Chapter 12: The Fifth Bloodline
Chapter 12: The Fifth Bloodline
The lights in the laboratory went out.
The blue stabilization vapor continued moving through the vents.
In the darkness, emergency indicators flickered red along the floor.
Samuel’s laughter stopped.
That frightened me more than the blackout.
He had expected chaos.
He had expected fear.
But whatever had just happened with Sienna was not part of his plan.
Her voice came through every speaker in the estate.
“Julian.”
“Do not let them find me.”
The words sounded layered.
Her natural voice remained beneath them.
But something deeper moved with it.
A low vibration.
Almost mechanical.
Almost animal.
Clara gripped my arm.
“Is that really her?”
“I do not know.”
Marcus raised his radio.
“Command.”
“Restore emergency lighting.”
No response came.
He tried again.
“Command.”
Silence.
The communications channel had not merely failed.
Someone had taken control of it.
Dr. Keller activated a flashlight.
The narrow beam crossed the laboratory.
Samuel lay near the broken cylinder.
Adrian stood over him with the silver cane.
Evelyn remained between two guards.
The black residue on the floor had mostly drained into the containment tanks.
But dark traces still clung to the metal grates.
Keller’s flashlight passed over them.
The organic film was moving.
Not quickly.
But with direction.
Thin black strands crawled toward the nearest wall.
Keller saw it too.
“Do not touch the residue.”
Marcus activated his own light.
“Can it spread across surfaces?”
“It appears to be searching for heat.”
“For people?”
“For biological material.”
Adrian looked down at the blood near his injured ankle.
The black strands had turned toward it.
He stepped back.
The organism followed.
Samuel’s weak voice came from the floor.
“Beautiful.”
Adrian raised the cane.
“Say that again.”
Samuel smiled through the darkness.
“It recognizes compatible tissue.”
“You fed it my blood.”
“I taught it your blood.”
Adrian drove the cane down beside Samuel’s head.
The silver tip struck the floor.
“You taught it pain.”
Samuel did not flinch.
“Pain is information.”
Clara moved closer to Keller.
“What does the message about Sienna mean?”
Keller looked toward the case screen.
It was the only device still functioning.
The words remained visible.
CONCEALED LINE MUTATION DETECTED.
STATUS:
NONHUMAN EXPRESSION RISING.
“I do not know,” he said.
Samuel laughed softly again.
“You know enough.”
Keller turned toward him.
“Explain it.”
“Helena’s profile was unstable.”
“What does unstable mean?”
“She inherited Bennett resistance.”
“She also carried Vale receptor sensitivity.”
“The two systems competed.”
“And Sienna inherited both.”
“Yes.”
“What did Helena do to her?”
Samuel’s eyes moved toward the ceiling.
“She corrected the conflict.”
“How?”
“She introduced a fifth carrier.”
The phrase from the screen returned.
The fifth bloodline.
I stepped toward Samuel.
“What is the fifth carrier?”
He looked at me.
“Not blood.”
“What, then?”
“Adaptation.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the only answer you are capable of understanding.”
I grabbed him by the collar.
Marcus did not stop me this time.
“Try again.”
Samuel’s eyes remained calm.
“The first four lines are inherited.”
“Crane.”
“Vale.”
“Bennett.”
“Concealed.”
“The fifth is created.”
“Through what?”
“Exposure.”
“To M-0?”
“No.”
“To survival.”
I tightened my grip.
“You enjoy making simple things sound mystical.”
Samuel smiled.
“And you enjoy believing simple answers make reality less dangerous.”
Clara stepped beside me.
“He is delaying.”
She looked toward the timer on the case.
39:22.
39:21.
39:20.
The stabilization window was already shrinking.
“You are right,” I said.
I released Samuel.
He fell back against the floor.
Marcus turned toward the sealed chamber door.
“We need to reach Sienna.”
“The interior route is compromised.”
“Pump team is already near her location.”
He raised his radio again.
“Team One.”
“Report.”
Static answered.
Then a man’s voice emerged.
“Red door breached.”
“Room empty.”
I stepped closer.
“Where are Helena and Sienna?”
“Unknown.”
“Signs of struggle.”
“Blood on the floor.”
“Broken glass.”
“Secondary passage open behind shelving.”
Marcus looked at the estate map.
“There is no passage marked there.”
The team leader answered.
“It descends north.”
