Chapter 478: GeneCipher Society Headquarters
Sophia's hands were tied up, and her eyes were covered so she couldn't see anything.
Lachlan was relatively gentle and didn't rough her up. When getting out of the car, he took the initiative to grab Sophia's arm and led her inside.
He lowered his voice and spoke near Sophia's ear: "Right now, Benjamin and the others are probably going crazy looking for you. Do you think they can find you?"
Sophia pressed her lips together. Instead of answering his question, she asked back: "The GeneCipher Society headquarters you mentioned taking me to earlier shouldn't be abroad, right?"
Lachlan paused, then chuckled softly: "I didn't expect you to be so sharp. You must have recorded our conversation at Maple Grove Villas, right?"
He had deliberately told Sophia that address. The real location of GeneCipher Society headquarters was actually in the country.
Even in Silverlight City.
Before coming, he had already bought plane tickets to Celestria in advance. Someone would take his place on the plane.
That should be able to delay Benjamin for a while.
"I still can't figure out why you want to harm Benjamin."
Sophia remained calm, even though everything she was about to face was unknown.
According to Lachlan, Benjamin was his and Amelia's son. What possible reason could he have to hurt Benjamin?
She couldn't understand it.
"Don't worry, I'll tell you everything slowly if you want to know."
Lachlan's lips curved slightly as he signaled his subordinates to open the door and led Sophia into the underground laboratory.
Sophia gradually felt the light sources around her disappear, and everything became quiet and dark.
Her hands tensed up nervously, her nerves on edge, not daring to relax.
What exactly did Lachlan want to do?
Just then, someone stood behind her and slowly pulled down the cloth covering her eyes.
Light gradually returned to Sophia's vision. What she saw was a laboratory filled with various precision instruments.
There were also several men in white lab coats, curiously looking her over.
Sophia's gaze swept around the laboratory before finally settling back on Lachlan.
"This is where you do your experiments?"
The setup here was all too familiar to Sophia.
When she was kidnapped as a child to the laboratory in the Southwest Mountainous Area, the setup there was almost identical to this.
The only difference was probably that the people working here weren't the same ones from before.
Those people had long since perished in the fire.
Sophia could recognize a few of the people here—they were all medical experts who had disappeared from public view in recent decades.
Everyone thought something had happened to them, and some even speculated they had been hunted down by enemies and had died.
She never expected that Lachlan had brought them here.
Lachlan caught Sophia's expression, his smile deepening: "Familiar? I bet you really like it here."
Sophia looked at him coldly: "No, I don't like it at all."
Lachlan wasn't surprised by her answer and nodded slightly. "It doesn't matter if you don't like it. Since I brought you here, I never planned to let you leave."
"Lachlan, what exactly do you want to do?"
"Of course... I want you to help me with my research. Let me introduce you—what I'm working on is a very great research project. You'll definitely like it."
Sophia listened quietly, growing more and more alarmed.
The research Lachlan was describing was completely inhumane.
For over twenty years, they had been experimenting on human subjects, all for the sake of so-called genetic modification.
"I want to develop a serum that can optimize genes. I believe such a serum would have a huge market."
As Lachlan spoke, his eyes filled with a crazed look.
As if he could already envision the scene after the experiment succeeded.
Sophia slowly shook her head. "That's not a reason to experiment on living people."
Lachlan's smile froze on his face, and he sneered: "What right do you have to say that? Aren't you a beneficiary?"
If not for the experiments nineteen years ago, how could Sophia have gained photographic memory?
How could she have become so outstanding?
She might just be an ordinary person now!
All of this was thanks to him!
Sophia: "When you injected me with the serum, you never asked if I was willing. I can tell you clearly—I wasn't willing."
Not everyone wanted to have this kind of ability.
She would rather have grown up with her parents as an ordinary child.
Lachlan only knew she had gained this so-called ability, but he ignored what a huge price she had paid for it.
Whenever the poison flared up, she hurt so much she could barely breathe.
From age 3 to 20, for seventeen whole years, she had endured the torment of the poison.
She often wondered how nice it would be if she were just an ordinary person.
Life might be plain, but at least she would be normal.
Instead of living in constant fear every day, not knowing when the poison would flare up, not knowing if she might die the next second.
That kind of life... was too agonizing.
Lachlan frowned. "How could anyone not want this ability? You must be lying to me, right?"
People naturally admired strength and wanted to become stronger.
Otherwise, why would people always do whatever it takes to climb up and stand at the top?
Now, once his research succeeded, those people wouldn't need to work so hard—they'd just need to spend enough money to achieve it.
Wasn't that good?
Sophia exposed him: "If it's so good, why don't you use it on yourself?"
Lachlan replied without changing expression: "The serum isn't perfected yet. Once it succeeds, I'll naturally use it."
"So others deserve to become failed test subjects? What gives you the right to control other people's lives?"
Sophia couldn't believe someone could speak of killing so righteously!
Those were living human lives!
Over these twenty-plus years, who knows how many lives had been destroyed by Lachlan's hands?
She and Benjamin just happened to be lucky enough to survive.
"Enough! I brought you here to help me with research, not to criticize me." Lachlan scolded impatiently.
Sophia closed her mouth and stopped talking.
Lachlan had clearly become obsessed. There was no reasoning with someone like him.
Realizing his attitude was too harsh, Lachlan immediately softened his tone.
"Sophia, if you were me, you would definitely make the same choice."
He was the White family's illegitimate son, inferior to Magnus in every way, and even the woman he loved never looked at him properly.
So he hated them!
He hated Preston, and he hated Magnus even more!
Sophia looked at him in surprise. This was the second or third time she'd heard him say he was an illegitimate son.
But Preston had said that Lachlan wasn't his illegitimate son at all—he was an adopted son.
Although she wasn't present at the time and didn't hear Preston say it himself, Benjamin would never lie to her.
So... why did Lachlan think he was an illegitimate son?
Could there be some misunderstanding?