Chapter 5 – Subject Zero's Secret
The words on the giant screen refused to disappear.
SUBJECT ZERO HAS FINALLY BEEN FOUND.
The square fell into complete silence.
Even the police sirens in the distance seemed to fade.
Emma looked around with innocent confusion.
"Mommy..."
"Why is everyone looking at me?"
Her mother collapsed to her knees.
Tears streamed uncontrollably down her face.
"I'm so sorry..."
"I wanted you to have a normal life."
The old man stared at the glowing screen.
"What does Subject Zero mean?"
The silver-haired man smiled.
"It means your granddaughter was never an accident."
Richard slammed the bomb's control panel shut.
"Don't listen to him!"
But it was already too late.
The old man demanded the truth.
"Tell me!"
"What have all of you been hiding?"
Richard closed his eyes.
Twenty-four years earlier...
A classified government laboratory had launched a secret project.
Its official purpose was to cure rare genetic diseases before birth.
Unofficially...
Powerful people funded the research for a far darker reason.
They wanted to create children with extraordinary intelligence.
Perfect memory.
Exceptional reflexes.
Near-impossible resistance to disease.
Hundreds of embryos were created.
None survived.
Until...
Subject Zero.
Emma's mother whispered,
"I was one of the research doctors."
The old man's knees almost gave out.
"You?"
She nodded.
"I discovered they planned to sell the children to private military corporations."
"So I stole the only surviving baby."
"You stole..."
"My own daughter."
She looked at Emma.
"You."
Richard continued the story.
"I helped them escape."
"I burned the laboratory."
"I destroyed every research file I could find."
The silver-haired man laughed.
"You destroyed the building."
"But not the backup."
He snapped his fingers.
One of his men placed a silver suitcase on the pavement.
Inside...
Hundreds of classified files.
Medical scans.
DNA reports.
Videos.
Every document carried the same label.
SUBJECT ZERO
Richard's face turned white.
"I burned those."
"You burned the copies."
The silver-haired man smiled.
"We kept the originals."
He picked up one folder.
Inside was a recent photograph.
Emma.
Playing happily in a school playground.
Another.
Emma sleeping in her bedroom.
Another.
Emma celebrating her sixth birthday.
Her mother gasped.
"No..."
The villain chuckled.
"We've watched her every single day."
The old man's blood ran cold.
"For six years?"
"For every second."
Emma hugged her grandfather tighter.
"Grandpa..."
"Who are those scary people?"
He couldn't answer.
His voice was gone.
Then...
The silver-haired man held up one final photograph.
Unlike the others...
It wasn't Emma.
It was Richard.
Standing inside the laboratory twenty-four years ago.
Holding a newborn baby.
The exact newborn they now called Subject Zero.
The old man stared at the picture.
"You knew her..."
"Before she was born."
Richard slowly nodded.
"I was the one who delivered her."
Everyone froze.
The old man whispered,
"Then..."
"Who is Emma's real father?"
Richard looked at Emma.
Then at her mother.
His lips trembled.
"I've lied for six years..."
"Because the truth would destroy her."
Before he could say another word...
A deafening gunshot shattered the silence.
BANG!
Richard staggered backward.
A dark red stain spread across his white shirt.
Emma screamed.
"DADDY!"
Richard collapsed onto the pavement.
The folder slipped from his hands.
One final document drifted through the air before landing at the old man's feet.
Across the top, in bold red letters, were the words:
BIOLOGICAL FATHER: CLASSIFIED
Beneath it...
A single black-and-white photograph.
The old man picked it up...
And his heart stopped.
Because the man in the picture...
May you like
Looked exactly like him.
To Be Continued...
