Chapter 475: Pandora’s Key

Chapter 475: Pandora’s Key

The chaos at the exhibition was quickly brought under control by the Martinez Group's security team.

Guests were politely ushered out under the excuse of "electrical issues," and no one dared ask a single question.

The black Maybach pulled away from the art center, the silence inside the car almost oppressive.

Olivia had fallen asleep in Sophia's arms, her small face still marked with drying tear tracks. Her long lashes trembled uneasily from time to time—clearly she'd been badly frightened by the smoke and confusion.

Sophia gently stroked her daughter's back with one hand, while the fingers of her other hand gripped the cold little USB drive so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

Yasmin had escaped.

But she'd left behind a key.

A key that very likely led straight to hell.

Late at night, in the study of the Martinez family villa.

Big Cat's round face filled the entire laptop screen, his background the chaotic workspace that always looked like it had been swallowed by a black hole—wires and disassembled parts piled up like a junk yard.

"What kind of woman is this? Military-grade triple dynamic encryption! And the key uses a random algorithm designed by some Nobel Prize-winning mathematician! This thing isn't protecting against me—it's protecting against aliens!"

He cursed under his breath while his fingers flew across the keyboard almost too fast to see.

"Back in the day when I hacked the Pentagon, I only had to break through one lousy firewall, got in and changed their cafeteria menu—that wasn't even this much trouble!"

On the screen, countless lines of green code cascaded like a waterfall.

"Got it!"

With Big Cat's triumphant shout, three locked encrypted files were forced open, their icons appearing alone on the screen.

"Which one first?"

"The first one." Nicholas's voice revealed no emotion.

The first file opened—it was a schedule.

Times and locations were marked with code names. Over the past six months, Yasmin's name appeared three to four times each month, connected to one address—"Abandoned Steel Factory No. 7, Beijing Suburbs."

Each visit lasted exactly the same amount of time, no more, no less—precisely two hours.

"What's an art teacher doing running off to an abandoned factory all the time? Living the experience, finding creative inspiration?" Big Cat scratched his already sparse hair. "That place is creepy as hell—probably haunted."

Nicholas ignored his rambling and picked up his phone, sending out a message.

"Continue."

He signaled Big Cat to open the second file.

It was an audio recording.

After the harsh sound of static, there came a dull, oppressive rumble, like some kind of large machinery running, making your chest feel tight.

Then a low voice, processed beyond recognition of gender, spoke in flat tones like artificial intelligence.

"...A-grade gene sample activity stable...meets expectations..."

"...rejection reaction below threshold...'Awakening Project'...can proceed to next phase..."

"...orchid...is the best catalyst..."

The audio cut off abruptly there.

"What the hell is this?" Big Cat exclaimed. "Making a sci-fi movie? An Awakening Project?"

The air in the study seemed to be sucked dry.

Gene samples? Awakening Project?

These terms, connected to a children's art exhibition and an art teacher, gave off an eerily disturbing feeling.

Sophia's heart felt like it was being squeezed by an invisible hand. She suddenly thought of something and immediately pulled out her phone, bringing up a photo.

It was the high-resolution image she'd taken in the orphanage archive room—of that half piece of jade pendant.

"Big Cat, open the third file." Her voice was tight.

The third file opened—it wasn't text or audio, but an extremely complex diagram. Like an ancient star map, or the cellular structure of some organism, full of mysterious yet precise patterns.

Sophia placed her phone screen with the jade pendant photo next to the computer screen with the diagram, side by side.

She held her breath and used her finger to compare, bit by bit, the intricate totem on the jade pendant with a core area on the diagram.

The direction of the lines, the distribution of nodes, the curves and turns...

A perfect match.

"...They match."

"What matches?" Nicholas asked.

Sophia didn't speak, just pushed her phone in front of him.

Nicholas leaned forward slightly. He saw the connection. That jade pendant that served as a token was never any family totem.

It was a map...of an ancient genetic sequence.

"Graham..." Nicholas's voice was frighteningly low. "His purpose was never as simple as revenge."

Gordon's genetic research, the Bennett family's involvement, Graham's ghost project, and Yasmin as the executor...all the clues pointed to one common core.

Awakening.

What exactly were they trying to awaken?

"Mommy..."

Just then, Olivia's tearful murmur came from upstairs, her voice full of fear.

Sophia and Nicholas exchanged glances and immediately rushed upstairs.

In Olivia's small bedroom, Olivia was restless in her sleep, her little brow tightly furrowed, her forehead covered in fine beads of cold sweat.

"Orchid...it hurts...Mommy...it hurts..."

Her small hands clawed at the air, as if trying to push away something invisible.

Sophia's heart felt pierced by those childish words.

She rushed over and held her daughter tightly, using her own body warmth to warm Olivia's cold body. "Baby don't be afraid, I'm here, I'm right here, no one can hurt you."

Olivia's struggling gradually subsided, and in her mother's embrace, she fell back into deep sleep.

But those words "it hurts" stuck like a poisoned thorn in Sophia's mind.

This war was far more complex and brutal than she'd imagined.

The enemy didn't want money, power, or even her life.

They wanted Olivia.

Or rather, what was inside Olivia's body—that "A-grade gene sample" that might be connected to Gordon's research.

After comforting Olivia, Sophia quietly left the room.

She returned to the study and stood before that huge electronic screen.

On the screen, the satellite map of the abandoned factory, that disturbing genetic diagram, and those words "Awakening Project" were like a bloody net, trapping her and Olivia inside.

Her expression gradually transformed from initial shock and fear into something hardened like tempered steel.

She walked to the desk and picked up that dropped white orchid pendant.

Under the light, she could see clearly—at the bottom of the pendant, etched by laser, was a string of extremely small coding: L-731.

Sophia picked up her phone and dialed an encrypted number she hadn't used in a long time.

The call connected, and an elderly but steady voice came through.

"What, poked another hornet's nest and now you remember me?"

"Professor," Sophia's voice was calm as still water, "no time for jokes. Help me trace a code, L-731. Find out which lab it belongs to. Right away."