POV: Mia (Zero)
They kept her locked in the lower medical bay.
Not in chains.
Not in silver.
But in soundproof walls, neural dampeners embedded into the floor, and three rotating guards who’d seen enough of the Broker’s tricks to hesitate before even breathing near her.
She didn’t speak.
She didn’t move.
She just… existed.
Zero 2.1.
A copy of me. One not made of scars and choices and grief, but of precision. Of equations. Of bloodless obedience.
But she hadn’t tried to escape.
Hadn’t fought.
Hadn’t asked a single question.
And that was somehow worse.
Alex stood beside me now, watching her through the reinforced glass. “Has she said anything?”
“No,” I said. “Not even when the others brought in food.”
“You don’t think she’s playing dead, waiting?”
I shook my head. “She doesn
