Chapter 10 - THE CELL BELOW THE CITYCold rain dripped onto my face, waking me from a nightmare of screaming glass and blinding light.
I was chained by my wrists to a damp concrete wall inside a cavernous underground bunker. Thick, heavy cables ran from a metal collar around my neck up into a massive, humming mainframe hanging overhead.
Directly across from me, suspended in an iron cage, was Rick. He was barely conscious, his breathing shallow, a matching electronic restraint ring fitted around his neck.
"Rick..." I choked out, my voice raw. "Hang on, buddy..."
"Save your breath, Clone," a voice echoed from the shadows.
Mark stepped into the dim light of the bunker. The bruises on his face were fresh, but he had changed into an immaculate black suit. Behind him walked Detective Vance—or whatever he truly was—and a team of technicians in white hazardous-material suits.
"Where are we?" I demanded, rattling my chains. "Where is Sarah?!"
"Sarah was an unfortunate collateral casualty," Mark said coldly, checking his wristwatch. "Her mind was wiped and she's currently being framed for the news station attack. As for us... we are in Sub-Level 4 of your old underground facility beneath the mountain house. The very place you built to create us."
Mark walked up to my hanging form, gripping my chin tightly. "Do you know why Rick was climbing those kitchen cabinets, Leo? He wasn't just tracking me in the vents. He was receiving signals from the emergency relay switch hidden in your kitchen ceiling. He's not a normal dog. He's Project Cerberus—a biological neural-receiver built to monitor your stability."
The memories inside my head unlocked another layer. Cerberus... the hybrid canine host built to house the backup security artificial intelligence I created to protect the Lazarus project.
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"Rick... isn't a dog?" I whispered, my mind shattering into a million pieces.
"He's a machine-organic hybrid carrying your master access codes," Mark spat. "And in ten minutes, we are going to extract those codes from his brain stem, wipe your mind completely, and overwrite Clone #4 with my consciousness. I will live forever. You... will finally be recycled."