“Fresh air movement.”
“Possible access to drainage line.”
“Follow it.”
“We have injured personnel.”
“How many?”
A pause.
“Two.”
“What happened?”
The answer came slowly.
“We do not know.”
Marcus’s expression hardened.
“Explain.”
“One officer was thrown into the wall.”
“The other has lacerations across his vest.”
“From a weapon?”
“Unknown.”
“Any visual contact?”
“No.”
“Only movement.”
“What kind of movement?”
The team leader hesitated.
“Fast.”
The layered voice returned through the estate speakers.
“Do not follow me.”
This time, Sienna sounded closer.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
The second voice beneath hers seemed stronger.
Clara looked upward.
“Sienna.”
The speakers crackled.
Clara continued.
“It is me.”
For a few seconds, there was only static.
Then Sienna answered.
“Clara.”
Her natural voice surfaced more clearly.
“Yes.”
“Listen to me.”
Clara stepped toward the central console.
“We are listening.”
“You have to stop the teams.”
“Why?”
“I cannot control it.”
“What can you not control?”
A scraping sound came through the speakers.
Then Sienna screamed.
The scream cut off abruptly.
Metal struck stone somewhere in the distance.
Helena’s voice replaced hers.
“Stop sending men after us.”
I took the radio.
“Bring Sienna back.”
“No.”
“She needs the antidote.”
“She needs distance.”
“From whom?”
“Everyone.”
Keller moved closer.
“What did you inject into her?”
Helena did not answer.
Keller raised his voice.
“Her fever and bleeding indicate an acute systemic reaction.”
“If you want her alive, tell me what is inside her.”
Helena laughed weakly.
“You still think survival is the goal.”
Sienna cried out in the background.
The sound had changed again.
Lower.
Rougher.
A guard near the chamber door looked toward the ceiling.
“What is happening to her?”
Samuel answered.
“She is becoming compatible.”
“With what?” I asked.
“The carrier.”
Keller stared at him.
“The champagne carrier?”
“No.”
“The original organism.”
His eyes moved toward the black strands near Adrian’s blood.
Everyone followed his gaze.
The film had reached the red stain.
It surrounded the blood.
Then began absorbing it.
Keller stepped forward despite his own warning.
He raised the sensor.
The screen flashed violently.
“What?” Marcus asked.
“The organism is incorporating cellular material.”
“Can it reproduce from blood?”
“Yes.”
“How quickly?”
“Too quickly.”
Samuel’s smile returned.
“The fifth line does not reject the organism.”
“It directs it.”
I looked toward the speakers.
“Sienna controls it?”
“Not consciously.”
“Not yet.”
Clara turned to him.
“Then Helena altered her so the strain would follow her.”
Samuel nodded.
“Or protect her.”
“By attacking people?”
“Protection and attack are often the same biological act.”
I thought of the injured officers.
Thrown.
Cut.
Possibly attacked by something that moved through the dark around Sienna.
“What did Helena want?” I asked.
Samuel looked almost amused.
“The same thing every mother wants.”
“To ensure her child survives the family.”
Evelyn spoke for the first time in several minutes.
“No.”
Everyone turned toward her.
She looked at the black organism.
“Helena wanted control.”
“She always did.”
Helena’s voice came through the speakers immediately.
“You would know.”
Evelyn lifted her chin.
“You were never content to be hidden.”
“I was hidden because you stole my life.”
“You slept with my husband.”
“Thomas came to me.”
“You knew he was married.”
“I knew you had already betrayed him.”
My mother’s face hardened.
“This is not about our past.”
“It has always been about our past.”
Sienna groaned in the background.
Helena’s voice softened.
“Stay with me.”
Sienna answered faintly.
“It hurts.”
“I know.”
“Make it stop.”
“I cannot.”
The honesty in Helena’s voice was more frightening than another lie.
Clara leaned toward the speaker.
“Sienna.”
“Can you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“Cold.”
“That is not a place.”
“Water.”
Marcus looked at the estate map.
“The drainage line.”
“North runoff tunnel.”
Evelyn’s eyes widened.
“That tunnel leads beneath the river.”
“Where does it exit?”
“Old treatment station.”
“How far?”
“Almost a mile.”
Marcus spoke into the radio.
“Team One.”
“Withdraw from the secondary passage.”
“Move exterior units to the old treatment station.”
