Chapter 68 - The Council of Seven
"Leo is my real son?" Daniel asked, his voice shaking for the first time since the ordeal had begun.
"Leo is your natural-born son, carried by a surrogate Elena trusted," Vance confirmed. "Julian, Subject Three in Munich, and Subject Four in the aircraft—they are cloned vectors. Built to override you if you ever went rogue. When the Syndicate finally tracked Elena down, they forced the wedding operation. The fake pregnancy was a public theater piece to lure you into a controlled perimeter where they could neutralize you without triggering the failsafe."
"What failsafe?"
Vance leaned in, his gaze burning into Daniel's. "The Sovereign Pulse. If your biological heart ceases to beat without a verified biometric handover, thirty-two global financial exchanges lock permanently, and forty-eight orbital satellites enter an unrecoverable decay trajectory. You are a biological dead man's switch for the modern world, Daniel."
The submarine's interior lighting suddenly shifted to tactical amber. A digitized voice chimed through the intercom: *Crossing 78 degrees North. Approaching the Svalbard Perimeter. Sector Zero detected.*
"The double we killed on the platform—Chassis Nine—was sent by the remaining Syndicate directors," Vance said, rising to his feet. "They are operating out of the Ny-Ålesund permafrost vault. They have Subject Four. If they force her into the Arctic terminal alongside the other extracted data, they can overwrite your genetic supremacy and gain full control of the network."
"And the real Elena?" Daniel asked, his heart hammering against his ribs.
"Elena refused to give them the encryption codes," Vance said, his eyes darkening. "So they put her on ice eight years ago. She is inside the cryogenic vault at the center of the glacier."
The doors of the observation room hissed open. Leo and Julian stepped out together, hand in hand.
Leo looked up at Daniel, his small face etched with an unyielding resolve that mirrored Daniel’s own. "Dad, the aircraft landed thirty minutes ago. She’s waking up."
"Subject Four?" Daniel asked.
May you like
"No," Julian answered, his voice chiming in unison with Leo. "Mom."
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