Chapter 10
The return to base was quiet. No celebration. No applause. The silence was heavy with understanding—this was just the beginning. Tamar’s outpost had fallen, but it had only been one of many roots tangled in a deeper system. And the woman behind it all, Dr. Ilsa Vorn, now sat in the base’s highest-security cell, calm and silent like a spider waiting in her web.
Kaelyn stood on the other side of the glass, staring at her.
Ilsa simply tilted her head and smiled. “You always had fire in you. Even as a child.”
Kaelyn didn’t respond.
Ilsa leaned closer to the glass. “Did you know your mother worked with us?”
Kaelyn blinked.
“That’s right,” Ilsa said smoothly. “Before she died, she helped us design the very methods we used to ‘shape’ you.”
“You’re lying,” Kaelyn said, though her voice didn’t sound so certain.
Ilsa shrugged. “It’s all in the files. I’m sure Commander Zayn is combing through them now. Don’t worry. Eventually, the truth will twist you up so tight, you won’t even recognize yourself.”
Kaelyn turned and walked away.
Back in the war room, Zayn was waiting. Several reports were projected into the air above the table, each one filled with names, documents, locations. And pictures—people from Kaelyn’s past. Mentors. Doctors. Even old friends.
All connected.
All part of it.
Kaelyn stood still, taking it all in. Her entire life had been a chessboard, and she’d been a carefully trained pawn.
But no more.
“We’ll find the rest,” Zayn said firmly. “Tamar had branches across continents. But we have what we need now—evidence. Confessions. Their system is crumbling.”
She nodded. “And when it does, I want to be the one who buries it.”
Later that night, Kaelyn stood on the rooftop of the barracks, the wind brushing her hair back as she stared into the night sky. So much had changed. And yet, a strange peace settled in her chest.
Not the kind that came from revenge.
But from clarity.
Footsteps approached, light and familiar. Sebastian.
He leaned beside her on the railing, gazing up. “I don’t know how you’re still standing.”
She smiled faintly. “I’ve been knocked down enough to learn how to get back up.”
He nodded, glancing sideways at her. “There’s talk going around. They say you might be offered your own command post.”
Kaelyn didn’t answer right away.
“You’d take it, right?” he asked.
She looked at him, eyes thoughtful. “I used to think I wanted peace. A quiet life. But now… I don’t know if that’s enough. Not until I’ve made sure no one else goes through what I did.”
Sebastian smiled. “That sounds like someone who’s finally found her purpose.”
Kaelyn looked out over the camp, over the mountains that had hidden so many lies, and whispered, “Maybe I have.”
Back in her quarters, she opened a secure folder she had taken from the Tamar outpost—marked PROJECT MIRROR.
Inside were images.
One of them made her freeze.
It was her. But not exactly. Another woman. Same face. Same eyes. Slightly younger. A different name scribbled beneath: Subject M-2.
Kaelyn’s fingers trembled.
A clone?
A sister?
The page beneath read: Status—active. Location—classified.
Kaelyn’s breath caught.
There was more.
Tamar wasn’t done. And somewhere out there… was someone just like her.
No. Not just like her.
Family.
She stood abruptly, her heart pounding with fresh adrenaline.
This wasn’t over.
It had only just begun.