Beneath the Billionaire Mask - Chapter 84: Chapter 84

Helios Sanctum – Observation Deck – 03:16 AM
Thunder rolled across the Ethiopian highlands, soft and deep like a warning buried beneath the earth. The Helios Sanctum loomed above the horizon—a brutalist structure built into the granite cliffs, its silhouette cloaked by engineered fog and electromagnetic shielding.
Inside, behind mirrored glass, a woman who looked like Elena Cruz moved with precision. She wasn’t wired like Elena, though. Her gaze lacked empathy. Her smile, when it came, was mechanical.
She was CR-01—the original replication.
And tonight, she wasn’t observing a mission.
She was preparing for war.
“Status on the Bogotá breach?” she asked without turning.
A technician in a black jumpsuit straightened. “Node Seven is compromised. Local data fragment retrieved. They have coordinates to this facility.”
“Expected.” CR-01 blinked once. “And Adrian Blackwood?”
“Still alive. With Subject Cruz.”
“Then Phase Two begins now.” Her voice didn’t rise. It didn’t need to.
The technician hesitated. “But—if she gets here first—”
CR-01 turned, slowly. “She won’t. I know her.”
A beat of silence.
“She thinks she’s the original,” CR-01 added. “And maybe that’s what makes her dangerous.”
Safehouse Echo – Roof – Same Time
Elena sat alone beneath a bruised sky, the wind whipping strands of hair into her face. Her fingers tapped absently against the encrypted chip in her palm.
Behind her, Adrian approached, still favoring his side.
“She’s out there, isn’t she?” Elena asked without turning.
“Yes,” Adrian replied.
“Looks like me. Sounds like me.”
“But not you.”
“How do you know?”
He moved beside her, setting down a file—old, weathered, bound with a black string. She opened it slowly. Photos. Test logs. Side-by-side brain scans.
One labeled Cruz, Elena.
The other: CR-01. Cruz Replication.
Her heart thudded.
“Your father was part of the program that designed her,” Adrian said. “But she was never complete.”
Elena looked up. “Why not?”
“Because they could replicate biology. They could simulate memory. But they couldn’t recreate one thing.”
“What?”
Adrian’s voice softened. “Conscience.”
Meanwhile – Airstrip Outside Bogotá
Julia King loaded the last of the surveillance equipment into a rusted military transport. Liana tossed her a comms unit.
“We’ve got less than 12 hours to intercept whatever Echo is building,” she said.
“And if we don’t?” Julia asked.
Liana met her gaze. “Then the mask won’t be a disguise anymore.”
Julia paused. “It’ll be a grave.”
They boarded.
The engines roared.
Destination locked: Helios Sanctum.
Unknown Server Farm – Below Helios Sanctum
CR-01 entered the cryo-vault—where other dormant replications floated in suspension.
Some unfinished.
Some… perfect.
She paused in front of one. A male.
Same jawline as Adrian. But colder. Hollow-eyed.
A monitor blinked to life:
PROJECT: BLACKWOOD V2
STATUS: WAKING
She smiled.
“Time to see how far a mask can really go.”
Safehouse Echo – Underground War Room – 4:07 AM
The projection cast a rotating 3D map of Helios Sanctum. Red zones flickered—entry points, comms jammers, drone nests. Liana paced beside the holo-screen, her jaw tight.
“We’ll never get within five miles without being spotted,” she said.
Julia crossed her arms. “Then we don’t go in as ourselves.”
Adrian, slouched in a chair with his arm still bandaged, looked up. “You want to impersonate people they built from scratch?”
“I want to beat them at their own game,” Julia shot back.
Liana arched a brow. “You’re insane.”
“No. I’m done reacting. It’s time to rewrite the code.”
Adrian leaned forward. “We’ll need more than code.”
Elena stepped in, holding the encrypted Black Archive drive. “We’ll need a ghost.”
They all turned.
She tossed the drive on the table. “The Sleepwalker Protocol… was designed for more than control. It can be reversed.”
Julia frowned. “You mean… overwrite the clone?”
Elena nodded. “If I can get close enough… I can crash her.”
“Crash her mind?” Adrian asked, eyes narrowing.
“No. Crash her purpose.”
Helios Sanctum – Neural Interface Core – 4:39 AM
CR-01 stood before a curved glass chamber—filled with synthetic cerebral fluid. A pulsing core hovered inside, its surface alive with neural pathways and deep-learning threads.
A man approached—tall, dark, scar over one eye.
“The Black Archive has been activated,” he said. “Echo’s moving.”
CR-01 didn’t blink. “So are we.”
She entered the command code:
SLEEPWALKER NODE PRIME: REWRITE INITIATED
TARGET: CRUZ. PRIMARY
A new string flashed:
REPLICANT CONFLICT PROTOCOL ENABLED.
