Chapter 14. Crossroads of Fire
The cold lingered even after they left the vault.
Elara sat silently in the back of the armored snow transport, watching frost form along the inner edges of the window. Damien drove without speaking, his hands firm on the wheel, but his occasional glances into the mirror betrayed his worry.
She hadn’t said a word since discovering her own face preserved in that cryo-pod. The silence wasn’t out of shock. It was calculation, like a volcano quietly gathering pressure before eruption.
"Elara," Damien finally said. "Say something."
She looked at him through the rearview mirror. "I need to speak to Naomi. Now."
He tapped his earpiece. "Naomi, patching you in."
Her voice came through the static. "I’m here."
"Tell me everything you found in the Reyes files," Elara said. "Everything about Variant A-0."
There was a pause. Then Naomi’s voice returned, slower. Measured.
"It’s not just that you have a genetic twin. The prototype is a failsafe. Your father believed that if anything happened to you or if you went too far off course, he needed a version of you he could awaken and control."
Elara’s laugh was dry and humorless. "Control? That worked out so well with me."