Chapter 55 Playing God
Rafael
I stared at the figure in the doorway and my entire world shattered.
Dr. Chen stood there with a gun in his hand. Smoke rose from the barrel. His face twisted into something I had never seen before.
Not the kind therapist who had been helping Flora for months. This was someone else entirely, someone without remorse.
"You," Flora whispered beside me, her voice breaking with betrayal.
"Me," Dr. Chen said, stepping further into the room. His gun now pointed directly at us.
I moved in front of Flora instinctively, shielding her with my body. My hand reached for my own weapon.
"Don't," Dr. Chen said sharply, his eyes flickering to my movement. "I will shoot her before you even touch that gun, Rafael, and we both know you cannot live with that."
My hand froze and fury burned through my veins like fire.
On the floor Dr. Yuki was gasping. Blood was spreading across the concrete beneath her.
"Help her," Flora begged, trying to move past me. "She's dying."
"Let her die," Dr. Chen said coldly. "She was always too sentimental."
"You monster," Catherine spat, raising her gun.
But Dr. Chen was faster. He fired a shot that hit the wall inches from Catherine's head, making her duck behind a table.
"Everyone put your weapons down," Dr. Chen commanded. "Or the next shot goes through Flora's skull."
Marco and Vittorio hesitated. They looked at me. I gave them a slight nod and slowly, we all lowered our weapons to the ground.
"Good," Dr. Chen said, smiling."I knew you would all be reasonable when it came to protecting her, that is what makes you so predictable."
"Why?" Flora asked, her voice trembling. "Why did you do this? I trusted you."
"And that trust made you so easy to manipulate," Dr. Chen said, moving closer. "Every memory you recovered was all exactly what I wanted you to remember."
My stomach turned with disgust and rage.
"You implanted false memories," I said.
"Some of them," Dr. Chen admitted. "Mixed with the real ones of course. That is the art of good manipulation. You blend truth with lies until the subject cannot tell the difference."
"The memories of Eva," Flora whispered, tears streaming down her face. "Were those real or fake?"
Dr. Chen tilted his head, considering her like she was an interesting specimen. "Does it matter? Either way, they served their purpose. They made you exactly what I needed you to be."
"And what is that?" I demanded, my hands shaking.
"Controllable," Dr. Chen said simply. "Eva was wild, and brilliant but impossible to manage, she had to be eliminated because she refused to play her role."
"What role?" Flora asked, her voice barely audible.
"As the perfect genetic creation," Dr. Chen said, his eyes lighting up with a fervor that made my skin crawl. "The prototype for a new generation of designer humans. People created not by chance but by design. Optimized for intelligence, beauty, health, compliance."
"That is insane," Marco said, disgusted.
"That is evolution," Dr. Chen corrected sharply. "Natural selection is too slow. Humanity needs guidance and Project Genesis was meant to provide that guidance."
"By playing God?" Catherine asked, her voice full of contempt.
"By being God," Dr. Chen said, and the certainty in his voice chilled me to the bone.
On the floor Dr. Yuki made a choking sound, her breathing becoming more labored. Flora pulled against my hold, trying to reach her. "Please, let me help her."
"She is beyond help," Dr. Chen said dismissively. "And she brought this on herself. She should have stayed dead like she was supposed to."
"She is my mother," Flora cried, the words torn from her throat.
"She is a DNA donor," Dr. Chen corrected coldly. "Nothing more, mothers raise their children, and protect them, but she abandoned you before you were even born."
"Because you made me," Dr. Yuki gasped out, blood bubbling at her lips. "You threatened me, told me if I did not disappear you would destroy my entire family."
Dr. Chen's expression did not change. "You were a liability, you wanted to stop the project, I could not allow that."
"So you have been in control from the beginning," I said. "My father, Antonio, Helena, they were all working for you."
"With me," Dr. Chen corrected. "We were partners, visionaries who understood that humanity's future required bold action."
"Murder is not bold," Vittorio said quietly, his eyes dark with anger. "It is cowardice."
"Necessary sacrifices," Dr. Chen said, waving his gun dismissively. "Every great advancement requires them, Eva's death, Dr. Yuki's silence, even Antonio's unfortunate demise, all necessary to protect the project."
"You killed Antonio?" Catherine asked, shocked.
"He was becoming unstable," Dr. Chen said, casually.
My mind raced, trying to find a way out of this. But Dr. Chen was too careful. His gun never wavered from Flora.
"What do you want?" I asked, forcing my voice to stay calm. "Why reveal all this now?"
"Because the game is over," Dr. Chen said, his smile widening. "Helena is in custody and will not talk, she knows what happens to people who betray me, Antonio is dead, Dr. Yuki will be dead in minutes, and all the evidence points to a conspiracy that ended with them."
"And us?" Flora asked, her voice small.
"You, my dear, are coming with me," Dr. Chen said, gesturing with his gun. "We are going to disappear, start over somewhere new to continue the work with a fresh start."
"I will never go with you," Flora said, her voice gaining strength.
"You will," Dr. Chen said confidently. "Because if you do not, I will kill everyone in this room starting with Rafael, and I will make you watch before I take you anyway."
Cold dread washed over me and I saw Flora's resolve waver. She looked at me with desperate fear.
"Don't," I said firmly, meeting her eyes. "Don't go with him, Flora."
"But he will kill you," she whispered, tears streaming down her face.
"I would rather die than let him take you," I said, and I meant every word.
Dr. Chen laughed. "How touching, true love conquering all, except it will not conquer bullets, Rafael."
"You need her alive," I said, gambling now. "That is why you have not shot her already, you need her for something."
Dr. Chen's smile faltered slightly. "Very perceptive."
"What is it?" I pressed, taking a small step forward. "What makes Flora so special that you cannot just create another genetic match?"
"Because she is the only one who survived," Dr. Chen admitted, frustration creeping into his voice. "We tried seventeen times after Eva, seventeen embryos. They all failed. Something about Flora's specific genetic combination made her viable and we cannot recreate it without her."
Understanding dawned on me. "You want to clone her!"
"I want to perfect her," Dr. Chen corrected. "Take what works and eliminate what does not, create a generation of Floras, all brilliant, all beautiful, all completely obedient."
On the floor Dr. Yuki's breathing had become shallow, her eyes fixed on Flora with desperate urgency. "Flora," she gasped out. "Pocket, left pocket."
Flora looked confused but Dr. Chen was watching too now, his gun swung toward Dr. Yuki. "What did you give her?" he demanded.
Dr. Yuki smiled, blood staining her teeth. "Insurance."
Then her eyes closed and her chest stopped moving.
She was dead.