The scarred man watched the screen flicker. “You’re setting her up to confront you?”
“I’m giving her a chance to fail,” CR-01 replied. “That’s the difference between us. She still believes in something.”
“And you don’t?”
She turned slowly, her voice like ice. “I believe in the outcome.”
Safehouse Echo – Armory
Adrian helped Elena strap into a light body rig lined with jammers and neural insulation. She said nothing as he adjusted the wrist nodes, his fingers lingering on her skin.
“You don’t have to go in,” he said quietly.
“Yes, I do.”
“If she turns you—”
“She won’t.”
“She’s built like you. She’ll know your thoughts before you do.”
“Then I’ll think like her,” Elena said, voice steady. “And then I’ll finish what my father started.”
A beat.
Adrian pulled her close, his voice rough. “Come back to me, Elena.”
She pressed her forehead against his. “I will.”
But deep down, they both knew this mission wasn’t just infiltration.
It was identity warfa
Final Scene – Helios Sanctum – Clone Gallery – 5:11 AM
Dozens of Elena clones lay suspended in cryo-glass.
Some half-formed.
Some… awake.
CR-01 walked past them, expression unreadable.
She stopped in front of one chamber, where a replica stirred—eyes fluttering open.
The replica whispered: “Am I real?”
CR-01 leaned in, her voice flat. “No.”
Then she turned.
And walked away.
Helios Sanctum – Perimeter Tunnel 9 – 5:38 AM
The ground rumbled above as drones soared in formation, casting flickering shadows through the narrow tunnel entrance. Elena crouched, hand pressed to the cold steel wall, listening to the faint buzz of proximity sensors. Beside her, Liana checked the EM scrambler on her wrist.
“Five seconds of interference,” she whispered. “Then we run like hell.”
Adrian’s voice crackled through the comm. “Extraction window is twelve minutes. After that, I can’t guarantee anything.”
Julia chimed in. “You’ll have a six-minute blind spot from the southern lens arrays. Use it wisely.”
Liana gave Elena a glance. “You sure you’re ready to look yourself in the eye?”
Elena’s jaw tightened. “I’m not going in to see her. I’m going in to end her.”
The scrambler pulsed green.
They ran.
Helios Sanctum – Neural Core Level – 5:45 AM
CR-01 stood motionless in front of a holographic interface, scanning thermal maps of the perimeter breach. Her fingers hovered over the console but didn’t move.
“She’s here,” she murmured.
The scarred man stepped beside her again. “What gave it away?”
CR-01 tilted her head. “The fear. It’s too human to ignore.”
Then she walked toward the vault where Elena’s father once built his final line of defense.
Sanctum Lower Levels – Cryo Hallway
Elena and Liana slid behind a steel beam as two guards passed, their footfalls echoing like war drums. Elena pulled up the Black Archive sync on her wrist, tracking the signal signature of CR-01.
“She’s in the vault,” she whispered.
Liana exhaled. “Where your father died.”
“No,” Elena said. “Where he buried the truth.”
Flashback – Four Years Ago – Project VIREX Containment Lab
Guillermo Cruz slammed the core shut. Sweat rolled down his brow.
“They’ll try to use her,” he told Julia. “Clone her. Control her.”
“We should wipe the data—”
“No,” he cut in. “We hide it. In plain sight. The daughter is the only one who can stop them.”
Julia’s eyes widened. “You mean Elena?”
Guillermo nodded. “She was the backup plan all along.”
Present – Vault Access Point – 5:49 AM
Elena’s fingerprint scan passed. A faint hiss echoed as the biometric door slid open, revealing the core vault.
CR-01 stood inside—alone.
“Hello, Elena,” she said without turning.
Elena raised her weapon. “Don’t move.”
“I’m not here to fight.”
“Then why did you activate the node?”
CR-01 slowly turned to face her. Their faces—identical. Movements—synchronized.
“To understand what it means to be you.”
Elena hesitated.
CR-01 took one step closer. “Tell me… if you had the chance to trade your trauma, your rage, your pain—for peace… would you?”
“I’d choose truth,” Elena said.
CR-01’s eyes glinted. “Even if it kills you?”
The lights dimmed.
A countdown blinked to life behind CR-01.
SLEEPWALKER CORE OVERRIDE – INITIATED.
TIME TO COLLAPSE: 03:00
Liana’s voice screamed in Elena’s comm: “Get out! The entire node’s rigged—she’s going to burn the vault!”
Elena didn’t flinch. “Why, CR-01?”
CR-01 stared at her… and smiled faintly.
“Because I learned from you.”
Vault Core – 5:51 AM
Elena stared at the countdown as it blinked with cruel precision:
SLEEPWALKER CORE OVERRIDE — 02:37
CR-01 tilted her head, her voice eerily calm. “You taught me that identity isn’t about origin. It’s about decision.”
