Chapter 77 - The Judas Frequency
Daniel whipped around.
Claire was frozen in place. Her eyes, normally so vibrant and sharp, had rolled back into her head, replaced by a dull, glowing amber light. Her hands were trembling violently, her fingers twitching with mechanical spasms.
"Claire?!" Daniel reached out, but before he could touch her, Claire’s right arm snapped forward with blinding speed. Her palm struck Daniel's collarbone with the force of a hydraulic piston, sending him crashing to the floor.
"Did you really believe she was cured, Daniel?" Sarah’s voice dripped with sadistic amusement as she descended the steps of the dais. "Did you really think the Claire standing beside you was entirely free from my programming?"
Daniel scrambled backward, his chest burning with white-hot pain, staring in horror at the woman who had fought beside him through hell.
Claire stood stiffly, her face completely expressionless, her movements robotic and unnatural.
"Every clone of Claire manufactured in Facility Nine carries a deep-tier sub-neural receiver," Sarah explained, pacing casually around the frozen woman. "A Judas Frequency. All it takes is a specific acoustic pulse from this codex, and her executive functions are completely wiped. She is no longer your wife, Daniel. She is no longer Lily’s mother. She is merely my personal enforcer."
"Claire... fight it!" Daniel gasped, struggling to his feet. "You know who you are! You fought to protect Lily! Look at her!"
Lily was cowering near the bulkhead, her small hands covering her mouth, tears streaming down her pale cheeks. "Mommy? Mommy, please don't hurt Daddy..."
Claire’s head twitched violently. For a split second, the amber glow in her eyes flickered, revealing a glimpse of agony beneath the surface. "Dan... iel..." she managed to croak through clenched teeth. "...run... she's... inside my head..."
"Kill the child, Claire," Sarah commanded smoothly, without even looking back. "We only need the father."
Claire's body moved instantly. Her hand reached down, drawing the tactical combat knife from her boot. Her amber eyes locked onto Lily.
"NO!" Daniel screamed.
He launched himself forward, tackling Claire around the waist just as she lunged toward the terrified toddler. They crashed hard onto the glass floor directly above the pulsating synthetic core.
Daniel wrestled desperately with Claire’s wrist, using every ounce of his remaining strength to keep the razor-sharp blade away from his daughter. But Claire’s engineered strength was terrifying; she didn't feel pain, she didn't tire, and she showed no hesitation.
"Claire, stop! It’s me!" Daniel roared, his face inches from hers.
Claire’s expression was a mask of cold porcelain. With a savage headbutt, she fractured Daniel's nose, sending a spray of blood across the transparent floor. She twisted beneath him, wrapping her legs around his torso in a lethal chokehold, her blade driving downward toward his throat.
Daniel caught her wrist with both hands, the tip of the blade hovering barely an inch above his jugular. The veins in his neck bulged as he fought against the downward pressure. His strength was fading; his vision was darkening at the edges from the chokehold.
*Five seconds. He had five seconds before his trachea collapsed.*
Beside them, Sarah watched with cold satisfaction, opening a secondary glass containment tube on the central console. "Do not worry, Daniel. Once your mind is integrated into the core, you won't remember her. You won't remember anything except the song of the new world."
"Daddy!" Lily screamed.
The sound of his daughter’s voice shattered the creeping darkness in Daniel’s brain.
He didn't fight Claire's strength. He used it.
Daniel released his grip on the knife hand and wrapped his arms tightly around Claire’s neck, pulling her body into a desperate, crushing embrace. He didn't strike her. He didn't twist her joints. He buried his face against her neck, breathing through the blood filling his mouth.
"I know you're in there, Claire," Daniel choked out, his voice a ragged whisper against her ear. "The night Lily was born... in that cabin by the lake... you whispered in my ear that if the darkness ever took you... to remind you of the bluebells. The bluebells by the water."
Claire’s entire body went rigid.
The knife stopped, its razor edge resting against Daniel’s skin, drawing a thin line of red.
The amber light in Claire’s eyes began to violently strobe, flashing between cold gold and warm, human hazel. A guttural scream of pure agony tore through her throat as two competing neural networks waged war inside her prefrontal cortex.
"DANIEL... GET... HER... OUT!" Claire shrieked, her hands shaking violently.
With a superhuman effort of will, Claire turned the knife away from Daniel, drove the blade directly into her own thigh, severing the neural relay node embedded in her femoral muscle, and collapsed onto the glass deck, unconscious.
Daniel gasped for air, rolling off her, clutching his bruised throat.
He looked up.
Sarah Vance was staring at him, her serene smile finally gone, replaced by a look of venomous, unadulterated fury.
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"You sentimental, pathetic parasite," Sarah hissed, drawing a sleek, silver sidearm from her velvet sleeve. "If you won't enter the core willingly... I will drag your paralyzed corpse into it!"
***
