Chapter 14: Beneath the Ice

Location: Jeju Island, South Korea

Time: 03:42 AM (KST)

The sea was restless.

Waves battered the jagged coastline of Jeju Island, throwing icy spray across the volcanic rock. The wind was sharp, hissing through the dark pine trees that framed the cliffside. Beneath that veil of darkness, two figures moved with practiced silence.

Lucien Ricci led the way.

Clad in black tactical gear with a low-slung firearm at his side, he moved like a shadow. Every step was precise. Controlled. Behind him, Yuna Kim followed with equally soundless determination, her breath fogging in the cold air. She wore the same black armor he'd handed her earlier tailored for stealth but unforgiving in comfort.

The facility loomed ahead.

It was a forgotten relic built into the cliff itself one of Sable's discarded marine research outposts, abandoned after a funding scandal years earlier. Officially, it had been left to rot. But nothing about its location, or the faint hum of residual power beneath its surface, had ever sat right with Lucien.

"This was Drevin's first attempt," Lucien said, stopping by the rusting gate. "The prototype site for Phoenix. Before Geneva. Before Seoul. Before you."

Yuna scanned the building, her fingers resting lightly on the grip of her pistol. "Why bring me here now?"

Lucien turned his gaze to her, unreadable. "Because if what Gabriel said is true… you were part of this from the beginning. I need to know how deep this goes."

Yuna's jaw clenched. "And you think I'll find answers in a ruin?"

"No," Lucien said quietly. "I think you already know them. You just need to see the evidence."

He crouched near a keypad, brushing away vines and dirt. The surface lit up faintly beneath his gloves. Still powered. He keyed in a short code then another. The door unlocked with a hiss of pressurized air.

Yuna followed him inside.

Interior: Sub-Level OneThe Forgotten Wing

The facility smelled of salt, metal, and something darker chemical decay. Water dripped from corroded pipes above them, echoing down long, concrete corridors. Emergency lights flickered dimly, barely illuminating the rust-streaked walls.

Yuna trailed her fingers along a faded Sable insignia: a serpent curled around a DNA strand.

Lucien's voice broke the silence. "This place was decommissioned five years ago. But Drevin kept it on Sable's black books. Experimental work. Human testing."

She stopped walking. "You're telling me he experimented on people here?"

Lucien didn't turn. "I'm telling you he *perfected* it here."

Yuna's stomach twisted. "Phoenix?"

He nodded. "The first phase. The version that didn't need willing subjects."

They reached a thick reinforced door with biometric locks long since burned out. Lucien stepped aside and gestured toward a keypad now fused with old circuitry.

"I need time to override it."

Yuna stayed near him, eyes darting across the corridor. "Why would Drevin risk this much for a failed program?"

Lucien's hands didn't stop moving as he worked the panel. "Because Phoenix wasn't just about power. It was about control. Genetic obedience. The ability to trigger specific behaviors through coded stimuli. Chemicals, frequencies, images…"

Yuna inhaled sharply. "That's what he meant when he said I was the trigger."

Lucien paused.

He looked up at her then not as a strategist, not as a boss. As a man facing something he couldn't logic his way through.

"I never wanted you involved in this," he said, low. "But when you surfaced in my company's Seoul audit, and that name your name matched one in the original Phoenix trial records... I couldn't ignore it."

Yuna stepped back, stunned. "So, you known all along."

"I suspected. But I had no proof. And if I was wrong, I'd just destroy the only person who's ever stood in my blind spot."

The door hissed open behind them.

Interior: Archive Lab Theta

The lab was a cold tomb of old data.

Glass tanks lined the walls, some shattered, others fogged from within. Old terminals blinked to life as Lucien brushed dust from the control panel. Data spilled across a cracked screen names, dates, genetic profiles. Dozens of them.

Subjects.

Failures.

"Most of them died in under a week," Lucien said. "Organs shut down. Brains hemorrhaged. But one didn't."

