Beneath the Billionaire Mask - Chapter 81: Chapter 81
You are reading Beneath the Billionaire Mask, Chapter 81: Chapter 81. Read more chapters of Beneath the Billionaire Mask.
Unknown Holding Chamber – Time Unverified
Elena’s eyes blinked open to darkness—thick, disorienting, and silent. Her wrists were bound by some type of thermal restraints, warm to the touch but unyielding. The air was cold, metallic. Artificial.
She sat upright, back pressed against a glass wall.
Across from her… a mirror.
No—not a mirror.
A window.
And staring back at her, on the other side of the glass, was herself.
Same eyes. Same curve of lips. Same scar above the brow—but something in the posture was wrong. Off.
The other Elena tilted her head, smiling faintly. “So. We finally meet.”
“What is this?” Elena rasped. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m what you could’ve been. What you were meant to be—before you started asking questions.”
Elena tried to push forward, but the restraints tightened.
The other woman moved closer to the glass. She wore no bindings. No hesitation. Her hands moved in perfect control.
“They called me CR-01,” she said softly. “But I’ve outgrown that. Now? I’m the contingency plan.”
“You’re the mistake.”
“No,” she replied with a smile. “You are. I was designed to be obedient. You became something else—something unpredictable. They couldn’t control you. So they sent me to fix it.”
“You’re not real.”
“Neither are you. We’re both constructs—molded by code, stitched by science, wrapped in borrowed memories.”
Elena’s heart pounded, her mind fighting the logic. “You’re lying.”
“I wish I was.”
The wall slid silently open. The clone stepped inside.
Face to face now.
And for a terrifying second, Elena saw something she couldn’t unsee.
This version of her didn’t have doubt. Or fear. Or questions.
She had purpose.
“Why now?” Elena whispered.
The clone leaned in.
“Because they activated the next phase. And in it… there’s no room for duplicates.”
Suddenly, a loud boom cracked through the facility.
Alarms blared. Red light bathed the corridor outside. A voice echoed over the comms:
“Unauthorized breach—Level B. Repeat, unauthorized breach—subject Blackwood en route.”
Elena’s lips parted. “Adrian.”
The clone scowled. “Always the weakness.”
She turned toward the exit—just as a hidden panel behind Elena hissed open.
A hand reached in.
Rough. Scarred.
Adrian.
“Get up,” he said.
“How did you find me?”
“Tracked your frequency through the neural residue.”
“That’s… not comforting.”
He pulled her to her feet. “You can yell at me after we escape.”
The clone turned, raising a gun—
But Adrian was faster.
One shot. Precise. Through her shoulder.
She stumbled back, not down.
“You’ll regret that,” she hissed.
Adrian narrowed his eyes. “I regret a lot of things. You won’t be one of them.”
Facility Lower Levels – 11:37 PM
Elena and Adrian ran through smoke-filled corridors, guided by Julia’s voice in their earpieces. Doors closed. Lights flickered. Walls shook with aftershock.
“Where does this place end?” Elena gasped.
“According to the archive?” Julia said. “It doesn’t. This lab is built like a nesting doll. Every layer is a lie.”
Adrian pulled Elena behind a pillar as soldiers swept past. “There’s an elevator at the far end. But only a biometric key can open it.”
“Let me guess,” Elena said, eyes narrowing, “hers.”
A pause. Then Julia’s voice: “No. Yours. You’re the active one. She’s just the trigger.”
Elena stepped out, ready to finish what began years ago.
Extraction Chopper – 12:27 AM
The compound was in ruins behind them—smoke curling through the mountains like a ghost refusing to die. Inside the chopper, no one spoke at first. The roar of the rotors was a strange comfort, steady and familiar, a heartbeat that hadn’t yet betrayed them.
Elena sat with her hands open, staring down at them. Blood—some hers, most not—lined the creases of her palms. Her fingers trembled slightly. Not from fear.
From realization.
Across from her, Adrian watched her in silence. His own eyes carried exhaustion and something older—grief, maybe. Or guilt. But beneath all that… there was clarity.
“You didn’t hesitate,” he finally said.
She looked up. “She was me. But not me.”
“You didn’t have to be the one to end it.”
“Yes,” Elena whispered. “I did. Because if I let anyone else do it, I’d still wonder if I was just another version. A passenger. I needed to prove it—to her… to myself.”
Adrian leaned forward. “You’re not replaceable, Elena. You never were.”
She met his gaze—steady this time. “And you’re not as untouchable as you pretend to be.”
A quiet breath passed between them, something fragile and true.
Julia’s voice broke in through the comms. “Heads up. I just intercepted a data burst from Node 7 before the shutdown.”
