Chapter 15
Chapter 15: The Reunion of Monsters
"He looks right at home, doesn't he?" a voice whispered from behind us.
I spun around, my hand instinctively going to the small canister of chemical counter-agent Ellen had given me. But it was just a man in a lab coat—Ellen's inside contact, Dr. Aris.
"They’ve already initiated the baseline download," Aris said quickly, his eyes darting down the hallway. "They’re uploading a highly classified cryptological framework directly into her visual cortex. If they hit 100%, her brain's language center will be permanently overwritten by code."
"I'm going in there," I said, my voice dropping to a whisper that surprised even me.
"Clara, it's suicide," Ellen warned. "The security team—"
"I don't care about the security team," I snapped, turning the heavy metal handle of the airlock door. "That's my daughter."
Before Ellen could stop me, I pushed the door open and stepped into the sterile chamber. The hiss of the pressure seal drew Mark’s attention instantly. He turned away from the monitors, his eyes widening in pure shock as he recognized me.
"Clara?" he stammered, his hand instinctively dropping to the security panic button on his belt. "How the hell did you get in here?"
"Get away from her, Mark," I said, walking slowly toward the chair.
Sophie didn't look at me. Her eyes were fixed on the ceiling, her pupils darting back and forth with terrifying speed, as if she were reading invisible strings of code hovering in the air.
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"You shouldn't have come here, Clara," Mark said, his shock quickly dissolving back into that insufferable, arrogant confidence. He stepped between me and Sophie. "You're interrupting history. In exactly ten minutes, our daughter becomes the most valuable asset in the global intelligence network. We're going to be set for life."
"There is no 'we,' Mark," I said, slipping my hand into the pocket of my scrubs. "There is only a mother and the man who sold her child."
