CHAPTER 8 – The First Experiment
The warehouse fell silent.
The young man smiled as though he had been waiting for this moment his entire life.
"Hello, Amelia."
"My name is Adrian."
"But inside Project Phoenix..."
"They called me Subject X-01."
Amelia stared at him.
"You can't be seventy-one."
Adrian laughed softly.
"I know."
"I stopped aging when I looked thirty."
Every person in the warehouse froze.
Nathan looked terrified—not excited.
Terrified.
"You weren't supposed to be alive," Nathan whispered.
Adrian slowly walked toward him.
"No."
"You made sure of that."
He rolled up his sleeve.
Across his arm were dozens of old surgical scars.
"They experimented on me for forty years."
"They wanted to know why I couldn't die."
Amelia looked at Evelyn.
"You knew?"
Tears streamed down Evelyn's face.
"I tried to shut Phoenix down."
"But Nathan wanted to sell immortality."
Nathan slammed his fist onto a table.
"It wasn't about immortality!"
"It was about power!"
He pulled a small black device from his pocket.
"This..."
"...is the final Phoenix Core."
"The only device capable of activating X-12 completely."
Adrian's expression changed instantly.
"Amelia!"
"Don't let him use it!"
Too late.
Nathan pressed the button.
A piercing sound filled the warehouse.
Amelia collapsed to her knees.
Memories she had never lived flashed through her mind.
A laboratory.
Bright white lights.
Doctors shouting.
Children crying.
A man carrying her through smoke.
Richard Carter.
Another woman screaming...
"Save the baby!"
Then everything went black.
When Amelia opened her eyes again...
She could hear something impossible.
Every heartbeat in the room.
Every whispered breath.
Every electronic signal humming inside the walls.
It was as if her senses had awakened all at once.
Nathan smiled triumphantly.
"It worked."
"You finally remember."
Amelia slowly stood.
Her eyes looked different.
Calmer.
Sharper.
She turned toward Nathan.
"I remember one more thing."
Nathan frowned.
"What?"
Amelia spoke quietly.
"You lied."
Confused, Nathan took a step back.
"I was never your greatest success."
She looked toward Adrian.
Then toward Evelyn.
Finally...
She looked at the sealed vault door hidden behind the warehouse wall.
"I wasn't Subject X-12."
The room fell silent.
"What are you talking about?" Nathan demanded.
Amelia pointed at the security scanner.
"The numbering was fake."
"There were never twelve children."
"There were thirteen."
Nathan's face drained of color.
"No..."
"That's impossible."
Amelia smiled for the first time since the wedding.
"It isn't impossible."
"Because Subject X-13..."
"...is still inside that vault."
At that exact moment, the concrete wall trembled.
A deep mechanical voice echoed through the warehouse.
"CRYOGENIC CHAMBER OPENING."
The massive steel door slowly unlocked.
Freezing mist poured into the room.
Everyone watched in stunned silence as a glass capsule rose from beneath the floor.
Inside...
A young woman lay asleep.
She looked exactly like Amelia.
Not similar.
Not related.
Identical.
Then the capsule opened.
The woman opened her eyes...
Looked directly at Amelia...
May you like
And whispered only four chilling words.
"You were the backup."
