Chapter 16
The days that followed were restless. Kaelyn worked nonstop, barely sleeping. Every moment was spent mapping, decoding, training. The sanctuary they’d found in the tundra—once a prison—was slowly transforming into a base. Their base.
The rescued girls—Mara, the two teenagers, and the woman named Elira—had begun to open up, bit by bit. Trauma lingered in their eyes, but there was also something else now: hope.
Sebastian handled communication and supply routes. M-2 took the lead on defense drills. Kaelyn kept digging through the stolen Tamar files, hunting for the identities and locations of every clone or experimental subject still out there. Each discovery was a scar reopened, but she welcomed the pain. It kept her focused.
One morning, Mara brought her a worn-out photo she’d hidden in her coat. It showed a little girl—possibly herself—smiling beside a soldier with a Tamar insignia on his uniform.
“I think he was my handler,” she whispered. “He used to give me candy. Then one day, he didn’t come back.”
Kaelyn studied the photo. Something about the man’s face triggered a flicker of memory. “What was his name?”
“Captain Heller.”
Kaelyn stood up abruptly. That name had been flagged in the files as recently reactivated. Tamar was digging into their old resources.
She brought the photo to Sebastian, who ran it through facial recognition. “Confirmed,” he said after a moment. “Isaac Heller. Assigned to Project Obsidian. He went off-grid three years ago… resurfaced just last month. Location: Sector 8. Borderlands.”
Kaelyn’s jaw tightened. “Then that’s our next move.”
M-2 raised an eyebrow. “We’re hunting now?”
“We’re asking questions,” Kaelyn said calmly. “If he’s truly gone rogue, he might help us. If not—he knows things. Either way, we’re going.”
They prepped quickly. Mara insisted on coming, and Kaelyn didn’t argue. She could see the fire growing in the girl’s eyes. It wasn’t about revenge—it was about closure.
Their journey to Sector 8 was rough. Barren land, unstable weather, and Tamar drones patrolling overhead. But Kaelyn and her team had learned to move like shadows. By dusk, they reached a rundown bunker built into a cliffside. Heller’s last known transmission had originated from inside.
Kaelyn led the approach. She knocked once, twice, then waited.
A few tense seconds passed before a panel beside the door slid open and a voice crackled through.
“I told Tamar I wouldn’t talk. What makes you think I’ll speak to you?”
Kaelyn stepped into the camera’s view. “Because I’m not Tamar. And neither is she.”
She motioned to Mara, who stood beside her with her coat hood pulled back.
Silence.
Then the door unlocked with a hiss.
Inside, the bunker was lit with old lamps and backup power. Isaac Heller stood in the middle, older than the photo but unmistakably the same man. He looked at Mara and his face paled.
“You… you’re still alive.”
Mara nodded quietly. “I remember you.”
Heller sank into a chair. “They told me you died during cryo. I believed them. God, I wanted to believe them…”
Kaelyn stepped forward. “We need your help. Tamar’s trying to wipe the slate clean. Anyone tied to the experiments is a target—including the handlers. That’s why they came after you.”
He nodded slowly. “They’re erasing their past. And anyone who knows too much.”
Kaelyn’s voice was low. “Then help us stop them. We have survivors. We have data. But we need to know where the next targets are.”
Heller stared at her a long time, then reached into a locked drawer. He pulled out a drive.
“This is everything I saved before I left. Coordinates, names, lists. Project Obsidian wasn’t the only one. There are more. Hidden assets. Fail-safe weapons. Some… aren’t even human anymore.”
Kaelyn took the drive. “Thank you. We’ll keep you safe.”
“I’m not afraid of dying anymore,” Heller said quietly. “But if I can help fix what I helped break… that’s enough.”
As they left the bunker, Kaelyn looked down at the data drive in her hand. It felt heavy—not just in weight, but in consequence. Every step forward unearthed more horror, more injustice.
But she wasn’t alone.
Mara walked beside her, chin high.
Sebastian and M-2 took up the rear, alert and steady.
And Kaelyn? She was becoming the storm Tamar feared most—not a mistake to be corrected, but a reckoning they could no longer silence.