CHAPTER 12 THE PHOENIX DIRECTIVE
The emergency lights changed from red to white.
For one impossible second, Level F became silent.
Then every sealed door opened at once.
General Nathan Vale stood behind the glass wall with one hand resting on the control panel.
He did not look surprised to see Ethan.
He looked disappointed.
“You were supposed to arrive twenty years ago.”
Ethan raised his gun.
“Step away from the controls.”
Nathan’s eyes moved toward the weapon.
Then he smiled.
“You still hold it like Stephen.”
Ethan’s finger tightened against the trigger.
“Do not say his name.”
Behind Ethan, Marcus dragged Charles away from the medical platform.
Charles could barely stand.
Blood soaked through the side of his hospital gown, but his eyes remained fixed on Nathan.
“You should have stayed buried,” Charles whispered.
Nathan looked at him through the glass.
“So should you.”
A metallic sound echoed through the chamber.
The woman identical to Ava stepped out of the shadows.
Subject A-01.
She wore a gray medical uniform.
Her bare feet were stained with blood.
Her expression remained empty, but her eyes were fixed on Ava.
Ava lay strapped to the transfer chair.
The black compound moved through the transparent tubes attached to her arm.
Her breathing had become shallow.
Ethan rushed toward her.
“Harris, disconnect her.”
Dr. Harris stood beside the machine, frozen between Ethan and Nathan.
Nathan tapped the control panel.
A symbol appeared on every monitor.
A white bird rising from fire.
PROJECT PHOENIX.
Harris stared at it.
“No.”
His face lost all color.
“You told me Phoenix was terminated.”
Nathan’s voice came through the speakers.
“Phoenix was never terminated.”
“It was waiting.”
Harris backed away from the console.
“You cannot run the transfer while Charles’s memory pattern is active inside her.”
Nathan tilted his head.
“That is precisely why Ava is valuable.”
Ethan grabbed Harris by the coat.
“What does that mean?”
Harris looked at Ava.
His mouth trembled.
“She is carrying two complete neural maps.”
“Her own memory structure…”
“And Charles Caldwell’s.”
Ethan slammed him against the machine.
“Remove his memories.”
“I cannot.”
“Then stop the transfer.”
Harris looked toward Subject A-01.
“You still do not understand.”
A-01 moved closer.
Ava’s eyelids fluttered.
The two women stared at each other.
Ava’s lips slowly parted.
“You know me.”
A-01 did not answer.
Ava struggled against the restraints.
“I saw you.”
Ethan turned toward her.
“Ava?”
Her eyes remained fixed on the other woman.
“In the white room.”
Harris took a slow step backward.
“That is impossible.”
Ava’s voice weakened.
“She was beside me after the accident.”
Ethan looked at Harris.
“What accident?”
“The car accident,” Harris said quickly.
Ava shook her head.
“No.”
Her fingers curled around the armrests.
“The first accident.”
Nathan’s smile disappeared.
Charles lifted his head.
“What did she remember?”
Ava gasped.
A flash of pain crossed her face.
A white room appeared on the central monitor.
A child’s hand pressed against a glass wall.
A woman screamed somewhere beyond the camera.
Then a younger Margaret entered the room carrying a newborn baby.
Marcus stared at the screen.
The infant had a hospital band around its wrist.
A-01.
Charles stepped closer.
“No.”
Nathan’s voice sharpened.
“Turn it off.”
The footage continued.
Margaret placed the infant inside a transparent medical chamber.
A second newborn already lay inside it.
The two babies looked identical.
Ethan felt his stomach turn.
“What are we seeing?”
Charles’s face collapsed.
“The original Ava trial.”
Ethan looked at Ava.
“She was experimented on as a baby?”
Charles shook his head.
“Not her.”
He pointed toward Subject A-01.
“Her.”
A-01 suddenly spoke.
Her voice sounded exactly like Ava’s.
“I was born first.”
Ava stopped breathing.
The laboratory shook as steel barriers dropped over every exit.
Nathan entered a command.
PHOENIX SEQUENCE INITIATED.
Harris ran toward the control station.
“You will kill them both.”
Nathan looked directly at Ethan.
“One of them was never supposed to survive.”
The transfer machine activated.
Ava screamed.
May you like
A-01 screamed with her.
And Ethan watched both women’s eyes turn completely black.
