CHAPTER 8 — THE LAST EXPERIMENT
Chaos erupted.
Children screamed.
Scientists ran in every direction.
Federal agents rushed to evacuate the survivors while bomb technicians searched desperately for the explosives.
The countdown had already begun.
Twenty minutes.
Agent Brooks grabbed my arm.
"We have to go!"
"No."
I looked toward the central control room.
"She wants me there."
My mother understood immediately.
"It's a trap."
"I know."
"But if I don't go... she'll kill everyone."
Ignoring every order, I sprinted through the underground corridors.
The closer I came to the control center, the quieter everything became.
Director Zero was waiting alone.
No guards.
No weapons.
Only a chessboard sitting between two chairs.
"I wondered how long it would take."
She gestured toward the empty seat.
"One final conversation."
I didn't sit.
"You stole people's lives."
She shook her head.
"I removed pain."
"You stole identities."
"I gave them better ones."
"You murdered families."
"I ended suffering."
She believed every word.
That frightened me more than any weapon.
Then she opened a drawer.
Inside were hundreds of passports.
Birth certificates.
Marriage licenses.
Entire human lives... rewritten on paper.
She picked up one folder.
Mine.
"You know why Adrian failed?"
I remained silent.
"He believed memory lives in the brain."
She smiled sadly.
"I learned long ago..."
"...memory lives in love."
She pushed the folder toward me.
Inside was a photograph I had never seen.
My father.
Alive.
Holding me as a little girl.
"He survived."
The words hit harder than any explosion.
"No..."
"He's been alive for sixteen years."
"Working for me."
The room spun.
Then a familiar voice spoke from the doorway.
"She's telling the truth."
I turned slowly.
An older man stood there with tears streaming down his face.
He looked exactly like the man in the photograph.
"Rebecca..."
"I'm your father."
Before I could move...
May you like
He raised a pistol.
And pointed it directly at Director Zero.
