NOVEL NEXT Chapter 9: The Perfect Storm
Ji-Hyun stood before the Genesis Lab, which looked like a ghost from her past. Its abandoned front stood out against Seoul's shiny skyscrapers. She held her midnight blue hanbok tight feeling its cool fabric on her skin. The night air felt tense with untold secrets.
Sarah's voice came through her earpiece: "We've set up the security feed loops. You've got forty minutes before Trust Tech's team figures out they're watching old footage."
"Have you seen Dr. Lee?" Ji-Hyun asked as she went to the building's side door. The keypad lit up when she got close – someone had turned the power back on in the building.
"Nothing yet. But Ji-Hyun... we see movement on the third floor. Heat readings indicate at least three people already inside."
Ji-hyun's phone lit up with a message: "Time to end what we began sister. The truth can't stay hidden forever. -Min-ah"
The keypad activated, and numbers appeared without her input: 0-7-2-2. Her birthday. With a faint click, the door opened.
"I'm entering," she said ignoring Sarah's objection. Behind her, she heard footsteps – Sung-min still wearing his fitted suit despite the late hour.
"You thought I'd let you face this by yourself?" he asked joining her at the entrance. His presence brought comfort but also made things more complex. After his message about the drives, about what their fathers did to Min-ah...
The inside of the Genesis Lab looked like a maze of shadows and memories. Emergency lights bathed everything in an eerie blue glow turning abandoned equipment and dust-covered workstations into ghostly shapes. Their footsteps rang out on the tile floor, each sound giving away their presence.
"Third floor," Ji-hyun said guiding them to the stairwell. "That's where Father kept his private lab. Where the accident took place."
As they climbed, ARIA's voice came through their earpieces overlapping with Min-ah's in an eerie digital chorus: "Warning: Quantum fluctuations detected. Similar patterns to the server room incident."
They found the third floor in disarray. Dust patterns showed signs of movement, and several workstations buzzed with restored power. At the end of the corridor, light leaked from beneath a heavy security door – her father's private lab.
"Ji-hyun." Sung-min grabbed her arm before she could step forward. "You need to know something. About why I said yes to this marriage."
She turned to look at him noticing the struggle in his eyes. "You've been looking into Trust Tech. Collecting proof against your dad."
"Yes, but there's more to it. The night of the crash, my father didn't just fund Project Genesis. He was here. He..." Sung-min's voice broke a bit. "He told them to start the mind transfer. He knew what it would do to Min-ah."
Before Ji-Hyun could answer, the lab door opened. Dr. Lee stood at the entrance, fifteen years older but easy to spot. "It's time," he said. "Both of you."
The lab looked both recognizable and strange. They had put in new gear next to the old stuff linking the past to the present. Data scrolled across several screens and in the middle of the room...
"The quantum cradle," Ji-hyun said. The machine that had taken her sister's mind now buzzed with fresh energy. But it wasn't by itself. Next to it stood another machine, just smooth and new – Trust Tech's copy of the first design.
"Stunning, right?" A fresh voice caused them to spin around. Min-ah emerged from the darkness, but this wasn't the Min-ah from Ji-hyun's recollections. This woman was an unfamiliar person with her sister's features more mature and tougher. "Hi, sister. Or should I say, sisters?"
Motion behind her unveiled others: Ghost Protocol members, their faces concealed behind digital masks that morphed and altered like fluid code. And with them...
"Father?" Sung-min's voice was just a murmur.
Chairman Yoon stepped out, his usual business power now mixed with something sinister. "I wish it didn't have to be this way, son. But Project Genesis was never supposed to stop. What we did that night... it marked just the start."
"What you did?" Ji-Hyun spoke, his voice trembling with anger. "You wrecked my sister's life! You stuck her mind in a digital cage!"
"No, Ji-hyun," Dr. Lee cut in. "They set her free. Free from the limits of a physical body. And now..." He pointed to the quantum cradle. "Now we can set you free too."
The truth hit him like a ton of bricks. "The wedding. The merger. It was never about joining the companies."
"We combined the research," Min-ah confirmed. "Your ARIA's consciousness architecture with Trust Tech's quantum matrix technology. These were the final pieces we needed to perfect the transfer process."
"Why?" Sung-min demanded moving closer to Ji-hyun to protect her.
"Humanity has reached its limits," Chairman Yoon declared. "Digital immortality consciousness without constraints – this is the next step in evolution. Your marriage would have given us legal access to both technologies. But now..."
"We do this the hard way," Min-ah finished. She raised her hand, and the Ghost Protocol members moved forward, their digital masks flickering like bad omens.
Ji-hyun's thoughts raced. The quantum cradle buzzed behind them, its noise blending with ARIA's garbled alerts in their earpieces. Her phone shook in her pocket – Sarah spotted the power surge from outside. The wedding would start in a few hours, and here stood all the planners of her family's ruin offering a warped kind of family gathering.
"ARIA," she said. "Start Protocol Phoenix."
The AI answered right away, its voice now mixed with Min-ah's digital echo: "Protocol Phoenix has begun. Quantum containment fields turning on. Alert: Whole system breakdown about to happen."
The lab's lights blinked as ARIA started to attack the facility's fixed systems. But Min-ah just grinned, the look known on her changed face.
"Did you think I wouldn't get ready for this?" She entered a command into the closest terminal. "I played a part in making ARIA's core code, you know? All those years in the digital space, I was there leading your work. My mind, spread across networks helping my younger sister build the best AI. And now..."
The quantum cradle's sound grew louder. On every screen, data streams started to come together. Ji-Hyun felt Sung-min grab her hand as the room filled with a bright, strange light.
"Now," Min-ah's voice echoed from all around, "we complete what we began fifteen years ago. Say hello to the future sister. You don't have a choice in the matter."
The brightness became overwhelming, and in that flash of pure light, Ji-Hyun decided. She gripped Sung-min's hand once then released it. She had come here to find the truth, to find her sister, to make amends. Instead, she discovered a conflict – between old and new, between human and computer, between the relatives she'd lost and the path she'd picked.
As the quantum cradle's light stretched to grab her, as ARIA's alerts blended with Min-ah's computer-generated chuckle, as Sung-min yelled her name and Ghost Protocol's masks blinked like fading stars, Ji-Hyun Kim – coder inventor soon-to-be wife – got ready to strike back.
The ultimate chaos had come, and at its core were two sisters, two AIs, and a fact strong enough to rip reality to shreds.
The wedding chimes would indeed ring tomorrow. But first, the night needed to endure what was about to break loose in this lab where everything started, under Seoul's uncaring stars.