The Billionaire Heir's Revenge

Chapter 18: The Trap Springs Shut

SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED

TEN MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION

The robotic voice echoed throughout the laboratory.

Red emergency lights flashed violently.

The floor trembled.

Dust rained from the ceiling.

For a brief moment, nobody moved.

Then Ethan reacted instantly.

"Find the control room!"

Everyone sprang into action.

Victor grabbed a facility map from a nearby terminal.

Sebastian began issuing orders through his communicator.

Isabella secured the key from Ava.

The entire team split up.

Time was running out.

Far away, inside a hidden command center, Richard Kane watched everything unfold through dozens of security cameras.

His smile never faded.

"Run, Ethan."

The giant monitor displayed the countdown.

09:23

09:22

09:21

Beside him stood Lady Raven.

Unlike Richard, she appeared completely calm.

"The heir is resourceful."

Richard nodded.

"He'll survive."

Lady Raven smiled.

"Of course."

Her eyes narrowed.

"The trap was never meant to kill him."

Richard looked surprised.

"Then what was the point?"

The woman slowly turned toward another screen.

One displaying the silver key.

"To make him reveal the second key."

Back inside the laboratory.

The group raced through endless corridors.

Emergency doors slammed shut around them.

Ancient systems awakened one by one.

The facility seemed alive.

Watching them.

Guiding them.

Or perhaps trapping them.

Victor suddenly stopped.

"I remember this hallway."

Everyone turned.

"The control center is nearby."

Hope appeared.

Finally.

A way to stop the explosion.

Then—

Bang!

A gunshot echoed.

Everyone froze.

Victor staggered.

Blood appeared on his shoulder.

"Victor!"

Ethan caught him before he fell.

Another shot rang out.

This time everyone saw the source.

A sniper.

Hidden on an upper catwalk.

One of the Black Phoenix operatives.

The assassin smiled coldly.

Then fired again.

Chaos erupted.

Sebastian returned fire.

Isabella pushed Ava behind cover.

Bullets ricocheted everywhere.

The sniper moved with frightening speed.

Like a ghost.

Every shot targeted Ethan.

Every shot came within inches.

Boom!

A pipe exploded.

Boom!

A terminal shattered.

Boom!

A wall erupted beside Ethan.

The assassin wasn't trying to kill everyone.

Only one person.

Subject Zero.

The countdown continued.

07:11

07:10

07:09

Time was disappearing.

Fast.

Then something unexpected happened.

The strange feeling Ethan had experienced since arriving suddenly intensified.

His heartbeat accelerated.

His senses sharpened.

The world around him seemed slower.

Clearer.

Every movement became easier to track.

Every sound became sharper.

The sniper fired again.

But this time—

Ethan saw it.

Not the bullet.

The intention.

The movement.

The angle.

Instinctively, he moved.

The bullet missed.

The assassin froze.

So did everyone else.

That dodge shouldn't have been possible.

Ethan himself looked surprised.

"What was that?"

Victor's eyes widened.

"No way..."

Sebastian stared.

Even Isabella looked shocked.

Victor slowly smiled.

"The Phoenix Gene."

Silence.

The sniper fired again.

Ethan moved.

Again.

Perfectly.

Effortlessly.

As though his body knew what to do before his mind did.

The assassin's confidence vanished.

For the first time—

He looked afraid.

Ethan grabbed a metal rod from the floor.

Without thinking, he threw it.

The rod shot through the air.

Crash!

The sniper was struck directly in the chest.

The impact threw him off the catwalk.

He crashed onto the floor below.

Unconscious.

The corridor fell silent.

Nobody could believe what they had just witnessed.

Not even Ethan.

The countdown continued.

05:42

05:41

05:40

Victor snapped back to reality.

"We need to move."

Everyone resumed running.

Seconds later, they reached the central control room.

Massive computers lined the walls.

Ancient servers hummed loudly.

The self-destruct sequence was being controlled from here.

Ethan rushed to the main terminal.

A security lock appeared.

AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY

Victor cursed.

"We don't have enough time."

Then something strange happened.

The scanner activated by itself.

A beam passed over Ethan's face.

The computer paused.

Then displayed:

SUBJECT ZERO VERIFIED

ACCESS GRANTED

Everyone froze.

The massive security system had recognized him.

Not as a visitor.

Not as a guest.

As the owner.

The main screen flickered.

A hidden file appeared automatically.

One that had remained sealed for over twenty years.

The title shocked everyone.

PROJECT PHOENIX: FINAL REPORT

Ethan opened it.

The first line made the room fall silent.

Subject Zero was never an experiment.

Victor frowned.

"What?"

Ethan continued reading.

The next line hit even harder.

The Phoenix Gene existed naturally within the Blackwell bloodline.

The room exploded with shock.

Everything they believed was wrong.

The scientists hadn't created Ethan.

They had discovered him.

Discovered what already existed.

Then came the final revelation.

A revelation so shocking that even Victor looked stunned.

Ethan slowly read the words aloud.

"Subject Zero's biological father..."

His voice stopped.

Everyone stared.

Waiting.

Ethan looked at the screen again.

To make sure he wasn't imagining it.

Then his face turned pale.

Because according to the report—

Victor Ashford wasn't his father.

Alexander Blackwell wasn't his father.

Neither was the mysterious Black Phoenix Leader.

The report named someone else entirely.

Someone none of them expected.

Someone presumed dead twenty years ago.

And before Ethan could finish reading—

The entire laboratory suddenly shook violently.

The countdown vanished.

Every screen turned black.

Then a new message appeared.

Across every monitor in the facility.

WELCOME HOME, SON.

The message was accompanied by a live video feed.

A man sat in a dark room.

His face hidden by shadows.

But his voice...

His voice was identical to Ethan's.

The room fell silent.

Absolute silence.

Then the mysterious man smiled.

And said:

"After twenty-one years..."

"It's finally time for us to meet."

TO BE CONTINUED...