The Billionaire’s Blood Proxy

Chapter 16: The Glass Doppelgänger

The ride from the museum to Vance Tower was a blur of rain-slicked neon and the metallic tang of blood. Elena sat in the back of the transport van, her hands gripping the bronze dagger so hard her knuckles had turned a ghostly white. Beside her, Alexander was hacking into the van’s internal comms, his face illuminated by the frantic glow of a tablet.

Syncing... 52%.

The violet HUD in Elena’s vision wasn’t just a countdown anymore; it was a ghost. Every time she blinked, she saw the lobby of Vance Tower not as it was, but as it had been ten years ago. She felt the phantom weight of a backpack she’d never owned. She felt the echo of a laugh that belonged to a girl who had died in a car crash.

"We’re two blocks out," Alexander rasped, his voice cracking. "The perimeter is locked down. Silas has triggered a 'Level 5' security sweep. The moment we hit the garage, the automated turrets will recognize the van as stolen."

"Then don't hit the garage," Elena said, her voice sounding like two people speaking in unison. She looked at her reflection in the darkened window. For a split second, her eyes weren't green; they were a shimmering, electric violet. "Rule Twenty-Four, Alexander. If you can't go through the door, you break the window."

"Elena, you’re hitting fifty-two percent," Alexander said, grabbing her arm. His touch felt like an ice burn. "Lira is starting to take over your motor functions. If you try to fight Silas now, she’ll paralyze you mid-step."

"He’s right, you know," Lira’s voice hummed inside Elena’s skull. It was a sweet, poisonous sound. "Why fight it? My father has a penthouse waiting for us. Real silk. Real food. No more hiding in warehouses. Just let go, Elena. I'll take care of the rest."

Elena slammed her head back against the leather headrest, the physical jolt forcing the voice into a corner of her mind. "I am not... a passenger!"

She grabbed the steering wheel from the dead guard in the front seat, shoved his body aside, and floored the accelerator. The van roared, fishtailing across the wet pavement. She didn't head for the garage. She headed for the massive, decorative fountain in front of the Vance Tower lobby a literal wall of reinforced glass and water.

"Hold on!" she screamed.

The impact was a symphony of violence. The van shattered the glass partition, plunging through the water and skidding across the polished marble floor of the lobby. Airbags deployed with a thunderous c***k, filling the cabin with white dust.

Silence followed, broken only by the hiss of steam and the distant wail of the tower’s internal alarms.

Elena kicked the door open, the bronze dagger tucked into her belt. She stepped out onto the marble, her emerald dress soaked and clinging to her skin. She looked like a drowned queen emerging from a shipwreck.

Alexander scrambled out after her, a pistol in his hand. "Elena, wait"

But Elena had stopped dead in the center of the lobby.

Standing by the elevators, flanked by four silent security drones, was a woman. She was wearing a white silk suit that mirrored the cut of Elena’s emerald gown. Her hair was styled in the same architectural bun.

But it wasn't just the clothes.

The woman turned around. She had Elena’s face. She had Elena’s eyes. She even had the small, faint mole just above her collarbone.

"Welcome home, Alexander," the woman said. Her voice was an exact replica of Elena’s, but without the jagged edge of trauma. It was perfect. It was polished.

Elena felt the HUD in her vision spike. Syncing... 58%.

"Who are you?" Elena whispered, her hand trembling as she raised the pistol she’d taken from the guard.

The woman smiled a slow, chilling expression that Elena had seen in her own mirror a thousand times. "I’m the version of you that doesn't have a ruined warehouse, Elena. I’m the version that didn't lose her father. I am the Successor Protocol, fully realized."

"It’s a decoy," Alexander hissed, stepping up beside Elena. "Silas must have used the data from your early blood draws to grow a rapid-prototype shell. It’s a biological blank."

"Not a blank, Alexander," the Doppelgänger said, walking toward them with a graceful, haunting gait. "I have all of Lira’s memories. And soon, once the uplink finishes, I’ll have yours too, Elena. You don't need to be a 'Proxy' anymore. You can just... fade away. I’ll take care of Alexander. I’ll take care of the empire. I’ll even finish your revenge against the cartel."

The Doppelgänger stopped five feet away. She reached out a hand a hand that looked identical to Elena’s, but without the soot and the blood.

"Give me the choker, Elena. Let the transfer finish. Why suffer in a broken body when you can live forever in me?"

Elena looked at the woman the "Perfect Elena." For a moment, the temptation was overwhelming. To stop fighting. To let the violet ghost take the pain away.

Then, Elena looked at the blood dripping from her own hand. It was hot. It was messy. It was real.

"You’re not me," Elena said, her voice dropping into a low, dangerous growl. "You’re just a file. And I’ve spent my whole life deleting trash data."

Elena didn't fire the g*n at the Doppelgänger. She fired it at the fire suppression pipe directly above the woman’s head.

The pipe burst, drenching the "Perfect Elena" in a torrent of chemical foam and water. The Doppelgänger shrieked a digital, distorted sound as the high-tech sensors in her white suit began to short-circuit.

"Now!" Elena yelled at Alexander. "The elevator! Before the drones reset!"

As they dove into the gold-plated elevator, Elena saw the Doppelgänger standing in the lobby, her face flickering like a dying television screen. The violet light in the woman’s eyes wasn't beautiful anymore; it was a glitch.

The elevator doors closed, and the lift began its sixty-story ascent toward Silas Vance.

Elena leaned against the gold railing, her heart hammering against her ribs. She looked at Alexander. "You knew he had a second one, didn't you?"

Alexander didn't look at her. He was staring at the floor numbers as they climbed. "I knew he was working on a shell. I didn't know he had perfected the likeness. Elena... if we don't stop the transfer in the next twenty minutes, it won't matter if you’re real or not. You’ll be a passenger in your own skin, watching her live your life."

Elena gripped the bronze dagger. "Then we don't stop at the server room. We go straight to the top. I’m going to show your father what happens when the 'Data' decides to rewrite the 'Architect'."