Chapter 3
Chapter 3 — Project E-7
The room fell into suffocating silence.
Blood trickled down Ethan’s forehead.
His vision blurred.
But he could still see the man standing in front of him.
Tall.
Calm.
Terrifyingly composed.
The masked men around him held everyone at gunpoint, but none of that mattered anymore.
Only one sentence echoed inside Ethan’s head.
It’s time you met your real father.
“No…”
Ethan’s voice came out broken.
“No… you’re lying.”
The man smiled.
A scientist’s smile.
Measured.
Detached.
As if human emotions were data points.
“Oh, Ethan.”
He slowly removed his gloves.
“You always preferred denial over truth.”
Ava struggled in the arms of the man restraining her.
“Don’t listen to him!”
Margaret screamed.
“Stay away from my son!”
The man glanced at her.
“Your son?”
He chuckled.
“Interesting choice of words.”
Victor clenched his fists.
“If you touch him—”
The man interrupted.
“You’ll do what, Victor?”
His smile vanished.
“Fake your death again?”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
The man stepped closer to Ethan.
“My name is Dr. Adrian Cross.”
Dr. Adrian Cross
Ava felt ice run through her veins.
She had read that name.
Over and over.
In classified documents.
In erased files.
In redacted reports.
He was supposed to be dead.
Officially deceased after a laboratory fire nineteen years ago.
But that had been a lie.
Just like everything else.
Adrian crouched in front of Ethan.
“Look at me.”
Ethan refused.
Adrian grabbed his chin.
Hard.
“Look at me.”
Ethan’s eyes rose.
Adrian studied him like a specimen.
Not a son.
A specimen.
“Remarkable.”
He smiled.
“The neural adaptation succeeded beyond expectations.”
Ethan shoved his hand away.
“What are you talking about?”
Adrian stood.
He motioned to one of his men.
A tablet was handed to him.
He tapped the screen.
Every monitor in the office lit up again.
Medical records.
DNA charts.
Brain scans.
Test logs.
The title on every file was the same.
PROJECT E-7
Project E-7
Lena whispered, horrified.
“What is this?”
Adrian spoke like a lecturer.
“Twenty-nine years ago, several elite organizations funded a classified initiative.”
He swiped the screen.
Images of laboratories appeared.
“We sought to create enhanced human cognition.”
Another swipe.
Brain diagrams.
Neural pathways.
Chemical structures.
“Faster learning. Higher memory retention. Emotional resistance. Adaptive intelligence.”
The detective shouted.
“You experimented on children?”
Adrian looked annoyed.
“Children?”
He smirked.
“No.”
He corrected him.
“Assets.”
Ava felt sick.
Adrian continued.
“Seven infants were selected.”
A screen displayed seven profiles.
E-1.
E-2.
E-3.
All marked deceased.
E-4.
E-5.
E-6.
Deceased.
Then—
E-7.
Status: ACTIVE.
Everyone stared at Ethan.
Margaret burst into tears.
“No…”
Adrian smiled.
“Only one survived.”
Ethan shook his head violently.
“No.”
Adrian ignored him.
“His body adapted to every compound.”
“His neural system reorganized.”
“His cognitive processing exceeded projections.”
Victor roared.
“STOP!”
Adrian slowly turned.
“You want me to stop?”
His eyes darkened.
“After what you did?”
Victor lunged.
A gun cocked.
A masked man pressed a weapon against Victor’s head.
Adrian raised one hand.
“No.”
The gun lowered.
Adrian smiled.
“I want him alive.”
He turned back to Ethan.
“Because he deserves to hear this.”
Ava cried.
“Please stop…”
Adrian looked at her.
“Why?”
He tilted his head.
“He deserves truth more than comfort.”
Then he said it.
“You were born in a laboratory, Ethan.”
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Margaret collapsed to her knees.
Ethan’s body stopped responding.
His brain rejected the words.
Born…
In a laboratory?
Impossible.
“No…”
His voice trembled.
“No…”
Adrian continued.
“Victor and Margaret couldn’t have children.”
Margaret covered her face.
Victor looked away.
Adrian smirked.
“They came to us.”
He pointed at Victor.
“He wanted an heir.”
At Margaret.
“She wanted perfection.”
Margaret screamed.
“That’s not true!”
Adrian’s expression remained cold.
“You signed the contract.”
He displayed scanned documents.
Both signatures visible.
Victor Whitmore.
Margaret Whitmore.
Margaret shook violently.
“We didn’t know—”
“You knew enough.”
Adrian’s voice sharpened.
“You knew we engineered embryos.”
“You knew we used experimental compounds.”
“You knew subjects might die.”
Tears streamed down Margaret’s face.
“I just wanted a child…”
Adrian gave no sympathy.
“You wanted superiority.”
He looked at Ethan.
“And you got it.”
Ethan whispered.
“So… I’m not human?”
Ava’s eyes filled.
“No!”
She broke free enough to shout.
“You are human!”
Adrian laughed.
“Of course he’s human.”
He looked amused.
“Mostly.”
Ethan’s stomach turned.
“What do you mean?”
Adrian zoomed into a brain scan.
“This.”
Highlighted neural pathways glowed.
“Your brain processes emotional data differently.”
Another scan.
“Your memory retention is extraordinary.”
Another.
“Your reaction speed exceeds normal baselines.”
