MY DAUGHTER, THE ASSASIN

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE WOMAN WHO STARTED IT

The explosion threw Eleanor against the wall.

Sophia moved before the sound had finished echoing.

She grabbed her mother and pulled her down as a second blast tore through the lower floor.

Glass shattered.

Alarms screamed.

Smoke poured beneath the doorway.

"Stay here!" Sophia shouted.

Eleanor caught her arm.

"No."

Sophia looked down.

Her mother's face had changed.

The fear was still there, but beneath it was something else.

Recognition.

"You knew this was coming."

Eleanor swallowed.

"I knew they would come eventually."

"Who?"

"The people I betrayed."

Sophia stared at her.

"You said you started the Black Room."

"I didn't start it alone."

Victor grabbed a weapon from the table.

"We don't have time for this."

Sophia turned on him.

"We're done running."

Another explosion shook the building.

Cassian appeared in the doorway.

"Everyone downstairs. Now."

Sophia didn't move.

Cassian looked at Eleanor.

"Can you walk?"

Eleanor nodded.

"Then move."

They rushed through the corridor.

Gunfire erupted from somewhere below.

Sophia immediately recognized the sound.

"Automatic rifles."

Cassian glanced at her.

"You're sure?"

"I don't forget sounds."

He gave her a brief look.

"Right."

They reached the emergency stairwell.

Marcus appeared on the security monitor.

He was walking through the lobby.

Calmly.

Slowly.

He wasn't firing.

He wasn't attacking.

He was simply walking toward them.

Sophia stopped.

"Marcus."

Cassian looked at the screen.

"That's your trainer?"

"Yes."

"Then why isn't he shooting?"

Sophia stared at the image.

"Because he's waiting."

"For what?"

Sophia's eyes narrowed.

"For me."

A voice came through the building's speakers.

"Sophia."

Her blood went cold.

Marcus.

"Come downstairs."

Sophia stepped toward the door.

Cassian blocked her.

"No."

"He's calling me."

"Exactly."

"I need answers."

"You'll get them."

"When?"

"When we survive."

Sophia looked at him.

"You always have an answer."

"And you're always one second away from doing something reckless."

Her eyes flashed.

"Don't tell me what to do."

Cassian stepped closer.

"I'm not."

His voice lowered.

"I'm trying to make sure you live long enough to find out who you are."

For a moment, neither spoke.

Then Eleanor whispered:

"He knows."

Sophia turned.

"Knows what?"

Eleanor looked at Marcus on the screen.

"He knows what happened that night."

"What night?"

"The night your grandfather died."

Sophia froze.

Marcus's voice came through the speakers again.

"You deserve the truth, Sophia."

Sophia looked at Cassian.

"I have to go."

Cassian sighed.

"I knew you were going to say that."

He checked his weapon.

"I'm coming with you."

"No."

"That wasn't a request."

Sophia almost smiled.

Almost.

They descended.

The lower level was filled with smoke.

Emergency lights flashed against the walls.

Bodies of several attackers lay scattered across the floor.

Sophia stopped.

"Marcus did this?"

Cassian examined one of the weapons.

"Looks like it."

Sophia frowned.

"If he's working for Helena, why would he kill their men?"

"Maybe he isn't working for Helena."

A figure appeared through the smoke.

Marcus.

Older than Sophia remembered.

His hair was streaked with gray.

But his eyes were exactly the same.

Cold.

Focused.

Sophia raised her weapon.

Marcus raised both hands.

"I didn't come to fight you."

"You trained me to kill."

"I trained you to survive."

"You lied to me."

"Yes."

Sophia's jaw tightened.

"Why?"

Marcus looked at Eleanor.

"Because she asked me to."

Sophia turned sharply.

Her mother looked away.

"Again?"

Sophia's voice cracked.

"Everything comes back to you."

Eleanor began to cry.

"I was trying to protect you."

"By sending me to him?"

"I thought I had no other choice."

Marcus interrupted.

"You didn't."

Sophia stared at him.

"Then tell me the truth."

Marcus took a breath.

"Your mother didn't send you to us because she wanted you to become an assassin."

"Then why?"

"Because someone was hunting you."

"Who?"

Marcus looked at Victor.

"Your father knows."

Sophia turned.

Victor's face was pale.

"Victor."

He didn't speak.

"Tell me."

Victor looked at her.

"The person hunting you was your grandfather."

Sophia's expression changed.

"What?"

"Your grandfather discovered what you could remember."

"And?"

"He believed your memory could expose everything he had built."

Sophia's mind raced.

"Helena's father?"

Victor nodded.

"Your grandfather was the architect behind the original network."

Sophia stared at Eleanor.

"And you?"

Eleanor wiped her tears.

