The purple light flared, sending a high-frequency hum vibrating through my bones that set my teeth on edge. In the sudden Violet radiance, the holographic timer on my father’s wrist stuttered, frozen at 00:37, before glitching out into static.
My father’s serene composure fractured for the first time. He stumbled backward, his hand flying to his ear as his concealed comm-piece let out a piercing, agony-inducing squawk. «What did you do?» he hissed, his eyes widening in genuine shock as the matte-black sidearm wavered in his grip.
«I didn’t do anything,» I whispered, pulling the small, cylindrical device from my pocket. It wasn’t a tracker. It was a localized pulse disruptor, and it was warm against my icy palm.
«Maya… the phone…» Julian choked out beneath the crushing weight of the iron grate, his face pale and slick with cold sweat. «In my inner pocket… take it!»
Before my father could recover his footing, I reached blindly through the narrow gap in the grate, my fingers scraping against Julian’s bloody jacket until I snagged a heavy, encrypted satellite phone. The moment my fingers wrapped around the device, the silver mask on the projected holographic feed flickered back to life, though distorted by purple lines. The masked woman wasn’t looking at my child anymore—she was staring directly through the camera feed at me.
«Sequence initiated,» a synthesized, mechanical voice rasped from the phone in my hand. «Key recognized. Protocol Omega is live.»
«No!» my father roared, lunging toward the grate, throwing all his weight against the iron bars. He raised his weapon, firing a round straight through the gap.
The bullet whizzed past my cheek, grazing the skin and embedding itself into the concrete behind me. The sting was immediate, hot blood trickling down my jaw, but the shock didn’t stop me. I scrambled backward on my hands and knees along the narrow river ledge, clutching the pulsing device and the satellite phone tightly against my chest.
«Maya, don’t!» my father shouted, his voice losing its calm authority, replaced by a desperate, jagged edge. «You don’t understand what that protocol is! It doesn’t save her—it resets her!»
His words hit me like a physical blow. Resets her?
I froze at the edge of the embankment, fifty feet above the churning, gray torrents of the drainage channel. Through the iron bars, I saw my father frantically keying codes into his wrist terminal, but the purple aura from the disruptor was overriding his signals, sending red error messages flashing across his screen.
Beside him, Julian dragged himself forward, despite the agonizing groan of his crushed ribs. With a final, agonizing surge of strength, he reached up and grabbed my father’s ankle, yanking hard. My father went down with a heavy thud, his gun skittering across the wet brick floor and sliding through the grate, plunging over the edge into the dark water below.
«Run, Maya!» Julian coughed, his fingers locked like iron clamps around my father’s pant leg as they wrestled on the damp stone. «Find the harbor! Dock 14!»
«Julian!» I cried out, torn between the man who had risked everything for me and the terrifying truth unraveling in my hands.
«Go!»
The satellite phone in my hand chimed, a cold, automated voice speaking directly into my ear: Target location updated. Harbor District, Dock 14. Containment unit compromised. Biological override in thirty seconds.
My father broke free from Julian’s grip with a vicious kick, scrambling back to his feet. His face was twisted in rage as he reached into his jacket for a backup blade. «She is a blank slate, Maya! Just like you were ten years ago!»
The world tilted beneath my feet. Just like you were ten years ago. The words echoed in my mind, shattering the fragile memories of my childhood—the quiet house, the piano lessons, the gentle father who tucked me in. It was all a constructed lie. I was never his daughter. I was a blank slate.
Without another second of hesitation, I turned my back on the man I used to love and flung myself off the ledge.
Wind roared in my ears as I plunged through the cold air, the sky and concrete blurring into a dark smear. A second later, the icy water of the river swallowed me whole, slamming into my chest and knocking the breath completely from my lungs.
The current was violent, dragging me under into the pitch-black depths, tumbling me against submerged rocks. I fought wildly against the dragging weight of my soaked clothes, kicking toward the surface until my head broke the water, gasping for air. The disruptor in my pocket was still glowing, casting an eerie violet light through the churning foam around me.
The current was violent, dragging me under into the pitch-black depths, tumbling me against submerged rocks. I fought wildly against the dragging weight of my soaked clothes, kicking toward the surface until my head broke the water, gasping for air. The disruptor in my pocket was still glowing, casting an eerie violet light through the churning foam around me.
I hauled myself onto a rusted metal pontoon drifting near the river mouth, shivering violently, my hands trembling as I raised the satellite phone. The screen displayed a live tracking map, leading straight to Dock 14—less than half a mile away. But as I zoomed in on the dock’s security feed, my heart stopped.
Parked on the pier was a black armored transport, its doors wide open. Standing beside it was Evelyn, holding a briefcase, conversing with a tall man in a tailored navy coat whose back was turned to the camera.
The man turned around to face the lens, and my breath hitched in my throat.
He had my face. Not just a resemblance—he possessed the exact same genetic markers, the same sharp jawline, the same striking hazel eyes. A male duplicate.
Beside him, the silver-masked woman stepped out of the vehicle, carrying the glass incubator. But as she set it on the table, she reached up and unlatched the silver mask, letting it drop to the concrete pier with a loud metallic clatter.
I stared at the small screen in horror, a cold knot tightening in my gut.
The face beneath the mask was mine.