Chapter 11 — The Third OptionThe city was screaming.Ethan stood beneath the Tower while the countdown burned across the clouds.66:58:41Every second felt like a death sentence.Mia was somewhere inside.Humanity was being consumed.And the Tower wanted him to choose.Maya or Mia.The people he loved or the billions he had never met.Ethan refused.“There has to be another way.”Maya stared at him.“There wasn’t one in seven cycles.”“This isn’t the other cycles.”“That doesn’t make it better.”“It makes it different.”Another explosion ripped through the street.A building collapsed three blocks away.Black creatures poured from the smoke.Marcus raised his weapon.“We should move.”Adrian pointed toward a subway entrance.“My access route is underground.”Ethan started running.Maya followed.“You still don’t understand what happens if we reach the core.”“Then explain while we move.”They descended into darkness.The subway station was abandoned.Black growth covered the walls li

Chapter 13 — The Second Subject 72Maya backed away from the open door.“I can explain.”Ethan stared at her.Those were the four words he had learned to fear most.Behind the doorway stretched a corridor filled with pale white light.And somewhere beyond it, Mia had spoken.“Don’t believe her.”Ethan turned toward the darkness.“Mia?”No answer.He looked back at Maya.“Start explaining.”“I didn’t know I was still registered.”“Registered as what?”Maya swallowed.“Subject 72.”Adrian stepped closer to the scanner.“That shouldn't be possible. Mia is Subject 72.”“Not originally,” Maya said.Silence.Ethan's expression hardened.“What does that mean?”Maya looked at him.“Subject numbers aren't people. They're positions in the network.”Adrian suddenly understood.“Roles.”“Yes.”Maya pointed toward the symbols on the door.“Thirty-Six is the Architect. Seventy-Two is the Anchor.”Ethan stared at the number beside his.“So I'm the Architect.”“In this cycle.”Marcus frowned.“In thi

Chapter 15 — The Voice Beneath the IceThe Tower spoke with Ethan’s voice.“Welcome home.”Nobody moved.Ethan stared at the screens surrounding the chamber.His own face appeared on every one of them.Not the face of the man at the Origin Tower.His.The Ethan standing here.The copy.The supposed synthetic consciousness.Maya looked terrified.“That voice isn’t you.”Ethan kept staring at the screens.“It sounds like me.”“That doesn’t mean it is.”Adrian moved toward the terminal.“Whatever is inside the Origin Tower has been waiting for your memory to return.”Marcus raised his weapon.“Then maybe we should stop talking to it.”The screens flickered.A new message appeared.HOST SYNCHRONIZATION: 3%Ethan frowned.“What is it synchronizing?”Adrian’s face changed.“You.”“With what?”He looked toward the ceiling.“The Origin Tower.”Mia suddenly screamed.Ethan turned.The black veins covering her neck had spread across her face.“Mia!”She fell to her knees.Ethan reached for her.

Chapter 17 — The Man Who Betrayed ThemThe gunshot exploded through the chamber.Maya fell.“NO!”Ethan caught her before she hit the floor.Blood spread across her side.He looked at Adrian.“You shot her!”Adrian kept the gun raised.“I had to.”Marcus immediately aimed his weapon at him.“Drop it.”Adrian ignored him.“Check the wound.”Ethan pressed his hand against Maya’s side.Then he understood.The bullet had passed through.No major artery.“You missed.”“I never miss.”Ethan stared at him.“You wanted us to think you were killing her.”Adrian nodded toward the gateway.“More importantly, I wanted it to think that.”The Tower spoke.“ADRIAN VALE. BETRAYAL CONFIRMED.”Adrian smiled bitterly.“Good.”Every screen turned red.CREATOR PROTECTION REVOKED.TRANSIT CAPACITY UPDATED.FOUR SUBJECTS AUTHORIZED.Marcus frowned.“You knew.”“I suspected.”“Why shoot Maya?”“Because the system identifies her as protected by the Creator protocol. I needed to break that association.”Maya s

Chapter 19 — Five Minutes to ChooseThe countdown burned above them.00:04:5800:04:57Ethan looked from the unconscious original Mia in his arms to the copy lying on the ice.Two women.One identity.And the Tower had decided only one could live.“No one dies,” Ethan said.The other Ethan smiled.“You've said that in every cycle.”“And I'm still saying it.”Maya rushed to the copy and checked her pulse.“She’s alive.”The original Mia suddenly gasped.Ethan lowered her gently.Her eyes opened.“Ethan?”“You know me?”She stared at his face.Then confusion replaced recognition.“You're not him.”Ethan froze.“What?”She pushed away from him.“You look like Ethan, but…”Her eyes moved toward the other man.She stopped breathing.“That's him.”The other Ethan smiled.“Hello, Mia.”The original Mia began trembling.“No.”He stepped closer.“You've been asleep a long time.”“Stay away from me.”Ethan moved between them.“She seems terrified of you.”The man's smile disappeared.The countd