Chapter 7 - The Hidden Sanctuary
Detective Vance didn't waste a second. He coordinated with the NYPD tech unit, tracking the black SUV through city traffic cameras. Within forty minutes, they had a location: an abandoned industrial warehouse on the edge of the East River, formerly owned by a shell company tied directly to Janus Genomics.
Mark and I refused to stay behind. No force on earth could have kept us in that hospital. Vance, realizing my desperation and Mark's fury, allowed us to ride in the front seat of his cruiser, sirens wailing through the rainy night.
"We have SWAT en route," Vance said, gripping the steering wheel. "But they are fifteen minutes out. We can't wait if she's already starting a medical procedure on Lily."
"We go in alone," Mark said, his voice deadly quiet. He had wrapped a bandage around his head, his face set in a mask of pure steel. "I don't care what kind of weapons she has. I'm taking my daughter back."
When the car screeched to a halt outside the rusting warehouse, the rain was coming down in sheets. The building looked completely derelict, its windows shattered, covered in graffiti. But near the loading dock, the black SUV sat idling, its headlights cutting through the dark pouring rain.
We slipped inside through a broken side door. Inside, the warehouse was a stark contrast to its exterior. Deep within the belly of the building sat a fully functioning, state-of-the-art sterile laboratory, enclosed in pristine glass walls and powered by a humming independent generator.
Through the glass, we saw her.
The clone had laid Lily onto a small, stainless-steel operating table. A complex array of medical tubing and needles surrounded our baby. The clone was operating a computer console, her hands moving with frantic speed as a digital display showed a countdown: Genetic Extraction Sequence: 03:00 Minutes.
"Oh god," I gasped, my hand over my mouth.
"Mark, Elena, stay behind me," Vance whispered, raising his service weapon.
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He kicked the glass door open. "NYPD! Step away from the child! Hands where I can see them!"
The clone didn't flinch. She slowly turned around, holding a scalpel in one hand and a remote detonator in the other. "If you shoot me, Detective, the signal stops. And the incendiary charges I’ve placed around this room will vaporize every single one of us. Including the baby."
