The helicopter’s powerful rotors battered the estate roof, transmitting violent vibrations through the harness as Elena was hoisted upward into the freezing rain. Rain lashed against her blood-drenched dress, mixing with sweat and tears, but the physical cold was nothing compared to the ice flooding her veins.
«Julian…» she gasped, her voice instantly swallowed by the roar of the storm.
The man gripping her tactical harness didn’t blink. His jaw was set, his cold grey eyes fixed entirely on the winch cable pulling them toward the dark silhouette of the unmarked stealth transport hovering thirty feet above the shattered skylight. He moved with a terrifying, mechanical precision—a stark contrast to the gentle architect who used to burn his toast on Sunday mornings and sing off-key in the shower.
Below them, through the gaping hole in the roof, flashes of muzzle fire illuminated the chaotic corridor. Leo and Sophia were returning fire, their voices lost to the thunder, while Tariq’s motionless body lay sprawled near the vault entrance like a discarded doll.
Another contraction hit Elena like a freight train, so intense her vision turned entirely white. She let out a ragged, agonizing scream, her knees buckling against the harness webbing.
«Stay still,» the man who looked like Julian commanded, his voice utterly devoid of inflection. «The harness will support your body weight, but if you struggle, you risk dropping the child.»
Elena tightened her white-knuckled grip on Maya, who was trembling violently against her chest, her small face buried in Elena’s wet collar. «Who are you?!» Elena sobbed, fighting to keep her consciousness from slipping away into the black void pulsing at the edges of her mind. «I saw him… I saw Julian in the vault! His throat…»
«Unit Four was an obsolete asset,» the man replied coldly, using his free hand to steady Maya as they reached the open bay door of the aircraft. «His biological markers were degrading. His primary mission was to facilitate your second gestation cycle. His contract concluded tonight.»
Strong hands reached out from the darkened interior of the helicopter cabin, hauling Elena and Maya inside onto the cold aluminum deck. The bay doors slid shut with a heavy hydraulic thud, instantly cutting off the deafening roar of the rotors and plunging them into a dim, amber-lit cabin filled with banks of glowing medical monitors.
«We have Subject Alpha and Generation Three secure in transit,» one of the masked operatives reported into his headset, securing a heavy leather strap across Elena’s shoulders to lock her onto a medical gurney. «Alpha-3 is in active labor. Membrane ruptured. Contractions eighteen seconds apart.»
«Wait!» Elena cried out, her hands clawing frantically at the straps pinning her down. Maya was pulled gently but firmly from her arms by a woman in a sterile biohazard suit. «Maya! No! Don’t touch her! Leave my daughter alone!»
«Mommy!» Maya screamed, her small fingers slipping from Elena’s grasp as she was placed in a clear plastic isolation bassinet across the cabin. «Mommy, help me!»
«She is unharmed, Subject Alpha,» the woman in the bio-suit said, her voice muffled through her respirator as she locked the bassinet seals. «Her vitals are stable. We are merely initiating her secondary synchronization.»
«She’s a child!» Elena shrieked, thrashing against her restraints until the sharp tang of copper filled her mouth. «She’s five years old!»
The duplicate of Julian stepped over the gurney, reaching for a automated medical arm mounted to the bulkhead. He snapped a pair of sterile gloves onto his hands. «Chronologically, yes. Synthetically, her neural pathways correspond to a twenty-two-year-old baseline. She was designed to replace you when your cellular degradation reached fifty percent.»
The words hit Elena like a physical blow, freezing the air in her lungs. She looked toward the bassinet. Maya was no longer crying. Through the clear acrylic cover, the little girl was sitting upright, her tear-stained face completely still, her eyes reflecting the amber light of the cabin with an unblinking, glassy stare.
«Maya…?» Elena whispered, terror choking off her voice.
Maya didn’t turn her head. She slowly raised her right hand, placing her tiny palm flat against the interior of the glass, moving with the exact, calculated rhythm of the duplicate Julian standing above Elena.
Before Elena could process the horror unfolding before her eyes, a sharp, piercing chime chimed from the primary console on the cabin wall.
The helicopter lurched violently to the left, dropping two hundred feet in a stomach-churning dive. Red emergency strobes flooded the cabin, casting gruesome shadows over the faces of the operatives.
«We have a breach in the flight path!» the pilot barked over the cabin speakers. «It’s not military! It’s Valence Orbital defense!»
«We have a breach in the flight path!» the pilot barked over the cabin speakers. «It’s not military! It’s Valence Orbital defense!»
«Evasive maneuvers,» the Julian duplicate ordered, grabbing the overhead railing as another violent contraction tore through Elena’s body, forcing a choked scream from her lips. «Prepare the neural dampeners! We cannot let the child be delivered while in high-G motion!»
«They’re firing!» the pilot yelled.
A deafening shockwave shattered the side wall of the fuselage. Metal peeled back like paper as a missile proximity burst detonated fifty feet off the starboard wing. Cold air screaming at two hundred knots pulled oxygen instantly out of the cabin. Warning sirens blared in a chaotic chorus of shrill alarms.
Elena gasped for air, fighting through the blinding pain in her abdomen as the gurney tilted dangerously toward the gaping tear in the hull. Through the dynamic tear in the metal, she didn’t see another helicopter or a jet.
Hovering in mid-air alongside their falling aircraft was a massive, sleek black shuttle, completely silent, defying all laws of aerodynamics. And standing at its open side portal, completely unprotected from the roaring gale of wind, was the woman in the white trench coat.
She wasn’t holding a weapon. She held a black metallic cylinder, glowing with a soft, pulsing blue light.
The woman raised her eyes, locking them directly onto Elena’s through the open sky.
She lifted three fingers, then closed her fist.
Instantly, the duplicate Julian froze mid-step. His hands dropped to his sides. The medical personnel collapsed to the deck like puppets with their strings cut, completely unresponsive.
Across the cabin, the clear lock on Maya’s isolation bassinet popped open with a sharp hiss.
Maya stepped out onto the bucking metal floor. She didn’t stumble. She didn’t look afraid. She walked directly toward Elena, her small voice chiming clearly over the sound of the roaring wind and screaming alarms.
«Protocol Zero initiated,» Maya said, her eyes fully black, her pupils dilated until no white remained. «Hello, Mother. It’s time to wake up.»