Kenji woke up strapped to a chair.There were cold metals, bright lights and his head throbbed. His arms wouldn't move so did his legs.He tried to remember the bridge, the truck, Leo's face and Jax pulling him away.Then nothing.A voice came from somewhere. Calm and female."Subject Zero-Alpha is awake."He turned his head. Slowly but it was still painful.A woman stood nearby wearing a white coat. A Tablet was in her hand. She looked at him like he was a specimen."Where am I?" His voice was rough and dry."Icarus Station. Prometheus medical wing. You've been unconscious for three days."He tried to move again but the straps held him tight."Don't bother. You're secured.""Where are the others? The kids?"The woman smiled. Small but polite."Safe. For now. We're more interested in you."She walked closer and studied his face."Kenji Sato. Subject Zero-Alpha. Tokyo facility. Forty-three documented deaths before breakthrough. Impressive resilience."He spat at her. She missed it.She

The shuttle floated through the dark for hours. Nobody talked much. Kenji sat in the corner with Leo against his side. His eyes kept closing. Then snapping open like he was fighting something inside.I watched him. We all did.Elena came and sat next to me. She spoke quietly so Kenji couldn't hear."He's not okay," she said."I know.""The conditioning. It's still there. Could come back anytime.""I know."She looked at him. At the way his hands shook. the way he flinched at every sound."We need to do something. Help him.""How?"She didn't have an answer.Borealis was at the console checking systems. He looked up."We're about an hour from Earth. There's a safe house in South America. Resistance people. They can help.""With what? Fixing his head?""Maybe. They have doctors. Psych-tech specialists. People who understand conditioning."Kenji's head snapped up. "I heard that."We all looked at him."I don't need doctors," he said. "I need to get through the next hour without hurting s

We found a place to stop. An abandoned warehouse on the edge of some city in South America. The kids needed rest. We all did.The building was old and falling apart with holes in the roof and rusted beams, and the kind of cold that seeps into your bones no matter how many fires you build. But it had walls and it had shelter and for now that was enough.The kids slept almost immediately. Leo curled up next to Kenji with his head on Kenji's shoulder like he was afraid Kenji might disappear if he let go. Maja and Lars found a pile of old blankets in the corner and passed out together, their small bodies tangled up in each other the way kids do when they've been through something terrible and need to feel something warm nearby.The rest of us sat around a small fire we built in an old oil drum. Borealis had the drive. Elise Thorne's drive. The one with all the answers she'd given us before floating back to her ship like some kind of ancient goddess bored with the whole thing.Borealis pl

The command center hummed with lights and screens and the weight of everything we'd been fighting for.Borealis stood at the main console, his fingers hovering over the keys. The antidote broadcast was done. Every clone in every tank had gotten it. But he wasn't done yet."There's more," he said quietly. "The data. All of it."Elena moved closer. "What kind of data?""Everything. The investor list, the project chimera, the world leader's replacements, every lab location, every name and every crime."Kenji was sitting on the floor with Leo in his lap. The kid had woken up and wouldn't let go of him. "So upload it. Let the world see.""It's not that simple." Borealis pointed at the screen. "The station's network is isolated now. They cut external connections after the broadcast. If I try to upload from here, I have to route through their internal servers first. They'll see it coming. They'll stop it."Caiman spoke from the door. "How long to do it anyway?""Ten minutes. Maybe fifteen. B

The salvage ship dropped us at a small port in eastern Indonesia. Nothing fancy. Just a concrete dock, some fishing boats, and a lot of humidity.We stood there on the dock, all of us, watching the ship pull away. The kids were exhausted. Maja was leaning against Elena. Lars was holding my hand. Leo was pressed against Kenji's side like he was afraid Kenji might disappear if he let go.Kenji's arm was wrapped in bandages Elena had found on the ship. He looked pale but he was standing.Borealis was already on his tablet, scrolling through something. His face changed as he read."We need to find somewhere to lay low," he said. "Fast."Caiman looked at him. "What's wrong?""It's not wrong exactly. It's... complicated." He held up the tablet. "The data. It's everywhere now. Every news channel. Every social media platform. Every government server. They can't contain it."Elena moved closer. "What are people saying?""All kinds of things. Some are calling it the biggest conspiracy in human