Chapter 78 L—001
Flora
Dr. Yuki was alive. Standing right in front of me, smiling.
My legs felt weak. My mind couldn't process what I was seeing.
"How?" I managed to say. "You died."
"Not my blood," Dr. Yuki said calmly. "A dying patient who agreed to help me fake my death. You saw what you expected to see."
"Why fake your death?" I asked.
"Because I needed you focused elsewhere," Dr. Yuki said. "I needed you destroying all my competition while I worked in peace."
"Competition?" I said. "You created Project Genesis. They were working for you."
"They were students who got too ambitious," Dr. Yuki corrected. "They lost sight of the goal."
"What goal?" I demanded.
Dr. Yuki gestured around the laboratory. "Evolution. Creating the next step in human development."
She pressed a button and the wall slid open revealing rows of incubators.
"One hundred and forty seven embryos," Dr. Yuki said proudly. "All with your genetic profile. Waiting to be born. And fifty children already living normal lives around the world."
"You're insane," I said.
"I'm practical," Dr. Yuki said. "Humanity is destroying itself. Wars. Climate change. Disease. Enhanced humans could fix everything."
"By replacing humanity," I said.
"By improving it," Dr. Yuki corrected. "Those fifty children don't know what they are but they're stronger and smarter. In twenty years they'll be leaders and innovators. Within three generations, enhanced humans will outnumber natural ones."
"That's genocide," I said.
"That's natural selection," Dr. Yuki said.
"Why tell me all this?" I asked. "Why bring me here?"
"Because I need your living tissue and your bone marrow and your eggs," Dr. Yuki said. "The embryos I have are degrading. I need fresh genetic material."
"I'll never help you," I said.
"You won't have a choice," Dr. Yuki said. She pressed another button and a medical chair rose from the floor with restraints attached.
"Sit down Flora," Dr. Yuki said.
"No."
Dr. Yuki pulled out a remote. "See that incubator marked L-147? That's the newest embryo. Very If I press this button, the temperature drops and the embryo dies in minutes."
"You wouldn't," I said.
"Try me," Dr. Yuki said with her finger hovering over the button.
I looked at the tiny form inside.
"Fine," I said. "I'll sit."
I walked to the chair and sat down. The restraints automatically locked around my wrists and ankles.
"Good girl," Dr. Yuki said. She set down the remote and approached me with a syringe.
"This is just a sedative," she explained. "You'll sleep through the procedures and when you wake up it'll all be over."
"And then what?" I asked. "You keep me here forever and harvest from me like livestock?"
"Not forever," Dr. Yuki said. "Just until I have what I need. Maybe a year or two."
She pressed the syringe against my arm.
That's when the glass viewing window exploded.
Rafael came crashing through and landed hard and rolled with his gun drawn.
"Get away from her," Rafael said aiming at Dr. Yuki.
Dr. Yuki didn't move. "Rafael. How predictable. You'll shoot me in a room full of embryos? One stray bullet could kill dozens."
Rafael's hand wavered.
"That's what I thought," Dr. Yuki said. She grabbed the remote. "Now put down the gun or I start terminating embryos."
"Please don't let her kill them." I said to Rafael.
Rafael looked at me and at the rows of incubators. He lowered his gun.
That's when Lucia came through the broken window holding a detonator.
"Step away from Flora," Lucia said. "Or I blow this entire facility."
Dr. Yuki's eyes widened. "You're bluffing. You wouldn't kill all these embryos."
"Try me," Lucia said. "I've already lost everything."
Dr. Yuki studied her. "You planted explosives."
"Twenty of them throughout the facility," Lucia confirmed. "This whole place goes up including you and the embryos and all your research."
"You're insane," Dr. Yuki said.
"I learned from the best," Lucia said. "Now release Flora or we all die together."
Dr. Yuki's hand tightened on the remote but then she released the restraints on my chair.
I stood up and ran to Rafael.
"Now what?" Dr. Yuki asked. "You have me but you can't carry one hundred and forty seven incubators out of here."
"We already called the authorities," Lucia said. "Swiss police and Interpol are on their way."
Sirens wailed in the distance getting closer.
Dr. Yuki's face went white. "No. This isn't how this ends."
She ran to a computer and started typing frantically.
"What are you doing?" Rafael demanded.
"Initiating the fail safe," Dr. Yuki said. "If I can't have them, no one can."
The incubators started beeping with red lights flashing.
"She's killing them!" I screamed.
Rafael shot the computer and sparks flew and the screen went black but the incubators kept beeping.
"It's on a timer now," Dr. Yuki said smiling. "Five minutes until they all die."
"We can't leave the embryos," I said.
"Then we save as many as we can," I said.
I ran to the nearest incubator and started disconnecting tubes. Rafael and Lucia joined me working frantically.
Swiss police burst through the main entrance and I screamed for them to help us. They understood immediately and swarmed into the laboratory grabbing incubators.
We worked together and got maybe fifty incubators outside. Loaded them into ambulances and police vans.
Dr. Yuki was still inside standing by her computer and still smiling.
"Come on!" Rafael shouted at her. "Get out!"
"Why?" Dr. Yuki asked. "My life's work is destroyed."
The explosion lit up the night sky and the entire facility erupted in flames. We hit the ground and covered our heads.
When we finally looked up the building was gone. Just rubble and fire.
"How many did we save?" I asked a police officer.
He checked his radio. "Seventy three incubators. All stable and all intact."
I sat on the ground and cried.
Rafael sat beside me. "You did what you could."
"It wasn't enough," I said.
"It never is," Rafael said. "But it's something."
My phone buzzed and I almost didn't check it but something made me.
A message.
"Seventy three embryos. Well done Flora. But you're missing one. The most important one. L-001. My original creation. Hidden somewhere you'll never find. And when she’s born in six months."
I showed Rafael and Lucia.
"There's another one," I whispered. "
"Who sent this?" Rafael asked.
"I don't know," I said. "But they know everything about the embryos and about us and about all of it."
Lucia looked at the message. "L-001. That's not Flora's designation. Flora is L-01. This is different and earlier."
"An original created before Flora," Rafael said. "Before any of this."
"By who?" I asked.
The phone buzzed again. Another message.
"You'll find out soon enough. Sleep well Flora. You're going to need your strength. Because the real Project Genesis is just beginning."
We sat there in shock. We'd defeated Kask and Isabella and Dr. Yuki but there was still someone else. Someone who'd been watching all along. Someone who had the original embryo.
And they were coming for us.