Beneath the Billionaire Mask - Chapter 35: Chapter 35
You are reading Beneath the Billionaire Mask, Chapter 35: Chapter 35. Read more chapters of Beneath the Billionaire Mask.
Blackwood Foundation HQ – South Stairwell – 10:15 AM
The sound echoed like a gunshot.
A scream.
A body.
A silence that tasted like blood.
Adrian tore through the stairwell door as security scrambled behind him, voices crackling through comms. His pulse roared in his ears as he looked down the winding flights.
At the bottom—sprawled across the last landing—lay one Elena.
Motionless.
Bruised.
Face hidden in her arms.
“Blackwood!” Julia called behind him, breathless. “Which one is it?!”
Adrian didn’t answer.
Couldn’t.
Because another figure stood a half-flight above the body—pressed to the wall, disheveled, bleeding from the lip, shaking with adrenaline.
“Adrian,” she rasped. “It’s me.”
His eyes locked on her.
Elena?
Her voice. Her face.
But her eyes…
There was something in them—fear? Shock?
Or a performance?
Security rushed past him, surrounding the fallen double at the bottom of the stairs. One of them rolled her gently onto her back.
She blinked.
Still alive.
Barely conscious.
She looked up, dazed—and whispered:
“Don’t… let her fool you…”
Then she passed out
Blackwood HQ – Executive Medical Wing – 10:39 AM
They separated the two Elenas.
Both were alive.
One sedated, one cleared.
One silent, one speaking.
But neither could prove they were the original.
Liana stood beside Adrian in the medical observation room, watching the two-way glass.
“This is psychological warfare,” she muttered. “Marcus trained them for this. One of them is a ghost, the other a survivor—and we can’t tell which.”
Adrian didn’t move. His eyes never left the woman on the other side of the glass.
“She knew my middle name,” he said quietly.
“That’s something the Mirror would know if she had full access to your personnel file.”
“She flinched when I reached for her left hand. Elena was shot in the right shoulder last year. Her reflexes would favor her left now.”
“Unless the Mirror trained herself to simulate that.”
Adrian clenched his fists. “Then we’re back to nothing.”
“No,” Liana said. “We’re back to motive.”
Elsewhere in the Building – Surveillance Interrogation Room – 11:07 AM
Julia sat across from the speaking Elena—the one who hadn’t fallen.
“You say you’re the original.”
“I am.”
“Then what’s the first thing I ever said to you in the bullpen at The Herald?”
Elena paused.
Then smiled faintly. “‘If this job doesn’t kill us, the coffee will.’”
Julia narrowed her eyes. “And the first thing you said to me?”
“I said… ‘That’s a pretty morbid welcome.’”
Julia stared for a long time.
Then exhaled. “That’s not in your personnel files.”
“I know.”
“But it could’ve been in mine.”
The woman across from her flinched.
Foundation Archives – Restricted Server Room – 12:22 PM
Adrian accessed the only file Marcus Vale hadn’t erased: the Mirror genesis protocol.
A list of five behavioral triggers designed to distinguish real from replicated.
TRIGGER ONE: Emotional residue—nonlinear reaction to trauma.
TRIGGER TWO: Adaptive language drift—unique speech patterns when emotionally compromised.
TRIGGER THREE: Memory bleed—hallucination or nightmare fragments.
TRIGGER FOUR: Empathic error—overriding logic in favor of connection.
TRIGGER FIVE: Self-rejection. Mirror cannot say: ‘I am not her.’
Adrian closed the file.
Then picked up the intercom.
“Bring both Elenas to the glass room,” he said.
“Now.”
Blackwood HQ – The Glass Room – 12:43 PM
Two chairs.
Two women.
One mirrored wall.
Adrian stood before them both, holding only a small locket. Inside: a photo of Evelyn, and a line Elena had once whispered on a rooftop months ago.
“She died because I couldn’t save her in time. That’s what started all of this.”
He held the locket out.
“Which of you said this—and when?”
Both women opened their mouths.
Only one stopped.
The one on the left.
“I… don’t remember the exact moment,” she said softly. “Just that… it was raining. And you wouldn’t look me in the eye when I said it.”
The other froze.
Adrian moved toward the one who had spoken.
Gently, he took her hand.
“Say it,” he whispered.
“Say what?”
“That you’re not her.”
She didn’t flinch.
“I’m not her,” she said. “Because I never was pretending.”
Blackwood HQ – The Glass Room – 12:47 PM
The moment hung in the air like a wire pulled too tight.
