Beneath the Billionaire Mask - Chapter 32: Chapter 32
You are reading Beneath the Billionaire Mask, Chapter 32: Chapter 32. Read more chapters of Beneath the Billionaire Mask.
Vault Duskend – Sublevel 3 – 6:13 AM
Elena’s footsteps echoed against the vaulted corridor walls—stone and steel fused together like the past welded shut.
Adrian moved beside her, his steps deliberate, weapon drawn. Evelyn trailed close behind, scanner tight in her hands, eyes flicking across each sensor reading with suspicion.
“Signal’s still holding,” Evelyn murmured. “Whoever—or whatever—it is… it has your heartbeat signature, Elena.”
Elena swallowed hard. “I don’t remember being here. But this place feels like it remembers me.”
At the end of the hall, a set of reinforced double doors hissed open.
Inside: a chamber glowing with blue light, walls laced with neural relays, cryo-tubes, and—at the center—her.
Floating in a liquid chamber.
Eyes closed.
Still.
But alive.
A perfect replica of Elena Cruz—same scar at the brow, same curve of jaw, same pulse of tension beneath the skin.
“What the hell…” Adrian whispered.
Elena stepped forward slowly. “It’s not a clone.”
“No,” Evelyn agreed. “It’s something worse. It’s a cognitive imprint. They didn’t just copy your DNA. They copied your mind.”
“It’s a failsafe,” Adrian said darkly. “If Marcus couldn’t control you—he’d activate her.”
The chamber console blinked.
PROJECT Z: STANDBY MODE
AUTHORIZATION: CRUZ
Adrian turned to her. “It’s waiting for your command.”
“No,” Elena whispered. “It’s waiting for my collapse.”
Elsewhere – Vault Duskend Surveillance Hub – 6:18 AM
Marcus watched from behind layers of screens, Theta silent beside him.
“She made it,” Theta noted.
“Of course she did,” Marcus murmured. “Curiosity is the most reliable addiction.”
He leaned forward, fingers steepled.
“She sees it now. The weapon she was always meant to be. The one her father never finished because he loved her too much.”
“Do you still want to activate the mirror protocol?”
Marcus smiled faintly.
“No. I want her to do it.”
Vault Core – Observation Deck – 6:20 AM
Elena stared at her twin in the tank.
A version of herself frozen at the moment her father gave up everything to protect her. Before the betrayals. Before the burn of trust. Before Adrian.
“I hate her,” she said suddenly.
Adrian’s gaze sharpened. “Why?”
“Because she never had to make the hard choices. She didn’t fail anyone. She’s clean.”
“But she’s not real,” he said. “You are.”
Evelyn tapped the console, frowning.
“There’s something else buried in the protocol. A subroutine called ‘MIRROR ACT.’ It triggers… if Elena dies.”
Elena blinked.
“What?”
Adrian stiffened. “You mean if she flatlines, that thing wakes up in her place?”
Evelyn nodded grimly. “Public record, digital access, security authorization—all rerouted to her. She becomes the legal and digital identity of Elena Cruz.”
Adrian muttered a curse.
“Marcus built an eraser. One that doesn’t look like erasure.”
Suddenly
The tank beeped.
A faint flicker in the construct’s neural scanner.
Then
Its eyes opened.
And locked onto Elena.
Vault Duskend – Core Chamber – 6:22 AM
The construct’s eyes—her eyes—opened.
Identical. Unblinking. Too calm.
Adrian raised his weapon instantly.
“Don’t,” Elena said, her voice low. “Let me talk to her.”
The cryo-fluid drained slowly from the chamber as robotic arms withdrew. The clone lowered onto the floor like something sacred and strange—almost graceful. She stood without trembling, head tilting as if taking in the world for the first time.
But Elena saw it—the recognition. Not discovery. Memory.
“Hello, Elena,” the clone said.
Even her voice was the same—down to the cadence.
Elena stepped forward. “Do you know what you are?”
“I’m the version of you that survived without compromise.”
Adrian shifted beside her. “That’s not possible.”
“But it is,” the clone replied. “You broke. I didn’t.”
The words hit like a lash.
“You’ve been dormant,” Elena said. “Preserved. You don’t know what I’ve done.”
