Inheritance ✔

Chapter 26 - The Thorne Sequence

Laurier Ashford's POV

The Thorne Sequence wasn't a myth.
It was a project. A key.

And Dagon Stallard was inches from unlocking it.

We confirmed it two days after Clara's confession. Silas decrypted the metadata embedded in one of Dagon's fake biotech acquisitions—an abandoned genome research facility in Kyoto, once owned by a secret joint-venture between Ashford Enterprises and an old military branch under the Japanese government.

It was buried deep in the Ashford archives, wiped from public records, but it existed.

And my name was on the original funding line.

I just didn't remember ever signing it.

Or maybe—I was never told what I was signing.

"Thorne wasn't a person," Iris muttered, pacing across the bunker's war room. "It was a protocol. A multi-generational attempt to isolate a rare gene cluster in a handful of bloodlines—including yours. Ones with high epigenetic memory retention."

"Meaning?" Mateo asked, arms crossed.

"Meaning," I said quietly, "he thinks if he unlocks it, he'll gain access to our collective memory."

"Genetic memory?" Renzo frowned, still pale from the injuries, but upright. "That's... borderline myth."

"Not to people like Dagon," I said. "He's not after empire anymore. He's after immortality."

Renzo's eyes locked on mine.

"And he thinks you're the vault."

We moved fast.

The Kyoto lab had been dormant for nearly a decade. Officially condemned after a fire. In reality, only the top floors were destroyed. Below ground, the lab still thrived—reactivated by Dagon's team under a shell company called Vireon Systems.

When the satellite scans came in, we saw the trucks. Armed guards. Biohazard suits.

They were preparing something.

Or... extracting someone.

March 18, 1:44 a.m. – Kyoto

The air in the mountains was sharp and cold. The facility rose like a scar beneath the tree line—five levels deep, only one visible above ground.

We split into two teams.

Silas and Iris took the perimeter with Mateo and two of our best shadows.

Renzo and I went in.

Together.

He was back in full black—tactical gear molded to him like second skin. The scar on his ribs was still healing, but his steps were sure, eyes razor sharp.

I wore a second-skin suit, bulletproof but flexible, hair tied back tight. Every nerve in my body buzzed.

We had one mission: get to the Sequence Room before Dagon did.

And if we were too late?

We burn everything.

We entered through the server shaft beneath the east wing.

The air was sterile. Too clean. Lights flickered overhead, revealing corridors that hadn't been used in years—or had only seemed unused. Footprints in the dust. Doors unlocked. Old computers running silent background processes.

Renzo's hand brushed mine briefly as we reached the biometric checkpoint.

"You okay?" he whispered.

"No," I admitted.

He smiled faintly. "Good. I'd be worried if you were."

We reached the final corridor. The one labeled GEN 0.

The Thorne Chamber.

The doors were already open.

Inside, six bodies lay motionless.

Slumped in chairs. Blood at their temples. Eyes glassy.

One scientist clutched a vial still warm.

We stepped inside slowly.

On the far end—beneath a sealed glass tank—something pulsed faintly.

I stepped closer.

The sequence wasn't a file.

It was a person.

A girl—maybe sixteen—floated in the pod, asleep, or sedated, or worse. Tubes ran from her arms. Electrodes on her scalp. Her hair was black, skin pale.

She looked almost... familiar.

And then I realized—

She looked like me.

Or rather...

Like Clara.

Renzo stared, jaw tight.

"They cloned her."

"No," I said slowly, voice cracking. "They grew her."

On the wall behind the pod, text scrolled rapidly on a screen.

ACCESSING GENETIC HOST: ROSETTE-A
SEQUENCE MATCH: 92% — SUBJECT: L.A. ASHFORD
ACTIVATION IN: 00:02:13

My stomach dropped.

"It's not just a weapon," I whispered. "It's a bridge. He wants to upload genetic memory from me into her. Turn her into a carrier. A new vessel."

Renzo moved fast, trying to override the terminal. "He's syncing the genome pattern. If it completes, the imprint becomes permanent."

I grabbed a syringe of stabilizer from a nearby tray.

"We shut it down."

"But what if she—" Renzo stopped. "What if she's conscious? What if this kills her?"

I stared through the glass.

And saw her eyes flutter.

Green. Wide. Scared.

Alive.

"Laurier," Renzo warned. "You need to decide. Now."

The countdown on the screen hit 00:00:36

And I made the call.

I punched the override button and slammed the emergency open sequence.

The pod hissed. The fluid drained. The girl collapsed into my arms.

Renzo hit the kill switch on the sync sequence, deleting the uplink files before they could lock in.

I checked her vitals. Still breathing. Shaking, but awake.

She looked up at me, voice barely audible.

"Are you... my mother?"

I blinked, throat burning.

"No, baby," I whispered. "I'm not."

But I pulled her tighter into my chest all the same.

"You're safe now."

Silas's voice cracked through the comm.

"Dagon's here. He's at the north exit. With Clara."

I stood, face cold.

"Hold him."

Renzo lifted his weapon.

"Let's end this."