The elevator descended in silence, but it was the loudest silence Yoo-jin had ever heard.
He held Eden's body against his chest. The boy was heavy, a dense weight of synthetic muscle and cooling fluid. He wasn't breathing. There was no heartbeat.
Min-ji stood in the corner, clutching her hammer. She wasn't crying anymore. She was vibrating with a rage that looked ready to detonate.
"He's cooling down," Min-ji whispered, touching Eden's arm. "He feels like... leftover meat."
"Don't," Yoo-jin said sharply. "He's not meat."
On the floor of the elevator, Sae-ri stirred. She gasped, sitting up, clutching her throat where the gas had burned her.
"Yoo-jin?" She looked around wildly. "The cage... Mason..."
"It's over," Yoo-jin said. "We're leaving."
Sae-ri's eyes adjusted to the dim light. She looked past Yoo-jin.
She saw the woman standing in the back corner.
The woman wore a black velvet dress. She looked exactly like the photos on Sae-ri's mantle. But her eyes were vacant, tracking the floor numbers like a cat watching a fly.
"Mom?" Sae-ri whispered.
The woman tilted her head. The movement was jerky. Unnatural.
"Scene 4," the woman said. Her voice was Jung Soo-jin's voice, but the intonation was flat. "The daughter cries. The mother exits stage left."
Sae-ri scrambled backward, hitting the elevator wall. "What is that? Why is she talking like that?"
"It's a print," Yoo-jin said, his voice hollow. "Mason archived her memories. But the context... it's just data to her."
The elevator dinged. Lobby.
"Prepare for contact," Yoo-jin shifted Eden's weight. "If the police are here, we surrender. If it's Zenith security, we fight."
The doors slid open.
The lobby was a ruin. The delivery van Min-ji had crashed was still smoking. Glass covered the floor like ice.
But there were no guards.
Instead, the lobby was filled with red laser sights.
A wall of tactical shields blocked the exit. Men in black uniforms with no insignias stood like statues.
"Not police," David Kim squeaked from behind Yoo-jin. "That's the 707th Special Mission Group. That's the military."
A Commander stepped forward. He didn't hold a gun. He held a tablet.
"Han Yoo-jin," the Commander said. "You are in possession of classified government assets."
"I'm in possession of a corpse!" Yoo-jin shouted.
"Subject One is not a corpse. He is hardware. And the woman..." The Commander looked at the Clone Mother. "She is intellectual property under the National Defense Act."
"They're people!" Sae-ri screamed, standing up.
"Hand them over," the Commander said. "And you walk away. We sweep this under the rug. Mason Gold goes to a black site, you go back to your little studio. Clean slate."
It was the devil's bargain. Give up the "monsters" to save the humans.
Yoo-jin looked at Eden's face. The face that had smiled when he learned to play the drums.
He looked at the Clone Mother. A tragic echo of a woman who had already been used once.
"No," Yoo-jin said.
"Wrong answer," the Commander signaled his men.
"Min-ji," Yoo-jin whispered. "The drone."
"What?"
"The heavy-lift drone on the roof. Is the remote still in your pocket?"
Min-ji's eyes widened. She reached into her coveralls. "Yeah."
"Call it," Yoo-jin ordered. "Bring the rain."
Min-ji slammed the 'Return Home' button.
High above, the massive industrial drone, still hovering near the helipad, cut its engines.
Gravity took over. 500 pounds of metal and lithium batteries plummeted eighty stories.
It didn't hit the ground. It hit the glass skylight of the atrium directly above them.
CRASH.
The sound was deafening. Shards of glass the size of guillotines rained down on the lobby.
The soldiers scattered, raising their shields. Chaos erupted.
"Run!" Yoo-jin yelled.
He didn't run toward the exit. He ran toward the service corridor behind the reception desk.
He dragged Eden. Sae-ri grabbed the Clone Mother's hand.
"Action!" Sae-ri yelled at the Clone. "Run for your life!"
The command worked. The Clone's programming recognized the prompt. She sprinted with perfect form.
They burst into the loading dock. Mr. Oh was there, idling the van.
"Get in!" Mr. Oh screamed, revving the engine.
They threw Eden into the back. They piled in on top of him.
"Drive! Drive!"
The van screeched out of the loading bay just as the special forces breached the door. Bullets pinged off the bumper.
Mr. Oh didn't just drive. He drove like a maniac, swerving into oncoming traffic to lose the tail.
In the back of the van, the adrenaline crashed.
Yoo-jin slumped against the wall, panting. He checked Eden. Still cold.
"We can't go to a hospital," David Kim said, hyperventilating. "The military will lock down every ER in Seoul. We have a dead bio-weapon and a zombie in the back seat."
"He's not dead," Min-ji had her ear pressed to Eden's chest.
"He stopped breathing, Min-ji!"
"Listen!" Min-ji hissed. "Not a heartbeat. A spin-up."
Yoo-jin leaned in.
Deep inside Eden's chest cavity, there was a sound. A faint, high-pitched whine. Whirrrrrrrrr.
"His cooling fans," Yoo-jin realized. "The Muse Engine overload... it didn't fry his brain. It triggered a system reboot."
"So he's alive?" Sae-ri asked, hope breaking her voice.
"His hardware is running," Yoo-jin looked at Eden's blank face. "But the software... the memories... that might be gone. It's a factory reset."
Suddenly, the Clone Mother spoke.
She was sitting perfectly still, hands folded in her lap.
"The scene is dragging," she said. "Where is craft services?"
Sae-ri looked at the woman who wore her mother's face. The pain on Sae-ri's face was excruciating. It wasn't a reunion. It was a haunting.
"Mom," Sae-ri whispered. "Do you know who I am?"
The Clone looked at her. The sensors behind her eyes scanned Sae-ri's face.
"Unknown Subject," the Clone said pleasantly. "Are you an extra?"
Sae-ri flinched as if she'd been slapped. She turned away, burying her face in Yoo-jin's shoulder.
"We have to fix them," Yoo-jin said, holding her. "Both of them."
"How?" David asked. "We're fugitives. Again."
"We need a lab," Yoo-jin said. "Not a studio. A chop shop."
He pulled out his phone. He dialed a number he hadn't used in years. A contact from his days at Titan, back when he dealt with the underground brokers who fixed idols' mistakes.
"Dr. Hwang," Yoo-jin said when the line connected. "I have a patient. No pulse. High voltage trauma."
"I'm a veterinarian now, Han," the voice grumbled. "I fix racehorses."
"This is a racehorse," Yoo-jin lied. "A very expensive one. I'll pay double."
"Bring him to the track in Gwacheon. Stable 9."
The van sped toward the outskirts of the city.
Yoo-jin looked at his team. They were battered, traumatized, and carrying the baggage of a sci-fi nightmare.
Min-ji was holding Eden's hand, waiting for a squeeze that wouldn't come.
Sae-ri was staring at the Clone, mourning a woman who was sitting right next to her.
"The story isn't over," Yoo-jin whispered to himself.
He looked at his phone news feed.
Mason hadn't been arrested. He had been promoted. The government had absorbed Zenith. The enemy wasn't a corporation anymore. It was the State.
Yoo-jin turned off the screen.
"Min-ji," he said. "When we get to the stable... find me a soldering iron."
Min-ji looked up. Her eyes were fierce.
"We're not just fixing him," Yoo-jin said. "We're upgrading him."