Chapter 189 I thought I had killed him.

Chapter 189 I thought I had killed him.

Anya's POV
Victor left me on the bed, taking my device and my evidence with him.
I had maybe six hours before the consciousness transfer procedure. Six hours to figure out how to stop something I didn't fully understand, with no allies I could trust, in a facility where every guard was watching for me.
I cleaned myself up and dressed in fresh clothes, trying to make it look like nothing had happened. My face was bruised, and my lip was split, but I couldn't think about that now.
I needed to move.
The soldier who'd helped me get into the research lab appeared in my corridor exactly twelve minutes after Victor left.
"He knows," I said without preamble. "He's accelerating the timeline. The procedure is tonight."
"I know," the soldier replied. "I've been monitoring the facility systems. They're powering up the consciousness transfer chamber right now. Full diagnostic run. They'll have it ready within hours."
"I need to destroy it," I said. "Before tonight."
"That's impossible," the soldier replied. "The chamber is protected with redundant security systems and Victor will be monitoring it personally. You can't get close without being caught."
"Then what do you suggest?" I demanded.
The soldier hesitated.
"There's another way," he said finally. "But it requires something you won't like."
"Tell me," I said.
"Helson has to voluntarily enter the transfer chamber," the soldier explained. "Once he's inside, the system locks. The consciousness transfer requires both bodies to be present and compliant. If Helson refuses to engage the final protocol sequence, the transfer can't be completed. Victor's consciousness can't transfer without the host accepting it."
"Victor will force him," I said.
"Maybe," the soldier replied. "But there's conditioning that only responds to specific neural triggers. Helson can override it if he knows how. I can get you the sequence, but you have to get him the information before he's taken to the chamber."
"How much time do I have?" I asked.
"They're coming to collect him in thirty minutes," the soldier said. "After that, he's in lockdown. You won't be able to reach him."
Thirty minutes.
I moved toward the detention block where Helson was being held during the conditioning sessions. It should have been impossible, I should have been stopped at least three times. But the soldier had done something to the surveillance systems, or to the guards, because every corridor I moved through was suddenly empty.
I found Helson in a medical chamber, hooked up to neural monitoring equipment. The moment he saw me, his eyes went wide.
"Anya, you have to leave," he said urgently. "If they catch you here—"
"I know what Victor's planning," I said, moving to disconnect the neural monitors. "He's not conditioning you to be obedient. He's preparing you to be his vessel. He's going to transfer his consciousness into your body tonight."
Helson went very still.
"He's dying," I continued. "The conditioning, the acceleration, all of it is because Victor is running out of time. He's going to merge his consciousness with yours. But there's a way to stop it."
"How?" Helson demanded.
I told him about the neural override sequence. About how the transfer required his compliance. About how he could refuse to engage the final protocol.
"If you refuse," I explained, "the transfer will fail. Victor's consciousness can't force its way into your body. It requires acceptance."
"Then I refuse," Helson said immediately. "Easy. I just refuse."
"It's not that simple," I replied. "The conditioning is designed to make refusal impossible. You have to override it using the neural sequence. You have to essentially reprogram your own mind in the moments before the transfer."
I handed him a piece of paper with the sequence on it.
"Memorize this," I said. "When you're in the chamber, when Victor starts the procedure, you recite this sequence. It will trigger your override protocols and will give you the ability to refuse."
Helson took the paper and began memorizing it.
"What about you?" he asked.
"I'm going to destroy the chamber," I said. "If you refuse and I destroy the equipment, Victor has nothing, which means he loses."
"You won't make it," Helson said. "Victor will have the entire facility on high alert once he realizes you're free."
"Then I'll be fast," I replied.
I turned to leave, but Helson grabbed my hand.
"If this doesn't work," he said, "if Victor somehow completes the transfer despite the override—"
"It will work," I interrupted. "It has to."
I left him there and moved toward the research level.
The soldier was waiting at the maintenance access I'd used before.
"The consciousness transfer chamber has a power core," he said, handing me a device that looked like an explosive. "This will overload it. One minute after you activate it, the chamber will be completely fried. Nothing will be able to repair it in time for the procedure."
"Why are you helping me?" I asked.
"Because I was like Helson once," the soldier replied. "Victor created me, experimented on me, controlled me. And then one day, I realized I didn't have to accept his narrative anymore. I could choose to be something else, I want Helson to have that choice too."
I took the device and moved toward the research level.
The consciousness transfer chamber was exactly as I'd seen it before, it was vast and terrifying and filled with equipment designed to do the impossible. But now I understood what it actually was, it wasn't a cure, it wasn't evolution, it was just another form of violation. Victor's final attempt to control someone by literally absorbing them.
I activated the overload device and placed it against the power core, then I ran.
Sixty seconds.
Alarms erupted everywhere. The entire facility went into lockdown, but I was already moving through the maintenance tunnels, already heading back toward the detention block where Helson was being held.
Except when I got there, I found the chamber empty, they'd already taken him to the transfer procedure, I was too late.
I ran toward the consciousness transfer chamber, my heart pounding, understanding that I'd miscalculated the timeline, that Victor had moved faster than anyone anticipated.
I burst through the doors of the chamber level just as the overload sequence reached completion.
The consciousness transfer chamber exploded in a burst of electrical discharge, but Helson was already inside it and Victor was standing beside the chamber, his hand on the control panel, and his face twisted with rage.
"No!" Victor screamed, watching his life's work destroy itself.
Helson was convulsing inside the chamber as the electrical surge ripped through it. I thought he was dead, that I'd killed him by destroying the equipment while he was inside.