Reborn in the Enemy's Embrace

"Be careful. He’s very clever." Stan reminded us, looking neurotic.

I nodded perfunctorily and gently rubbed Ashton’s head. "Ashton, listen up. We’ll hide behind the door. You just run out and lure the people outside in."

Ashton acknowledged obediently and quickly ran out.

Una had already noticed Ashton and Xandra. She asked me with a puzzled expression. "Ashton.... In theory, they’re my children."

Una had obviously figured out that the members of Genome Society had used Dexter and Sophia’s fertilized eggs to create the second generation of experimental subjects.

"You’re overthinking. They’re Sophia and Dexter’s children," I said as I positioned myself to shield Xandra.

Xandra and Ashton had also seen Una earlier on because she looked exactly like their mother. However, they were aware that she was not their mother.

Una crouched down beside Xandra. "In terms of genetic similarity, Sophia and I are perfect replicas of each other. I’m your true mother, not her. Come to me."

Xandra shook her head, took cover behind me, and whispered, "She’s my mom."

Una was perplexed by the fact that the two children recognized me as their mother even though she bore a stronger resemblance to Sophia.

I sternly warned Una, "It’s not the time to take the children away now."

Una snorted and then hid behind Jimmy.

Meanwhile, Damien also kept his gaze fixed on Xandra. After all, she was Sophia’s child with another man. Despite being an experimental subject, Xandra served as a constant reminder of their unborn child that had been in Sophia’s womb.

I could discern a profound sense of regret, helplessness, and despair in his eyes. Yet, once something was lost, it was irretrievable. What purpose did regret serve? A shattered mirror could not truly be restored. Even if a broken mirror was carefully reassembled, its cracks would forever remain.

Ashton ran outside and saw the masked man. Then, he immediately ran back inside. After arguing with Ewan, the masked man was about to leave when he spotted Ashton with his hands tied behind his back. He subconsciously wanted to catch Ashton. Since he was just a child, most people didn’t see him as aggressive.

As Ashton approached the door, Yara intentionally knocked something over in the room, causing a loud noise. Our attention immediately turned to Yara, who appeared innocent, nervous, and frightened. This incident confirmed that there was indeed something amiss with Yara.

As soon as the masked man at the door heard the noise, he halted and remained alert. Before he could call for assistance, I swiftly rushed out and kicked him down, eager to expose his true identity by tearing off his disguise. However, the masked man suddenly burst into an eerie and unsettling laughter.

"You’re so enigmatic. Let me see who you really are." As we went forward to hold him down, I prepared to remove the human-skin mask from his face. However, as my hand touched the mask, members of the Rebels arrived and aimed their guns at us.

"Don’t move, or we’ll kill him," I declared, instantly trapping the masked man before me and tightening my grip around his neck.

The Rebels exchanged glances. Suddenly, the masked man I subdued attacked me unexpectedly. He pulled out a knife out of nowhere and stabbed me in the abdomen. Instinctively, I grabbed his hand and glanced into his eyes. His eyes... seemed oddly familiar.

"Leave!" I shouted, asking them to escape first. Damien stepped in to help me and nearly got shot by the Rebels.

"Carry the children and run!" I yelled at him. He hesitated for a while before he took the two children and quickly escaped.

"Mom!"

"Sophia!"

Ashton and Violette called out to me with concern.

"Zion, take them away first!" I engaged in an intense fight with the masked man, allowing them to escape first.

Upon realizing the dire situation, Stan led everyone to flee through the passage he had discovered.

While the masked man resisted, I hastily tore open his sleeves. Under the loose shirt, his arm was indeed thin and weak. And there it was, the red birthmark I had been hoping to find on the inside of his arm. In that instant, my heart skipped a beat. It was him, just as I had expected.

No. To be exact, it should be her.

Realizing that I had bought enough time for everyone to make their escape, I raised my hands in a gesture of surrender.

The person standing before me wore a tightly-fitting mask. At first, I mistook it for a regular mask, but I soon realized it was actually an adhesive commonly used for special effects makeup. I was in a hurry, so I could not remove the mask.

She had skillfully employed makeup techniques to completely transform herself into a man.

I only realized she was a woman when I held her hostage just now. I felt her neck and Adam’s apple, which was fake. This was a disguise to hide the truth. She was a woman who was disguising herself as a man.

Furthermore, everything seemed logical because she was a woman. She appeared delicate and frail, not as physically powerful as men. Hence, when she planned the serial murders, she manipulated the killings. She directed the perpetrator to eliminate the victim.

She lacked any sense of reverence, displaying complete indifference toward life and considering human existence as worthless.

I raised my hands as I gazed at the woman standing before me. "You killed Sophia... You’re the one who killed her."

Sophia’s recollection of the killer just before she died merged perfectly with the person before me. When the drug took effect, she gradually slipped into a coma. While she was struggling, she scratched the killer’s arm and noticed the red birthmark.

I had finally come to understand the reason why she did not kill Sophia directly. Instead, she used drugs to make her unconscious and then placed her in a glass display cabinet. She morbidly wanted to turn Sophia into a work of art, aiming to provoke others.

She considered this her ultimate masterpiece.

Her Adam’s apple was connected to a voice-changing magnetic disk, resulting in a hoarse and peculiar sound. It was as if her vocal cords had been damaged. At first, I thought she was Dexter, and I even considered the possibility of her being the deceased Simeon.

However, I never suspected that she was a woman.

During the earlier fight, I noticed that the soles of her shoes were unusually high. She had added insoles to boost her height. Clearly, she intentionally sought to appear taller. At around five feet six, she shouldn’t be considered short for a woman.

However, with the added insoles, she truly resembled a man standing at five feet eight. Thus, we did not assume that she was a woman from the very beginning.

"You’re a woman, and you’ve put in a lot of effort to apply makeup to disguise yourself. Are you afraid we might recognize you? You must be someone I know. Let me try to guess who you are..." I looked at her warily, trying hard to discern her identity. She was the real mastermind behind the serial murders.

The masked woman smiled strangely as she took the gun from her subordinate and aimed it at me. "I was the one who killed her. Sofia, you know too much..."

"We can’t kill her for now. Think about it. If Dexter is indeed the president of Crowdstar Group, he won’t cooperate with us, and that will only bring us trouble. Why should we create a formidable enemy?"

Just as she was about to pull the trigger, Ewan rushed over and cautiously persuaded the masked woman. The masked woman was obviously hesitant. She clearly recognized my worth.

"She can’t figure out your identity. She can’t die yet as she’s an important test subject for the organization and a key piece in our plans. We must use her to overthrow the organization," Ewan reminded, approaching carefully.

The masked woman sneered and swung the butt of her gun at me. Suddenly, my vision blackened, and I collapsed to the ground.

"Their hands are nearly healed. It won’t affect the collection of fingerprints and palm prints anymore," I overheard Ewan say in a trance.

"Very well. Let’s find out if Dexter is the president of Crowdstar Group." The masked woman smirked eerily, appearing unsatisfied. She kicked me in the stomach, causing me to groan when I was unconscious. She hated me very much and made no effort to conceal her feelings. I wonder who it could be.