Chapter 128

Chapter 128

After Noah agreed, Frank took the girl and headed straight to the North American headquarters.

The most urgent thing right now was to get her back to headquarters for a full medical checkup as soon as possible. Only after making sure everything was fine could they properly settle her in.

As for figuring out her background, that could wait until after the checkup.

The next day, Frank received the girl's full medical report.

The doctor who handed it over didn't look happy. He pushed his glasses up his nose and spoke in a grave tone. "Boss, she's been frozen for a long time. Her cells have been damaged, her internal organs are showing varying degrees of failure, and her bone marrow's ability to produce blood cells is steadily declining."

Frank flipped through the report. Several of the readings were indeed way outside the normal range.

His expression didn't change. His voice was calm. "How much time does she have?"

"Hard to say. A few months at the earliest, a year at most." The doctor paused, his expression growing heavier. "And that's based on her current condition. If the organ failure speeds up down the line, she might not even make it a few months."

As he said this, a flash of sadness crossed the doctor's eyes. She'd been sealed away in an underground lab for so many years, and now that she'd finally seen the light of day again, she had so little time left.

Frank frowned slightly. "Is there anything that could slow it down?"

The doctor shook his head. "Organ failure is irreversible. There's nothing we can do to save her."

Frank nodded, said he understood, and left without asking anything else.

He went to see the girl with a heavy heart. Maybe his look of pity was too obvious, because she gave him a small smile, her voice carrying a calm that seemed beyond her years.

"You don't have to look at me like that. I know I'm going to die sooner or later."

She sat on the edge of the bed, swinging her feet lightly, still smiling. She seemed to have already made her peace with the fact that she didn't have long to live.

Frank felt a tightness in his throat. His throat moved a few times before he finally spoke. "Is there anything you want to do?"

The girl blinked, tilted her head, and thought about it seriously. "I've never been to an amusement park. Could you take me to one?"

Frank hadn't expected her last wish to be so simple. A pang of sadness hit him, and he nodded. "Sure. Once your genetic testing is done and the results are back, I'll take you to an amusement park."

The girl raised her hand, her tone serious. "Promise! High five on it!"

Frank reached out and gently slapped her hand. The moment their palms touched, a warm feeling quietly spread through him.

He thought for a moment, then said, "How about I call you Aurora from now on? What do you think?"

If they ever got separated while they were out, it would help to have a name to call out.

The girl nodded, a look of excitement in her eyes. "Okay, I'll be Aurora from now on."

That afternoon, Aurora's genetic test results came back. Isla stared at the abnormal readings and let out a quiet sigh.

"She looks completely human on the outside right now, but a lot of her genes have already mutated, and they're still changing." Isla frowned slightly, her voice serious. "She's slowly becoming less human."

Frank understood what Isla was really getting at. She was worried that Aurora might lose control someday and hurt innocent people.

"I won't let her hurt anyone." Frank said it without a moment's hesitation.

Isla nodded and changed the subject. "If we could find the original lab records and figure out exactly what drugs she was given, the dosages, and how long the treatment went on, it might be possible to slow down the organ failure and the genetic mutation."

She finished, then noticed Frank had gone quiet, and quickly added, "Of course, that's just a guess on my part. It might not actually help."

Frank took the genetic report from her, read through it carefully, said a few more things to Isla, and then left the lab.

He had just gotten back to his office when he found Noah waiting outside the door.

"Boss." Noah held out a tablet. "The Sarris family reached out to me. They're demanding we return Subject 17 to them."

Frank scrolled through the screen and skimmed the details, then let out a cold laugh. "Didn't expect them to come forward themselves and basically admit the lab was theirs."

He hadn't even found solid proof yet that the lab belonged to the Sarris family, and they'd already gotten impatient and come to him first.

He snorted. "Tell them that whoever I pull out of there, I'm not handing over to them."

Noah nodded and acknowledged the order, then reported a few other matters before turning and leaving the office.

After Noah left, Frank tapped lightly on his desk, thinking it over. There weren't many things that would make the Sarris family show up this fast. That frozen girl clearly meant a great deal to them.

But if she was that important, why hadn't they moved her in all those years? Why had they left her frozen underground for so long?

He couldn't figure that out, and he didn't plan to dig into it further. Still, the unease in the back of his mind wouldn't go away.

What Frank didn't expect was that the very same evening, people from the Sarris family showed up directly outside the North American headquarters.

He had no choice but to let them through. Five minutes later, two unfamiliar faces were in his office.

The older one, with heavy bags under his eyes, sat down on the sofa. A younger, well-built bodyguard stood to the side, alert and watchful.

Frank frowned slightly, his voice calm but firm. "I believe I've already passed my decision on to your family. I'm not handing her over."

He had no interest in these two uninvited guests, but he couldn't just throw out members of the Sarris family either.

Who knew if they'd arranged for reporters to be hiding somewhere nearby, ready to snap photos and use them to smear the Starship Group?

So he had to at least keep up the appearance of civility.

"Let me correct you, Mr. Moore. It's returning her to us." The man with the heavy eye bags folded his hands and rested them on his knees, his tone carrying an air of arrogance. "You rescued someone who should never have been rescued. Her organ failure can't be reversed, because before she was frozen, she was injected with a drug at a dosage a hundred times above the safe limit. It will cause her genes to keep mutating."

There was a hint of smugness on the man's face as he said this. Frank let out a cold snort. "Treating a person like a disposable object. What exactly is there to be smug about?"

"If you ever end up as someone's disposable object yourself, will you still be wearing that same expression?"

"You—" The man's composed front cracked for a moment, and a flash of barely contained anger showed through.

"Calm down. I'm just stating the facts. Is there really any need to get that worked up?" Frank's eyes were full of mockery, his tone unhurried.

The man stood up, his voice cold and hard. "Since Mr. Moore doesn't want to hear any more from me, I won't waste your time. But I think you'll be calling me yourself before long."

With that, he tossed a business card onto the table, turned, and walked out.

After the man left, Frank didn't touch the card. Instead, he called in the cleaning staff and had them come up and go over the whole office again, as if he wanted to sweep away every trace of the unpleasant visit along with the dust.

If they'd come to him first, it meant they were more desperate than he was. If anything changed down the line, they'd be the ones coming back.

He thought it over, then called Sophia to ask if she was free tomorrow and whether she'd come with him to an amusement park.

Sophia replied quickly, her voice full of confusion, asking why he suddenly wanted to go to an amusement park.

Frank gave her a brief rundown of Aurora's situation.

Sophia didn't hesitate for a second. She agreed right away and said she'd meet up with them first thing in the morning.

Frank hung up, then called the medical department and asked them to let Aurora know that he'd be taking her to the amusement park tomorrow.