CHAPTER 8 The Blood Archive #2
Luca resumed treatment.
Sofia looked toward the bunker entrance.
“If Matteo’s DNA is stored there, can they use it?”
Carlo answered carefully.
“For identification.”
“What else?”
“Research.”
“What kind?”
“Hereditary analysis.”
“Can they clone him?”
Dante looked at her.
Carlo almost laughed.
“No.”
Sofia glared.
“Not funny.”
“I’m sorry.”
“What can they do?”
“Predict illness. compatibility. traits.”
“Manipulate?”
“Not the way you mean.”
Dante’s gaze sharpened.
“The way she means?”
Carlo hesitated.
“There were experimental programs.”
Sofia’s stomach dropped.
“What programs?”
“Embryo screening.”
Silence.
“Selection?”
Dante asked.
“Yes.”
Sofia felt sick.
“You mean they chose which pregnancies continued.”
“In some families.”
“And ours?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
Dante’s voice became dangerously calm.
“How?”
“Because Sofia conceived naturally.”
She flushed despite everything.
Carlo continued.
“The Circle wanted that.”
“Why?”
“Because forced conception would weaken the behavioral bond.”
The words were so clinical Sofia wanted to scream.
Dante looked disgusted.
“They needed us to believe Matteo was ours by choice.”
Carlo’s eyes met his.
“He is yours by choice.”
Silence.
Carlo continued.
“That part was real.”
Sofia looked at him.
“Was it?”
“Yes.”
“How can you know?”
“Because the Circle tried to manipulate circumstances.”
He breathed carefully through pain.
“But nobody ordered either of you into that bedroom.”
Dante’s gaze found Sofia.
She felt the old fear return.
Was any of it real?
Carlo answered as though reading her.
“They could manipulate proximity.”
He looked at both of them.
“They could not manufacture desire.”
A pause.
“Or love.”
Sofia’s throat tightened.
Dante looked away first.
Luca finished bandaging Carlo.
“Stable for now.”
Carlo laughed weakly.
“That’s generous.”
Dante ignored him.
“How do we destroy the archive?”
Carlo’s face changed.
“You don’t.”
“Wrong.”
“If you destroy it, you destroy evidence.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should.”
“Why?”
“Because the archive contains names.”
Dante went still.
“What names?”
“Everyone currently inside the Circle.”
Silence.
Luca looked up.
“How current?”
“Updated continuously.”
Dante’s expression sharpened.
“That could end them.”
“Yes.”
“Then why haven’t they destroyed it?”
Carlo looked toward the bunker.
“Because they need it more than they fear exposure.”
“For succession.”
“Yes.”
Sofia thought of Matteo.
“No.”
Dante turned.
“What?”
“We open it.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Sofia.”
“We open it.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“They have been watching us for years.”
“Yes.”
“They tracked Matteo.”
“Yes.”
“They manipulated our families.”
“Yes.”
“They killed people.”
“Yes.”
“And the archive contains every name.”
“Possibly.”
“Then we stop running.”
Dante stared.
She saw surprise.
Then something else.
Pride.
“Are you sure?”
“No.”
The answer came honestly.
“But I’m tired of being afraid.”
Dante looked at her for a long moment.
Then nodded.
“Good.”
Carlo immediately shook his head.
“You don’t understand.”
Dante looked at him.
“Then explain.”
“The archive is protected physically.”
“By what?”
“Not what.”
Carlo’s voice became quieter.
“Who.”
Sofia’s skin prickled.
“Who?”
Carlo looked toward the bunker.
“The Custodian.”
Dante frowned.
“One person?”
“Yes.”
“Name.”
“I never knew it.”
“Man?”
“Probably.”
“Probably?”
“The title transfers.”
Dante’s expression darkened.
“Like succession.”
“Yes.”
“What does the Custodian do?”
“Protects the archive.”
“With guards?”
“With authority.”
“That means nothing.”
Carlo swallowed.
“The Custodian can override every Circle operative.”
“Even Vescari?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever controls the archive controls the Circle.”
Silence.
Dante looked toward the floor.
“So whoever is down there is the real center.”
“If the Custodian is there.”
“Is he?”
Carlo closed his eyes.
“I think so.”
Sofia felt dread.
“Why?”
“Because the bunker opened.”
Dante went still.
Carlo continued.
“That only happens when the Custodian authorizes access.”
“So Mercer?”
“No.”
Carlo looked genuinely afraid.
“Mercer is a servant.”
That changed everything.
Sofia stared.
“All this time…”
“Yes.”
Carlo nodded weakly.
“Mercer isn’t the one making decisions.”
“Then who is?”
“I don’t know.”
Dante looked toward the bunker.
