CHAPTER 5 – The Mother Who Was Never Dead
Victoria's trembling fingers hovered above the steel case.
The fingerprint scanner glowed crimson.
ACCESS DENIED.
SECOND AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.
The courtroom fell eerily silent.
Everyone had heard the laboratory woman's words.
"The second fingerprint belongs to your mother."
Impossible.
Victoria had buried her mother when she was only six years old.
She still remembered the tiny white roses.
The rain.
The closed coffin.
The endless tears.
So how could a dead woman unlock a classified government vault?
Before anyone could react—
A slow clap echoed through the shattered courtroom.
Clap...
Clap...
Clap...
Every head turned toward the main entrance.
The massive wooden doors creaked open.
An elegant woman dressed in a white coat stepped inside.
Her silver hair shimmered beneath the courtroom lights.
She walked calmly through the terrified crowd as if she owned the building.
No guards stopped her.
No sniper fired.
Even the tactical officers instinctively stepped aside.
Victoria stared at her in disbelief.
The woman stopped only a few feet away.
Their eyes met.
Victoria's heartbeat nearly stopped.
The woman had the same eyes.
The same smile.
The same tiny scar above her left eyebrow.
The scar Victoria remembered kissing as a child.
A whisper escaped her lips.
"...Mom?"
The woman smiled sadly.
"Hello, Victoria."
"I've waited twenty-five years to hear you call me that again."
The courtroom exploded into stunned murmurs.
"No..."
"That's impossible..."
"She's dead!"
Elias forced himself to stand despite the blood pouring from his shoulder.
"Don't go near her!"
Victoria looked back in confusion.
"What?"
Elias's voice cracked.
"She's not here to save you."
"She's the one who created Program Zero."
The words hit Victoria like a bullet.
She turned back toward the woman.
Tears streamed down her face.
"You... created me?"
The woman nodded.
"I didn't create you."
"I rebuilt you."
Victoria staggered backward.
"What does that mean?"
The woman slowly removed a small silver pendant from around her neck.
Inside it...
Was a photograph.
A family picture.
Victoria...
Her mother...
And a little boy she had never seen before.
The boy looked about eight years old.
He was smiling with one arm wrapped around Victoria.
But Victoria had no memory of him.
"Who is he?" she whispered.
Her mother's eyes filled with sorrow.
"Your brother."
Victoria's world shattered.
"I don't have a brother."
"You did."
The woman closed the pendant.
"Until they erased him from your memories."
Flash!
Another violent headache ripped through Victoria's mind.
Broken images flooded back.
A little boy laughing.
Running beside her.
Holding her hand.
Calling her...
"Big sister!"
Victoria collapsed, screaming.
"I remember..."
"I remember him!"
His name burst from her lips before she even realized it.
"Lucas!"
The courtroom gasped.
Her mother smiled through tears.
"Yes."
"Lucas."
"The first successful child."
Victoria looked up.
"...First?"
Her mother's expression darkened.
"You were never Project Zero."
"You were Project One."
Victoria froze.
"What?"
Her mother pointed toward Elias.
"He was Project Two."
Then she pointed at herself.
"And I..."
"...was the scientist who destroyed my own family trying to save the world."
Before Victoria could speak—
The laboratory woman reappeared on every monitor.
This time she was laughing.
"You finally told her."
"Good."
She pressed a button.
Deep beneath the courthouse...
The floor began to shake.
Warning sirens screamed through every hallway.
A robotic voice echoed throughout the building.
SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED.
TEN MINUTES UNTIL TOTAL DETONATION.
Panic consumed the courtroom.
People rushed for the exits.
But every exit slammed shut with heavy steel doors.
They were trapped.
Then the laboratory woman delivered one final sentence that made Victoria's blood run cold.
"You've spent your whole life looking for the truth."
"But the greatest lie..."
She smiled directly into the camera.
"...is that your brother Lucas never disappeared."
She zoomed in on a live security feed from the courthouse rooftop.
Standing beside a military helicopter...
Was a tall man wearing a black mask.
He slowly removed it.
Victoria gasped.
It was Lucas.
Older.
Alive.
And smiling.
He raised a rifle...
Aimed it directly through the shattered courtroom window...
At Elias.
May you like
"Goodbye, brother."
TO BE CONTINUED...
