Marcus stumbled backward, his hand dropping from his holster as his gaze remained locked on the glass cylinder. The man suspended inside the thick blue fluid shifted slightly, a cluster of thin silver cables trailing from the base of his skull into the deep shadow of the pedestal.
«Subject 4?» Elena gasped, her hands still cradling her swollen stomach as she forced herself up against the base of the velvet chair. She looked between Marcus and the identical face frozen behind the illuminated glass. «Marcus… what is he talking about?»
Marcus didn’t answer. His breathing was shallow, his pupils blown wide as he stared at the duplicate. «I’m Marcus Sterling,» he whispered, his voice cracking. «I grew up in the Chicago house. I remember the fever… the hospital…»
«False memories, embedded during your second year of gestation,» Arthur’s voice chimed through the overhead speakers, rich with cold, paternal satisfaction. «You were created to survive the environment the original Marcus couldn’t. His body failed thirty years ago, Elena. What you see in that cylinder is the true heir to the Sterling estate—kept alive on life support until a viable neural host could be brought to term.»
Arthur paused, the speakers humming with low static. «And now, your child carries the final biological code required to jumpstart his cellular repair.»
A heavy mechanical clack echoed through the subterranean chamber. The water surrounding the platform began to drain down massive iron grates, exposing a narrow walkway leading directly from the edge of the concrete pier to the central glass pillar.
Marcus reached down and scooped up his discarded rifle, slamming a fresh magazine into the well. His trembling hands suddenly went rigid, his jaw set in a line of pure rage. «I don’t care what I am,» he snarled, raising the weapon toward the intercom speaker embedded in the high concrete wall. «She stays with me.»
«You were programmed to protect her, Subject 4,» Arthur replied smoothly. «Your devotion isn’t love. It’s a hardwired directive. Did you really think you chose to betray me out of free will?»
Marcus froze. His finger hovered over the trigger, but a sudden, violent spasm tore through his right forearm. The rifle barrel dropped an inch, his muscles fighting against his own nervous system as if a invisible line were pulling his hand away from the target.
Elena watched in horror as Marcus groaned, sweat pouring down his forehead as he fought the unseen restraint locking his limbs in place. «Marcus!» she cried out.
«Step onto the platform, Subject 4,» Arthur commanded. «Bring the mother.»
Marcus’s left boot moved forward. It was a jerky, unnatural motion—like a puppet pulled by tight strings. He tried to plant his heel on the concrete, his teeth grinding together so hard a trickle of blood leaked from his lip, but his body refused to obey. He took another step toward the narrow steel walkway.
«No!» Elena yelled, pushing herself off the pier and lunging forward. She grabbed the back of his tactical vest, dragging her entire weight against him to break his momentum.
The sudden counterweight threw Marcus off balance. He collapsed onto his knees at the lip of the water, the rifle clattering onto the steel grating of the walkway. The physical disruption seemed to break the neural signal; Marcus gasped, clutching his head as the involuntary tremors in his arms slowly subsided.
«Run, Elena,» Marcus choked out, pointing a shaking hand toward the darkened maintenance tunnel at the far side of the dock. «The command frequency… it’s coming from inside the facility. As long as I’m near that platform, he controls my motor functions.»
«I’m not leaving you!» Elena said, grabbing Lilly by the arm and pulling the unconscious little girl over her shoulder.
«You have to!» Marcus yelled, his eyes rolling back slightly as another high-pitched tone hummed from the walls, making his limbs twitch again. «He doesn’t want the baby alive, Elena! The transfer process… it destroys the host!»
Elena’s heart hammered against her ribs. She took two steps backward, holding Lilly tightly against her chest, her eyes darting toward the maintenance tunnel.
Before she could take another step, a sharp hiss of pressurized gas leaked from the cryogenic cylinder at the center of the room. The blue fluid inside began to drain rapidly down the base of the tank.
The eyes of the man inside the glass snapped open.
They weren’t dilated like Lilly’s, nor were they the familiar brown of Marcus’s eyes. They burned with a pale, milky white light, completely devoid of irises.
They weren’t dilated like Lilly’s, nor were they the familiar brown of Marcus’s eyes. They burned with a pale, milky white light, completely devoid of irises.
The glass cylinder shattered outward with an explosive crack, spraying thick shards and freezing liquid across the iron platform. The man stepped out of the steam, naked except for the damp cables still attached to his spine. He didn’t shiver. He didn’t blink.
He reached down, picked up a steel crowbar resting against the control console, and looked directly at Elena.
«Subject 1 is active,» Arthur’s voice murmured over the speakers, cold and completely detached. «Retrieve the carrier.»
The clone moved with terrifying speed, sprinting across the narrow steel walkway toward Elena with unnatural, fluid grace.
Marcus lunged from the ground, throwing his body into the clone’s path and tackling him into the shallow water at the edge of the basin. The two identical men splashed into the dark liquid, wrestling violently as the clone brought the iron bar down toward Marcus’s neck.
Elena turned and bolted into the dark maintenance tunnel, her heavy boots splashing through stagnant water as she carried Lilly in her arms. The air inside the passage was freezing, smelling heavily of copper and old oil.
She ran until her lungs burned, her contractions flaring every few seconds into white-hot spikes of agony that nearly brought her to her knees. Up ahead, a single red exit light flickered over a reinforced emergency hatch.
She reached the heavy iron door and slammed her hand against the release bar. It didn’t budge.
Elena frantically wiped the moisture from the small glass window set into the door. On the other side was not a street or an escape route—it was a sterile, brightly lit laboratory.
Standing in the center of the lab, holding a surgical scalpel under the harsh fluorescent lights, was a woman dressed in a blood-spattered medical coat.
The woman slowly turned around to face the window.
Elena stepped back, her breath hitching in her throat.
The doctor standing inside the room possessed the exact same face as Elena.