The Lazarus Protocol

Chapter 7— Operation: Apex

The boat rocked as it sliced through the inky waters of the Gulf. Night had draped itself over the sea like a funeral veil. Clouds smothered the stars, and only the low hum of the engine dared disturb the silence.

Ethan stood at the helm, hands clenched on the steel rail, eyes fixed on the black outline of Apex Island—a fortress of glass, stone, and nightmares rising from the ocean like the crown of a fallen god.

“Five clicks to shore,” Reese called, checking the sonar. “Minimal patrols on the west dock. Either they’re underestimating us, or they’re herding us.”

Ethan didn’t look back. “Either way, we hit hard. We get in. We find Aiden. We burn the place to the ground.”

Ayla emerged from the hold with a cold gleam in her eyes and a combat rig slung over her shoulder. “You realize this is suicide, right?”

“It’s justice,” Ethan replied.

Inside the cabin, Mara sat cross-legged on the floor, hacking into the island’s deflector signals using a transmitter she salvaged from the safehouse.

As she worked, the encrypted drive Lila had given Ethan pulsed. Something inside it had awakened—something old and coded in deep-sequence layers. Mara connected it to her system, and the screen flickered.

A new folder opened. Timestamped: Project Ascension – Final Phase.

Within it was a video feed.

Ethan’s face appeared.

But this version of him was… colder. His eyes void. His voice, monotone.

“If you’re seeing this, you’ve broken containment. The Lazarus Protocol was never about resurrection. It was about replacement. Your memories. Your son. All part of the control matrix. You are not the man you think you are.”

Mara’s breath caught. “Ethan…”

He stepped into the room just in time to see the final lines on the screen:

“Terminate subject Aiden Vale. He’s the key to the reset.”

Ethan’s heart stopped.

They hadn’t taken Aiden to break him. They had created Aiden to replace him.

The rubber craft docked silently on the west edge of the island. Armed guards in exosuits patrolled in precise, rigid routes. Floodlights swept over barbed-wire fences and motion-sensitive mines.

Ethan led the way through the surf, silenced rifle in hand, adrenaline coursing through him like wildfire. Reese disabled the outer tripwires. Ayla jammed the turrets. Mara stayed in the shadows, tracking their path through an earpiece.

Three guards fell before alarms ever had the chance to sound.

“Main entrance is a suicide run,” Reese whispered. “We need another way in.”

“There,” Ayla pointed. “Service tunnels—near the drainage outlets. Leads straight to the facility’s east wing.”

They moved fast, ghosts in the dark. Ethan’s thoughts were fixed on one thing:

If Aiden was the final phase… what did that make Ethan?

Inside the facility, the world changed.

White halls. No seams. No windows. Just a clinical maze designed to erase all sense of time. Cameras moved in rhythmic precision, and soothing voices echoed from speakers.

“Welcome back to Ascension Labs. Trust the process. You are the cure.”

“Creepy,” Ayla muttered.

Mara fed coordinates to Ethan through his earpiece. “North wing. Cell block Zeta. That’s where they’re keeping him.”

Reese covered the rear, counting bodies. “We’ve got less than five minutes before full lockdown.”

Ethan reached the containment chamber, breath shallow. The door had a hand scanner. Without hesitation, he pressed his palm to the glass.

It beeped.

Welcome, Commander Vale.

The doors hissed open.

And there he was.

Aiden. Seventeen. Pale. Strong. Identical eyes.

He looked up. Calm. Unafraid.

“I knew you’d come,” Aiden said.

Ethan stepped forward, hands trembling. “Aiden…”

“I remember you,” Aiden said. “From the dream simulations. The protocols called you a threat, but the memories—they called you Dad.”

Ethan fought to steady his breath. “They lied to both of us.”

Aiden tilted his head. “Did they? You and I… we’re not mistakes, Dad. We’re upgrades.”

Mara’s voice broke in through the comm. “Ethan, you need to get him out—now. Rayburn’s activated the Omega Sequence.”

“What’s that?” Ayla asked.

“Total purge. Anyone with Lazarus DNA is a target. They’re burning the whole archive.”

Aiden stood. “Then we destroy it first.”

The group fought their way to the inner lab—core of the Lazarus engine. Servers lined the walls. In the center: a glass tank pulsing with synthetic blood and neural fluid. The Lazarus Core—humming with every identity ever cloned, rewritten, or erased.

Aiden stared into it.

“My life’s in there,” he said quietly. “All the versions of me they tested.”

Ethan looked at him. “We shut it down. No more experiments. No more copies.”

Mara moved to the console. “I can trigger a virus. A full system collapse.”

Reese set explosives around the chamber.

Alarms howled.

A voice rang through the speakers—cold and venomous.

“Leaving so soon, Commander?”

Rayburn.

Rayburn’s hologram filled the space. A perfect suit. A perfect smile. The devil behind it all.

“You should be proud,” he sneered. “Your son is our most refined creation. Faster, smarter. He was meant to carry your legacy forward.”

“You turned him into a weapon,” Ethan growled.

“I gave him purpose. Something you failed to do.”

Aiden stepped forward. “I choose my own purpose now.”

Rayburn’s face darkened. “Then die with the rest of the trash.”

The floor trembled.

Automated sentries burst from the walls—twenty, maybe more. Clad in black armor, faceless.

Ethan raised his weapon.

“Protect Aiden!” he shouted.

Gunfire roared through the chamber. Reese took point, gunning down the first wave. Ayla ducked and rolled, firing precise headshots. Mara uploaded the virus with one hand while hurling flash grenades with the other.

Ethan moved like a machine—his old programming reawakened, instincts honed by years of war.

But it was Aiden who stunned them all.

He moved through the chaos like a storm, disarming guards, predicting their moves, using the very training they’d forced on him to dismantle the system.

Mara screamed over the comm: “Virus in! Thirty seconds!”

A bullet tore through Reese’s shoulder. He grunted, still firing.

Ayla was out of ammo. Down to her knife.

“Go!” she yelled. “Finish this!”

Ethan reached the console. His hand hovered over the detonation switch. Mara’s countdown echoed in his ear.

5… 4… 3…

He looked at Aiden. “You sure?”

Aiden nodded. “Let it end.”

2… 1…

Ethan slammed the switch.

The lights dimmed. Sparks burst from every server. The Lazarus Core bubbled, then cracked.

The explosion that followed was pure light.

They ran through collapsing halls. Fire. Sirens. Ceiling tiles crashing. Security doors failing. Every step a gamble.

Ayla carried Reese.

Mara kept Aiden upright.

And Ethan… kept his eyes forward. Toward the sea.

They burst out onto the cliffside just as the facility collapsed into itself—swallowed by the earth it had poisoned.

Apex Island burned behind them.

Aiden looked back once. “It’s gone.”

Ethan placed a hand on his shoulder. “You’re free now.”