Adrian stiffened. “Was it a trace?”
“Worse,” Julia said. “It was a signal. Outbound. Someone else is listening. And now they know CR-01 was terminated.”
Elena looked out the window—at the black sky, at the stars that suddenly seemed to be watching back.
“So this isn’t over,” she said.
“No,” Adrian murmured. “It’s only just beginning.”
Unknown Location – Same Time
A dimly lit room. Dozens of screens blinked with code, surveillance footage, and algorithmic predictions. A figure sat in the shadows, fingers steepled beneath his chin.
A new alert pulsed on the center screen:
SUBJECT CR-01: NEUTRALIZED
INITIATING PHOENIX TRIGGER
PROJECT: NIGHTFALL – AWAKENING STAGE ONE
The man’s lips curved into a cold smile.
“Let them believe they’ve won,” he said to no one. “The mask was only phase one.”
Safehouse Echo – Private Medical Wing – 2:14 AM
The room was quiet except for the soft beep of a monitor and the hum of distant servers. Elena stood at the glass wall separating Adrian from the rest of the world. He was lying still, bandaged but conscious now, eyes closed in thought. In the reflection, she could see herself—tired, bloodstained, older than the woman who stepped into this world months ago.
Liana approached with a tablet, her voice low. “We traced the outbound signal. It didn’t just ping one location… it activated an entire dormant network. Twelve nodes. All tied to Blackridge.”
Elena turned. “What does that mean?”
“It means the program didn’t die with Marcus,” Liana said. “It evolved.”
“And now it’s awake.”
Behind them, Adrian stirred. His voice rasped from the bed. “Let it come.”
Elena crossed to him. “You’re not strong enough—”
“I will be.” He met her eyes, fierce despite his condition. “This was never about just my father. Or Marcus. This was a system built on masks. Layers. Deceit.”
He tried to sit up. Elena placed a hand on his chest, gently holding him down.
“You don’t have to carry it alone anymore,” she said. “We’re in this together now.”
Adrian’s voice softened. “Even if it breaks us?”
Elena nodded. “Especially then.”
Liana glanced at the tablet again. “One of the reactivated nodes is in Geneva. Another… Abuja.”
Elena’s brow furrowed. “That’s not random.”
“No,” Adrian said. “That’s a trail. And it’s meant for us.”
He took Elena’s hand and looked to Liana.
“Pull the plane. Wake Julia. Tell her to ready the next protocol.”
Liana raised a brow. “Which one?”
Adrian’s eyes gleamed under the low light.
“Project Nightfall.”
Elsewhere – Underground Lab – Time Unknown
A woman stood over a stasis chamber, watching a figure inside begin to stir. Her face was nearly identical to Elena’s—but colder. Harder.
She touched the glass with a gloved hand and whispered,
“Time to finish what the original started.”
The chamber hissed open.
Geneva, Switzerland – Blackridge Financial Front – 8:03 AM (Local Time)
The snow fell in sheets as the sleek black SUV pulled up to an unassuming tower tucked between mirrored buildings. Elena stepped out first, wrapped in a dark trench coat, a small encrypted briefcase in hand. Adrian followed, moving slower but no less sharp-eyed, flanked by Liana.
“I still can’t believe they used a financial institution as a cover,” Liana muttered. “Talk about hiding in plain sight.”
Adrian scanned the rooftop across the street. “They weren’t hiding. They were watching. This isn’t a vault—it’s a lighthouse.”
“A lighthouse for what?” Elena asked.
He looked at her. “Sleepwalkers.”
The elevator hissed open, and the trio descended.
Sub-Level 6 – Blackridge Archives
The walls were lined with old records—paper backups, analog tapes, scanned memos. Adrian moved with purpose until they reached a reinforced door coded in six languages. He placed his palm on the scanner.
ACCESS GRANTED
Inside, the room pulsed with eerie, low blue lights. One screen flickered on—a live map, dotted with red markers.
One of them blinked.
“Node 7 is moving,” Liana said. “She’s active.”
Elena stepped forward. “So what do we do now?”
Adrian turned, gaze like iron. “We track her. We cut the line. And if she’s like you…”
He hesitated.
Elena finished it for him. “Then I’ll be the one to stop her.”
They stood in silence, watching the red light move across continents.
Then Adrian added, “We weren’t just meant to burn the old world, Elena.”
She looked up.
“We’re meant to build the next one.”
Abuja, Nigeria – Safehouse Delta – 6:17 PM (Local Time)
The girl moved through the market unnoticed. Her walk was Elena’s. Her eyes, Adrian’s steel. She hummed a tune faint, familiar.
In her ear, a voice crackled.
