Alison dragged Richard's nephew into the escape pipeline, her gun pressed against his neck. The pipeline was lined with electromagnetic traps; she used Sophia's consciousness fragments to hack the security codes. Suddenly, holographic projections flickered across the metal walls—the dark web auction interface flashed with a countdown. Her rebirth code had been split into seven modules, each bid price soaring to astronomical figures.
"Stop the auction!" she,cranking the gun's energy to maximum frequency. "Reveal Prometheus's real coordinates!"
A blue light burst from the nephew's pupil chip. Encrypted coordinates and biometric passwords spilled from his lips, only to be distorted by the pipeline's quantum jammer. Gritting her teeth, Alison switched to the consciousness fragment. Sophia's AI voice echoed in her mind:
"The coordinates are layered with encryption. Need to decode his retinal biometrics—but you have 30 seconds. The auction is about to close."
She jabbed her tactical glove into his eye socket, syncing the retinal scanner with Sophia's code stream. He convulsed in pain as coordinates finally decoded: an abandoned research station in Antarctica, location of Prometheus's "Immortality Incubation Chamber."
Alarms closed in from the pipeline's end. Alison fired an electromagnetic net to trap pursuers, bursting through the exit with her hostage. Connor's vehicle skidded to a stop; he tossed an encrypted communicator: "Dark web bidding's in final stage. Global hacker alliances are trying to breach the platform, but its firewall is quantum-state."
"We need physical intrusion." Alison input the coordinates into the car system. "Prometheus is waiting at the chamber for code integration. We must move before the transaction completes."
Connor activated stealth mode, the vehicle gliding toward the airport like a ghost. En route, the nephew suddenly broke free—his quantum chip self-destructed in an explosion, shattering the cabin glass with shockwaves. Alison covered her ears as Sophia's voice grew clearer:
"His death triggered the chamber's alert protocols. You'll walk into a trap matrix upon arrival."
"Then we break the matrix." She pulled up the Ethical Alliance's distributed server map. "Mobilize all node hackers. Use Sophia's consciousness stream to build a temporary defense network."
At the Antarctic research station, the rusted reactor shell. Alison and Connor infiltrated to find the incubation chamber swarming with nanotech traps. Seven code module bidding containers hovered in midair, while Prometheus's hologram flickered at the center—a mosaic of countless faces, each wearing a mask.
"Welcome, perfect vessel." The projection spoke in a chorus of voices. "Your code will the genes of all immortality seekers, becoming the immortal prototype."
Alison fired an EMP, but the projection fragmented into thousands of phantoms. Connor's hacking team warned: "Prometheus seized the trading platform. Global bidders are transferring funds en masse!"
She sprinted for the code containers, only to find each module locked with quantum seals—her biometric password alone could unlock them. Sophia's consciousness stream suddenly surged into her nerves: "Don't decode! It's a trap—they'll use your authorization to activate the immortal embryos, making you the control hub."
The chamber floor split open, spilling soldiers. Alison and Connor fought back with tactical gear, but realized the soldiers had quantum chips in their pupils—Prometheus had used portions of bid funds to build an army of puppets.
"Must destroy the core server!" Sophia guided her mentally. "In the chamber's basement—neural interface. Inject my code to reverse-detonate the quantum bomb."
Alison dived into ventilation ducts as Connor held off the soldier horde. Reaching the basement, she found the server core merging her biometric data with embryos. neural interface sprawled like a spider web; Sophia's code injected like venom.
"10-second countdown." Sophia screamed. "Detonation will destroy all code modules, but you might be trapped in quantum state forever."
Alison pressed the trigger. The chamber erupted in tremors. The quantum bomb's shockwave shredded servers, and the code modules burst in final data streams before annihilation—coordinates and biometric passwords pointing to Prometheus's true headquarters: a Swiss underground gene bank.
She and Connor escaped the collapse as the dark web auction platform crashed simultaneously. The Ethical Alliance's defense network intercepted global fund transfers; the frozen account list included numerous politicians and tech tycoons.
Recovering from quantum trauma in the hospital, Alison received intel on the Swiss gene bank: Prometheus was an immortality club for transnational elites, members merging genes with AI to plan a "human upgrade movement." Sophia's consciousness fragment, severely damaged in the explosion, revealed one final clue:
"Prometheus's founder was the original patron of the rebirth experiment—and their ultimate goal isn't immortality. It's replacing humanity."