Beneath the Billionaire Mask - Chapter 71: Chapter 71

Safehouse Echo – Surveillance Bay – 6:54 AM
The lights buzzed faintly in the underground war room as Liana stood frozen in front of the monitor. Julia sat beside her, lips parted, scanning the live system diagnostics.
On-screen: a replication node had gone active.
REPLICATION NODE 7 – STATUS: ONLINE
SUBJECT: CR-02
LOCATION: UNKNOWN
PROTOCOL: SLEEPWALKER
Liana’s voice was thin. “It’s her.”
Elena’s clone—CR-02—was awake.
Julia scrolled through lines of cascading code, her fingers shaking. “This isn’t just an activation. She bypassed the control gate.”
“She’s running autonomous.”
“She’s learning.”
Safehouse Echo – Adrian’s Quarters – 7:09 AM
Adrian stared at the holoscreen footage again.
A blurred image of a woman—Elena’s face, but sharper, colder—caught mid-frame in a Berlin transport station just before the system went dark.
“Tell me this is a glitch,” he said.
“It’s not,” Liana replied behind him. “CR-02 is fully operational.”
Adrian’s jaw clenched. “How long before she makes a move?”
“She already has. She’s hijacked three city grids, accessed two military archives, and erased her trace.”
“Then she doesn’t want us to stop her.”
“No,” Liana said. “She wants us to watch.”
Adrian turned, eyes heavy with something darker than worry. “Elena can’t know—not yet.”
“She already does.”
Elena’s Room – Same Time
She stared into the mirror like she was waiting for it to answer her. Her skin felt strange—like something beneath it was trying to break free.
A soft knock at the door. She didn’t look back.
“I heard,” she said.
Adrian stepped in. “It’s not your fault.”
“She has my memories.”
“She’s not you.”
“She has my voice. My eyes. My instincts. And now, she’s using them to dismantle everything we built.”
Adrian closed the distance. “Then we remind her what she can’t copy.”
“What?”
He looked her dead in the eye. “You’ve got a soul.”
Unknown Facility – Europe – 8:13 AM
CR-02 stood inside a circular chamber, flooded with blue light. She was surrounded by screens—each replaying different moments of Elena’s life: interviews, childhood videos, mission footage.
She moved like clockwork—impossibly graceful.
Her voice echoed across the room. Calm. Clinical.
“Subject: Cruz, Elena. Status: Incomplete. Emotional inconsistencies detected.”
“Conclusion: Original must be neutralized. Identity must be corrected.”
She turned to the mirror. Her reflection blinked.
Then smiled.
Not Elena’s smile.
Something darker.
“Begin infiltration.”
Safehouse Echo – War Room – 9:00 AM
“We go public,” Elena said.
The table went silent.
“You want to tell the world you have a rogue clone?” Liana asked.
“Yes.”
Julia blinked. “That’s suicide.”
“No,” Elena said, voice strong. “It’s clarity. She’s trying to make people question who I am. We fight fire with truth.”
Adrian crossed his arms. “If we expose her, she’ll escalate.”
“She already has.”
He stared at her, then nodded. “Then we bring her into the light.”
Liana glanced between them. “Just make sure you’re ready for what crawls out with her.”
Safehouse Echo – Armory Bay – 9:42 AM
Elena tugged on the black tactical gloves, her mind a battlefield of competing voices. One side of her knew what had to be done. The other? It trembled with the weight of what it meant to fight herself.
“This isn’t just about identity anymore,” she murmured.
Julia handed her a comms piece. “No. It’s about control.”
Adrian appeared beside them, dressed in full black ops gear—no tie, no mask. Just the man. Unfiltered. Unafraid.
“I’ve traced a signal spike,” he said. “Berlin. West corridor. She’s using one of our dead drops.”
Elena frowned. “She’s baiting us.”
“She wants a confrontation,” Adrian said. “And she’ll get one.”
Liana approached with a duffel bag and placed it on the table. “Loaded with EMP charges, tranquil rounds, and a neural disabler. It won’t kill her—unless we have to.”
Adrian looked at Elena. “We only use lethal if there’s no other option.”
“She’s still me,” Elena whispered.
“Exactly why you have to be the one to face her.”
Berlin – Abandoned Metro Grid – 11:03 AM
Rain hit the glass roof in soft rhythms as the strike team descended into the old U-Bahn tunnel. They moved in silence, the shadows curling around them.
In the center of the platform, under a broken halogen light, CR-02 stood in a pale coat—hair loose, unbothered by the cold.
“You came,” she said, not looking up. “Fascinating.”
Elena stepped forward, lowering her weapon slightly. “You’re not a ghost. You’re not a god. You’re just a glitch pretending to be whole.”
CR-02 turned slowly, her eyes sharp, calculating. “And you’re pretending you’re not broken.”
“Don’t do this,” Elena said. “You can still stop.”
“I was stopped. They shelved me. Buried me. Now I get to rewrite the ending.”
Behind her, four masked operatives emerged from the shadows.
Adrian’s voice buzzed through comms. “It’s an ambush. Pull back.”
“No,” Elena said into the mic. “She wants me.”
CR-02 smiled. “Of course I do. I’m not here for a war.”
She stepped forward and dropped a tablet on the ground. It flickered to life.
A live feed.
Julia. In her apartment.
Tied. Gagged. Struggling.
“Let’s trade, shall we?” CR-02 said. “My life for hers.”
Elena’s heart slammed against her chest.