Adrian’s fingers closed around the hand of the woman who had spoken—the one who remembered the rain, the shame, the silence that followed Evelyn’s name.
“I’m not her,” she said again. This time, her voice cracked.
The Mirror on the right blinked, slow and unreadable.
Then her posture shifted.
Not in fear.
In resignation.
“Bravo,” she murmured. “You win the emotional theater test.”
Adrian didn’t speak. He watched her every twitch.
“But do you really know who you’re holding?” the Mirror asked, rising slowly from her chair. “Or just the version you want to believe in?”
Security stepped forward, but she held up her hands.
“No tricks. No fight left in me.”
And then—she laughed. Bitter. Quiet.
“You still don’t get it. You think this is about identity. But Marcus… he was playing a longer game. A smarter one.”
Adrian tensed. “Explain.”
The Mirror turned to Elena—his Elena—one last time.
“He knew I’d lose. But he didn’t send me here to win.”
Elena’s voice was sharp. “Then what did he send you for?”
The Mirror’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. “To leave something behind.”
A beat passed.
Then:
CODE PULSE INITIATED
SIGNAL DETECTED: SYNTAX_A-58
BINARY MARKER IMPRINT: ELENA_CRUZ_SOURCE
The lights flickered.
Alarms didn’t blare.
But everyone in the control booth froze.
“What the hell is that?” Julia’s voice came through the speaker. “What did she activate?”
Adrian stepped back, eyes darting across the monitors.
The Mirror reached into her jacket and dropped a small chip onto the table.
Black.
Unmarked.
Still blinking red.
“It’s not me you have to worry about now,” she whispered. “It’s her.”
Everyone turned to Elena.
She stared at the chip, jaw tight.
“What did you do?” Adrian growled.
The Mirror tilted her head.
“I just woke her up.”
Then she collapsed.
Blackwood HQ – Secure Medical Bay – 1:12 PM
Elena sat alone, staring through the reinforced glass.
The chip sat in the sealed container.
Still pulsing.
Julia joined her, expression tight.
“I ran the signal signature. The chip wasn’t sending out commands—it was listening for one.”
Elena’s pulse skipped. “Meaning?”
“It’s not an implant. It’s a beacon. And you—” Julia looked at her pointedly, “—you’re the source.”
Adrian entered then, a file in his hand.
“It’s worse than that,” he said quietly. “The Mirror wasn’t just a physical replica. She left behind a neuro-digital fragment. SIGMA embedded a backdoor into your personal biometric field—memories, stress responses, even instinct.”
“What does that mean?” Elena asked, her voice steady but low.
Adrian met her gaze.
“It means someone out there has remote access… to you.”
Blackwood HQ – Lower Containment Wing – 1:34 PM
Elena sat beneath harsh fluorescent lights, the sterile chill of the containment room pressing against her skin. The chip—sealed inside a cryo-box—sat across the table, blinking like it knew something she didn’t.
Liana stood near the door, silent.
Adrian paced behind the glass, jaw tense, eyes unreadable.
“Tell me I’m not compromised,” Elena said flatly.
Julia’s voice crackled in through the intercom. “We’re still scanning the logs. The signal it triggered—Syntax A-58—it’s not viral. It didn’t rewrite you.”
“But it marked me,” Elena said. “Like a digital brand.”
Liana’s voice was razor-edged. “Then Marcus didn’t send the Mirror to overwrite you. He sent her to sync with you.”
Adrian stopped pacing.
Elena closed her eyes.
Sync. Not destroy. Not replace.
Coexist.
“I felt it,” Elena whispered. “That moment in the stairwell. When we fought—she hesitated, but not because she was afraid. Because she already knew what came next.”
Liana stepped forward. “Then that wasn’t a fail-safe.”
“It was a fuse.”
Adrian looked at the chip again.
It wasn’t transmitting anymore.
Because it didn’t need to.
The signal had already landed—somewhere inside Elena’s neural map.
And something else clicked.
“Elena,” he said slowly. “What were you dreaming after Bogotá? That first night in the safehouse.”
She didn’t respond.
“Elena,” he repeated. “Tell me.”
Her voice was barely audible. “I saw Evelyn. In the fire.”
Adrian’s heart stopped.
“She told me to run,” Elena continued, voice shaking now. “But… her face… kept changing. It was mine. Then hers. Then someone else.”
Adrian exchanged a glance with Liana.
It had already started.
Elsewhere – Unknown Node – SIGMA Dark Grid – ???
A flicker.
