Chapter 18
The five survivors rescued from the Braxis facility were still groggy, their minds foggy from years in cryostasis. Each one of them, though genetically enhanced, showed different physical or cognitive anomalies—proof that Tamar had been experimenting with more than just cloning. They were prototypes of different phases. Test subjects. Versions of Kaelyn, in a way, but warped by the hands that created them.
Kaelyn stood at the edge of the infirmary, arms crossed, watching as Elira and Sebastian coordinated the awakening process. One girl—dark-haired, pale-skinned, barely more than sixteen—woke in a panic. Her eyes darted wildly, and she tried to rip out the IVs connected to her arm.
Kaelyn stepped in quickly and took the girl’s hand. “It’s okay. You’re safe now.”
The girl blinked, her lips trembling. “Who… who am I?”
Kaelyn hesitated, then gently said, “You don’t have to answer that yet. You get to decide now.”
The girl burst into tears, and Kaelyn held her close, fury swelling quietly inside her. Tamar had taken everything from these people—even their sense of identity. But Kaelyn wouldn’t let them take their futures.
Later that night, Kaelyn sat with Sebastian in the strategy room, poring over Heller’s drive. The files were fragmented, but one kept surfacing—a classified document labeled “ANCHR-P1.”
Sebastian squinted at it. “I cross-referenced this code name with Tamar’s database. Anchor was kept off-world, in a black site orbiting just outside the Dead Expanse. It was never meant to come online unless their entire clone program collapsed.”
“And now that it has?” Kaelyn asked.
“They’ll deploy it,” Sebastian answered grimly. “Anchor wasn’t made to blend in. It was made to clean house.”
Kaelyn felt a cold dread settle in her bones. Anchor, the so-called failsafe, was a sleeper enforcer, not a person. Designed with one goal: neutralize every single surviving asset—Kaelyn included.
“We need to find it before they do,” she said.
“But how? The black site’s off-grid, guarded, and sealed behind a fleet of drones. We’d need a miracle to get close.”
Kaelyn sat back, deep in thought. Then she looked up. “We don’t need to fight our way in. We just need to send someone who already has access.”
Sebastian frowned. “Who?”
She turned to him with a spark in her eye. “Me.”
“You’re going to walk right into Tamar’s stronghold?”
“No. I’m going to surrender.”
He stared at her like she’d lost her mind. “Kaelyn—”
“I’m the only one they still consider a primary. They won’t kill me immediately. They’ll want to study me. Interrogate me. Maybe even recondition me. That buys us time.”
Sebastian shook his head. “This is suicide.”
“It’s a calculated risk,” she replied. “While I’m inside, I’ll locate Anchor. I’ll send you the coordinates. Then you and M-2 strike with everything we’ve got.”
He stood, tense and angry. “You said you wouldn’t sacrifice yourself again.”
“I’m not,” Kaelyn said. “I’m trusting the team to finish what we started. I just need to open the door.”
She turned and walked out, leaving Sebastian speechless.
The next morning, Kaelyn packed light and changed into the uniform Tamar had once assigned her. Cold, efficient, and clean—just like they wanted their operatives to be.
She approached the old comm relay tower at the edge of the tundra and activated an emergency beacon with a Tamar encryption signature.
“Asset K-07 reporting. Requesting extraction for containment. Condition: unstable.”
She stepped back and waited.
Three hours later, a sleek black aircraft pierced through the clouds, descending silently onto the snow-covered ridge. The hatch opened with a hiss.
Kaelyn took one last look at the mountains behind her, at the hidden sanctuary that had become a home.
Then she stepped aboard.
As the door closed behind her, the Tamar soldiers didn’t speak. They simply scanned her, restrained her wrists in biometric cuffs, and injected a mild sedative.
Her last clear thought before darkness pulled her under was simple:
Find Anchor. Destroy it. End this once and for all.
Back at the base, Sebastian stared at the blinking tracker Kaelyn had embedded under her skin. It had started moving—faster and farther away.
He exhaled shakily.
“Godspeed, Kaelyn,” he murmured. “We’ll be right behind you.”