“This isn’t a negotiation,” Adrian growled through comms.
“It is now,” the clone said. “Come find me before the clock runs out. One hour.”
She turned, disappearing into the darkness. The feed blinked out.
Berlin – Mobile Command Van – 11:16 AM
Adrian slammed his fist into the side of the console. “She’s escalating faster than I anticipated.”
“She’s not after power,” Elena said, breathless. “She’s after purpose. She wants to be the real one.”
Liana looked between them. “Then how do you beat someone who thinks you are the fake?”
Elena raised her chin, voice steady now. “I don’t just beat her.”
She holstered her weapon.
“I remind her who I am.”
Berlin – Underground Transit Ruins – 11:47 AM
Elena moved like a phantom through the forgotten metro grid, her footsteps echoing over rusted rails. Her breath frosted in the cold, fingers curled tight around her tranquil gun. Ahead, red emergency lights flickered on and off—like a pulse.
Time was running out.
“Julia’s vitals are dipping,” Liana’s voice crackled over comms. “You have twelve minutes.”
“Understood,” Elena said.
She rounded the next corner—and there she was.
CR-02.
Sitting cross-legged on a control box, humming an old lullaby. Elena’s lullaby.
“I used to dream I was you,” CR-02 said. “Now I dream you never existed.”
Elena kept her weapon raised. “You had a chance to disappear.”
“But I didn’t want to disappear,” the clone said, sliding down and pacing like a caged wolf. “I wanted to be remembered. I wanted to matter. You stole that.”
“I didn’t ask for this,” Elena snapped.
“No,” CR-02 whispered. “You just got lucky.”
A flash of movement—and suddenly, a blade slid from her sleeve.
“I’m not your reflection,” Elena said, circling her. “I’m the storm you never mastered.”
The clone lunged.
They collided with brutal precision—mirror against mirror. Blow for blow, breath for breath. The same moves. The same fury. But one fought for ego.
The other fought for love.
Elena finally pinned CR-02 against the wall, the tranquil gun pressed to her throat.
“You lost,” Elena panted.
CR-02 smiled, blood at her lip. “Not yet.”
She hit a device at her belt. The screen behind them sparked to life—
Julia. Drenched in shadows. A countdown over her head.
Adrian’s voice burst through the comms. “Elena, we found the signal source—south sector. We’re breaching now.”
CR-02’s smile faded.
“You won’t get to see it,” Elena whispered.
She pulled the trigger.
The clone’s body slumped—unconscious, not dead.
Then Elena ran.
Berlin – South Sector – Julia’s Holding Room – 11:59 AM
The metal door exploded inward.
Adrian charged in, followed by Liana. Julia lay on the floor, weak but alive, blinking in disbelief.
“Elena?” she whispered.
Footsteps pounded down the hall. Elena burst in, breathless.
Julia tried to sit up, her voice barely audible. “You… found me…”
Elena collapsed beside her, cradling her face. “You’re safe now.”
Julia nodded weakly. “She said… Project NIGHTFALL… isn’t done.”
Adrian’s face went still.
Elena’s blood ran cold. “Then this wasn’t the end.”
“No,” Julia rasped. “It was just the reset.”
Berlin – South Sector Safehouse – 12:12 PM
The silence after extraction was deafening.
Elena sat beside Julia’s cot, watching her sister breathe—shallow, steady, but fragile. Every bruise told a story. Every scar was a map of survival. Her pulse was a whisper now, but it was still there.
“I should’ve found you sooner,” Elena murmured.
“You did,” Julia said faintly. “You always do.”
Across the room, Liana typed at the cracked console, trying to stabilize the decrypt feed. Adrian paced, the fractured hard drive from the clone’s device held carefully in his gloved hand.
He stopped suddenly, turning to Elena. “Do you remember what your father called the failed operations?”
She blinked. “Ghost shells.”
He nodded grimly. “The clone you fought wasn’t just mimicking your movements. She had your memories.”
Liana looked up. “Someone extracted part of your neural map. Probably during your first infiltration at Blackwood’s labs in Geneva.”
Julia sat up sharply. “Wait… you mean they weren’t just replicating your face—they were trying to be you.”
Adrian’s jaw tensed. “And the only reason she didn’t succeed… is because you’ve changed.”
Elena’s voice dropped. “She wasn’t me anymore.”
Liana interrupted with a grim tone. “We’ve got bigger problems. That clone triggered a final node before going under. I don’t know where, but it’s live.”
Julia’s voice shook. “NIGHTFALL.”
Adrian turned to the flickering monitor. “What do you know?”
Julia closed her eyes. “It wasn’t a failsafe. It was a contingency.”
“For what?” Elena asked.
Julia looked at them.
“For him,” she whispered.
A beat passed.
Adrian’s voice was barely audible. “My father?”
Julia nodded. “The real Guillermo Cruz never died in that fire.”
Elsewhere – Unlisted Coordinates – 12:44 PM
Inside a chamber beneath the remnants of the Arclight Facility, a pod hissed open. Cool vapor spilled across the steel floor as a silhouette emerged—thin, tall, slow-moving… but very much alive.
A gloved hand reached for a nearby cane.
On a surveillance feed across the room, images played in a loop.
Elena. Adrian. Julia. Liana.
The man stepped closer. Eyes like liquid steel scanned the footage.
“They think they’ve buried the past,” he rasped. “But they’ve only watered it.”
A door unlocked at the far end of the chamber.
PROJECT: NIGHTFALL INITIATED.