Dante stared at the screen. Isabella's face filled it. Bruised. Bloodied. But proud even in captivity. Her chin was raised. Her one good eye defiant."Don't come for me! She's using me as—"Victoria's pistol cracked across Isabella's face. The sound echoed through the PA system. Isabella's head snapped to the side. Blood sprayed."Shut up. Adults are talking."Adrian was struggling against his restraints. Zip ties cutting into his wrists. "You bitch! Leave my mother alone!"Victoria turned the gun on him. Casual. Like pointing at an insect. "Want to watch your son die first, Isabella? I can arrange that."Dante's fists clenched so hard his knuckles went white. "Where are you, Victoria?""Central command. Where the Archive really is." Victoria's voice was almost cheerful. "That fake signature? Cute trick. But I have the real thing. And once I access it..."She stroked Isabella's hair with mock tenderness. Cruel. Possessive."The world is mine."Sophia spoke up from beside Dante. "She c

The facility was dying. Ceiling chunks rained down like hail. Massive slabs of concrete. Twisted rebar. Decades-old infrastructure that had survived the Cold War but couldn't survive this. Walls cracked with sounds like gunfire. Support beams bent with metallic screams. The entire structure was coming down.Dante activated his night vision goggles. The world turned green. Enough light to navigate the pitch-black corridors. He was running, following Marie's last known coordinates for Isabella. The numbers were burned into his memory. Sublevel three. Detention block. Cell seven."Boss, building's coming down!" Reaper's voice crackled through the comm. Battery-powered. One of the few systems that survived the EMP. "We need to evacuate!""Not without Isabella!" Dante's response was immediate. Final.Behind him, footsteps. Multiple people. He glanced back. Sophia and Emma were following. Sophia's ankle was wrapped but she was keeping pace. Emma was right beside her. Both refusing to stay b

Dante's impossible choice stared him in the face. Isabella dying in his arms. Her pulse growing weaker with each passing second. Scarlett being tortured by Carver. Somewhere at the docks. Maybe already dead. Maybe wishing she was.The mathematics were brutal. Save one. Lose the other. No third option."My mom is dying!" Adrian's voice cracked. Desperation and grief mixing. "Hospital! Now!"Sophia was torn. Her face showed the internal war. "But Scarlett... despite everything she did... she helped us at the end. She tried to be good..."Dante made his decision. "Reaper, take Isabella and Adrian to the hospital. Closest one. Go now."Reaper was struggling to his feet. His back was destroyed from the concrete slab. But he could still move. Still function. "Boss, you're going after Carver? Alone?""Not alone." Dante looked at Elena and Marie. "You two with me. Sophia, Emma—go with Reaper. Stay safe."Sophia stepped forward. Her jaw set. "I'm not leaving you again!""Your brother needs you

The older man stepped forward with the confidence of someone who'd never been told no. Distinguished. Early sixties. Silver hair perfectly styled. Expensive suit that cost more than most cars. The kind of authority that came from generations of wealth and power."I am Richard Crane. The Architect-Prime. Pleasure to finally meet the legendary Phantom."Dante was exhausted. His heart still recovering from the electromagnetic pulse. His muscles screaming from the underwater rescue. His mind calculating odds that kept coming up zero. "If you wanted me dead, I'd be dead. What do you want?""The same thing everyone wants from you: service. You destroyed the Archive. You'll help us build its replacement.""No."Crane's smile didn't waver. "I wasn't asking. We have Isabella Hayes in our medical facility. Our doctors are the only ones keeping her alive right now. Stop her treatment, she dies in minutes."Elena struggled to her feet. Still weak from cardiac arrest. "You're using her as leverage

Dante's mind struggled to process the words echoing through the opulent dining hall. Clone. Experiment. Property. Each term hammered against his consciousness like a physical blow."I'm a clone?" His voice came out flat, emotionless. "That's impossible."Crane gestured to one of his assistants, who immediately wheeled forward a large monitor. The screen flickered to life, displaying what appeared to be medical records, genetic sequencing data, and grainy laboratory footage that made Dante's stomach turn."Birth documents," Crane narrated as images scrolled past. "Or rather, creation documents. Laboratory records from our Geneva facility, dated twenty-three years ago. Genetic samples extracted from Leonard Hayes at age forty-two. Accelerated growth protocols. Neural imprinting procedures."The footage showed a figure in a medical pod, suspended in greenish fluid, cables attached to a hairless scalp. The face was unmistakably Dante's, but younger, smoother, eyes closed in artificial sle