Chapter 188 I made it worse

Chapter 188 I made it worse
Anya's POV

That gave me two days to plan a descent into the lower levels of a facility where security was exponentially tighter. Two days to figure out how to access information that Victor was protecting with his life.
The night before the attempt, Helson came to my chamber again. He was quieter and more withdrawn. The conditioning sessions were taking their toll.
"I'm losing time," he said without preamble. "I can feel it. My mind isn't... sharp anymore. The conditioning is making it hard to think clearly. Hard to remember why I was fighting in the first place."
"You're fighting for us," I said. "For freedom, for a life where you're not controlled by him."
"I know," Helson replied. "But I can't hold onto that anymore. By tomorrow night, I might not even remember what it felt like to want to escape with you."
"Then tomorrow night, we have to move," I said. "I'm going to have the information I need. We're going to leave this place."
"How?" Helson asked. "Even if you get the information, even if you figure out how to stop the transfer, Victor won't let us go. He'll hunt us forever."
"No," I said. "Because tomorrow night, we're going to destroy the transfer chamber. We're going to make sure that procedure can never be performed. And then Victor's only option will be to kill us or let us go."
Helson pulled me close.
"Be careful," he said. "Please, I can't lose you. Not now when I'm so close to losing myself."
I held him, and we didn't make love that night. We just held each other, drawing strength from the connection, knowing that everything was about to change.
The lower levels were colder than the rest of the facility. Marcus had gotten me as far as the security checkpoint, using his access to move me through corridors that were monitored but currently empty due to a shift change he'd orchestrated. But from there, I was on my own.
"The research lab is through that door," Marcus said, pointing. "Once you go through, I can't help you anymore. The security systems down here are too sophisticated. I'd trigger alarms if I tried to monitor you."
"How long do I have?" I asked.
"Eight minutes," Marcus replied. "After that, guards will be doing a perimeter check. If you're not back, I have to report you missing, or my absence will be noted."
Eight minutes to get into the lab, find the transfer chamber information, photograph it, and get back.
Eight minutes.
I took a deep breath and moved toward the door.
The biometric lock was more sophisticated than the ones upstairs, it required both a key card and a vocal password, but I didn't have either.
I stood there for a moment, my mind racing. Eight minutes was becoming seven. I couldn't get through this door without triggering an alarm.
Then I heard movement behind me.
A figure emerged from the shadows — it was the soldier from before, the one who'd first helped me. Not Marcus but someone else. Someone I hadn't even known was part of this.
"Vocal password is 'Ascension,'" the soldier said quietly. "Say it now."
I placed my hand on the biometric scanner and spoke the password.
The door slid open.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"Someone Victor destroyed," the soldier replied. "Years ago. I've been waiting a long time for an opportunity to destroy him back and you're that opportunity. Go."
I moved through the door, and it sealed behind me.
The research lab was vast and sterile and filled with equipment I didn't recognize. But in the center of the space, I saw the consciousness transfer chamber, it looked like something between a medical pod and a neural interface. Cables and sensors and quantum processors designed to do something that should have been impossible.
I moved toward it, my device already in my hand, ready to photograph everything.
That's when I saw the medical readout on the main console. Victor's vital signs from just hours ago, his oxygen saturation dropping. Organ function was declining and the tumor had progressed significantly in just the last few days.
Victor didn't have five days.
He had maybe two, maybe three before his body started to fail completely.
The transfer was going to happen sooner than the files indicated. Victor was going to move up the timeline and Helson was going to be taken to this chamber very soon, and the procedure would begin. I wish I had had time to tell Helson all I had found, but I hadn't.
I was photographing the chamber specifications, the procedure timeline, the neural integration protocols, when I heard it the alarm.
Not a subtle shift in security patterns. An actual alarm that meant someone had been discovered, or someone had made a mistake, or something had gone catastrophically wrong.
I had maybe thirty seconds before this entire facility was on lockdown.
I ran toward the door I'd entered through, but it was already closing, but the security system had sealed the lab.
I was trapped inside. I looked around frantically for another exit, there had to be another way out. There was always another way out in these kinds of facilities.
I saw it a maintenance tunnel in the far corner, it was partially hidden behind equipment. I ran toward it and pulled it open, crawling inside just as the lab door finished sealing completely.
I moved through the tunnel blindly, following its path deeper into the facility, knowing that every second I was running, someone was hunting me now.
The tunnel opened into a corridor I didn't recognize, and I emerged and started running, my device still clutched in my hand, my mind trying to process what had just happened.
Alarms were blaring everywhere now, and guards were pouring through the corridors. I ducked into side passages, trying to navigate by instinct, trying to get back to my chamber before they locked down that section too.
I made it to my corridor just as the blast doors were coming down. I dove through the opening and slammed against the wall on the other side.
My chamber door was right there. I stumbled through it and collapsed on the bed, my entire body shaking with adrenaline and terror.
The facility had gone into full lockdown. Which meant everyone would be accounted for and questioned.
Which meant Victor would know I'd been in the lower levels, which also meant Helson would be questioned and everything might just fall apart.
I was still trying to catch my breath when my door opened without warning.
Victor stood in the doorway with a pale face, his breathing shallow. He looked even more ill than the medical readouts had suggested, but his eyes were burning with a rage that transcended physical weakness.
"You went to the research lab," he said quietly.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied, my voice steadier than I felt.
"Don't insult me," Victor said moving toward me, and I could see how much effort the movement took. "The alarm was triggered by someone accessing the consciousness transfer chamber. The only people who could have gotten past the security systems would be me or someone I'd specifically authorized. And I haven't authorized anyone."
He reached me and grabbed my face, forcing me to meet his eyes.
"What did you see?" he demanded.
"Nothing," I lied.
"What did you photograph?" he continued, his grip tightening.
"I didn't photograph anything."
He hit me across the face hard enough to send me sprawling across the bed and I tasted blood.
"Where's the device?" he snarled.
I didn't answer, if I told him where the device was, if he found the photographs, everything was lost.
Victor searched my chamber methodically, tearing through every drawer, every hiding place. It took him less than three minutes to find the small device I'd hidden under the mattress.
He looked at the photographs and all the documentation I'd gathered about the consciousness transfer, the chamber, the procedure timeline, his medical condition.
"You know," he said quietly.
"I know," I confirmed.
"You know that I'm dying."
"Yes."
He sat down on the edge of the bed, and for a moment, I thought I saw something almost like relief cross his face.
"It doesn't matter," he said finally. "It doesn't change anything. The procedure happens tomorrow night, Helson is being prepared right now and you're going to watch. You're going to see him become something more than human. You're going to see him become me."
"He won't let you," I said.
"He won't have a choice," Victor replied. "The conditioning is complete. His consciousness will be receptive to the merger. By tomorrow night, Victor Dracos will cease to exist as a separate entity, I will become Helson and Helson will become me. We will be one."
He stood up, moving toward the door.
"Get some rest," he said. "You'll want to be alert for the ceremony tomorrow. It's going to be the most remarkable thing you've ever witnessed."
He left, taking the device with him. I sat on the bed, covered in blood, understanding that I'd just made everything infinitely worse, the procedure was happening tomorrow night and I had no way to stop it.