking me to the boat…»

Elena’s blood ran completely cold. She looked from Julian, whose face held genuine terror, to Marcus, who was slowly standing up with a twisted, chilling grin spreading across his lips.

Marcus reached into his tactical vest, pulling out a small remote control with a glowing red switch.

«You were always the foolish one, Julian,» Marcus said smoothly, his posture shifting instantly from wounded hero to cold executioner. «Mother didn’t leave the key to stop Arthur. She left it to wake me up.»

Above them, the unmarked helicopter lowered a thick steel cable, and two heavily armed men descended, their weapons trained not on Julian, but directly on Elena.

«The boy is already on my yacht, Elena,» Marcus whispered, stepping toward her as the synthetic child behind her let out a final, deafening tone. «Now, give me the secondary passcode, or I press this button and flush your real son into the ocean.»