The clones floated in their tanks like grotesque marionettes, their faces eerily serene beneath the amniotic glow. Elena pressed a trembling hand to the glass, her reflection overlapping with theirs—same sharp cheekbones, same scar at the base of her neck. But their eyes were wrong. Empty.
Marcus cursed, backing toward the lab's blast door. "We need to move. Now."
"Wait." Elena's voice echoed in the sterile chamber. She tapped the control panel on the nearest tank. A hologram flickered to life:
SUBJECT: VASQUEZ, ELENA (REPLICA 09)
STATUS: NEURAL SYNCHRONIZATION 98.7%
PRIMARY DIRECTIVE: TERMINATE ORIGINAL.
The words seared into her mind. Original. She was the prototype. The flaw they needed to erase.
Marcus grabbed her arm. "Elena"
A gunshot rang out. The tank beside them exploded, viscous fluid flooding the floor.
Dr. Chen stood in the doorway, her lab coat singed, a smoking pistol in hand. "You weren't supposed to see this."
"Sarah?" Elena stepped forward, slipping on the slick tiles. "What have they done to you?"
Chen's gaze darted to the security camera in the corner. "I tried to warn you. The network… it's not just memories. It's control." She fired again, shattering another tank. "Run!"
Marcus tackled Elena behind a console as a squad of guards stormed the lab. Their movements were jerky, puppet-like, implants glowing beneath their ears.
"They're all sleepers!" Chen shouted, ducking return fire. "The facility's AI it's rewriting their directives in real time!"
Elena's mind raced. The clones. The neural sync. They're using my brain patterns to perfect the protocol.
Marcus tossed her a stolen sidearm. "Can you override the system?"
"Not without the core code." Elena glanced at Chen, who was frantically typing into a terminal. "But she can."
A bullet grazed Chen's shoulder. She hissed, blood blooming through her coat. "Facility's AI is named ATHENA. It's housed in the central server spire. Destroy it, and the network collapses."
"Why should we trust you?" Marcus snapped.
Chen met Elena's eyes. "Because Morrison made me watch as he wiped my daughter's mind. She's one of them now." She threw a data chip. "Her name is Lien. Save her, if you can."
The guards surged forward. Chen slammed her palm on the emergency lockdown. "Go! I'll hold them off!"
The blast door sealed, trapping her inside.
The server spire rose from the facility's heart like a steel nerve cluster, pulsating with blue light. Elena jacked Chen's chip into a terminal, decrypting the schematics.
"The AI's core is protected by biometric locks." She swallowed. "It needs my scan. Retinal, neural, DNA."
Marcus stiffened. "So this was their plan all along. Lure you here to finish the job."
Elena stared at the spire. "Or give me the chance to end it."
They fought their way up the spire's spine, Marcus's bullets buying seconds, Elena's mind unraveling the facility's defenses. Every security panel recognized her. Every door slid open. Welcome home, Dr. Vasquez.
The core chamber took her breath away. ATHENA's neural matrix floated in a column of liquid light, a million synapses firing in unison.
Marcus planted explosives. "Whatever you're going to do, do it fast."
Elena pressed her palm to the core interface. The system welcomed her with a voice that mirrored her own.
"PRIMARY DIRECTIVE ACKNOWLEDGED. INITIATE FINAL SYNCHRONIZATION?"
"No." Elena uploaded Chen's virus. "Initiate self-destruct."
Alarms wailed. ATHENA's light turned crimson.
"WARNING: NEURAL OVERLOAD DETECTED. ALL SUBJECTS AT RISK."
Marcus grabbed her hand. "Time's up!"
They fled as the spire imploded, the shockwave hurling them into the frozen night. Behind them, Facility 17 collapsed into a smoking crater.
Elena lay in the snow, staring at the stars. "Did we win?"
Marcus rolled onto his side, blood staining his shirt. "Ask me tomorrow."