A pulse.
A shadow of a woman sat on a digital loop, watching Elena’s memory file play out in holographic flickers. Every movement. Every decision.
From childhood to Bogotá.
From fear to fire.
She smiled as Elena’s voice repeated itself again and again.
“I’m not her.”
The shadow leaned closer.
“But you will be.”
Blackwood HQ – Observation Deck – 2:03 PM
Rain tapped softly against the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Adrian stood beside Elena in silence, the city stretching far beyond them. He’d brought her here not for strategy—but air. Perspective. Something real.
But neither of them felt grounded.
“I don’t feel different,” she said finally. “I feel like me. But now every memory… every instinct… I have to second-guess it.”
Adrian’s voice was low. “That’s what they want. Doubt is the real weapon. The Mirror was just the delivery system.”
She turned to him, eyes haunted. “What if I was the real target all along? What if this was never about the file or the Foundation?”
“It was always about you,” he said. “But not because you’re weak. Because you’re dangerous to them.”
She looked away. “I don’t want to be dangerous. I just want to be… real.”
“You are.”
“No,” Elena said. “They made a version of me who’s cleaner, smarter, more persuasive. Who doesn’t flinch when the gun is raised. Who doesn’t question the cost.”
“And yet,” Adrian said, stepping closer, “she lost.”
Elena’s eyes met his.
“She left something behind.”
“So did you.”
A pause stretched between them—filled with electricity, memory, and the unbearable closeness of two people who had survived each other and everything else.
“Elena,” he said softly, “we’ll find a way to reverse this. Even if it means going after SIGMA ourselves.”
“I think that’s exactly what they want.”
A chime interrupted them.
Julia’s voice came through Adrian’s comm: “I found the real trigger embedded in the chip’s code. It’s not just watching her—it’s mapping her decision-making in real time.”
“What does that mean?” Elena asked.
“It means they’re building something,” Julia said. “And they’re using you as the blueprint.”
Unknown Location – Deep Grid Laboratory – ???
Two engineers hovered over a stasis pod.
Inside: a figure submerged in fluid, electrodes webbing across her skull.
The image was indistinct. Fetal. Forming.
But it was unmistakably human.
A line blinked on the monitor overhead:
Mirror_2: Synthesis 38% Complete
Source Cognitive Map: CRUZ_ELENA
Next Phase: Integration
The sound echoed like a gunshot.
A scream.
A body.
A silence that tasted like blood.
Adrian tore through the stairwell door as security scrambled behind him, voices crackling through comms. His pulse roared in his ears as he looked down the winding flights.
At the bottom—sprawled across the last landing—lay one Elena.
Motionless.
Bruised.
Face hidden in her arms.
“Blackwood!” Julia called behind him, breathless. “Which one is it?!”
Adrian didn’t answer.
Couldn’t.
Because another figure stood a half-flight above the body—pressed to the wall, disheveled, bleeding from the lip, shaking with adrenaline.
“Adrian,” she rasped. “It’s me.”
His eyes locked on her.
Elena?
Her voice. Her face.
But her eyes…
There was something in them—fear? Shock?
Or a performance?
Security rushed past him, surrounding the fallen double at the bottom of the stairs. One of them rolled her gently onto her back.
She blinked.
Still alive.
Barely conscious.
She looked up, dazed—and whispered:
“Don’t… let her fool you…”
Then she passed out
Blackwood HQ – Executive Medical Wing – 10:39 AM
They separated the two Elenas.
Both were alive.
One sedated, one cleared.
One silent, one speaking.
But neither could prove they were the original.
Liana stood beside Adrian in the medical observation room, watching the two-way glass.
“This is psychological warfare,” she muttered. “Marcus trained them for this. One of them is a ghost, the other a survivor—and we can’t tell which.”
Adrian didn’t move. His eyes never left the woman on the other side of the glass.
“She knew my middle name,” he said quietly.
“That’s something the Mirror would know if she had full access to your personnel file.”
“She flinched when I reached for her left hand. Elena was shot in the right shoulder last year. Her reflexes would favor her left now.”
“Unless the Mirror trained herself to simulate that.”
Adrian clenched his fists. “Then we’re back to nothing.”
“No,” Liana said. “We’re back to motive.”
Elsewhere in the Building – Surveillance Interrogation Room – 11:07 AM
Julia sat across from the speaking Elena—the one who hadn’t fallen.
“You say you’re the original.”
“I am.”
“Then what’s the first thing I ever said to you in the bullpen at The Herald?”
Elena paused.
