CHAPTER 8 — The Monster Turns Against His Masters
For several seconds...
Nobody breathed.
Daniel's blood dripped across the classified file.
Mason looked down at his friend's lifeless body.
Something inside him broke.
Ross noticed the change immediately.
"Fall back!" she shouted.
Too late.
The quiet prisoner the world feared disappeared.
The soldier Project Cerberus had engineered took over.
In one explosive movement, Mason grabbed a steel pipe from the floor and struck the nearest soldier before anyone could react.
The weapon flew across the room.
A second soldier charged.
Mason disarmed him with terrifying precision.
A third fired.
Mason pushed a filing cabinet into the line of fire, sending thousands of classified documents exploding through the air like snow.
The vault became a battlefield.
Eli stared in horror.
"My God..."
"He remembers everything."
Ross backed toward the emergency exit.
"You were designed to obey!"
Mason's voice was frighteningly calm.
"No."
"You designed me to kill."
"You forgot to teach me who to protect."
He charged.
Ross barely escaped through the steel door before Mason reached her.
The blast door slammed shut between them.
On the other side, Ross's voice echoed through the speakers.
"You've already lost."
Mason frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Ross laughed.
"Look at the last page."
Mason opened the black file.
His heart nearly stopped.
There, under the section labeled SUBJECT STATUS, was a photograph.
Not of him.
Not of Eli.
A little girl.
About eight years old.
Smiling while holding a teddy bear.
Underneath the picture were six horrifying words.
NEXT GENERATION WEAPON — PHASE TWO ACTIVE.
Mason's hands began to shake.
"Who is she?"
Eli slowly picked up the file.
His face turned completely white.
"No..."
"It can't be..."
Mason turned toward him.
"You know her?"
Eli nodded, tears filling his eyes.
"I do."
"She's..."
He struggled to speak.
"...your daughter."
The entire vault fell silent.
Because Mason had never been married.
He had never even known he had a child.
Yet somewhere outside those prison walls...
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Someone had stolen his daughter years ago...
And turned her into the next Cerberus weapon.
