The private wing of the Lancaster estate hadn't seen this much chaos in years. Security drones patrolled the perimeter, motion sensors blinked like furious eyes, and Xavier Lancaster stood by the fireplace, his face shadowed in flickering light. The fire burned, but his palms were cold.
He'd received word from his Geneva informant: Sierra had taken the girl.
VX-087-A0—Annabel.
The girl wasn't just a clone. She was Sierra's biological daughter. Crestwell had lied to him. Used him. And now Sierra, the woman he both protected and betrayed, had reclaimed the only piece of herself she thought lost forever.
The weight of that shook Xavier more than he cared to admit.
He pulled up encrypted footage on the transparent panel before him. There, blurry but clear enough, was Sierra fleeing the Mirador facility, her daughter slung over her shoulder like a soldier carrying a wounded comrade.
Even drugged, the girl had moved like Sierra. Reacted like her. Calculated. Calm.
It was terrifying. And mesmerizing.
Behind him, the hidden door clicked open.
"I didn't use the front gate," Sierra said coolly, stepping into the room like a phantom, Annabel close behind her in a long coat and scarf, her hair dyed to a soft copper to blend in.
"You never do," Xavier replied, his voice unreadable.
Annabel eyed him warily. "So this is him?"
Sierra nodded. "The one who funded the Program. Who watched it grow."
Xavier took a breath. "That wasn't all I did."
Annabel's eyes narrowed. "You let them make me."
"I didn't know what they were making," Xavier said calmly. "I thought it was data. Training models. Sierra's blueprint—but nothing biological. Crestwell's full intentions were buried deep, even from me."
"And when you did find out?" Sierra asked.
"I shut it down. At least, I tried."
Annabel's voice was ice. "Did you try hard enough?"
Xavier walked to the console, input a series of commands, and brought up a file marked: PROJECT REQUIEM.
Sierra's eyes narrowed. She knew that name.
"What's this?" she asked.
Xavier turned. "My insurance policy. After I learned what Crestwell really built, I began planting logic bombs in his systems—fail-safe viruses. One for every level of VX-087. Each triggered by a voiceprint—your voiceprint."
Annabel's brows lifted. "You gave her the kill switch?"
"No," Xavier said. "I gave her the key."
He turned to Sierra. "You were never supposed to find the truth like this. But now that you have—use it. Take him down."
Sierra's expression hardened. "Why help now?"
"Because I don't want to be your enemy," Xavier said, meeting her gaze. "I never did."
She stared at him, cold and unreadable. "You were never my ally either."
Annabel stepped forward. "If you betray us again, I'll kill you myself."
Xavier's lips curved faintly. "You really are her daughter."
Sierra stepped closer, lowering her voice. "I'm going to finish this, Xavier. And when it's done, there won't be a single copy of me left under Crestwell's control. No more programs. No more ghosts."
He nodded slowly.
"Then there's something you need to know," he said. "Crestwell isn't just cloning operatives anymore. He's infiltrating governments. Two senators in the U.S. are VX clones. A diplomat in the U.K. A defense general in South Korea. He's replacing people in power."
Sierra's blood ran cold. "He's building a global coup."
Xavier handed her a thin case. "Inside is a location—one of Crestwell's floating servers, drifting in neutral waters. It holds every VX blueprint. Every subject. Every name. Destroy that, and the Program dies with it."
Sierra took the case. Her voice was steel.
"Then that's exactly what I'll do."
---
Hours later, on a dark airstrip just beyond the city, Sierra and Annabel boarded a black ops aircraft bound for the Atlantic. The wind howled around them, cold and wet, but their path had never been clearer.
As they climbed aboard, Annabel turned to her mother.
"You still don't trust him, do you?"
Sierra gave a dry laugh. "I don't trust anyone who plays God."
Annabel nodded. "Good. Because I don't trust anyone who calls it love while holding a dagger behind their back."
Sierra smiled faintly.
In Annabel, she saw her past—yes—but more than that, she saw the future.
Sharper. Smarter. Unbreakable.
And together, they would bring down the man who had tried to erase their humanity and replace it with obedience.
Crestwell had declared war.
But now, Sierra had something he didn't expect:
A daughter.
A legacy.
And a vengeance written in blood.