MY DAUGHTER, THE ASSASIN

CHAPTER ELEVEN: RECOVERY PROTOCOL

The windows exploded inward.

Sophia dropped.

Glass rained across the corridor as gunfire ripped through the room.

Cassian grabbed Eleanor and pulled her behind a concrete pillar.

"Stay down!"

Victor dragged Marcus away from the shattered windows.

Lily disappeared.

Sophia looked around.

"Lily?"

A hand caught hers.

"Move."

Lily pulled her toward a side corridor.

Sophia followed without hesitation.

Behind them, Cassian shouted:

"Sophia!"

She turned.

"Get my mother out!"

Cassian nodded.

"I will."

Then the corridor door slammed shut between them.

Sophia and Lily ran.

For several seconds, neither spoke.

They moved through a narrow underground passage beneath the building.

Sophia could hear boots above them.

Too many.

"They're coming."

"I know."

"How many?"

Lily glanced at her.

"Enough."

Sophia almost smiled.

"You always answer like that?"

"You always ask questions when people are shooting at you?"

"Usually."

Lily looked at her for a moment.

Then she smiled.

It was the first time Sophia had seen something familiar in her sister's face.

Not the cold operative.

Not the trained killer.

Just a woman.

Her sister.

Then a bullet struck the wall beside them.

They dropped simultaneously.

Sophia looked at Lily.

"Three shooters."

Lily nodded.

"Two ahead."

"And one behind."

Lily looked impressed.

"You really can hear everything."

"Not everything."

Sophia checked her weapon.

"Just enough."

Lily pulled a small blade from her coat.

Sophia stared at it.

"You still use knives?"

"When bullets attract attention."

"Fair."

Footsteps approached.

Lily whispered:

"On three."

Sophia nodded.

"One."

The footsteps came closer.

"Two."

A shadow appeared.

"Three."

They moved together.

Sophia struck the first attacker before he could raise his weapon.

Lily disarmed the second.

The third appeared behind them.

Sophia spun.

Lily was already there.

She drove the attacker into the wall.

Sophia caught his weapon before it hit the ground.

The man fell unconscious.

Silence returned.

Sophia stared at Lily.

"We've never fought together."

"No."

"You move like me."

Lily looked at her.

"Because we were trained by the same people."

Sophia shook her head.

"No."

She looked at their hands.

"It's more than that."

Lily didn't answer.

Sophia suddenly remembered the little girl from her childhood.

The girl who had always moved beside her.

The girl who finished her sentences.

The girl who knew when Sophia was frightened before she said anything.

"Can you feel it too?"

Lily's eyes changed.

"Feel what?"

"That strange connection."

Lily looked away.

"Yes."

Sophia stared at her.

"Why?"

"Because we're twins."

Sophia didn't know what to say.

Lily walked ahead.

"Come on."

They continued through the passage.

After several minutes, they reached a steel door.

Lily entered a code.

The door opened.

Sophia stopped.

Beyond it was a room filled with computers.

Dozens of screens covered the walls.

Files.

Photographs.

Maps.

Names.

Dates.

Sophia walked inside.

"What is this?"

Lily closed the door behind them.

"The archive."

Sophia stared at the screens.

She recognized hundreds of faces.

Politicians.

Business leaders.

Military officials.

Scientists.

Journalists.

Some were famous.

Others were people nobody had ever heard of.

"What is this place?"

"The Black Room's original archive."

Sophia's eyes widened.

"How did you get access?"

Lily looked at her.

"I was raised here."

Sophia turned.

"You lived here?"

"For years."

"How many?"

Lily hesitated.

"Eleven."

Sophia's expression hardened.

"They kept you here for eleven years?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I learned too quickly."

Sophia looked around.

"Learned what?"

"People."

Lily walked to one of the computers.

"They taught me to recognize deception."

She opened a file.

"Fear."

Another.

"Greed."

Another.

"Ambition."

She looked at Sophia.

"Desperation."

Sophia understood.

"You became their interrogator."

"Sometimes."

"Assassin?"

"Sometimes."

Sophia looked at her.

"How many?"

Lily didn't answer.

Sophia didn't ask again.

A red warning appeared on the screen.

RECOVERY TEAM — LEVEL THREE

Lily closed the file.

"We have to go."

"Where?"

"The archive has another exit."

Sophia didn't move.

"Wait."

She pointed at the screen.

A photograph had appeared.

It showed a young Sophia.

She was six years old.

Standing beside Victor.

Beside Eleanor.

And beside another man.

Sophia's eyes narrowed.

She recognized him.

Her grandfather.

But there was something wrong.

The photograph had been taken in a hospital.

Sophia stared at the date.

03:17 A.M.

