Chapter 14 - THE SECOND EXPERIMENT
Detective Marcus Reed stood in the doorway.
Calm.
Relaxed.
Like this was just another conversation at the station.
Not a betrayal.
Not a threat.
Not the collapse of everything I believed.
I looked at him.
“How long?”
He smiled.
“Long enough.”
I kept my gun raised.
“You were part of Project Mirror.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“I was created by it.”
The words made my stomach turn.
Another experiment.
Another subject.
Another person controlled by Victor Kane.
My father stepped forward.
“Marcus, don’t do this.”
Marcus laughed.
“You still think you’re the hero.”
He looked at me.
“That’s the problem with people like us.”
“Someone always convinces us we matter.”
I studied him.
“What happened to you?”
His expression changed.
For a second…
I saw pain.
Then it disappeared.
“Same thing that happened to you.”
He pointed at my head.
“They broke us.”
The warehouse suddenly felt smaller.
Three survivors.
Three experiments.
Three different outcomes.
Marcus.
Elias.
Me.
My phone vibrated.
A message from Victor Kane.
“You are finally together.”
Then another.
“The three successful results.”
Marcus looked at the phone.
“He’s watching.”
I looked around.
“How?”
Marcus smiled.
“Because he always watches.”
The lights above us flickered.
A screen turned on.
Victor Kane appeared.
Older.
Calm.
Confident.
“James.”
I stared.
“Why?”
Victor smiled.
“Because you still don’t understand.”
“What?”
“You think this was about creating killers.”
A pause.
“It was never about killers.”
The screen changed.
A map appeared.
Cities.
Names.
Thousands of files.
“This was about control.”
My father looked horrified.
Victor continued.
“People believe criminals are random.”
“They believe evil appears suddenly.”
“But we learned something.”
“People can be designed.”
The screen showed files.
Politicians.
Judges.
Police officers.
Leaders.
All connected.
Marcus looked at me.
“He built an entire system.”
Victor smiled.
“And now James will expose it.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“You are the perfect witness.”
“You are respected.”
“You are trusted.”
“And when the world learns you were part of it…”
The screen went black.
A final message appeared.
“They won’t believe you.”
The warehouse doors opened.
Police lights flashed outside.
Dozens of officers entered.
Their weapons pointed at me.
And the first officer shouted:
May you like
“Detective James Miller.”
“You are under arrest.”
