Chapter 11: The Red Room Pact
Washington, D.C. — 3:17 a.m.
A single secure server room beneath the Capitol hummed softly. In a windowless chamber lit only by a strip of LED white, three people sat hunched around a monitor that shouldn't exist.
The screen replayed the gala footage—again.
Kieran Noire's form rippling mid-transformation. Civilians screaming. A woman with glowing claws dragging a bleeding man to safety. Something else—a shadow falling through the chandelier.
A government man in a charcoal suit paused the video.
"This isn't just a corporate breach," he said. "That's biological terrorism. That's… warfare."
"No," said the woman across from him. tapping the screen gently, stopping it on Lana. "That's the Second Eve."
"I want every piece of this wiped and shelved," the third man said, pale and sweating. "We're not equipped to handle cryptogenetic species and ancient bloodlines."
"You weren't supposed to see it," said the woman. "But you can't unsee it now. The wolves aren't myths. They never were."
---
Beneath Noctis Tower — Red Room, Sublevel 9
Lana's breath steamed in the sterile cold. The hum of the Red Room wasn't mechanical—it was organic. The lab itself felt alive. At her back, Kieran stood silent, arms crossed, his wounds only half-closed. Jason monitored a bank of floating holo-screens, tapping commands only he seemed to understand.
In front of them, the cryo-tank labeled LC-07 pulsed with slow, irregular light.
The creature inside wasn't a fetus. Not exactly. It was older than any of the others. Its body wasn't curled in sleep—it was flexing. Growing. Dreaming.
"It's not just a clone," Jason muttered. "This genome's… ancient. Not human. Not wolf."
Lana stared at the floating form. The crown of bone around its skull. The faint etchings of symbols along its spine.
Then Evelyn Carter's voice whispered to life from a hidden speaker.
"If you're hearing this," the recording said, "you've opened the chamber too late."
Jason turned slowly. "That wasn't in the system."
The image of Evelyn appeared—flickering, staticky. She looked older, gaunter. Her lab coat stained, but her eyes burned with clarity.
"I used remains recovered from the 1963 expedition to Kola. The ruins beneath the Russian permafrost. The wolves in the myths—Fenrir, Wepwawet—weren't metaphors. They were the apex. Humanity didn't descend from apes. We were… their containment strategy."
Lana's knees weakened. Kieran moved to catch her, but she waved him off.
Evelyn continued.
"The LC line was built to create balance. Control. But LC-07—'Omega'—was born from the source blood. A weapon. A god. I never meant to awaken it. I built it to end the wars between our kind."
She paused. Looked straight into the camera.
"Lana. You were never supposed to be its sister."
A soft beep.
"You were supposed to carry it."
---
Silence gripped the room.
Jason looked from Lana to Kieran and back. "She… she designed you as a vessel?"
Lana touched the glass of LC-07's tank. Her hand trembled. Inside, the creature twitched.
"No," she whispered. "She wanted me to choose. That's why she hid me. I was plan B."
Kieran's voice was low. "She created a living god. And built a cult around you."
Lana turned to him. "And you. You let her die."
"I didn't order her death." Kieran's jaw clenched. "I shut down the lab. I didn't know what she was carrying."
"That's convenient," Lana snapped.
He stepped forward. "I would've saved her. I would've saved you both. I was trying to protect the species."
"By playing God?"
"By surviving!"
Jason's voice cut through. "We've got company."
The monitors showed five heat signatures moving down the hall.
"Vanir," Kieran said. "Kraven sold us out."
Lana didn't hesitate. She turned to Jason. "Lock this room."
He moved, fast—palms on the biometric panels, locking down cryo-chambers, initiating Red Fire fallback protocols.
The lights dimmed.
And then the door exploded inward.
---
Vanir enforcers poured in—tactical armor over half-shifted forms. Muzzles bristling. Claws unsheathed. They opened fire.
Kieran moved first.
A roar ripped from his chest as he leapt. The first attacker didn't even scream—Kieran hit him mid-air, driving his claws into the man's ribcage and slamming him backward into the wall so hard his spine snapped.
Jason rolled beneath a desk, yanking Lana down beside him.
Lana's body trembled. Not from fear.
From pressure.
The shift was coming.
"Do it," Jason said. "Don't hold it back. Use it."
Her hands curled. Nails lengthened. Her breath caught—then pushed out with a guttural sound.
She rose.
The second Vanir thug saw her—and paused.
Mistake.
She lunged.
Her claws found flesh. Her teeth grazed his throat. The man gurgled and dropped. She turned to the next.
Behind her, Kieran fought like a war machine. His movements weren't wild—they were calculated. Every blow designed to maim. Every motion precise. He caught a rifle mid-fire, snapped it in half, and drove the barrel into his attacker's eye.
Blood soaked the tile.
Jason crawled to the main terminal. "I can override the cryo-lock. If we want to shut this down for good, it has to be now."
Lana wiped blood from her cheek. "Do it."
Jason typed.
The room shuddered.
Evelyn's voice came again.
"If Omega awakens… it won't be because I failed. It'll be because someone decided power was more important than peace."
The tank lit up.
LC-07 twitched.
Then opened its eyes.
---
The iris wasn't gold.
It was black shot with red.
"Too late," Jason said.
A burst of light flashed from the tank.
And Specter appeared in the beam.
Not in person.
As a projection.
Her voice echoed from the lab speakers. "I told you the cycle wouldn't break. And now… you've perfected it."
The tank shattered.
LC-07's form hit the floor—still twitching, still… incomplete.
Kieran moved to kill it.
Lana stopped him.
She stared at the creature.
It stared back.
Then it whispered: "Mother."
Lana's breath caught.
Jason whispered. "This is your choice. Kill it now… or claim it."
Kieran's voice shook. "You don't understand. If it lives, the bloodlines die. We lose control."
Lana stepped forward.
LC-07 reached for her.
She reached back.
Kieran moved.
She whirled.
"Touch it, and I'll end you."
His eyes widened. But he stopped.
Lana knelt beside the creature.
It smiled.
Then it collapsed.
Jason scanned it. "It's alive. But dormant. For now."
Lana stood. "We seal this room. We destroy the backups. We keep this thing contained until we decide what it is."
Kieran looked at her. "You're not going to kill it?"
"No," she said.
"I'm going to raise it."
Jason blinked. "That's insane."
"No," Lana said.
"It's the only way to win."
---
Above, in Noctis Tower, Kraven's private office lit with warning lights.
She watched the data drain from her servers. LC-07's genome—gone.
The Red Room—sealed.
She picked up a red phone.
"It's begun," she said.
The voice on the other end hissed.
"We warned you not to let Carter live."
"She's stronger than we expected."
"She's not done growing yet."
---
In the Red Room, Lana sat beside the unconscious LC-07.
Kieran knelt across from her.
Jason leaned against the wall, his hands bloody, his expression blank.
"We can't go back," Lana said.
Kieran nodded. "No. But maybe… we can go forward."
Lana touched her abdomen.
She hadn't realized she was bleeding.
Not a wound.
A mark.
Her skin was glowing faintly.
A symbol forming.
A crescent within a wolf's eye.
Jason whispered, "That's not your mother's legacy."
Lana looked up.
"It's mine."
---