Karen sat at the edge of the cold chair in the center of the chamber, no longer afraid of it but furious at what it represented.
Her identity, her life, her freedom all documented, filed, twisted behind closed doors like she was some broken science project.
But no more.
She turned to Luca. "Is there a way to shut this place down? Destroy it?"
He nodded "There's a system core behind the East Wing. I saw it once, years ago, before they pulled me out. Power grid, memory servers, all of it. It's underground."
Alex's jaw tensed. "If we destroy that, we bury everything. The evidence, the experiment and Karen's name."
Karen stood up, her voice clear. "Then we do it. We burn it down."
Luca moved quickly to the panel at the side of the room. Behind it, he found an old blueprint sealed in a dusty glass case. He broke it open with a chair leg.
Unfolding the faded map, he pointed. "Here. Below the East Wing. Maintenance shaft leads straight to the server core."
Alex peered over his shoulder. "Looks tight."
"Very." Luca gave him a grim look. "But if we time it right, we don't need to blow anything up. We just need to pull the main switch and make sure the emergency lockdown kicks in before the data backups finish syncing."
Karen stared at the clock on the wall.
62 hours left.
"I want to finish this tonight," she said.
Alex met her eyes. "You sure you're ready?"
Her lips curled in a faint, dangerous smile. "They tried to erase me, now I'll erase them."
Hours Later…
The hallway outside the East Wing was dark. Luca led the way, guiding them to a sealed metal door at the base of a stairwell.
He knelt, pried the panel open, and revealed a rusted metal ladder descending into black.
Karen hesitated.
Alex touched her back gently. "I'm right behind you."
She nodded and climbed in first, Luca after her, Alex last.
The air down there was worse like copper and mold. The descent felt endless, the metal groaning under their weight.
Finally, they reached a landing. Ahead of them: a large steel door with a faded sign that read:
CORE ACCESS – AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY
Karen placed her palm on the scanner beside it.
A soft beep.
Then the door opened.
Inside: towering servers, old machinery, blinking red lights the heartbeat of Avalon.
And on the far wall:
A single switch.
Labeled:
"System Power Reset – Hard Kill"
Luca exhaled. "This is it."
Karen stepped toward it.
But just as her fingers brushed the edge
"Don't."
A voice echoed behind them.
They turned.
A woman stood in the shadows, just past the entrance. Mid-30s, pale skin, dark red lipstick and eyes that locked on Karen like she'd seen a ghost.
"I knew you'd come back," she said softly. "You always do."
Karen's stomach dropped.
"…Who are you?"
The woman stepped forward.
"I'm the one who created Project HER."