Chapter 16 - The Sterile Cage
Norah woke up strapped tightly to a cold, vertical examination table in a blindingly white laboratory.
Her wrists and ankles were secured by heavy titanium cuffs that dug painfully into her bruised skin.
Director Sterling was standing a few feet away, casually reviewing a holographic medical chart.
The Director noticed Norah was awake and offered her a thin, incredibly condescending smile.
She explained that Norah was currently located inside the heart of the Vanguard mountain facility.
Sterling casually admitted that the entire mafia narrative was a carefully constructed sociological experiment.
Vanguard had allowed Vincent to build his criminal empire simply to observe how his mutation handled extreme stress.
But his cellular structure had begun to rapidly decay, threatening their multi-billion dollar biological investment.
Finding Norah, a woman with the exact genetic enzyme needed to stabilize him, was a miracle for the agency.
Sterling walked over and gently traced a cold finger down Norah’s terrified, tear-stained cheek.
She whispered that they were going to slowly drain Norah’s blood to synthesize a permanent control serum.
With that serum, they could finally breed an obedient army of mutated soldiers without the risk of cellular death.
Sterling pressed a button on a sleek remote control, and the opaque white wall in front of Norah instantly turned transparent.
Norah gasped in absolute horror at the sight on the other side of the reinforced glass.
Vincent was suspended in the center of the adjacent room, bound by massive, electrified steel chains.
Thick tubes were violently inserted directly into his veins, pumping his glowing silver blood into large glass vats.
He looked incredibly weak, his head slumped forward and his chest barely moving as he breathed.
Sterling picked up a large, terrifyingly thick syringe connected to a mechanical blood centrifuge.
She calmly stated that they would start by extracting a liter of Norah’s blood to flush Vincent’s system.
Norah did not beg, and she did not cry as the needle approached her vein.
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She stared directly at Vincent through the glass, silently praying that her blood would give him the strength to fight back.
As the needle pierced her skin, Vincent’s eyes slowly fluttered open, locking completely onto her face.