The date of her birth.

She turned to Lily.

"You said I was the key."

Lily nodded.

Sophia pointed at the photograph.

"What's happening here?"

Lily didn't answer.

"Lily."

"I wasn't there."

"You were born the same night."

"I told you. I was taken."

Sophia looked closer.

There was something in Victor's hand.

A small black device.

Sophia zoomed the image.

Her eyes widened.

"That's the transmitter."

Lily's expression changed.

"Yes."

Sophia stared.

"They implanted it in me."

"No."

Lily shook her head.

"Look at your mother."

Sophia moved closer.

Eleanor was standing behind Victor.

Her hand was resting against Sophia's shoulder.

But she wasn't looking at the baby.

She was looking at Victor.

And her expression was terrified.

Sophia whispered:

"She knew."

Lily nodded.

"She knew what they were doing."

Sophia stared at the photograph.

Then something happened.

A memory surfaced.

A hospital room.

Bright lights.

Her mother's voice.

"Please don't."

Victor's voice.

"If we don't do this, they'll take both girls."

Another voice.

Her grandfather.

"Only one of them needs to remember."

Sophia's breath caught.

She staggered backward.

Lily grabbed her.

"What did you see?"

Sophia looked at her.

"I remember."

"What?"

"The night we were born."

Lily went pale.

"What did you remember?"

Sophia whispered:

"Grandfather was there."

Lily nodded.

"Yes."

"He wasn't celebrating."

"No."

"He was choosing."

"Yes."

"Between us."

Lily's eyes filled with tears.

Sophia understood.

"You remember too."

Lily nodded.

"I remember everything."

A noise came from the corridor.

Lily immediately raised her weapon.

Sophia did the same.

The steel door began to shake.

Someone was trying to force it open.

Sophia looked at Lily.

"How many?"

Lily listened.

"Six."

Sophia checked her ammunition.

"Seven."

Lily smiled faintly.

"What?"

"There's someone else."

Sophia heard it.

Footsteps.

Behind the attackers.

Slow.

Calm.

Familiar.

The door exploded inward.

Sophia raised her weapon.

A figure stepped through the smoke.

Cassian.

Sophia lowered her gun.

"Cassian."

He looked at her.

"You have a habit of disappearing."

Sophia almost laughed.

"You followed us."

"I told you I would."

Lily studied him.

"How did you find us?"

Cassian held up the small transmitter.

"You gave me the signal."

Sophia looked at Lily.

"He's useful."

Lily nodded.

"Very."

Cassian looked at the screens.

Then he stopped.

His eyes fixed on one photograph.

Sophia noticed.

"What?"

He didn't answer.

She followed his gaze.

It was the same photograph.

Sophia.

Lily.

Victor.

Eleanor.

Their grandfather.

And Cassian's younger brother.

Sophia looked at him.

"You knew this photograph existed."

Cassian's face was pale.

"No."

"Then why do you look like that?"

He walked toward the screen.

"My brother wasn't supposed to be there."

Lily spoke quietly.

"He was."

Cassian looked at her.

"You knew him."

"Yes."

"What was he doing?"

"He was trying to stop them."

"Did he know my father?"

"Yes."

Cassian stared at the photograph.

"Then why did my father say he died that night?"

Lily looked at Sophia.

Then back at Cassian.

"Because your brother never came home."

Cassian's jaw tightened.

"What happened to him?"

Lily hesitated.

"He was taken."

"By whom?"

Before Lily could answer, every screen in the archive turned black.

A single message appeared.

RECOVERY COMPLETE.

Sophia's blood ran cold.

Cassian raised his weapon.

"That's impossible."

A second message appeared.

SUBJECT 017 HAS REUNITED WITH SUBJECT 018.

Then a third.

PHASE TWO BEGINS NOW.

Sophia stared.

"What is Phase Two?"

Lily looked terrified.

"I don't know."

Sophia turned to her.

"You know."

"I don't."

"Lily."

"I swear."

A final message appeared.

BRING THEM TOGETHER.

Then:

THE MEMORY WILL OPEN.

Sophia felt something inside her mind shift.

A sound.

A voice.

A door.

A little girl's laughter.

Then a face appeared in her memory.

A face she hadn't seen in twenty-one years.

A young man.

Standing beside Lily.

Sophia whispered:

"I know him."

Cassian looked at her.

"Who?"

Sophia's eyes filled with fear.

"My brother."

Cassian froze.

"You don't have a brother."

Sophia shook her head.

"No."

She looked at Lily.

"He wasn't yours."

Lily's face went white.

Sophia turned toward Cassian.

"He was mine."

The archive door suddenly locked.

And somewhere deep beneath the building, something began to wake up.