“I know enough,” she said. “Marcus programmed me to continue your mission when you failed it.”
“I never failed—”
“You fell in love,” the clone cut in. “With the man who wears the mask. You chose emotion over logic. Compassion over strategy.”
Elena’s fists clenched. “That’s what makes me human.”
The clone didn’t blink. “That’s what makes you weak.”
Vault Surveillance Hub – Same Time
Marcus leaned closer to the screen, watching the exchange unfold with barely restrained anticipation.
“She’s pushing her,” he said.
Theta looked over. “Will she activate the override?”
“Not yet,” Marcus said. “But soon. The real Elena still believes she has a choice.”
He tapped into the vault’s intercom.
Time to take that choice away.
Vault Duskend – Core Chamber – 6:28 AM
A sharp beep cracked through the room. The ceiling lights flickered red.
A voice filled the air.
Marcus.
“Hello, Elena.”
Her breath hitched. Adrian’s jaw locked.
“Surprised?” Marcus continued. “Don’t be. This was always going to happen. You were never meant to destroy me. You were meant to replace me.”
Elena stared up at the intercom. “What do you want?”
“To watch you choose,” he said. “Between the woman you were made to be… and the woman you became by mistake.”
Her clone stepped closer. “I won’t hesitate. I will complete what your father started.”
“And you’ll erase everything I’ve fought for,” Elena snapped. “Everything I loved.”
Adrian stepped in front of her. “She doesn’t get to decide.”
Marcus’s voice hummed again.
“Then shoot her.”
The room fell to silence.
Even the clone went still.
“You heard me,” Marcus said. “Put a bullet in her skull. Prove you’re more than a liability. Or I’ll trigger Mirror Protocol Phase II—and Elena will no longer have a say in anything.”
Evelyn hissed a breath. “He’s bluffing—”
“No,” Elena said, raising her hand.
She stepped forward, facing herself—every breath trembling, every word steady.
“I won’t shoot her.”
Marcus chuckled. “Of course you won’t.”
“But I will beat her.”
She turned to Adrian.
“Don’t protect me.”
“Elena—”
“Let me show her who I am.”
Chamber – 6:31 AM
The clone raised her fists. “You’re no match for me.”
Elena’s eyes blazed. “You’re just a reflection.”
And she moved.
Their bodies collided in a clash of mirrored motion—strikes traded like echoes. Every punch, every block, was like hitting herself. The same instincts. The same rage.
But Elena had something her mirror didn’t.
Pain. Loss. Fire.
The clone faltered for one second—hesitating when Elena didn’t follow the predicted pattern. Elena slammed her to the ground.
Breathing hard, Elena straddled the clone, fist poised.
“Say it,” Elena whispered. “Say you’re not me.”
The clone looked up.
And for the first time—she smiled.
“Then why do I feel afraid?”
A sharp alarm rang out.
Adrian yelled: “The failsafe—he triggered it!”
Control Room – Emergency Lockdown
Marcus watched as the vault’s systems began to overload.
“It’s done,” he said calmly. “One of them will break. The other will burn.
As lights flickered and klaxons wailed, Elena looked down at her mirrored self—bleeding, but alive. A war still raging behind her eyes.
Adrian’s voice cut through the chaos.
“Elena—choose. We have seconds.”
Her fingers hovered over the control panel.
Two buttons:
TERMINATE MIRROR
INTEGRATE
Tears burned her eyes.
“Who am I… if I kill myself to survive?”
Vault Duskend – Core Chamber – 6:33 AM
Sirens screamed. Red lights strobed across the room. Systems whirred into lockdown as the clone coughed, blood trailing from her lip. The chamber temperature dropped.
Adrian moved toward Elena, his voice sharp through the panic.
“Elena—we don’t have time!”
She stared at the control panel. Her hand hovered over two pulsing commands:
TERMINATE MIRROR
INTEGRATE
Each option throbbed like a heartbeat. Each promised to erase a piece of who she was.
“If you merge with her,” Evelyn warned, “you might lose yourself.”
“If I kill her,” Elena whispered, “then maybe I already have.”
Behind her, the clone stirred. Not reaching for a weapon. Not attacking. Just looking up—wide-eyed, trembling, as if in that last moment, she realized she didn’t want to die either.