"I was his daughter."

Silence.

Sophia suddenly understood.

The family had never been ordinary.

Not even close.

The Black Room wasn't something that had entered their lives.

It had been born inside them.

Cassian stepped forward.

"Why did you tell Sophia that you started it?"

Eleanor looked at him.

"Because I helped turn it into what it became."

Marcus nodded.

"She was the one who created the civilian network."

Sophia frowned.

"What civilian network?"

Eleanor hesitated.

"Financial intelligence. Political surveillance. Corporate information. It was supposed to identify threats before they became dangerous."

"And then?"

"People discovered how profitable information could be."

Victor's voice was bitter.

"And governments discovered how useful it was."

Eleanor looked down.

"Then the murders began."

Sophia's grip tightened around her weapon.

"And Helena?"

"She took control."

"Why?"

"Because she believed fear was more powerful than information."

Marcus looked at Sophia.

"And you were the next stage."

Sophia's eyes hardened.

"The perfect assassin."

"No."

Marcus shook his head.

"The perfect witness."

Everyone went silent.

Sophia stared at him.

"What?"

Marcus stepped closer.

"They didn't choose you because you could kill."

He paused.

"They chose you because you could remember."

Cassian's expression changed.

"That's why Project Echo exists."

Marcus nodded.

"Project Echo was never simply an assassination program."

Sophia felt a chill.

"Then what was it?"

Marcus looked directly into her eyes.

"A living archive."

Sophia said nothing.

"Every operation. Every face. Every voice. Every location. Every secret."

Marcus's voice lowered.

"You were designed to remember all of it."

Sophia suddenly remembered flashes.

A white room.

A red door.

A woman's voice.

Numbers.

Faces.

Hundreds of faces.

She pressed her fingers against her temple.

Cassian caught her shoulder.

"Sophia."

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not."

"I said I'm fine."

Her breathing became faster.

Then she remembered something.

A room.

She was younger.

Much younger than fourteen.

Maybe six.

There was a man standing in front of her.

Her grandfather.

He placed a photograph on a table.

"Look carefully."

Young Sophia stared at it.

"Remember his face."

The memory vanished.

Sophia opened her eyes.

She looked at Marcus.

"I knew you before I was fourteen."

Marcus didn't deny it.

"Yes."

"How old was I?"

"Six."

Eleanor covered her mouth.

Sophia looked at her.

"You knew?"

"I knew you were being tested."

"And you did nothing?"

Eleanor shook her head.

"I tried."

Sophia laughed bitterly.

"You always tried."

A sudden gunshot rang out.

Marcus dropped.

Sophia spun around.

Cassian pulled Eleanor behind him.

"Sniper!"

Another shot shattered the window.

Sophia moved toward Marcus.

He was bleeding from the shoulder.

"Stay down," she ordered.

Marcus looked at her.

"You have to leave."

"Who shot you?"

He pointed toward the opposite building.

"Not Helena."

Cassian looked through the broken window.

"Then who?"

Marcus struggled to breathe.

"The people above her."

Sophia froze.

"The people above Helena?"

Marcus nodded.

"They've been watching you since before you were born."

Another shot struck the wall.

Cassian grabbed Sophia.

"Move!"

They dragged Marcus into cover.

Eleanor looked terrified.

"Who are they?"

Marcus reached into his jacket.

He pulled out a small black drive.

He handed it to Sophia.

"Everything you want to know is on this."

Sophia took it.

"What's the password?"

Marcus looked at Eleanor.

"Your mother."

Eleanor's face drained of color.

Sophia stared at her.

"What does that mean?"

Marcus closed his eyes.

Then he whispered:

"Ask her what happened on the night you were born."

His eyes shut.

Sophia shook him.

"Marcus?"

Nothing.

"Marcus!"

Cassian checked his pulse.

"He’s alive."

Sophia looked down at the drive.

Then at Eleanor.

"What happened the night I was born?"

Eleanor said nothing.

Sophia stepped toward her.

"Mum."

Eleanor's eyes filled with tears.

"You weren't supposed to survive that night."

Sophia stopped.

"What?"

Eleanor looked at her daughter.

"Because you weren't the only child born that night."

The room became completely silent.

Sophia stared at her.

"What are you saying?"

Eleanor whispered:

"You had a twin."

And somewhere outside the building, a phone began to ring.

Sophia looked toward the sound.

Cassian's expression hardened.

The phone belonged to Marcus.

It shouldn't have been ringing.

He was unconscious.

Sophia slowly picked it up.

A voice answered before she could speak.

A woman's voice.

Cold.

Familiar.

"Hello, Sophia."

Sophia stopped breathing.

Helena.

"I think it's time you met your sister."