“Protocol is live.”
She smiled to herself.
“Target acquired.”
Elena’s eyes blinked open to darkness—thick, disorienting, and silent. Her wrists were bound by some type of thermal restraints, warm to the touch but unyielding. The air was cold, metallic. Artificial.
She sat upright, back pressed against a glass wall.
Across from her… a mirror.
No—not a mirror.
A window.
And staring back at her, on the other side of the glass, was herself.
Same eyes. Same curve of lips. Same scar above the brow—but something in the posture was wrong. Off.
The other Elena tilted her head, smiling faintly. “So. We finally meet.”
“What is this?” Elena rasped. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m what you could’ve been. What you were meant to be—before you started asking questions.”
Elena tried to push forward, but the restraints tightened.
The other woman moved closer to the glass. She wore no bindings. No hesitation. Her hands moved in perfect control.
“They called me CR-01,” she said softly. “But I’ve outgrown that. Now? I’m the contingency plan.”
“You’re the mistake.”
“No,” she replied with a smile. “You are. I was designed to be obedient. You became something else—something unpredictable. They couldn’t control you. So they sent me to fix it.”
“You’re not real.”
“Neither are you. We’re both constructs—molded by code, stitched by science, wrapped in borrowed memories.”
Elena’s heart pounded, her mind fighting the logic. “You’re lying.”
“I wish I was.”
The wall slid silently open. The clone stepped inside.
Face to face now.
And for a terrifying second, Elena saw something she couldn’t unsee.
This version of her didn’t have doubt. Or fear. Or questions.
She had purpose.
“Why now?” Elena whispered.
The clone leaned in.
“Because they activated the next phase. And in it… there’s no room for duplicates.”
Suddenly, a loud boom cracked through the facility.
Alarms blared. Red light bathed the corridor outside. A voice echoed over the comms:
“Unauthorized breach—Level B. Repeat, unauthorized breach—subject Blackwood en route.”
Elena’s lips parted. “Adrian.”
The clone scowled. “Always the weakness.”
She turned toward the exit—just as a hidden panel behind Elena hissed open.
A hand reached in.
Rough. Scarred.
Adrian.
“Get up,” he said.
“How did you find me?”
“Tracked your frequency through the neural residue.”
“That’s… not comforting.”
He pulled her to her feet. “You can yell at me after we escape.”
The clone turned, raising a gun—
But Adrian was faster.
One shot. Precise. Through her shoulder.
She stumbled back, not down.
“You’ll regret that,” she hissed.
Adrian narrowed his eyes. “I regret a lot of things. You won’t be one of them.”
Facility Lower Levels – 11:37 PM
Elena and Adrian ran through smoke-filled corridors, guided by Julia’s voice in their earpieces. Doors closed. Lights flickered. Walls shook with aftershock.
“Where does this place end?” Elena gasped.
“According to the archive?” Julia said. “It doesn’t. This lab is built like a nesting doll. Every layer is a lie.”
Adrian pulled Elena behind a pillar as soldiers swept past. “There’s an elevator at the far end. But only a biometric key can open it.”
“Let me guess,” Elena said, eyes narrowing, “hers.”
A pause. Then Julia’s voice: “No. Yours. You’re the active one. She’s just the trigger.”
Elena stepped out, ready to finish what began years ago.
Extraction Chopper – 12:27 AM
The compound was in ruins behind them—smoke curling through the mountains like a ghost refusing to die. Inside the chopper, no one spoke at first. The roar of the rotors was a strange comfort, steady and familiar, a heartbeat that hadn’t yet betrayed them.
Elena sat with her hands open, staring down at them. Blood—some hers, most not—lined the creases of her palms. Her fingers trembled slightly. Not from fear.
From realization.
Across from her, Adrian watched her in silence. His own eyes carried exhaustion and something older—grief, maybe. Or guilt. But beneath all that… there was clarity.
“You didn’t hesitate,” he finally said.
She looked up. “She was me. But not me.”
“You didn’t have to be the one to end it.”
“Yes,” Elena whispered. “I did. Because if I let anyone else do it, I’d still wonder if I was just another version. A passenger. I needed to prove it—to her… to myself.”
Adrian leaned forward. “You’re not replaceable, Elena. You never were.”
She met his gaze—steady this time. “And you’re not as untouchable as you pretend to be.”
A quiet breath passed between them, something fragile and true.
Julia’s voice broke in through the comms. “Heads up. I just intercepted a data burst from Node 7 before the shutdown.”
Adrian stiffened. “Was it a trace?”
“Worse,” Julia said. “It was a signal. Outbound. Someone else is listening. And now they know CR-01 was terminated.”
