The alarms changed pitch.
Not warning.
Not failure.
Something worse.
Recognition.
THIRD SIGNAL CONFIRMED.
The words flashed across every monitor in violent red letters.
Lena couldn’t breathe.
Light still burned beneath her palm as the machine hummed louder, vibrating through her bones. Her thoughts no longer felt entirely her own.
Memories continued pouring into her mind — fragments that didn’t belong to her.
A dark room.
A child crying alone.
Locked doors.
A voice whispering numbers again and again.
Not Noah.
Someone else.
Her knees weakened.
“What… is happening?” she whispered.
Ivan stared at the screens, confusion breaking through his composure for the first time.
“That’s impossible,” he muttered. “There were only two compatible subjects.”
The monitors pulsed again.
