Chapter 134 Subject zero
Chapter 134 Subject zero
Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Four: Subject Zero
Nobody spoke for several seconds after the message appeared.
SUBJECT ZERO IS ALIVE.
The words glowed on the screen like a warning.
Not a revelation.
A warning.
Gabriel looked like someone had punched him in the chest. Dominic had gone completely still beside one of the steel cabinets. Even Nina, who rarely showed emotion, looked unsettled.
“What is Subject Zero?” Ruth finally asked.
Gabriel swallowed hard.
“Not what. Who.”
A chill ran through the room.
“Alexander actually did it?” Jonathan asked.
Gabriel nodded slowly.
“At least once.”
Nobody liked that answer.
Not one bit.
I looked back at the screen.
“So Subject Zero was the first child?”
“Not exactly,” Gabriel replied.
“The first success.”
That sounded much worse.
Clara crossed her arms tightly.
“What does that even mean?”
Gabriel hesitated before answering.
“The Founders always searched for exceptional children. High intelligence. Adaptability. Leadership potential.”
“We know that,” Elias said.
“Genesis was different. Alexander wasn’t searching for exceptional children.”
Gabriel’s expression darkened.
“He was trying to create them.”
The room fell silent again.
I thought about the photograph from the video.
The child standing by the lake.
Twelve years old.
Ordinary at first glance.
Yet somehow frightening enough to terrify Alexander Reed.
“How?” Maya asked quietly.
Gabriel looked exhausted.
“Early genetic selection. Family profiling. Psychological modeling. Predictive development.”
Natasha groaned.
“I understood approximately three of those words.”
Despite everything, a few people managed weak smiles.
Then the terminal beeped again.
New text appeared on the screen.
ADDITIONAL FILES DETECTED
A folder opened automatically.
Hundreds of documents filled the display.
Research notes.
Financial records.
Medical reports.
Internal communications.
The entire Genesis project.
Nina immediately stepped closer.
“Can these be copied?”
“Probably,” Jonathan said.
“But it’ll take time.”
“Then start.”
Jonathan nodded and moved to the terminal.
His fingers flew across the keyboard.
Meanwhile, Gabriel was already scanning the documents appearing on screen.
Then his face changed.
“Oh no.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
He pointed toward one of the files.
“Alexander didn’t stop after Subject Zero.”
The room froze.
“What do you mean?” Clara asked.
Gabriel opened a report.
His eyes moved rapidly across the text.
Then he looked up.
“There were twelve.”
The silence that followed felt heavy enough to crush someone.
“Twelve children?” Maya whispered.
Gabriel nodded.
“Twelve candidates.”
I stared at him.
“Candidates for what?”
His answer came quietly.
“Replacement.”
Nobody understood.
At least not immediately.
Then Dominic spoke for the first time in several minutes.
“They weren’t creating children.”
Everyone looked at him.
His expression had become grim.
“They were creating leaders.”
A horrible realization began forming.
“The placements,” Ruth whispered.
Gabriel nodded.
“Genesis wasn’t separate from the Founders.”
His voice sounded hollow.
“It was supposed to become the future of the Founders.”
The pieces began fitting together.
Too well.
Alexander wanted to create exceptional children.
The Founders wanted exceptional leaders.
The two projects eventually merged.
My stomach turned.
“How old are these candidates now?” Elias asked.
Gabriel looked through another document.
Then went pale.
Again.
At this point, I was beginning to hate whenever Gabriel turned pale.
It never led anywhere good.
“What?” Nina demanded.
“They’re adults.”
The room remained silent.
“Of course they’re adults,” Natasha said.
“The project started decades ago.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“You don’t understand.”
His eyes lifted from the screen.
“The youngest candidate is thirty-two.”
A chill swept through the vault.
Thirty-two.
These weren’t children anymore.
They were grown adults.
Living lives.
Building careers.
Holding positions of influence.
Possibly without even knowing what they were.
“What happened to them?” Maya asked.
Gabriel opened another file.
Then another.
Then another.
The color drained from his face.
“Most are dead.”
Nobody spoke.
“Dead?” Jonathan repeated.
Gabriel nodded.
“Accidents.”
His tone made it clear he didn’t believe that explanation.
“Overdoses.”
“Suicides.”
“Disappearances.”
A terrible feeling settled in my chest.
“They were eliminated.”
Dominic answered before Gabriel could.
Everyone looked at him.
He stared at the screen.
“Alexander destroyed evidence.”
The words came out flat.
Emotionless.
Yet somehow more frightening because of it.
“If a candidate failed expectations, they became a liability.”
Clara looked horrified.
“Failed expectations?”
“They were experiments.”
The bitterness in Dominic’s voice surprised me.
“Experiments get discarded.”
The room fell quiet.
Because nobody could argue with that.
Not after everything we’d learned.
Jonathan suddenly stopped typing.
“Wait.”
Everyone turned toward him.
“What?”
He pointed at the screen.
“I found something.”
The folder displayed a list of names.
Twelve entries.
Most had red markers beside them.
Deceased.
Missing.
Status unknown.
One after another.
Then my eyes reached the bottom.
Three names remained active.
Only three.
Three survivors.
Three living candidates.
Three people Alexander once considered successful.
My pulse quickened.
Maya stepped beside me.
“Who are they?”
Jonathan enlarged the file.
The first name appeared.
Nobody recognized it.
The second name appeared.
Again, nothing.
Then the third appeared.
And the room exploded.
“No.”
Clara’s voice cracked.
“No.”
I stared at the screen.
Certain I was reading it wrong.
Certain it had to be a mistake.
But it wasn’t.
The name remained exactly where it was.
DOMINIC VALE
Silence filled the vault.
Dominic stared at the screen.
Not shocked.
Not confused.
Almost resigned.
Like some part of him had expected this.
“You’re one of them,” Gabriel whispered.
Dominic laughed softly.
A tired laugh.
“I suppose I am.”
The realization hit everyone differently.
For Clara, it looked like heartbreak.
For Ruth, horror.
For Nina, calculation.
For me?
Understanding.
Suddenly pieces of Dominic’s life made sense.
His intelligence.
His strategic thinking.
His obsession with control.
His need to prove himself.
Not because he was engineered.
Because he’d spent his entire life being told he was special.
Different.
Superior.
That kind of belief could poison anyone.
Then Dominic looked at another name on the list.
And his expression changed immediately.
Fear.
Real fear.
“What?” I asked.
He didn’t answer.
His eyes remained fixed on the screen.
Gabriel followed his gaze.
Then he froze too.
“Oh God.”
The phrase again.
Always that phrase.
Always before something terrible.
Nina stepped forward.
“Someone explain.”
Gabriel pointed toward the first surviving candidate.
The first name on the list.
A name none of us recognized.
Until Dominic spoke.
And when he did, his voice sounded almost broken.
“That’s not his real name.”
Silence.
“What?” Maya asked.
Dominic looked at us.
Then back at the screen.
“I know him.”
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
Because somehow that felt worse.
Much worse.
“Who is he?” Clara whispered.
Dominic’s answer sent a chill through every person in the vault.
“He’s Alexander Reed’s son.”
The room froze.
Then Dominic finished the sentence.
“And if Subject Zero is alive…”
His voice became very quiet.
“…he’s the person Eleanor was trying to protect us from.”