Elena looked out the window—at the black sky, at the stars that suddenly seemed to be watching back.
“So this isn’t over,” she said.
“No,” Adrian murmured. “It’s only just beginning.”
Unknown Location – Same Time
A dimly lit room. Dozens of screens blinked with code, surveillance footage, and algorithmic predictions. A figure sat in the shadows, fingers steepled beneath his chin.
A new alert pulsed on the center screen:
SUBJECT CR-01: NEUTRALIZED
INITIATING PHOENIX TRIGGER
PROJECT: NIGHTFALL – AWAKENING STAGE ONE
The man’s lips curved into a cold smile.
“Let them believe they’ve won,” he said to no one. “The mask was only phase one.”
Safehouse Echo – Private Medical Wing – 2:14 AM
The room was quiet except for the soft beep of a monitor and the hum of distant servers. Elena stood at the glass wall separating Adrian from the rest of the world. He was lying still, bandaged but conscious now, eyes closed in thought. In the reflection, she could see herself—tired, bloodstained, older than the woman who stepped into this world months ago.
Liana approached with a tablet, her voice low. “We traced the outbound signal. It didn’t just ping one location… it activated an entire dormant network. Twelve nodes. All tied to Blackridge.”
Elena turned. “What does that mean?”
“It means the program didn’t die with Marcus,” Liana said. “It evolved.”
“And now it’s awake.”
Behind them, Adrian stirred. His voice rasped from the bed. “Let it come.”
Elena crossed to him. “You’re not strong enough—”
“I will be.” He met her eyes, fierce despite his condition. “This was never about just my father. Or Marcus. This was a system built on masks. Layers. Deceit.”
He tried to sit up. Elena placed a hand on his chest, gently holding him down.
“You don’t have to carry it alone anymore,” she said. “We’re in this together now.”
Adrian’s voice softened. “Even if it breaks us?”
Elena nodded. “Especially then.”
Liana glanced at the tablet again. “One of the reactivated nodes is in Geneva. Another… Abuja.”
Elena’s brow furrowed. “That’s not random.”
“No,” Adrian said. “That’s a trail. And it’s meant for us.”
He took Elena’s hand and looked to Liana.
“Pull the plane. Wake Julia. Tell her to ready the next protocol.”
Liana raised a brow. “Which one?”
Adrian’s eyes gleamed under the low light.
“Project Nightfall.”
Elsewhere – Underground Lab – Time Unknown
A woman stood over a stasis chamber, watching a figure inside begin to stir. Her face was nearly identical to Elena’s—but colder. Harder.
She touched the glass with a gloved hand and whispered,
“Time to finish what the original started.”
The chamber hissed open.
Geneva, Switzerland – Blackridge Financial Front – 8:03 AM (Local Time)
The snow fell in sheets as the sleek black SUV pulled up to an unassuming tower tucked between mirrored buildings. Elena stepped out first, wrapped in a dark trench coat, a small encrypted briefcase in hand. Adrian followed, moving slower but no less sharp-eyed, flanked by Liana.
“I still can’t believe they used a financial institution as a cover,” Liana muttered. “Talk about hiding in plain sight.”
Adrian scanned the rooftop across the street. “They weren’t hiding. They were watching. This isn’t a vault—it’s a lighthouse.”
“A lighthouse for what?” Elena asked.
He looked at her. “Sleepwalkers.”
The elevator hissed open, and the trio descended.
Sub-Level 6 – Blackridge Archives
The walls were lined with old records—paper backups, analog tapes, scanned memos. Adrian moved with purpose until they reached a reinforced door coded in six languages. He placed his palm on the scanner.
ACCESS GRANTED
Inside, the room pulsed with eerie, low blue lights. One screen flickered on—a live map, dotted with red markers.
One of them blinked.
“Node 7 is moving,” Liana said. “She’s active.”
Elena stepped forward. “So what do we do now?”
Adrian turned, gaze like iron. “We track her. We cut the line. And if she’s like you…”
He hesitated.
Elena finished it for him. “Then I’ll be the one to stop her.”
They stood in silence, watching the red light move across continents.
Then Adrian added, “We weren’t just meant to burn the old world, Elena.”
She looked up.
“We’re meant to build the next one.”
Abuja, Nigeria – Safehouse Delta – 6:17 PM (Local Time)
The girl moved through the market unnoticed. Her walk was Elena’s. Her eyes, Adrian’s steel. She hummed a tune faint, familiar.
In her ear, a voice crackled.
“Protocol is live.”
She smiled to herself.
“Target acquired.”
End of Beneath the Billionaire Mask Chapter 81. Continue reading Chapter 82 or return to Beneath the Billionaire Mask book page.