Beneath the Billionaire Mask - Chapter 97: Chapter 97

Location: Undisclosed Arctic Research Vault — 03:14 AM
The wind howled outside the metal structure buried beneath permafrost. Deep within the earth, past sealed corridors and biometric gates, a room pulsed with blue light—an ancient server archive running on obsolete power grids, left untouched for nearly a decade.
Until now.
Adrian stepped inside, the door hissing closed behind him. Liana followed, holding her breath as she took in the circular chamber lined with carbon-black servers, humming like a sleeping beast.
“This is where the Genesis Project started,” she murmured. “Not just the replication tech. But the original blueprint for behavioral override.”
Adrian stared ahead at the core terminal, heart pounding.
On the central monitor, a logo blinked back at him:
GEN-03: THIRD GENESIS - LIVE
He typed a master key Julian had recovered.
A file unlocked—video logs, timestamps, subjects.
And names.
CR-01: Elena Cruz
CR-01B: E. Cruz [Secondary]
CR-01C: “Echo” (Status: Active)
CR-03: Adrian Blackwood
CR-03A: “Blackbird” (Status: Terminated)
CR-03B: [Unknown]
Adrian’s blood ran cold. “There’s another version of me still out there?”
“No. Worse,” Liana said, her voice trembling. “There’s one that was never documented in any Foundation system. A version with no limiters. A pure-blood command variant.”
Adrian turned to her slowly. “A command variant?”
“It means if it’s activated… it can override the others. Including you. Including Elena.”
A cold realization dropped into Adrian’s gut like a stone.
This wasn’t about destroying the system.
It was about resetting it.
And someone—possibly the alternate Elena—was trying to trigger a Third Genesis.
Elsewhere — Unknown Blacksite
The other Elena—“Echo”—stood in front of a mirror, tying her hair back. Behind her, a row of uniformed guards remained motionless, awaiting orders.
On the console beside her was a single switch:
GENESIS SEQUENCE – READY FOR DEPLOYMENT
She didn’t smile this time.
She stared into her own reflection and whispered:
“Let the gods watch their children burn.”
Then she pressed the button.
The servers in Adrian’s vault flickered.
On the central screen, red letters appeared:
INITIATING THIRD GENESIS
EST. TIME TO COGNITIVE OVERRIDE: 72 HOURS
Liana gasped. “Adrian—she’s activating a cascade protocol. If we don’t stop her…”
Adrian’s jaw clenched.
“…every replicated mind in the network will belong to her.”
Arctic Research Vault – Core Control Chamber
“Seventy-two hours until override?” Adrian’s voice was tight, controlled. But his eyes—his eyes were that of a man cornered by his past.
Liana was already typing furiously. “We can’t stop the cascade from here. The Third Genesis was never built with an external shutdown. It needs a core key from within the primary host.”
“You mean her,” he said. “Echo.”
Liana hesitated. “Yes. And she knows it. That’s why she’s baiting you. She’s not just hijacking the system—she wants to kill the one thing standing in her way.”
“Elena.”
Bogotá – Safehouse Echo – 04:28 AM
Elena stood in front of the mirror, staring at her reflection again. It hadn’t blinked since that night—but something inside her had.
Memories kept surfacing—some hers, some not.
An alley in Shanghai. A child in a lab. A kiss under red skies that never happened.
Her hands trembled.
She had spent months peeling away Adrian Blackwood’s layers. Now, she wasn’t sure her own skin was real.
The door creaked. Adrian walked in, eyes shadowed with truth.
“You were right,” he said. “There’s another you. And another me.”
She turned slowly, her gaze heavy. “I thought we were chasing justice. But we’ve been living someone else’s design.”
“No,” Adrian said, stepping closer. “We’ve been rewriting it.”
He reached into his coat and pulled out the last Genesis keycard.
“Elena… she’s activated a countdown. If it completes, she controls everything. Everyone.”
“She’s me,” Elena whispered.
“No,” Adrian replied, fiercely. “She’s not. She was built to replace you. But the moment you chose to stand against the Foundation, the moment you chose me—you became real.”
Elena’s throat tightened. “And if I face her… what if I lose?”
“Then we fall together. But if you win…”
He pressed the keycard into her palm.
“…you end this. For all of us.”
Meanwhile – Echo Control Facility
Echo—Elena’s clone—stood before an audience of neural-hosted soldiers. A cold smile tugged at her lips as the override countdown ticked: 68:15:03.
