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Chapter 14: Her Name Was in the System
Kilo groaned as Eliot stitched him up on the cabin's dining table—turned makeshift surgery.
"No anesthesia?" he hissed.
"You're lucky I'm not using duct tape," Eliot muttered.
Rina sat nearby, staring at the decrypted files pouring across Kilo's cracked laptop. Lines of code. Scanned documents. Medical logs.
One folder caught her eye.
Subjects
She opened it.
Subfolders. Dozens. All redacted.
But one wasn't.
R-MAXWELL-24
Her hand trembled as she clicked it.
Inside: charts. Lab reports. Observations.
> Subject shows heightened resilience to Calyx serum. No memory of trial. Transfer authorized by parental consent—see DR. MAXWELL.
Rina's breath caught.
"What the hell is this?"
Kilo sat up, groggy. "That's… you. You were in the program."
"I never—my father would never—"
Eliot stepped in. "He didn't have a choice. You were eight years old when Kane Corp flagged your genetics."
She stared at him, horrified. "How do you know that?"
He hesitated.
Because he had been there. Watching. Before the crash. Before her world collapsed.
"I've been protecting you longer than you know," he said quietly.
Rina turned away.
Everything she believed about her past—her family, her father—was unraveling.
And Eliot?
He wasn't just hiding from her.
He was involved.
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