“We find out.”
Carlo grabbed his arm.
“No.”
Dante looked down at the hand.
Carlo released him immediately.
“If the Custodian wants you inside, going down there is exactly what they want.”
Sofia thought of the messages.
The manipulation.
The safe house.
Everything had led here.
“He’s right.”
Dante looked at her.
“But we still need the archive.”
“Yes.”
“So?”
Sofia thought.
Then something occurred to her.
“What if we don’t open it?”
Carlo frowned.
“What?”
“What if we make them think we will?”
Dante’s eyes sharpened.
Sofia continued.
“They need both of us.”
“Yes.”
“They need our biometrics.”
“Yes.”
“So that makes us valuable.”
Dante understood.
“Leverage.”
She nodded.
Carlo looked between them.
“You want to negotiate with the Circle?”
“No.”
Sofia’s voice hardened.
“I want them to come to us.”
Dante smiled.
Slowly.
Darkly.
She had not seen that expression in years.
It was the smile of a predator recognizing another.
Luca looked at Sofia.
“You’ve been spending too much time with him.”
“I’m starting to fear that too.”
Dante ignored them.
“We broadcast an offer.”
Carlo shook his head.
“They won’t believe you.”
“They will if we give them something.”
“What?”
Dante looked at Sofia.
She already knew.
“Me.”
“No.”
His answer came instantly.
“Dante.”
“No.”
“They want S-17.”
“No.”
“They need me.”
“Exactly.”
“And that is why it works.”
“No.”
Sofia crossed her arms.
“You said protection is not control.”
His jaw tightened.
“This is different.”
“It is always different when you’re losing an argument.”
Luca looked away.
Carlo almost smiled.
Dante glared at both men.
Then returned to Sofia.
“I am not using you as bait.”
“You’re not using me.”
She stepped closer.
“I’m choosing.”
The word stopped him.
Choice.
The thing they had both lost.
The thing the Circle believed it controlled.
Dante looked into her eyes.
“What exactly are you proposing?”
Sofia lowered her voice.
“We send a message.”
“To whom?”
“Mercer.”
“And say?”
She glanced toward the bunker.
“That I’ll open the archive.”
Carlo went pale.
“No.”
Sofia continued.
“But only if the Custodian meets me.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“Alone?”
“That’s what we tell them.”
“No.”
“I know.”
“You’re not going alone.”
“I know.”
He stared.
She smiled faintly.
“You really think I learned nothing from you?”
Something warm moved in his expression.
Then vanished.
“What if they refuse?”
“Then we know they don’t need us as much as they claim.”
“And if they accept?”
Sofia looked toward the bunker door.
“Then for the first time, we see who has been moving the pieces.”
Silence.
Dante considered.
Then his phone buzzed.
Everyone froze.
He had destroyed his phone.
The sound came from Carlo’s coat.
Luca immediately reached for it.
An old black phone.
No visible brand.
One message.
Dante read.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Sofia asked.
He handed her the screen.
**THE CUSTODIAN ACCEPTS HER OFFER.**
Sofia’s blood chilled.
She had not sent anything.
No one had.
Below it was another line.
**S-17 COMES BELOW. ALONE.**
Dante’s face went cold.
Then a third line appeared.
**M-04 MAY WATCH.**
Sofia stared.
They were listening.
Not only electronically.
Thinking ahead.
Anticipating.
Dante looked toward the bunker.
Then back at her.
“They knew what you were going to propose.”
Sofia swallowed.
“Yes.”
Carlo whispered, “That’s what they do.”
Dante’s eyes darkened.
“No.”
He took Sofia’s hand.
Firm.
Warm.
Real.
“That’s what they think they do.”
A mechanical sound came from beneath them.
The bunker floor shifted again.
A second door opened below.
Deeper.
Blackness beyond it.
Then every light in the house went out.
A single red line illuminated the stairwell.
Sofia felt Dante’s fingers tighten around hers.
A voice came through the bunker.
Not Mercer.
Not Vescari.
A woman.
Calm.
Older.
Familiar.
“Sofia.”
Sofia froze.
She knew that voice.
She had heard it every day of her childhood.
Her mother.
Dante turned toward her.
Her face had gone white.
“No.”
The voice came again.
“Come downstairs, sweetheart.”
Sofia could not breathe.
Her mother had not disappeared.
Her mother had not been ignorant.
Her mother had not merely inherited Vescari blood.
She had been part of the Circle all along.
And somewhere below the house, the woman Sofia had spent three years believing she had abandoned was waiting for her.
Waiting beside an archive built from blood.
Waiting to explain why her daughter had been chosen.
And why Matteo had never truly been allowed to escape.