Yuna stepped forward, scrolling the data. Her eyes locked on one entry.

Subject K-001

Status: Latent

Traits: Inherited. Dormant. Access via maternal line.

She froze. "My mother."

Lucien nodded grimly. "They used her without her consent. A genetic carrier. You were born during the final stages of the program. They marked you as K-001 'Key One.'"

Yuna's breath caught.

All her life, her mother had been cautious. Distant. She remembered the herbal teas. The whispered warnings. Never go into government labs. Never give blood to open programs. Never trust men in suits.

"She knew," Yuna whispered. "My mother always knew something was wrong."

Lucien turned back to the screen. "You were the only subject that survived latent encoding. Your blood carries dormant sequences that Sable could activate—if they had the right frequencies."

"And what happens when they do?"

Lucien hesitated.

"You lose control."

Yuna backed away from the console. "So I'm not just a target. I'm a weapon."

"You're more than that," he said. "You're the only thing Drevin wants alive."

Interior: Surveillance Bay — 30 Minutes Later

Lucien worked quickly, extracting hard drives and imaging them to his secure tablet. Yuna paced behind him, her mind spiraling.

"I should've known Gabriel's warning wasn't just politics," she murmured. "He used me to weaken you."

Lucien didn't look up. "He used your blood to buy loyalty from the Argent Circle. That's treason in every sense."

Yuna stared at one of the broken tanks. Her reflection shimmered in the cracked glass.

"If Phoenix was completed… what's Drevin waiting for?"

Lucien closed the tablet case. "He's not waiting. He's testing. You weren't his only project."

Footsteps echoed down the hallway.

Lucien's gun was in his hand before the second echo. Yuna raised hers too.

They moved back to back, steps silent, eyes sharp.

From the shadows, a figure emerged—lean, tall, with a cane made of reinforced carbon. His face was scarred but familiar.

Kazuo Shin.

The ghost of Incheon.

Alive.

"Well," Kazuo said, his voice rasping. "The devil and his queen. Just like Drevin predicted."

Lucien raised his weapon. "You should've stayed dead."

Kazuo smiled. "And miss the final act?"

He tossed a metal cylinder toward them. It rolled once—then hissed.

Lucien shoved Yuna behind cover as the sonic burst exploded. No fire. No heat. Just sound—deep, paralyzing, resonant. Yuna's vision swam. Her limbs locked. The gun fell from her hands.

Lucien fought to stay upright but sank to one knee, his eardrums vibrating violently.

Kazuo stepped through the distortion like it didn't touch him.

"You should've let her die in Incheon," he said coldly. "But your heart got in the way."

He knelt beside Yuna, lifting a strand of her hair.

"You're going to make history, girl. Not as a CEO's secret. But as a goddamn prototype."

He lifted a small injector from his coat.

Lucien surged forward with a growl, slamming his elbow into Kazuo's jaw. The sonic pulse flickered—damaged by Lucien's counter-signal device on his belt.

Gunfire erupted. Kazuo stumbled back, clutching his shoulder.

Lucien fired again—but Kazuo was gone, disappearing down a service tunnel like a vengeful ghost.

Lucien rushed to Yuna, helping her sit upright.

"Are you hit?"

She shook her head, dazed but steady. "No. But he knows. He knows I'm awake."

Lucien's jaw clenched. "Then we need to burn this place down."

Exterior: Jeju Cliffs Dawn

The facility erupted behind them in a controlled series of explosions. Smoke and ash rose into the pale sky, drifting over the sea like forgotten sins.

Lucien stood at the cliff's edge, watching it burn.

Yuna stepped beside him, silent for a long moment.

"When we leave Korea," she said, "we go to Geneva next."

Lucien turned. "Why Geneva?"

She held up the photo Kazuo had dropped her mother beside a man with unmistakable Ricci eyes.

"Because if Drevin wants my blood," she said, "it's not just to control me."

She met Lucien's gaze.

"It's to unlock the part of you he can't."