Chapter 16 - THE CIPHER IN THE BLOOD | "She Injected the Serum into My Veins... and 100 Years of Memories Exploded in My Brain."
"It's a lie!" Director Harrison screamed, pushing Julian off him and scrambling toward the control terminal on the stage. "She's manipulating you, Seven! If you destroy the central sphere, the neural feedback will fry your synthetic brain! You will die with us!"
Clara looked at Harrison, then at Julian, who was fighting off three approaching guards at the foot of the stage, his body covered in fresh wounds.
"She’s telling the truth, Clara!" Julian spat blood onto the white marble floor, locking a guard in a chokehold. "The chip in your wrist isn't a receiver! It's a bomb! If you connect your wrist to the central pedestal, you detonate the entire global server network!"
Clara looked down at her glowing left wrist. The blue light had turned into a searing white flame beneath her skin.
"If I detonate the network," Clara said, looking at Subject Zero's hologram, "what happens to the people whose memories were stolen by Vance BioTech? What happens to the world?"
"They get their lives back," Subject Zero replied softly. "Every stolen memory, every erased personality, every hidden crime will be released back to the global internet. The world will see the truth about Olympus, about Arthur, about everything we did."
"And what happens to me?" Clara asked, her voice small, human, and vulnerable.
Subject Zero smiled, a tear made of blue light rolling down her holographic cheek. "You get to stop running, my sweet girl. You get to finally rest."
Director Harrison reached the control terminal, slamming his palm onto the manual override button. "Initiate purge protocol! Scramble Subject Seven's motor functions!"
A wave of intense, crippling agony ripped through Clara’s nervous system. She fell to her knees, screaming as the synthetic fibers in her muscles began to tear themselves apart under remote electrical command.
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"Do it, Seven!" Julian yelled, dropping his empty weapon and blocking a volley of gunfire with his own body. "Do it now!"
Clara dragged herself across the marble floor inch by agonizing inch, her vision flashing with static, her heart pounding against her ribs like a dying drum. She reached the silver pedestal, raised her glowing left wrist, and slammed it directly into the central interface socket.
