Chapter 50 - Bloodlines in the Rust
"You always were remarkably stubborn, Valentina," Celeste purred, her voice dripping with venomous refinement despite the filth clinging to her diamond-encrusted watch.
Behind her, two heavily armed contractors in sterile tactical gear stepped into the room, their weapons trained on Matteo. Matteo attempted to raise his sidearm, but before he could clear the holster, the contractor on the left fired.
A suppressed round tore through Matteo's thigh. He collapsed with a muffled grunt, slamming his head against the concrete.
"Matteo!" Valentina cried, moving to shield Owen with her own body once more.
"Quiet," Celeste commanded, taking a measured step forward. Her eyes flicked down to the three-year-old bundled on the wooden pallet. There was no pity in those eyes—only the vacant, terrifying emptiness of an aristocrat who viewed human life as nothing more than ink on a ledger. "Do you have any idea how much effort it took to track your little splash in the river? Fortunately, Victoria's incompetence made the Board lose patience. They terminated her contract ten minutes ago."
"Victoria?" Valentina whispered, her mind racing. "Your own mother?"
"Mother was sentimental. She thought she could control the Aegis protocol and negotiate with the Board as an equal," Celeste said with a delicate, mocking laugh. "One doesn't negotiate with the architects of civilization, darling. One obeys. When they offered me her seat at the High Table in exchange for the boy’s extraction... well, family loyalty has never been a profitable enterprise."
Owen stirred at the sound of the harsh voices, his little eyelids fluttering open. He looked up, seeing Celeste’s sharp, pointed face hovering above him in the gloom.
A sudden, violent tremor shook the child's small body. "Bad lady," Owen whimpered, burying his face into Valentina’s chest, his tiny fingers clawing into her shirt. "Mama, bad lady push Owen in the water! Don't let her push Owen!"
The memory had never faded. It had been carved into the toddler’s psyche like a scar.
"He still remembers," Celeste mused, tilting her head with cold curiosity. "Remarkable. The cold water was supposed to cause cardiac arrest before the neural pathway set the memory. But your little miracle just wouldn't stop kicking, would he?"
"You're a monster," Valentina spat, her voice shaking with a rage so profound it burned away every trace of fear. "He was a baby. He had never harmed a living soul."
"He was an obstacle," Celeste corrected, gesturing with the barrel of her weapon. "He is an obstacle now. The Board doesn't even need his brain intact anymore, Valentina. The latest diagnostic transmission confirmed the mRNA sequence has stabilized in his bone marrow. We only need two liters of his blood and his spinal fluid."
The contractor on the right unslung a heavy, titanium cryogenic containment unit from his shoulder, setting it on the rusty console with a hollow metallic clang.
"Step away from the child," Celeste ordered, her finger tightening on the trigger. "Or I will shoot him in the knee, and you can listen to him scream while we draw the fluid."
Valentina looked down at Owen. The child looked back up at her with huge, tear-filled hazel eyes, innocent and trusting, believing completely that his mother had the power to protect him from the world's horrors.
"I won't let her touch you," Valentina whispered into his ear.
Then, she looked across the concrete floor at Matteo.
Matteo, bleeding heavily from his thigh, had managed to drag his arm backward along the rusted base of the main electrical junction. His fingers brushed against a heavy, exposed emergency cut-off lever that powered the facility’s dormant floodgates.
His eyes met Valentina’s. A silent message passed between them—the unspoken understanding forged through months of surviving the impossible.
*Three,* his lips silently mouthed.
Valentina took a slow, deliberate breath. She tightened her arms around Owen, curling her legs beneath her hips.
"Celeste," Valentina said aloud, her voice eerily calm. "Do you know why Arthur chose me to raise him, instead of you?"
Celeste's eyes narrowed, a flash of genuine insecurity cracking her icy facade. "Arthur was a senile old fool."
"Because he knew that when the time came," Valentina whispered, "a real mother will tear down the world to save her child."
"Kill her," Celeste snapped to the contractors.
May you like
Matteo threw the lever.
***
