Chapter 35 - Blood on the Snow
David tensed, every muscle in his arms screaming for violence. But as the figure stumbled into the moonlight, the threat evaporated into shock.
It was Julian.
He looked like a corpse dragged from a battlefield. His white lab coat was charred black on one side, his face covered in soot and blistering second-degree burns. His left arm hung limp at his side, dislocated at the shoulder, and he was dragging one leg through the snow, leaving a crimson trail behind him.
"Don't... don't swing," Julian wheezed, falling to his knees three feet away from David. He spat a mouthful of dark blood into the snow. "It's just me."
Leah recoiled, shielding both babies with her body. "Stay away from us! You helped her! You helped Evelyn do this to my baby!"
"I was a fool," Julian whispered, his head hanging low, his chest heaving with agony. "I thought... I thought we were curing congenital degeneration. I thought Evelyn was funding pure science. I didn't know... I didn't know she was engineering replacements for elite families until six months ago."
David stepped closer, keeping the tire iron poised. "Where is she? Where is Evelyn?"
Julian let out a bitter, bubbling laugh that ended in a wet cough. "The operative... shot her in the spine. But she was still breathing when the thermite charges blew. She’s gone, David. The Collective burned her along with her life's work. She was just another loose thread."
Julian reached his good hand into his coat pocket and pulled out a rugged, military-grade black flash drive, encrusted with dried blood. He held it out toward David.
"Take it," Julian muttered. "The master decryptor. The nursery registry. It has the names of every child, every surrogate, every politician and executive who paid for a clean lineage. It’s the only leverage on Earth that can keep those two girls alive."
David hesitated, then snatched the drive from his brother's trembling fingers. "Why are you giving this to me?"
"Because she’s my niece too," Julian whispered, his eyes rolling back in exhaustion. "And because... they’re already at the bottom of the hill. Listen."
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Through the quiet rustle of the pine branches came the unmistakable, guttural rumble of heavy diesel engines idling on the service road below.
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