Helena shouted through the speakers.
“No.”
“Do not send them there.”
Marcus ignored her.
“Armored response only.”
“Respirators.”
“Nonlethal force unless fired upon.”
Samuel laughed.
“Nonlethal.”
Marcus looked down at him.
“You find that amusing?”
“You have no idea what you are approaching.”
“You do?”
“Yes.”
“Then tell us.”
Samuel closed his eyes.
“No.”
Adrian stepped forward.
He placed the silver cane against Samuel’s wounded shoulder.
Samuel’s eyes opened.
Adrian pressed the tip into the bullet hole.
Samuel inhaled sharply.
“You taught me pain is information,” Adrian said.
“Give us information.”
Samuel looked at him.
“You think torture makes you different from me?”
“No.”
“I think stopping you matters more than being different.”
He pushed harder.
Samuel’s face tightened.
“Adrian,” Clara said.
He did not look at her.
“He knows how to help Sienna.”
“And if he dies, he takes that knowledge with him.”
Adrian eased the cane back.
Not out of mercy.
Calculation.
Samuel exhaled.
“The fifth line requires a host capable of carrying the organism without immediate rejection.”
“Sienna?”
“Yes.”
“Why her?”
“She is the only living subject with both Bennett resistance and Vale receptivity.”
“What about Clara?”
“Too resistant.”
“Adrian?”
“Too unstable.”
“Me?”
“Crane dominance would cause replication without control.”
“Sienna balances all three.”
“And the concealed line?”
Samuel smiled faintly.
“The concealed line is not separate from the others.”
“It is their intersection.”
Keller looked at the case.
“That is why Thomas hid her.”
“He knew her profile could complete the system.”
“Thomas knew more than he admitted.”
“Did he test her?”
Samuel’s smile faded.
“Once.”
Sienna’s childhood scar.
The private clinic.
The false blood disorder.
I looked at Evelyn.
“You let Thomas test her.”
My mother said nothing.
“You said it was Samuel.”
“No.”
Her voice was quiet.
“Thomas authorized the first screening.”
“Why?”
“He believed Helena had exposed Sienna as an infant.”
Helena’s voice sharpened through the speakers.
“I saved her.”
“You infected her,” Evelyn said.
“I gave her immunity.”
“You did not know the outcome.”
“Neither did you when you let them cut into her at eleven.”
Sienna cried out again.
The argument stopped.
Her breathing came fast through the audio.
Then the deeper voice emerged beneath hers.
“Too many.”
Clara looked around.
“What does that mean?”
Sienna answered.
“Too many voices.”
“Too much blood.”
Keller stared at the organism near Adrian’s injury.
“It may be sensing every activated subject in the estate.”
“Through Sienna?”
“Yes.”
“She may be receiving biological signals.”
“Pain?”
“Fear?”
“Heart rate?”
“Possibly all of it.”
The ballroom above contained dozens of active profiles.
People stabilized but not cured.
Their bodies reacting to the carrier.
If Sienna could somehow sense them all, no wonder she was losing control.
“Can we isolate the active subjects from her?” I asked.
Keller looked at the medical trust screen.
“Possibly through the case.”
Clara moved toward it.
The options remained visible.
MONITOR.
ISOLATE.
STABILIZE.
TERMINATE.
“We already chose stabilize,” she said.
“Isolation may still be available.”
She touched the screen.
A map of the estate appeared.
Clusters of red profiles filled the ballroom.
Smaller clusters appeared in the medical rooms.
Five signatures remained in the laboratory.
One moving signal pulsed beyond the north boundary.
Sienna.
Another weaker signal remained beside her.
Helena.
The case displayed a question.
SELECT ISOLATION TARGETS.
Clara looked at Keller.
“What happens if I isolate everyone in the ballroom?”
“The system may seal them physically.”
“It may also alter airflow.”
“Would that reduce Sienna’s exposure to their signals?”
“I do not know.”
Samuel spoke.
“It will.”
We looked at him.
“Why help us?”
“I am helping her.”
“Sienna?”
“The fifth line must stabilize.”
“For your antidote.”
“For everyone’s antidote.”
Clara stared at him.
“You do not care about her.”
“No.”
“I care about what only she can produce.”
“What can she produce?”
Samuel looked toward the case timer.
35:08.
35:07.
35:06.
“The adaptive enzyme.”