Adrian stepped closer. “This isn’t you against her, Elena. It’s you choosing you. Not the version your father created. Not the tool Marcus wanted.”
Elena looked at the mirror of herself.
“You said you were me without compromise,” she said. “But that’s not strength. That’s just emptiness in a prettier dress.”
The clone blinked slowly.
And for the first time—cried.
A single tear. Just one. Real.
Elena stepped back and made her choice.
She pressed INTEGRATE.
System Response – 6:35 AM
INTEGRATION PROTOCOL ENGAGED.
STABILIZATION IN PROGRESS.
Cognitive Merge: 47%… 61%… 79%…
Elena fell to her knees as a jolt of energy ripped through her.
A thousand memories—not hers—flooded her mind. The clone’s perfect isolation. Simulated training. Marcus’s voice, instructing, programming, shaping.
And underneath it all: her own memories—filtered, modified, echoed back in a sterile mirror.
She remembered watching Adrian bleed on the vault floor.
She remembered her father’s last message.
She remembered love. Regret. Choice.
The clone gasped beside her and collapsed, unconscious.
The lights dimmed.
The sirens stopped.
INTEGRATION COMPLETE.
MIRROR DECOMMISSIONED.
Elena stood, swaying—but upright.
Adrian rushed to her, catching her just as her knees buckled again.
“Are you—?”
“I’m still me,” she whispered. “But I remember everything.”
Vault Surveillance Hub – 6:38 AM
Marcus stood in stunned silence, staring at the dead screen.
“She merged?” Theta asked.
“She merged,” Marcus echoed. Then, slowly, he smiled.
“That… was unexpected.”
He turned away, picking up a small encrypted drive from the console.
“But it’s fine. Because now she has everything I need.”
Theta frowned. “And if she fights back?”
Marcus tucked the drive into his coat and turned for the exit.
“Then I’ll take it from her the old-fashioned way.”
Vault Duskend – Exit Ramp – 6:49 AM
Elena stepped into the light with Adrian and Evelyn at her side, her face pale, her body trembling—but her eyes burning with fire.
“What now?” Evelyn asked.
Elena looked toward the rising sun, wind tugging at her jacket.
“Now we make sure no one ever builds another version of me again.”
Elena’s footsteps echoed against the vaulted corridor walls—stone and steel fused together like the past welded shut.
Adrian moved beside her, his steps deliberate, weapon drawn. Evelyn trailed close behind, scanner tight in her hands, eyes flicking across each sensor reading with suspicion.
“Signal’s still holding,” Evelyn murmured. “Whoever—or whatever—it is… it has your heartbeat signature, Elena.”
Elena swallowed hard. “I don’t remember being here. But this place feels like it remembers me.”
At the end of the hall, a set of reinforced double doors hissed open.
Inside: a chamber glowing with blue light, walls laced with neural relays, cryo-tubes, and—at the center—her.
Floating in a liquid chamber.
Eyes closed.
Still.
But alive.
A perfect replica of Elena Cruz—same scar at the brow, same curve of jaw, same pulse of tension beneath the skin.
“What the hell…” Adrian whispered.
Elena stepped forward slowly. “It’s not a clone.”
“No,” Evelyn agreed. “It’s something worse. It’s a cognitive imprint. They didn’t just copy your DNA. They copied your mind.”
“It’s a failsafe,” Adrian said darkly. “If Marcus couldn’t control you—he’d activate her.”
The chamber console blinked.
PROJECT Z: STANDBY MODE
AUTHORIZATION: CRUZ
Adrian turned to her. “It’s waiting for your command.”
“No,” Elena whispered. “It’s waiting for my collapse.”
Elsewhere – Vault Duskend Surveillance Hub – 6:18 AM
Marcus watched from behind layers of screens, Theta silent beside him.
“She made it,” Theta noted.
“Of course she did,” Marcus murmured. “Curiosity is the most reliable addiction.”
He leaned forward, fingers steepled.
“She sees it now. The weapon she was always meant to be. The one her father never finished because he loved her too much.”
“Do you still want to activate the mirror protocol?”
Marcus smiled faintly.
“No. I want her to do it.”
Vault Core – Observation Deck – 6:20 AM
Elena stared at her twin in the tank.