Then smiled faintly. “‘If this job doesn’t kill us, the coffee will.’”
Julia narrowed her eyes. “And the first thing you said to me?”
“I said… ‘That’s a pretty morbid welcome.’”
Julia stared for a long time.
Then exhaled. “That’s not in your personnel files.”
“I know.”
“But it could’ve been in mine.”
The woman across from her flinched.
Foundation Archives – Restricted Server Room – 12:22 PM
Adrian accessed the only file Marcus Vale hadn’t erased: the Mirror genesis protocol.
A list of five behavioral triggers designed to distinguish real from replicated.
TRIGGER ONE: Emotional residue—nonlinear reaction to trauma.
TRIGGER TWO: Adaptive language drift—unique speech patterns when emotionally compromised.
TRIGGER THREE: Memory bleed—hallucination or nightmare fragments.
TRIGGER FOUR: Empathic error—overriding logic in favor of connection.
TRIGGER FIVE: Self-rejection. Mirror cannot say: ‘I am not her.’
Adrian closed the file.
Then picked up the intercom.
“Bring both Elenas to the glass room,” he said.
“Now.”
Blackwood HQ – The Glass Room – 12:43 PM
Two chairs.
Two women.
One mirrored wall.
Adrian stood before them both, holding only a small locket. Inside: a photo of Evelyn, and a line Elena had once whispered on a rooftop months ago.
“She died because I couldn’t save her in time. That’s what started all of this.”
He held the locket out.
“Which of you said this—and when?”
Both women opened their mouths.
Only one stopped.
The one on the left.
“I… don’t remember the exact moment,” she said softly. “Just that… it was raining. And you wouldn’t look me in the eye when I said it.”
The other froze.
Adrian moved toward the one who had spoken.
Gently, he took her hand.
“Say it,” he whispered.
“Say what?”
“That you’re not her.”
She didn’t flinch.
“I’m not her,” she said. “Because I never was pretending.”
Blackwood HQ – The Glass Room – 12:47 PM
The moment hung in the air like a wire pulled too tight.
Adrian’s fingers closed around the hand of the woman who had spoken—the one who remembered the rain, the shame, the silence that followed Evelyn’s name.
“I’m not her,” she said again. This time, her voice cracked.
The Mirror on the right blinked, slow and unreadable.
Then her posture shifted.
Not in fear.
In resignation.
“Bravo,” she murmured. “You win the emotional theater test.”
Adrian didn’t speak. He watched her every twitch.
“But do you really know who you’re holding?” the Mirror asked, rising slowly from her chair. “Or just the version you want to believe in?”
Security stepped forward, but she held up her hands.
“No tricks. No fight left in me.”
And then—she laughed. Bitter. Quiet.
“You still don’t get it. You think this is about identity. But Marcus… he was playing a longer game. A smarter one.”
Adrian tensed. “Explain.”
The Mirror turned to Elena—his Elena—one last time.
“He knew I’d lose. But he didn’t send me here to win.”
Elena’s voice was sharp. “Then what did he send you for?”
The Mirror’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. “To leave something behind.”
A beat passed.
Then:
CODE PULSE INITIATED
SIGNAL DETECTED: SYNTAX_A-58
BINARY MARKER IMPRINT: ELENA_CRUZ_SOURCE
The lights flickered.
Alarms didn’t blare.
But everyone in the control booth froze.
“What the hell is that?” Julia’s voice came through the speaker. “What did she activate?”
Adrian stepped back, eyes darting across the monitors.
The Mirror reached into her jacket and dropped a small chip onto the table.
Black.
Unmarked.
Still blinking red.
“It’s not me you have to worry about now,” she whispered. “It’s her.”
Everyone turned to Elena.
She stared at the chip, jaw tight.
“What did you do?” Adrian growled.
The Mirror tilted her head.
“I just woke her up.”
Then she collapsed.
Blackwood HQ – Secure Medical Bay – 1:12 PM
Elena sat alone, staring through the reinforced glass.
The chip sat in the sealed container.
Still pulsing.
Julia joined her, expression tight.
“I ran the signal signature. The chip wasn’t sending out commands—it was listening for one.”
Elena’s pulse skipped. “Meaning?”
“It’s not an implant. It’s a beacon. And you—” Julia looked at her pointedly, “—you’re the source.”
Adrian entered then, a file in his hand.
“It’s worse than that,” he said quietly. “The Mirror wasn’t just a physical replica. She left behind a neuro-digital fragment. SIGMA embedded a backdoor into your personal biometric field—memories, stress responses, even instinct.”