Keller moved closer.
“What enzyme?”
“The organism creates it only inside the fifth-line host.”
“That enzyme allows the final antidote to distinguish active carrier cells from healthy tissue.”
“So without Sienna…”
“The antidote kills the patient along with the carrier.”
The room fell silent.
Sienna was not merely one of four bloodlines needed to make the antidote.
Her altered body was manufacturing the component that made the antidote survivable.
If she died, everyone who drank the champagne could die too.
Including Julian.
Including Adrian.
Including Clara.
Including Sienna herself.
“What does she need to stabilize?” Keller asked.
Samuel looked at the black organism.
“A single command environment.”
“Explain.”
“She is connected to too many active profiles.”
“Isolate them.”
“Reduce the noise.”
“Then what?”
“Bring her to the central archive.”
“No,” Helena said through the speakers.
Samuel looked toward the ceiling.
“You cannot keep running.”
“I will not deliver her to you.”
“You already completed the fifth line.”
“You did more for my work than anyone.”
Helena’s breathing became audible.
“I did it to destroy your work.”
Samuel smiled.
“Every destroyer believes that.”
Clara looked at the estate map.
“What happens if I isolate the ballroom?”
Marcus answered.
“Doors seal.”
“Guests remain contained.”
“That is already mostly true.”
Keller pointed at the airflow data.
“But medical access may be limited.”
“Can we isolate only their biological network?”
Samuel laughed.
“You still think this is digital.”
“It is not.”
“It is chemical.”
“Physical separation weakens the carrier’s signal exchange.”
“How far apart do they need to be?”
“Farther than one room.”
Marcus looked at the map.
“We can divide them into wings.”
“Groups of ten.”
“Separate floors.”
Keller shook his head.
“Moving symptomatic patients is dangerous.”
“Not moving them may kill Sienna.”
Clara stared at the red clusters.
Then she selected ISOLATE.
The screen changed.
CHOOSE PROTOCOL.
PHYSICAL SEPARATION.
NEURAL SUPPRESSION.
CARRIER DORMANCY.
Samuel’s expression changed at the third option.
Clara noticed.
“What is carrier dormancy?”
He said nothing.
She looked at Keller.
“Could it pause the connection?”
“Possibly.”
“Risk?”
“Unknown.”
Adrian moved beside her.
“If Samuel fears it, choose it.”
Samuel looked at him.
“I do not fear it.”
“You stopped smiling.”
Clara touched CARRIER DORMANCY.
A warning appeared.
DORMANCY REQUIRES PROTECTED CONTROLLER SACRIFICE.
I stepped closer.
“What sacrifice?”
The screen continued.
CONTROLLER WILL ABSORB ACTIVE CARRIER LOAD DURING TRANSITION.
SURVIVAL PROBABILITY:
23%.
“No,” I said.
Clara remained still.
“No,” I repeated.
She looked at me.
“If I absorb the load, Sienna stabilizes.”
“You may die.”
“Everyone may die if she does not.”
“We find another way.”
Samuel laughed weakly.
“There is none.”
I turned toward him.
“You are lying.”
“No.”
“Thomas built the trust around Bennett resistance.”
“Clara is the only person capable of carrying the combined load long enough to force dormancy.”
Clara looked at Keller.
“Could I survive?”
He did not answer.
“Keller.”
“Twenty-three percent may be generous.”
I stepped between her and the case.
“You are not doing this.”
She looked at me with exhausted calm.
“You do not get to order me anymore.”
“I am not ordering you.”
“I am begging you.”
The words stopped both of us.
I took her face gently in my hands.
“I just found you.”
“I cannot lose you again.”
Her eyes filled.
“You did not lose me because you left the house.”
“You lost sight of me.”
“There is a difference.”
“I know.”
“Then see me now.”
“I am not the woman in the kitchen anymore.”
“I am not waiting for someone to decide whether I matter.”
“I know you matter.”
“Then trust me to decide what I do with that life.”
The timer continued.
32:44.
32:43.
32:42.
I wanted to tell her no.
I wanted to shut the case.
Carry her out.
Let the house burn.
Let the company collapse.
Let every guilty person face the consequences of what they had chosen.
But the ballroom also held staff members.
Musicians.
Security officers.
People who had not known.
People who had accepted a glass without understanding that the celebration itself was a laboratory.
