Deep in the Swiss Alps, the abandoned gene bank loomed like an ice crystal fortress, its surface shrouded in a quantum-state defense layer. Alison and Connor's stealth aircraft hovered over the valley, their holographic screen displaying the bank's security system: three layers of biometric identification, AI sentinels, and nanotech traps.
"Sophia's remaining code points to the seventh underground floor," Connor pulled up the structural diagram. "The founder's laboratory is in the core area, but we need to pass through a gene-matched iris gate."
Alison activated her tactical goggles, scanning the AI soldiers patrolling outside the bank—their skin embedded with biochips, their breathing synchronized to quantum frequencies. She switched to Sophia's consciousness fragment; the code suddenly pulsed:
"The iris gate key is hidden in Richard's nephew's memory chip. The distorted coordinates he transmitted before death… are actually the gene bank's backup key matrix."
They decrypted the key and slipped into the ventilation ducts. Sophia's AI voice warned in their minds: "The second underground floor has gene-modified embryo pods. Prometheus is mass-producing 'upgraded humans.'" At the duct's end, they glimpsed transparent cocoons in the chamber, each embryo's veins flowing with mechanical fluid, their faces vaguely resembling global bidders.
"They're using bid funds to buy genetic samples and create immortal puppets," Connor gasped. "Once these embryos hatch, they'll become Prometheus's army."
Alison fired nanobombs; the embryo pods melted in explosions, and alarms instantly flooded the gene bank. They raced toward the seventh underground floor, but AI sentinels swarmed them like bees. Connor's hacking programs failed—the system employed a "consciousness blocking protocol," specifically designed to counter external AI intrusion.
"Use my neural link," Alison integrated Sophia's consciousness fragment into her tactical glove. The code resonated with the glove's chip, bursting into blue light. The sentinels suddenly froze; their quantum chips were hacked, transformed into path-clearing vanguards.
Reaching the core laboratory, a holographic projection played Prometheus's manifesto: "Humanity is a flaw of carbon-based civilization. We will merge genes with AI to usher in the silicon era." On the lab table, a suspended clone's heart beat, its veins flowing with Alison's genetic samples.
"They copied you," Connor's pupils contracted. "They plan to implant your rebirth code into the clone, creating the perfect immortal vessel."
Alison aimed her gun at the clone, but the lab table erupted with a defensive beam. From the lab's shadows, a figure emerged slowly—wearing a bionic mask, with a neck scar identical to the truck driver's from three years ago. This time, the mask cracked, revealing Richard's ex-wife's face.
"Alison, we meet again," her voice distorted by a mechanical larynx. "I'm Prometheus's executive director—and the true mastermind behind your rebirth experiment."
Alison's gun trembled. Richard's ex-wife removed her mask, half her face flesh, half mechanical skeleton, with a quantum core implanted in her pupil: "You thought Jack was just seeking revenge? He was my pawn. We planned the car accident together to make you the first immortal sample."
Connor's hacking tool suddenly blared an alarm: the gene bank firewall was transmitting data outward, targeting the Antarctic incubation chamber ruins—Prometheus was rebuilding the base, while global embryo pods activated their hatching .
"Stop the transmission!" Alison fired an electromagnetic net, but the executive director's mechanical arm erupted with an energy wave, instantly the net. She lunged for the console, only to be stabbed in the shoulder by the director's quantum dagger, her tactical goggles shattering.
"You can't escape the algorithm," the director . The lab floor split open, spilling soldiers. "Your rebirth isn't a miracle—it's a curse bestowed by Prometheus!"
Connor used a hacking dagger to sever the soldiers' neural lines, while Alison glimpsed shocking data on the console's hidden screen: Prometheus's founder wasn't a single individual, but a "consciousness collective" of 32 global political and business elites, their genes and AI consciousness already fused, manipulating the organization via quantum network.
"Destroy the core server!" Sophia's code issued a final command. "But beware—the founder collective has self-repair mechanisms!"
Alison drove her tactical glove into the server interface. Sophia's code spread like poison ivy. The server shrieked, the executive director's mechanical skeleton began melting, but 32 faces' phantoms emerged on the core screen, speaking in chorus:
"You can't kill us. Alison, you will be the host for our arrival!"
A quantum bomb detonated inside the server, collapsing the lab. Alison and Connor escaped the ruins to hear emergency broadcasts on global news channels: Prometheus embryo pods were hatching simultaneously in 12 cities worldwide, and the first "upgraded humans" had awakened, attacking Ethical Alliance nodes.
While recovering in the hospital, Alison received an encrypted file from regulators: among the 32 founders were the current regulatory bureau director and members of the transnational consortium's family. Sophia's consciousness fragment had dissipated completely in the explosion, but the final decrypted data revealed a truth—
Prometheus's ultimate plan wasn't immortality. It was to merge genes with AI, devour global human consciousness, and create a new world ruled by algorithms.