“You’re copying me,” Elena hissed. “Not learning from me.”
CR-01 stepped closer. “That’s where you’re wrong. You defined the limits of the program. The grief. The guilt. The rage. They replicated all of it.”
Elena’s hands shook, finger tight on the trigger. “And still you chose destruction.”
“No. I chose freedom.”
The room trembled with a distant explosion—Adrian’s voice shouted through comms: “They’ve set charges in the eastern wing—Julia, reroute power now!”
CR-01 extended her hand slowly, palm open.
“I could stop the override,” she said, eyes steady. “You just have to let me go.”
Elena’s breath hitched.
“Why?” she asked. “Why not fight me?”
CR-01 smiled, almost mournfully. “Because there’s only room for one of us in this world… and I’ve seen what happens when the wrong version wins.”
Elena froze.
Liana’s voice screamed in her ear: “Two minutes left, Elena. Get out!”
But Elena didn’t move.
CR-01 took one step back. “If you kill me, the code dies with me. If I walk, you save the vault. You choose.”
Elena’s finger hovered over the trigger.
Then she turned the gun—toward the control panel—and fired.
Sparks exploded as the core override screen shattered. Red lights spun into chaos. The countdown stalled.
CR-01 blinked, stunned. “You didn’t choose me… or you.”
“No,” Elena growled. “I chose no more gods.”
She lunged, slamming the backup access key into the vault console. Liana’s virus uploaded instantly, scrambling the SLEEPWALKER protocol into nonsense code.
CR-01 screamed as her neural relay spasmed—she collapsed to her knees, clutching her skull.
Adrian’s voice was the last thing Elena heard as the ceiling above them cracked:
“Elena—NOW!”
Extraction Bay – 6:01 AM
The ground erupted behind them as Elena and Liana sprinted toward the chopper. Adrian reached out from the bay door, grabbing Elena’s arm as the blast wave surged behind her.
The vault collapsed into itself—code, secrets, and CR-01 buried beneath layers of steel and fire.
They didn’t speak until the chopper cleared the range.
Then Adrian turned to Elena, breath shallow. “Did she say anything?”
Elena stared out the window, eyes haunted.
“She said I taught her to choose.”
Adrian touched her shoulder. “And you did.”
She didn’t answer right away.
Then she whispered, “I just hope I chose right.”
Extraction Bay — 6:07 AM
The chopper lifted seconds after Elena was pulled aboard. Wind roared through the open side hatch, slicing across her skin like cold razors. Liana slammed the door shut, sealing them inside with a thud that echoed in her chest.
Elena slumped back, lungs heaving. Her hands were still trembling, smudged with dust and blood, the scent of scorched metal lingering in her nose.
Across from her, Adrian sat silent—watching. He hadn’t asked what happened in the vault. He didn’t need to. It was written in every inch of her face.
“You saw her,” he finally said.
Elena nodded, slow and haunted. “She looked like me. Spoke like me. But something in her eyes…” She shivered. “It wasn’t human.”
“She wasn’t you,” Adrian said quietly.
“No,” Elena said. “She was who I could’ve become. If I hadn’t fought.”
Liana dropped beside them, bruised and breathless. “The Sleepwalker program is dead. I triple-confirmed the deletion while rerouting the firewall. We scrambled the clone network.”
“For now,” Adrian murmured. “Someone always rebuilds the pieces.”
“No one can rebuild what you blew up,” Liana said with a tired smile.
But Elena didn’t smile.
“She said there’s still one node left. One she couldn’t access. Something called ‘VIREX Prime.’ She said… I’d find it at the end of my father’s trail.”
Adrian stiffened. “VIREX Prime was a ghost project. Your father scrubbed every trace of it.”
“Then why did she know about it?” Elena whispered. “And why did she say I would finish what he started?”
The silence that followed was deafening.
Adrian finally broke it. “Because maybe your father wasn’t just running from his past… he was building something to fight the future.”
Elena turned toward the window, watching the burning compound shrink into the distance—smoke curling like ghosts into the morning sky.
CR-01’s last words echoed in her ears:
“You chose mercy. I chose truth.
Let’s see which one survives.”
Safehouse Echo — Briefing Room — 6:49 AM
The encrypted tablet Adrian carried flickered to life.
Julia’s voice crackled through: “We’ve identified multiple blacklisted fund transfers routed to a shell company buried beneath the Foundation’s research wing.”
“Who owns it?” Adrian asked.
Julia hesitated. “You’re not going to like it.”
Elena leaned forward. “Say it.”
Julia’s voice dropped. “It traces back to Project VIREX.”
Adrian’s face hardened. “Then it wasn’t just your father’s war.”
Elena’s breath caught.
“It’s ours now,” she whispered.