The rescue team moved silently through the maze of ancient caves beneath the Government research complex.
Johar led from the front, every step deliberate. Behind him, Sam, Jax, Lena, Jahir, and the older children followed with weapons clutched tightly. The younger children waited behind in a secure chamber, praying for the people they considered family.
None of them realized another figure was already ahead.
Marco.
Years of serving the Government had taught him every hidden passage beneath the mountain. While Johar's team carefully navigated the main tunnels, Marco slipped through forgotten maintenance shafts and collapsed mining corridors known only to senior operatives.
He wasn't trying to beat them to Hibis.
He was trying to save them from what waited ahead.
As he rounded the final bend, the reinforced laboratory doors came into view.
Inside...
Hibis lay motionless.
Her small body was covered in tubes carrying shimmering crimson cells into rows of sealed containers.
The extraction had already begun.
Marco's heart sank.
"I'm too late..."
He stepped through the doorway.
Alarms immediately sounded.
"Agent Marco has entered the laboratory."
Weapons were raised instantly.
But the guards didn't fire.
Instead...
The room became silent.
A single pair of footsteps echoed from the darkness.
An elderly man in a pristine white lab coat emerged beneath the overhead lights.
His silver hair was neatly combed.
His face carried the calm confidence of someone who believed he had already won.
Marco froze.
"No..."
The man smiled.
"It's been a long time... son."
Marco's entire body went numb.
"Dad?"
Dr. Elias Voss...
The brilliant scientist who had vanished years ago.
The man Marco had mourned.
The man he believed was dead.
Instead...
He had built the Government's Human Evolution Program.
Every experiment.
Every child.
Every mutation.
Every death.
It had begun with him.
"I did all of this," his father said proudly, spreading his arms across the laboratory.
"For humanity."
Marco stared in disbelief.
"You murdered children."
"I saved the future."
"They're innocent!"
"They're resources."
The words hit Marco harder than any punch ever could.
His father walked toward Hibis.
"Do you understand what she is?"
"She's my friend."
"No..."
The doctor smiled.
"She is immortality."
He rested a hand on Hibis's shoulder.
"One child to save billions."
Marco raised his weapon.
"Step away from her."
The guards immediately aimed their rifles.
Dr. Voss never flinched.
"Would you kill your own father?"
Marco's hands trembled.
Every memory of childhood...
Every lesson...
Every birthday...
Every moment spent believing his father had loved him...
Collided with the image of Hibis lying helpless on the table.
A tear rolled down his cheek.
"I already lost my father."
"The man standing in front of me..."
"...is just a monster."
He fired.
The bullet shattered the laboratory controls beside the extraction chamber.
Sparks exploded.
The machines failed.
Warning sirens screamed.
CELL EXTRACTION TERMINATED.
Power surged through the room.
Marco lunged toward Hibis.
The guards opened fire.
Bullets ripped through the laboratory.
Glass exploded.
Marco threw himself over Hibis, shielding her as alarms echoed throughout the facility.
He ripped away the restraints.
"Come on..."
She barely opened her eyes.
"M...Marco?"
"I've got you."
He lifted her into his arms.
Blood poured from a wound in his shoulder.
Another bullet tore into his leg.
Still...
He kept moving.
Hidden behind a collapsed wall outside the laboratory...
Johar and the others watched everything.
No one spoke.
They had expected to find a traitor.
Instead...
They had found a man willing to die for a little girl.
Lena lowered her rifle.
"I was wrong about him."
Sam whispered,
"He knew."
Jahir nodded.
"He wasn't stopping us..."
"He was trying to save us."
Johar couldn't take his eyes off Marco.
The man he had punched.
The man he had accused.
The man he had nearly abandoned.
Now stood alone against an army.
Marco staggered through the doorway carrying Hibis.
More guards surrounded him.
There were too many.
His ammunition was gone.
He placed Hibis gently behind a fallen support beam before turning back toward the soldiers.
"If you're going to kill someone..."
"...kill me."
The guards advanced.
One struck Marco with the butt of a rifle.
Another drove him to his knees.
Blood covered the stone floor.
Dr. Voss stepped forward.
"You always were ruled by your heart."
Marco looked back toward Hibis.
She was alive.
That was enough.
He smiled despite the pain.
Then the guards chained his hands behind his back.
Johar stepped from the shadows.
For the first time...
His pride disappeared.
His anger vanished.
All he saw...
Was a friend who had sacrificed everything.
Johar looked at the others.
"We're changing the mission."
Sam nodded.
"No one gets left behind."
Lena chambered a fresh magazine.
"We rescue them both."
Jahir smiled.
"Now that's a plan."
Johar looked toward the laboratory where dozens of armed soldiers surrounded Marco.
He tightened his grip on his rifle.
"They came for one child."
"They're leaving with two."
As the team melted into the darkness, ready to launch the most dangerous rescue of their lives, Marco looked up through swollen, bloodied eyes.
He thought he was alone.
He couldn't see the shadows.
He couldn't hear the quiet footsteps.
He didn't know that his family had made their choice.
This time...
They were coming back for him.
Chapter 13