Clara looked at the map.
“Is there any way to improve the survival probability?”
Keller thought quickly.
“Blood filtration.”
“Cardiac support.”
“Controlled cooling.”
“Could the laboratory equipment do that?”
Samuel answered.
“The central archive has a circulation chair.”
Adrian’s face darkened.
“You used it on me.”
“Yes.”
“Will it support her?”
“If connected correctly.”
“Who knows how?”
Samuel smiled faintly.
“I do.”
“No,” I said.
Adrian looked at the chair platform.
“I know enough.”
“You survived the procedure.”
“I remember every second.”
Keller studied him.
“Can you operate it?”
“Yes.”
“Can we trust you?”
Adrian looked at Clara.
“No.”
“But you can watch me.”
Marcus moved toward the central platform.
“Show us.”
Adrian led Keller to a recessed section of the floor.
He pressed the cane handle into a hidden socket.
The platform opened.
A medical chair rose from below.
Metal arms unfolded beside it.
Transparent tubes hung from a circular frame.
Clara stared at it.
Samuel watched with satisfaction.
“This is what he wanted,” I said.
Keller looked at me.
“What?”
“All of us here.”
“The chair active.”
“The four bloodlines connected.”
“Clara controlling the trust.”
“Sienna producing the enzyme.”
“Samuel infected with M-0.”
“He arranged the entire sequence.”
Samuel smiled.
“Yes.”
Clara turned toward him.
“So dormancy saves you too.”
“It saves everyone.”
“It stabilizes the organism in your body.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“Then we create the antidote.”
“You become fully adapted.”
“Possibly.”
“While everyone else merely survives.”
Samuel’s smile widened.
“That is the nature of progress.”
Adrian raised the cane.
“What if we remove him from the active network first?”
The case screen still listed Samuel.
Keller looked at the medical trust options.
“We need to declare him deceased.”
“But he is alive.”
“What if we stop his heart temporarily?” Marcus asked.
Keller stared at him.
“For how long?”
“Long enough for the system to remove him.”
Samuel’s expression finally changed.
“No.”
Keller understood.
“A controlled cardiac arrest.”
“The trust detects no living signal.”
“Samuel is excluded.”
“Then we restart his heart after dormancy.”
Adrian laughed.
“Or we do not.”
Samuel tried to move.
Marcus’s officers restrained him.
“No,” Samuel repeated.
I crouched beside him.
“You told us survival was enough.”
His eyes filled with hatred.
“You need me.”
“No.”
“We need what you know.”
“That is different.”
Keller prepared medication.
Samuel struggled.
“You cannot control the strain without me.”
Clara looked at him.
“We are done letting you define control.”
Keller injected him.
Samuel’s body tensed.
His pulse monitor slowed.
Seventy.
Fifty.
Thirty.
Ten.
Then flatlined.
The case screen flashed.
SAMUEL CRANE.
STATUS: DECEASED.
The organism near the blood on the floor recoiled.
The black strands curled inward.
Keller looked at the timer.
“We have two minutes before permanent damage.”
Clara selected CARRIER DORMANCY again.
The warning returned.
CONTROLLER SACRIFICE REQUIRED.
She looked at me.
“I need you to let me do this.”
I could not speak.
She touched my cheek.
“You once told me home was wherever I was.”
“Yes.”
“Then bring me home after.”
Before I could stop her, she pressed CONFIRM.
The chair restraints opened.
Adrian lifted her carefully into place.
Keller connected the circulation tubes to her arms.
Marcus placed medical monitors around the platform.
I stood beside her.
Her hand found mine.
The system activated.
Blue light moved through the tubes.
The case screen displayed the active profiles across the estate.
One by one, red lines flowed toward Clara’s name.
She gasped.
Her back arched.
I tightened my grip on her hand.
“Stay with me.”
The red lines continued.
Nathan.
Richard.
Lorraine.
Evelyn.
Julian.
Adrian.
Sienna.
Dozens of others.
Every active carrier signal moved into Clara’s profile.
Her heart rate climbed.
One hundred twenty.
One hundred forty.
One hundred seventy.
Keller adjusted the cooling system.
“Temperature rising.”
Clara screamed.
The sound tore through me.
“Stop it.”
Keller shook his head.
“We cannot stop halfway.”
“Her pressure is falling.”
“Support fluids.”
Adrian opened another valve.