“What does that mean?” Elena asked, her voice steady but low.
Adrian met her gaze.
“It means someone out there has remote access… to you.”
Blackwood HQ – Lower Containment Wing – 1:34 PM
Elena sat beneath harsh fluorescent lights, the sterile chill of the containment room pressing against her skin. The chip—sealed inside a cryo-box—sat across the table, blinking like it knew something she didn’t.
Liana stood near the door, silent.
Adrian paced behind the glass, jaw tense, eyes unreadable.
“Tell me I’m not compromised,” Elena said flatly.
Julia’s voice crackled in through the intercom. “We’re still scanning the logs. The signal it triggered—Syntax A-58—it’s not viral. It didn’t rewrite you.”
“But it marked me,” Elena said. “Like a digital brand.”
Liana’s voice was razor-edged. “Then Marcus didn’t send the Mirror to overwrite you. He sent her to sync with you.”
Adrian stopped pacing.
Elena closed her eyes.
Sync. Not destroy. Not replace.
Coexist.
“I felt it,” Elena whispered. “That moment in the stairwell. When we fought—she hesitated, but not because she was afraid. Because she already knew what came next.”
Liana stepped forward. “Then that wasn’t a fail-safe.”
“It was a fuse.”
Adrian looked at the chip again.
It wasn’t transmitting anymore.
Because it didn’t need to.
The signal had already landed—somewhere inside Elena’s neural map.
And something else clicked.
“Elena,” he said slowly. “What were you dreaming after Bogotá? That first night in the safehouse.”
She didn’t respond.
“Elena,” he repeated. “Tell me.”
Her voice was barely audible. “I saw Evelyn. In the fire.”
Adrian’s heart stopped.
“She told me to run,” Elena continued, voice shaking now. “But… her face… kept changing. It was mine. Then hers. Then someone else.”
Adrian exchanged a glance with Liana.
It had already started.
Elsewhere – Unknown Node – SIGMA Dark Grid – ???
A flicker.
A pulse.
A shadow of a woman sat on a digital loop, watching Elena’s memory file play out in holographic flickers. Every movement. Every decision.
From childhood to Bogotá.
From fear to fire.
She smiled as Elena’s voice repeated itself again and again.
“I’m not her.”
The shadow leaned closer.
“But you will be.”
Blackwood HQ – Observation Deck – 2:03 PM
Rain tapped softly against the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Adrian stood beside Elena in silence, the city stretching far beyond them. He’d brought her here not for strategy—but air. Perspective. Something real.
But neither of them felt grounded.
“I don’t feel different,” she said finally. “I feel like me. But now every memory… every instinct… I have to second-guess it.”
Adrian’s voice was low. “That’s what they want. Doubt is the real weapon. The Mirror was just the delivery system.”
She turned to him, eyes haunted. “What if I was the real target all along? What if this was never about the file or the Foundation?”
“It was always about you,” he said. “But not because you’re weak. Because you’re dangerous to them.”
She looked away. “I don’t want to be dangerous. I just want to be… real.”
“You are.”
“No,” Elena said. “They made a version of me who’s cleaner, smarter, more persuasive. Who doesn’t flinch when the gun is raised. Who doesn’t question the cost.”
“And yet,” Adrian said, stepping closer, “she lost.”
Elena’s eyes met his.
“She left something behind.”
“So did you.”
A pause stretched between them—filled with electricity, memory, and the unbearable closeness of two people who had survived each other and everything else.
“Elena,” he said softly, “we’ll find a way to reverse this. Even if it means going after SIGMA ourselves.”
“I think that’s exactly what they want.”
A chime interrupted them.
Julia’s voice came through Adrian’s comm: “I found the real trigger embedded in the chip’s code. It’s not just watching her—it’s mapping her decision-making in real time.”
“What does that mean?” Elena asked.
“It means they’re building something,” Julia said. “And they’re using you as the blueprint.”
Unknown Location – Deep Grid Laboratory – ???
Two engineers hovered over a stasis pod.
Inside: a figure submerged in fluid, electrodes webbing across her skull.
The image was indistinct. Fetal. Forming.
But it was unmistakably human.
A line blinked on the monitor overhead:
Mirror_2: Synthesis 38% Complete
Source Cognitive Map: CRUZ_ELENA
Next Phase: Integration
End of Beneath the Billionaire Mask Chapter 35. Continue reading Chapter 36 or return to Beneath the Billionaire Mask book page.