“They think love is resistance,” she said aloud. “Let’s teach them what obedience really looks like.”
Behind her, Subject CR-03B stirred awake—a second Adrian, muscle-bound, engineered, soulless.
Echo’s final words before turning to deploy the army:
“Let the imposters face the originals.”
Back in Bogotá – Rooftop
Elena and Adrian stood beneath a bruised dawn sky. Helicopter blades cut through the rising sun.
“We don’t get another shot,” Elena said.
Adrian looked at her—no more masks, no more walls.
“I didn’t just build an empire on secrets. I built it waiting for you to break through them.”
She held his gaze.
“I didn’t just come for the truth,” she whispered. “I came for you.”
And together, they took off—toward the final war.
Mid-Flight – En Route to Genesis Site
The hum of the chopper was a distant throb beneath Elena’s heartbeat. The Genesis keycard rested against her chest inside a locket Adrian had once given her—ironically engraved with “Truth Endures.”
“I never thought,” she began, her voice barely audible over the rotors, “that chasing a story would lead me here.”
Adrian sat across from her, eyes unreadable. “You weren’t chasing a story. You were chasing who you were always meant to become.”
She looked away. “What if I find her, and she’s better than me? Stronger. Smarter. Less… conflicted?”
Adrian leaned in, his voice sharp with conviction. “Then we show her something no code can replicate—choice. That’s the one weapon she’ll never predict.”
Elena nodded slowly. “Then I choose to end this.”
Genesis Site – Sublevel A
Echo stood in a glass chamber glowing with liquid light. Massive neural cores throbbed like hearts—machines learning from stolen consciousness.
She tilted her head, sensing the chopper in the distance.
“They’re coming,” CR-03B said, standing beside her.
Echo didn’t flinch. “Let them. He’s walking into the fire he created. And she’s walking into the truth she was never meant to see.”
She turned to CR-03B.
“You know what to do.”
He nodded once, stepping into the corridor beyond.
Echo closed her eyes, whispering a phrase only she and the machine knew:
“Protocol: Collapse the Mask.”
The countdown began its final sequence: T-Minus 12 hours.
Flashback – Eight Years Ago
Inside the original Blackwood Lab, a woman—Dr. Lysandra Rael—recorded her last message:
“Subject CR-01 was never designed for control. She was designed for redemption. If you’re watching this, Adrian, she’s not your greatest threat… she’s your only hope.”
The screen flickered and went dark.
Present – Genesis Site Entry Point
The chopper touched down. Adrian leapt out, scanning the cold, sterile skyline.
Elena stepped beside him, the wind whipping her hair, the Genesis key in her hand, her heart braced for whatever version of herself waited inside.
They were outnumbered. Outmatched.
But not out of time.
Adrian turned to her. “No more masks.”
She nodded. “No more secrets.”
As they entered the tunnel, side by side, the facility lights activated—tracking their movement.
Echo’s voice echoed over the intercom.
“Welcome home, Elena Cruz. Let’s see which of us deserves to exist.”
Genesis Site – Inner Core Chamber – 9:42 PM
The massive steel doors hissed open.
Adrian stepped in first, protective and silent. Elena followed, her fingers clenched around the Genesis locket as her boots met the smooth titanium floor. The chamber pulsed with eerie light—screens floated mid-air, projections of Elena’s memories blinking through the room like echoes from a fractured past.
And then she saw her.
The other her.
Identical in every way, but colder. Stiffer. Engineered.
“CR-01,” Echo said evenly. “Or do you prefer… Elena now?”
Elena’s heart tightened.
“You stole my life.”
“I preserved it,” Echo replied calmly, stepping forward. “You were a glitch. I perfected you.”
Behind Echo stood a terminal. On its screen flashed the words:
“GENESIS OVERRIDE: IDENTITY TRANSFER AVAILABLE.”
Adrian read it—and froze. “You’re trying to overwrite her.”
Elena’s jaw clenched. “I’m not some program you can reboot.”
“But you are,” Echo whispered. “That’s what terrifies you, isn’t it? You don’t know if your love, your fire… your truth… is yours, or written into you.”
“I know enough to choose,” Elena said, her voice rising. “And I choose to end this.”
“Then prove it,” Echo hissed, tapping a command.
Suddenly, lights exploded across the room—four CR units dropped from the ceiling. Biomechanical soldiers, fast and brutal.