The tubes darkened as blood circulated through the machine.
The case screen changed.
CARRIER LOAD:
42%.
Sienna’s voice came through the speakers.
“Clara.”
Clara opened her eyes.
“Sienna.”
The layered tone beneath Sienna’s voice had weakened.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving you room to breathe.”
“You will die.”
“Not tonight.”
The load reached sixty percent.
Clara’s lips turned pale.
Keller called for more oxygen.
I leaned closer.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“You are not alone.”
“I know.”
The load reached seventy-eight percent.
Across the screen, the red clusters in the ballroom began fading.
The fifth-line mutation warning beneath Sienna’s name decreased.
NONHUMAN EXPRESSION:
61%.
42%.
25%.
Helena’s voice broke through.
“It is working.”
Sienna began crying.
“Mom.”
“I am here.”
“Do not leave.”
“I will not.”
For the first time, Helena sounded like a mother rather than another architect of the conspiracy.
The carrier load reached ninety percent.
Clara’s heart monitor stuttered.
Keller looked at me.
“She is arresting.”
“No.”
He prepared the defibrillator.
The load reached ninety-six.
Ninety-eight.
Ninety-nine.
Then the screen froze.
TRANSFER ERROR.
PROTECTED CONTROLLER CAPACITY EXCEEDED.
Clara’s body went still.
The heart monitor flatlined.
“No,” I said.
Keller charged the paddles.
“Clear.”
Her body lifted from the chair.
Nothing.
“Again.”
He shocked her a second time.
Nothing.
The case displayed a new message.
SECONDARY CONTROLLER REQUIRED.
I looked at the available profiles.
Only one name appeared.
JULIAN VALE.
Keller saw it.
“Julian, do not.”
“What happens if I connect?”
“You take the remaining carrier load.”
“How much?”
“One percent.”
“That sounds small.”
“It may contain the most concentrated material.”
“Will it save her?”
“It may.”
“Do it.”
Marcus grabbed my arm.
“You are already contaminated.”
“Exactly.”
“Your Crane profile may amplify the load.”
“Do it.”
Keller stared at me.
Then nodded.
Adrian opened the second circulation line.
I climbed onto the adjacent platform.
A needle entered my arm.
Pain shot across my chest.
The case activated.
SECONDARY CONTROLLER ACCEPTED.
The final one percent transferred.
It did not feel like one percent.
It felt like fire entering my blood.
Every muscle locked.
My vision went white.
I heard Clara’s monitor.
Flat.
Then one faint beat.
Another.
Another.
Her heart returned.
I tried to speak.
No sound came.
The carrier moved through me.
I could feel the estate.
Not metaphorically.
Physically.
Dozens of heartbeats.
Dozens of frightened bodies.
Pain.
Heat.
Blood.
Sienna’s mind seemed like a light at the edge of a dark tunnel.
And behind all of it was something else.
A hidden signal.
Older.
Stronger.
Waiting beneath the river.
The case screen flashed.
CARRIER DORMANCY COMPLETE.
ACTIVE SUBJECTS STABILIZED.
Clara opened her eyes.
She turned toward me.
“Julian.”
I tried to smile.
Then the heartbeat beneath the river answered mine.
A new profile appeared on the case.
UNKNOWN ORIGINATOR.
STATUS: ACTIVE.
LOCATION: NORTH TREATMENT STATION.
Helena screamed through the speakers.
“No.”
Sienna whispered.
“He found us.”
Marcus looked at the map.
“Who?”
The unknown profile resolved.
A photograph appeared.
The face belonged to the man from the old Meridian photograph.
But younger than Samuel should have looked.
Unscarred.
Healthy.
Almost untouched by time.
The screen displayed his identity.
SAMUEL CRANE.
Keller turned toward the body on the floor.
The man we had just stopped was still flatlined.
Still motionless.
Still Samuel.
Two identical genetic profiles now existed.
One dead in the laboratory.
One alive beneath the river.
Adrian stared at the screen.
Then at the body.
His face lost all color.
“That is not possible.”
The speakers activated.
A calm male voice filled the estate.
It sounded exactly like Samuel.
But younger.
Stronger.
“You finally killed the copy.”
The body on the floor opened its eyes.
At the same moment, the profile beneath the river began moving toward Sienna.
May you like
The younger voice continued.
“Now you may meet the original.”