A version of herself frozen at the moment her father gave up everything to protect her. Before the betrayals. Before the burn of trust. Before Adrian.
“I hate her,” she said suddenly.
Adrian’s gaze sharpened. “Why?”
“Because she never had to make the hard choices. She didn’t fail anyone. She’s clean.”
“But she’s not real,” he said. “You are.”
Evelyn tapped the console, frowning.
“There’s something else buried in the protocol. A subroutine called ‘MIRROR ACT.’ It triggers… if Elena dies.”
Elena blinked.
“What?”
Adrian stiffened. “You mean if she flatlines, that thing wakes up in her place?”
Evelyn nodded grimly. “Public record, digital access, security authorization—all rerouted to her. She becomes the legal and digital identity of Elena Cruz.”
Adrian muttered a curse.
“Marcus built an eraser. One that doesn’t look like erasure.”
Suddenly
The tank beeped.
A faint flicker in the construct’s neural scanner.
Then
Its eyes opened.
And locked onto Elena.
Vault Duskend – Core Chamber – 6:22 AM
The construct’s eyes—her eyes—opened.
Identical. Unblinking. Too calm.
Adrian raised his weapon instantly.
“Don’t,” Elena said, her voice low. “Let me talk to her.”
The cryo-fluid drained slowly from the chamber as robotic arms withdrew. The clone lowered onto the floor like something sacred and strange—almost graceful. She stood without trembling, head tilting as if taking in the world for the first time.
But Elena saw it—the recognition. Not discovery. Memory.
“Hello, Elena,” the clone said.
Even her voice was the same—down to the cadence.
Elena stepped forward. “Do you know what you are?”
“I’m the version of you that survived without compromise.”
Adrian shifted beside her. “That’s not possible.”
“But it is,” the clone replied. “You broke. I didn’t.”
The words hit like a lash.
“You’ve been dormant,” Elena said. “Preserved. You don’t know what I’ve done.”
“I know enough,” she said. “Marcus programmed me to continue your mission when you failed it.”
“I never failed—”
“You fell in love,” the clone cut in. “With the man who wears the mask. You chose emotion over logic. Compassion over strategy.”
Elena’s fists clenched. “That’s what makes me human.”
The clone didn’t blink. “That’s what makes you weak.”
Vault Surveillance Hub – Same Time
Marcus leaned closer to the screen, watching the exchange unfold with barely restrained anticipation.
“She’s pushing her,” he said.
Theta looked over. “Will she activate the override?”
“Not yet,” Marcus said. “But soon. The real Elena still believes she has a choice.”
He tapped into the vault’s intercom.
Time to take that choice away.
Vault Duskend – Core Chamber – 6:28 AM
A sharp beep cracked through the room. The ceiling lights flickered red.
A voice filled the air.
Marcus.
“Hello, Elena.”
Her breath hitched. Adrian’s jaw locked.
“Surprised?” Marcus continued. “Don’t be. This was always going to happen. You were never meant to destroy me. You were meant to replace me.”
Elena stared up at the intercom. “What do you want?”
“To watch you choose,” he said. “Between the woman you were made to be… and the woman you became by mistake.”
Her clone stepped closer. “I won’t hesitate. I will complete what your father started.”
“And you’ll erase everything I’ve fought for,” Elena snapped. “Everything I loved.”
Adrian stepped in front of her. “She doesn’t get to decide.”
Marcus’s voice hummed again.
“Then shoot her.”
The room fell to silence.
Even the clone went still.
“You heard me,” Marcus said. “Put a bullet in her skull. Prove you’re more than a liability. Or I’ll trigger Mirror Protocol Phase II—and Elena will no longer have a say in anything.”
Evelyn hissed a breath. “He’s bluffing—”
“No,” Elena said, raising her hand.
She stepped forward, facing herself—every breath trembling, every word steady.
“I won’t shoot her.”
Marcus chuckled. “Of course you won’t.”
“But I will beat her.”
She turned to Adrian.
“Don’t protect me.”
“Elena—”
“Let me show her who I am.”
Chamber – 6:31 AM
The clone raised her fists. “You’re no match for me.”
Elena’s eyes blazed. “You’re just a reflection.”
And she moved.
Their bodies collided in a clash of mirrored motion—strikes traded like echoes. Every punch, every block, was like hitting herself. The same instincts. The same rage.
