The spotlight pinned her and Alejandro against the damp concrete, throwing harsh, elongated shadows toward the draining harbor. She pressed her back against the railing, the red folder crushed against her ribs like a shield, while the massive hull of the unflagged submarine rose through the foaming water like a surfacing leviathan.
«Don’t move,» Alejandro muttered, shifting his grip on Julian’s shotgun. The blood from his temple had run down his cheek, dripping off his jawline onto his torn collar. «If that sub is here, the perimeter is completely locked down. We’re trapped in the basin.»
«Who is that?» she whispered, her gaze locked on the open hatch of the submarine’s sail. «Who called me sister?»
«You know who,» Alejandro said softly, his voice heavy with a terrible, resigned dread. «Look at the signature again. Look at the photo.»
Her thumb pressed into page forty-three. Her own face stared back at her from the yellowed paper, identical, unaging, framed by the exact same dark curls. But the girl in the photograph had a small, crescent-shaped scar above her left eyebrow—a scar she herself had never possessed.
The vessel’s exterior loudspeaker crackled to life again, the voice smooth, refined, and chillingly cheerful. » lower the weapon, Officer Vance. If you shoot at the hull, the ricochet will tear through her torso before it ever scratches my armor. Step away from my original.»
Alejandro didn’t lower the gun. Instead, he stepped directly in front of her, using his body to break the line of sight from the spotlight. «She isn’t going anywhere with you!»
«She doesn’t have a choice,» the voice replied from the hatch. «And neither do you, Subject Two. The pulse generator in your shoulder has been active since you crossed the threshold of the vault. You have about forty seconds before the localized current stopping your heart engages.»
Alejandro stiffened. A sudden, violent tremor ran through his left arm, forcing him to drop the shotgun. It clattered against the catwalk and skittered over the edge, plunging into the swirling vortex below. He fell to his knees, clutching his chest with both hands, his breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps.
«Alejandro!» She dropped down beside him, her fingers grabbing his jacket. His skin had gone instantly ice-cold, his lips turning a dangerous, pale blue. «What is she talking about? What pulse generator?»
«Inside… the collarbone,» Alejandro choked out, his eyes wide with agonizing pressure. «The precinct medical exam… three years ago… they said it was a titanium plate…»
«It was never a plate, Alejandro,» the woman’s voice chimed over the speaker as a tall, slender figure climbed out of the submarine hatch, wearing an identical black coat, her dark hair pulled back in a sharp, low knot. «It was a kill-switch. Installed the day you were reassigned to monitor her.»
She looked up, staring at the woman stepping onto the deck of the submarine. Up close under the halogen glare, the resemblance was absolute. It was like looking into a flawless mirror, except the stranger’s eyes were cold, calculating, and utterly devoid of human warmth.
«Turn it off!» she screamed at her double, her fingers digging into Alejandro’s jacket as his body spasmed against the catwalk. «Turn it off or I’ll burn the master sequence right now!»
She pulled the microchip from her pocket and held her lighter beneath it, the pale yellow flame flickering inches from the delicate gold connectors.
The woman on the submarine deck paused, a faint, amused smile touching her lips. «Burn it if you like. The chip in your hand is just the backup drive. The actual master sequence is stored in the neural tissue of your brain, sister. Why do you think your father kept you isolated in that house for twenty years?»
Her heart hammered against her ribs. «You’re lying.»
«Am I?» The double raised a small, sleek remote unit. «Give me the folder, step onto the vessel, and I’ll disengage Vance’s heart monitor. Refuse, and he dies right here on the steel floor, and I’ll simply take your unconscious body from the catwalk anyway.»
Alejandro reached up with a trembling, vein-swollen hand, grabbing her wrist. «Don’t… do it,» he wheezed, his vision clearly fading. «She won’t… let you live…»
«Ten seconds, sister,» the double warned, her thumb resting on the red toggle of the remote. «His heart is already in ventricular fibrillation.»
She looked at Alejandro’s agonizing struggle, then at the icy face of the woman who shared her exact features. The truth of page forty-two burned in her mind—they weren’t just targets or victims in a corporate war; they were manufactured assets. But as Alejandro’s grip on her wrist began to slip away, she made her choice.
She looked at Alejandro’s agonizing struggle, then at the icy face of the woman who shared her exact features. The truth of page forty-two burned in her mind—they weren’t just targets or victims in a corporate war; they were manufactured assets. But as Alejandro’s grip on her wrist began to slip away, she made her choice.
«Stop!» she yelled, standing up and holding the red folder high above her head. «I’m coming down! Turn it off!»
The double clicked the toggle.
Alejandro gasped violently, slamming his chest against the catwalk as air flooded back into his lungs, his body limp with exhaustion.
«Smart girl,» the double said, gesturing toward the gangway extending from the submarine deck to the pier. «Walk down. Slowly.»
She took a deep breath, clutching the dossier, and took three cautious steps toward the stairs. But as her foot hit the first metal rung, a sharp heavy blast echoed from the upper catwalks high above the harbor.
A sniper round shattered the spotlight in a shower of white-hot sparks, plunging the entire underground bay into pitch darkness.
Screams rang out from the submarine deck.
«Move!» Alejandro’s voice barked through the dark. Before she could react, his arm wrapped around her waist, hurling both of them over the catwalk railing into the freezing, violent waters of the draining bay.