The rivet gave way under the key with a metallic crunch, and for a fraction of a second, absolute silence swallowed the barge.
Then the river blew apart.
A blinding wall of white flame erupted from the bilge tanks beneath the deck, tearing the rusted hull wide open like paper. The sheer concussive blast hurled Victoria backward into the darkness and sent Samantha crashing over the starboard railing into the churning, pitch-black water.
Elena was thrown hard against the side of the container, her shoulder popping out of its socket with a sickening crunch. Screaming through locked teeth, she used her momentum to roll onto her stomach, burying Leo beneath her chest to shield him from the raining shrapnel and boiling river spray.
The deck inclined wildly as the barge began to sink, tilting toward the incoming boat. The razor-hulled speedboat rammed into the dying vessel’s side, grinding metal against metal with a ear-splitting screech. Through the thick cloud of black smoke, a hand reached down and grabbed Elena by the collar of her jacket.
«Get up!» a harsh, raspy voice barked.
Elena flinched, pulling Leo tighter, but as the smoke parted, she looked up into a face covered in chemical burns and fresh blood. It wasn’t Julian. It was Mateo.
«You’re alive…» she gasped, pain searing through her dislocated shoulder as he hoisted her off the sloping deck and pulled her onto the deck of the speedboat.
«Barely,» Mateo growled, slamming the throttle forward. The boat’s engine roared, kicking up a massive wake as it sped away from the sinking barge. «That detonator was supposed to be a bluff, Elena! You almost took us all to the bottom!»
«Victoria was going to drain him!» Elena shouted back over the roar of the wind and the burning river. «She said he’s the anchor—»
«I know what he is!» Mateo cut her off, his eyes darting frantically to the GPS screen on the dash. The digital map was flashing bright red, covered in pulsing hot-spots across the city. «Look!»
Elena leaned over, her breath catching in her throat. Across the digital map of the metropolitan area, five distinct blue markers were rapidly decaying, turning purple, then crimson.
«The other children,» Elena whispered, horror twisting her stomach as the high-frequency buzzing in her own skull intensified, spiking into a blinding, white-hot agony. «Julian released them…»
«He didn’t just release them,» Mateo said, his voice dropping into a desperate, terrified register. He reached out and tapped the baby’s chest. Leo was completely silent now. His eyes remained locked wide open, completely black, his tiny skin radiant with a strange, unnatural heat. The vial in his blanket was practically glowing like a flare. «He forced a resonance overload. The anchor isn’t just balancing them anymore, Elena. It’s pulling their genetic signatures into him. He’s absorbing their neural load.»
Elena grabbed her head, a tear of blood dripping from her left nostril onto her coat. «If he absorbs all five… what happens to him?»
«He explodes,» Mateo said plainly. «Mentally, then physically. His nervous system can’t take the telemetry of five adult brains.»
Suddenly, the speedboat’s engine sputtered and died, the dashboard electronics flickering out one by one. The navigation screen turned entirely black, replaced by a single line of green terminal text:
INCOMING CONNECTION: JULIAN_PRIMARY
From the darkness of the river behind them, a silent, unlit vessel floated out of the fog, drifting alongside their disabled boat. Standing at the bow, clad in a immaculate tailored suit completely unbothered by the rain, was Julian. He held a sleek, silver tablet in one hand and a silenced pistol in the other.
«You always were too dramatic, Elena,» Julian said softly, his voice amplified by a localized speaker system that made it sound as if he were standing right beside her ear. «Did you really think dropping a key into a fuel line would stop a twenty-year protocol?»
«Stay back, Julian!» Mateo yelled, drawing his weapon, but Julian didn’t even look at him.
«Stay back, Julian!» Mateo yelled, drawing his weapon, but Julian didn’t even look at him.
Julian simply pressed a button on his tablet. Mateo instantly collapsed to the deck, convulsing violently as an invisible electrical pulse surged through his tactical vest, short-circuiting his nervous system.
«Mateo!» Elena cried out, reaching for him, but her body felt leaden, paralyzed by the overwhelming psychic pressure radiating from her own son.
Julian stepped smoothly over the rail onto their boat, his polished shoes tapping lightly against the damp fiberglass. He knelt beside Elena, leaning in close enough for her to smell his expensive cologne mixed with the faint scent of copper.
«You think Victoria was the villain, don’t you?» Julian murmured gently, brushing a damp lock of hair from Elena’s face. «She told you about the six iterations. But she left out the most important detail, my dear.»
Elena stared at him, her vision blurring at the edges as her head throbbed in agonizing rhythm with Leo’s elevated heart rate. «What… detail?»
Julian reached down and gently peeled back the blanket covering Leo. He didn’t reach for the glowing vial. Instead, he pulled back the baby’s collar, exposing the skin at the base of Leo’s neck.
There, etched beneath the skin in faint, glowing bioluminescent ink, was a serial number: ITERATION 00.
Elena’s heart stopped.
«He isn’t the sixth child, Elena,» Julian whispered, a terrifyingly tender smile spreading across his face. «He was the first. He’s not your son. He’s your father.»