Adrian shoved Elena back, drawing the concealed weapon from his jacket. “We’ve got company.”
Elena didn’t retreat. She rushed toward the control terminal as Adrian covered her—bullets ricocheting through the air.
“Override code,” she whispered. “Come on. Come on…”
ACCESS DENIED. PRIMARY IDENTITY ACTIVE.
“She’s already taken my access.”
Behind her, Echo advanced with a slow, eerie calm. “You can’t win, Elena. I don’t hate you. I am you—without the weaknesses.”
“No,” Elena whispered, turning to face her. “You’re what I would’ve been if I never learned how to love.”
Then she pressed her finger to the locket.
It clicked open—revealing a hidden chip.
Dr. Lysandra’s voice echoed from it:
“If you find this… then remember: The original always carries the fail-safe. Only the one who learned to choose can end the loop.”
Elena inserted the chip into the terminal.
GENESIS FAIL-SAFE DETECTED. TERMINATION SEQUENCE AUTHORIZED.
Echo screamed, lunging—
But Adrian was faster. One shot—clean, final—hit the CR unit behind her, throwing Echo off balance.
The system began to shut down. CR units powered down, one by one.
Adrian pulled Elena into his arms as the world around them trembled.
“You did it,” he whispered.
“No,” she said, burying her face in his chest. “We did.”
Above them, the Genesis ceiling cracked, revealing the night sky.
One Week Later – Undisclosed Coastline
Adrian and Elena walked barefoot on wet sand. Quiet. At peace.
“The world thinks Blackwood Enterprises is restructuring,” she said with a wry smile.
“It is,” he said, his hand in hers. “But this time, it’s built on truth.”
She looked up at him. “So what now?”
Adrian leaned in, brushing her hair aside. “Now… I fall in love with you again. This time, without masks.”
Her heart lifted.
Because for the first time in a long time, everything felt real.
Genesis Core – Collapse Threshold – 10:03 PM
The sirens were deafening now.
The chamber was collapsing.
Adrian gripped Elena’s wrist, blood streaming from a cut above his brow, but his eyes never wavered. “We have sixty seconds. You hit the failsafe—what happens next?”
Elena’s breathing was uneven, but she kept typing. “The system will terminate every replication protocol tied to Genesis—including CR-01.”
Adrian’s eyes darkened. “That means—?”
“It’ll kill her. The clone. The other me.”
They both turned. Echo—CR-01—stood silently across the room, no longer advancing, just… watching.
“I feel it,” she whispered. Her skin was beginning to glitch—shimmers of light pulsing under the surface. “This is death. Isn’t it?”
Elena stepped forward. “I never wanted it to end like this.”
“I did.” Echo’s voice cracked for the first time. “If I can’t be the real one… at least I end knowing what I almost became.”
She looked at Adrian—then Elena—and smiled, strangely… like letting go.
“I was made from you,” she said. “But he never looked at me like he looks at you.”
Adrian stepped beside Elena. “Because I fell in love with her soul. Not her shadow.”
Echo nodded slowly. And then her form flickered—and vanished into light.
The Genesis chamber began to fold in on itself. Data towers crumbled, the AI core blinked for the final time, and the screen went black:
GENESIS TERMINATED.
Three Days Later – Private Island off the Amalfi Coast
The sun melted across the waves, golden and calm.
Adrian leaned back against the yacht’s railing, watching Elena walk toward him barefoot, hair swept back by the sea breeze.
“I keep thinking it’s over,” she said, holding a wine glass, “and then I remember… we survived them, but now we have to survive us.”
He smiled faintly. “You afraid of us?”
“No,” she said. “I’m afraid I’ll never stop uncovering you.”
Adrian set his glass down. “Then let me save you the trouble.”
He pulled a small black box from his coat.
Elena blinked. “You’re not serious.”
“I almost lost you. Twice.” He opened it—inside, a simple band, no diamonds, no glitter. “This doesn’t mean perfect. It means real.”
She stared at it, at him. And the air between them hummed.
“You don’t need to say yes right now,” he added.
She took the ring.
Slipped it on.
“Don’t make me regret choosing the billionaire with trust issues and a secret death lab under his mansion,” she teased.
Adrian laughed. “Deal.”
They kissed—slow, deep, honest.
And for once, there were no masks between them.
Only truth.
He built an empire on secrets. She tore down the walls to find the man beneath it.
And somewhere between justice and vengeance… they found something stronger.
Love.