But Elena had something her mirror didn’t.
Pain. Loss. Fire.
The clone faltered for one second—hesitating when Elena didn’t follow the predicted pattern. Elena slammed her to the ground.
Breathing hard, Elena straddled the clone, fist poised.
“Say it,” Elena whispered. “Say you’re not me.”
The clone looked up.
And for the first time—she smiled.
“Then why do I feel afraid?”
A sharp alarm rang out.
Adrian yelled: “The failsafe—he triggered it!”
Control Room – Emergency Lockdown
Marcus watched as the vault’s systems began to overload.
“It’s done,” he said calmly. “One of them will break. The other will burn.
As lights flickered and klaxons wailed, Elena looked down at her mirrored self—bleeding, but alive. A war still raging behind her eyes.
Adrian’s voice cut through the chaos.
“Elena—choose. We have seconds.”
Her fingers hovered over the control panel.
Two buttons:
TERMINATE MIRROR
INTEGRATE
Tears burned her eyes.
“Who am I… if I kill myself to survive?”
Vault Duskend – Core Chamber – 6:33 AM
Sirens screamed. Red lights strobed across the room. Systems whirred into lockdown as the clone coughed, blood trailing from her lip. The chamber temperature dropped.
Adrian moved toward Elena, his voice sharp through the panic.
“Elena—we don’t have time!”
She stared at the control panel. Her hand hovered over two pulsing commands:
TERMINATE MIRROR
INTEGRATE
Each option throbbed like a heartbeat. Each promised to erase a piece of who she was.
“If you merge with her,” Evelyn warned, “you might lose yourself.”
“If I kill her,” Elena whispered, “then maybe I already have.”
Behind her, the clone stirred. Not reaching for a weapon. Not attacking. Just looking up—wide-eyed, trembling, as if in that last moment, she realized she didn’t want to die either.
Adrian stepped closer. “This isn’t you against her, Elena. It’s you choosing you. Not the version your father created. Not the tool Marcus wanted.”
Elena looked at the mirror of herself.
“You said you were me without compromise,” she said. “But that’s not strength. That’s just emptiness in a prettier dress.”
The clone blinked slowly.
And for the first time—cried.
A single tear. Just one. Real.
Elena stepped back and made her choice.
She pressed INTEGRATE.
System Response – 6:35 AM
INTEGRATION PROTOCOL ENGAGED.
STABILIZATION IN PROGRESS.
Cognitive Merge: 47%… 61%… 79%…
Elena fell to her knees as a jolt of energy ripped through her.
A thousand memories—not hers—flooded her mind. The clone’s perfect isolation. Simulated training. Marcus’s voice, instructing, programming, shaping.
And underneath it all: her own memories—filtered, modified, echoed back in a sterile mirror.
She remembered watching Adrian bleed on the vault floor.
She remembered her father’s last message.
She remembered love. Regret. Choice.
The clone gasped beside her and collapsed, unconscious.
The lights dimmed.
The sirens stopped.
INTEGRATION COMPLETE.
MIRROR DECOMMISSIONED.
Elena stood, swaying—but upright.
Adrian rushed to her, catching her just as her knees buckled again.
“Are you—?”
“I’m still me,” she whispered. “But I remember everything.”
Vault Surveillance Hub – 6:38 AM
Marcus stood in stunned silence, staring at the dead screen.
“She merged?” Theta asked.
“She merged,” Marcus echoed. Then, slowly, he smiled.
“That… was unexpected.”
He turned away, picking up a small encrypted drive from the console.
“But it’s fine. Because now she has everything I need.”
Theta frowned. “And if she fights back?”
Marcus tucked the drive into his coat and turned for the exit.
“Then I’ll take it from her the old-fashioned way.”
Vault Duskend – Exit Ramp – 6:49 AM
Elena stepped into the light with Adrian and Evelyn at her side, her face pale, her body trembling—but her eyes burning with fire.
“What now?” Evelyn asked.
Elena looked toward the rising sun, wind tugging at her jacket.
“Now we make sure no one ever builds another version of me again.”
End of Beneath the Billionaire Mask Chapter 32. Continue reading Chapter 33 or return to Beneath the Billionaire Mask book page.