He stepped closer.
“You’ve noticed it, haven’t you?”
Ethan froze.
Memories surfaced.
Reading entire contracts in minutes.
Predicting negotiations.
Remembering tiny details from years ago.
Seeing patterns no one else saw.
He always thought it was talent.
Gift.
Luck.
Adrian smiled.
“You were designed.”
Ava shook her head.
“No—”
Adrian ignored her.
Victor shouted.
“I took him because I regretted everything!”
Adrian laughed.
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“That part surprised me.”
He faced everyone.
“Victor stole Subject E-7.”
Gasps filled the room.
Adrian continued.
“He staged his son’s birth.”
“Destroyed records.”
“Escaped with the child.”
“Built an empire.”
Victor’s voice broke.
“I loved him.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“You stole my life’s work.”
Margaret screamed.
“He’s not a project!”
Adrian turned.
“No?”
His smile returned.
“Then why did you keep his truth hidden?”
Margaret had no answer.
Because she knew.
Deep down.
She had always feared it.
Not because Ethan wasn’t real—
But because she feared he was something beyond her control.
Ava suddenly understood something.
Her eyes widened.
“The crash…”
Adrian looked at her.
She whispered.
“You caused the crash.”
He smiled.
“Very good.”
Ethan stared.
“What?”
Adrian nodded.
“Yes.”
Ava trembled with rage.
“You nearly killed us!”
Adrian corrected her.
“No.”
He pointed at Ethan.
“I tested him.”
Silence.
Ava felt nauseous.
“What?”
Adrian spoke clinically.
“Extreme stress reveals neural adaptation.”
Victor roared.
“You psychopath!”
Adrian’s voice sharpened.
“You call me psychopath?”
He pointed at Victor.
“You funded me.”
At Margaret.
“You signed consent.”
At everyone.
“And now you pretend morality?”
Silence.
Because part of what he said was true.
Monstrously true.
Adrian approached Ethan one last time.
Then—
He softened.
Almost gentle.
“Come with me.”
Ethan stared.
“What?”
“You belong with me.”
“No.”
Adrian sighed.
“I expected resistance.”
He pressed a button on the tablet.
A final file opened.
Ava’s photo.
Then another.
Then another.
Hospital scans.
Blood reports.
Ethan’s heart stopped.
No.
No.
No.
“Ava…”
She turned pale.
Adrian smiled.
“Oh yes.”
His voice became poisonous.
“She didn’t tell you either.”
Ethan looked at Ava.
“What is this?”
Tears streamed down her face.
Adrian answered for her.
“She’s pregnant.”
Silence.
Then chaos.
Ethan froze.
“What?”
His voice cracked.
“What did you say?”
Ava sobbed.
“I wanted to tell you…”
Margaret gasped.
Lena cried.
Victor stared.
Adrian’s smile widened.
“And it gets better.”
He zoomed in on the report.
Genetic markers highlighted.
Unique.
Impossible.
Adrian’s eyes glittered with obsession.
“The fetus carries your markers.”
Ethan shouted.
“That’s normal!”
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
He leaned forward.
“It inherited the adaptation.”
Silence.
No one understood.
Except Ava.
Because she had read enough.
Her blood ran cold.
“No…”
Adrian whispered.
“Yes.”
He smiled like a mad prophet.
“The child is E-8.”
E-8
Ava screamed.
“No!”
Adrian’s calm finally cracked into obsession.
“Do you understand what this means?”
He looked at Ethan.
“You succeeded.”
At Ava.
“You carried evolution.”
His voice shook with fanatic joy.
“Natural inheritance.”
“No laboratory.”
“No synthetic intervention.”
He laughed.
“It worked.”
Ethan’s face changed.
Something inside him snapped.
Not fear.
Not confusion.
Clarity.
Pure clarity.
He suddenly noticed everything.
Gun positions.
Angles.
Distance.
Weak points.
Heart rates.
Breathing patterns.
Time slowed.
Ava saw it first.
His eyes changed.
Focused.
Deadly calm.
Adrian noticed too.
And smiled.
“There you are.”
Ethan whispered.
“Let her go.”
Adrian’s men laughed.
Adrian raised a hand.
Silence.
He studied Ethan.
“Show me.”
Ava cried.
“Ethan, no!”
He repeated.
Calm.
Cold.
Terrifying.
“Let. Her. Go.”
Adrian smiled.
“Or what?”
Ethan lifted his head.
Blood running down his face.
Expression unreadable.
Then he said something that made Adrian’s smile disappear.
“I remember now.”
Adrian froze.
“What?”
Ethan’s pupils sharpened.
Memories flooded back.
Suppressed.
Buried.
Hidden deep in neural pathways.
White walls.
Machines.
Needles.
Screams.
Adrian standing over a child.
Then—
Fire.
Victor carrying him.
Escape.
Ethan slowly stood.
His voice was no longer broken.
It was steady.
Controlled.
Dangerous.
“You’re right.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
Ethan continued.
“I am Experiment Seven.”
He took one step forward.
Masked men tightened their grip on weapons.
Then Ethan smiled.
For the first time—
Adrian looked afraid.
Because Ethan’s next words were worse than any threat.
“I also remember…”
He locked eyes with Adrian.
May you like
“…how to kill every man in this room in under thirty seconds.”
