CEO loves me with all his soul.-Chapter 136: End Game P-3

The door to the high-security containment block slid shut with a resonant thud. Click. The reinforced steel and glass cell sealed behind Doctor Naehr, cutting him off from the world in shades of darkness and clinical light.

Inside, he sat on a narrow cot, expression calm. His black hair, damp from the storm’s humidity that still seethed in the hallways, clung in sleek strands to his skull. Nad his lab coat draped over his thin frame — as if he wore his grandeur for the walls to see.

He hadn’t flinched when they cuffed him. He hadn’t screamed when they dragged him in. He only reached up and smoothed his hair, as if preparing for an audience.

The guards left, the door sealing with an electronic lock. On the wall across from him, a USB-sized biometric monitor blinked, recording vitals remotely. Naehr watched it blankly.

Then he smiled — slowly, deliberately — as though the darkness itself leaned in to listen.

-

The sun had not yet risen over the city. Shadows clung to the buildings, rain still dripped from rooftops, and the air was cool and weighty with the scent of wet stone. Inside Levistis Manor, the warm light of the kitchen battled the gloom, casting long shapes over the polished floor. Adrian sat curled on a sofa with a mug of tea in hand. Ethan leaned against the counter, arms crossed, in a rare moment of stillness.

The ticking clock was the only sound until Diana’s name flashed on Isaac’s phone.

He answered immediately. "Diana?"

Her voice crackled through with urgency but a gentleness beneath it that told him everything before she even said it.

"He’s alive."

Time stopped.

Isaac’s breath hitched in his throat.

Diana continued, "Lucas... was pulled out of a low-oxygen chamber at the real facility. He’s stable now, recovering. You can see him."

Isaac didn’t move. He clutched the phone so tightly his knuckles whitened. His vision blurred for a moment—not from the connection, but from the well of tears that had suddenly surged behind his eyes.

"He’s..." Isaac’s voice broke. He covered his eyes with one hand. "He’s alive..."

Diana’s voice dropped to a near whisper. "I’ll send the address. A secure medical wing. You can go now."

"Send it," he rasped.

Isaac hung up. The phone slipped from his hand and clattered softly to the floor.

He stood still in the living room, shoulders shaking.

Adrian and Ethan looked up instantly. Adrian rose without a word, crossing the room, only stopping when he was close enough to see the tears already falling from Isaac’s eyes.

"He’s alive..." Isaac whispered, as if saying it out loud would make it real.

Adrian’s breath caught. "Lucas?"

Isaac nodded once, ragged. "She said he’s okay... recovering. He’s there. He’s waiting."

Ethan came forward, putting a hand firmly on Isaac’s back. "Go."

Isaac didn’t wait another second.

He was out the door, barefoot at first until he remembered his boots, grabbed his keys, and within minutes, the sound of the Levistis manor gates opening echoed through the compound as the car peeled away into the gray morning. freewebnøvel_com

-

Ethan let out a low exhale, rubbing a hand down his face. "Damn... he must’ve been breaking this whole time."

Adrian gave a slow nod, still staring at the door Isaac had just rushed through. "He didn’t cry when Lucas died. Not really. Not like that."

Ethan looked toward the kitchen, where the tea sat untouched, growing cold.

"Because some part of him never believed Lucas was truly gone," Adrian said.

Ethan stepped behind him and wrapped an arm around his waist. "You’ve always had that same kind of faith."

Adrian leaned back into his chest. "Sometimes faith’s the only thing we have when everything else burns down."

Before Ethan could answer, Adrian’s phone buzzed.

Incoming Call: Savas Faust

Adrian blinked and stepped aside to answer. Ethan followed his expression carefully.

"Savas?" Adrian greeted, his voice sharp with concern. "Is something wrong?"

Savas’s voice came through clear, unusually grim.

"You’ll need to get ready," he said. "I’m sending you a sample. It’s unstable. You’re the only one with the genetic and neurological base structure to work an antidote without triggering its reactive layer."

Adrian stiffened. "The compound? Naehr’s formula?"

"Yes. We retrieved it from the pipeline core—just before full dispersal. It’s worse than we feared."

Ethan’s eyes narrowed. "Put him on speaker."

Adrian clicked it on.

"You said ’reactive layer,’" Ethan said. "You mean this thing evolves?"

Savas’s voice grew taut. "It’s adaptive. It doesn’t just rewrite cells—it chooses. Its vector is coded to interpret DNA on contact and reconstruct neurological response pathways. Anyone not matching its embedded profile will have violent rejection symptoms—cellular collapse."

"Meaning mass death," Adrian said quietly.

"Unless we make a counter-agent," Savas replied. "The purest host specimen in its design sequence... was you, Adrian."

Ethan immediately pulled Adrian closer. "You’re not using him as a lab rat."

"I’m not asking him to be a subject," Savas snapped. "I’m asking him to synthesize the cure. He’s the only one with the right balance of ancestral markers and regenerative pathways to work the formula at all. I’ll send a stabilizer to protect him while he works. But time is short."

Adrian closed his eyes. "Send it. I’ll get to work the moment it arrives."

"ETA two hours," Savas confirmed. "A drone is already en route."

The call ended.

Rain splashed against the windshield as Isaac drove, the city a blur of grays and silver. Streetlights shimmered through the downpour. His heart beat like a war drum in his chest.

The address from Diana glowed faintly on the dashboard. He barely saw it.

All he could see was Lucas’s smile. The crinkle of his golden eyes. The way he’d look up from his medical notes with quiet warmth whenever Isaac barged into his office pretending to be annoyed about paperwork.

And the last time he’d seen him—crumpled on the ground in a pool of blood, lifeless, cold.

Isaac’s hands trembled on the wheel.

He pressed the gas harder.

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