Chapter 2 Running Away with a Bomb? No, I'm Carrying Nuclear Codes

# Chapter 2: Running Away with a Bomb? No, I'm Carrying Nuclear Codes

Nydia Schmidt's stolen motorcycle roared through the mountain curves, the wind whipping her hair as dawn broke over the horizon. Three days since her escape from Caesar Sims' mansion, and the nausea still wouldn't subside.

She pulled over abruptly, barely making it to the roadside before retching violently. This was the fourth time today. As she wiped her mouth, she noticed something glinting in the puddle—tiny metallic particles that caught the morning light.

"What the hell?" she whispered, taking a sample vial from her backpack and collecting some of the substance.

Her stolen satellite phone buzzed. The secure messaging app showed an alert from her remote monitoring system: Caesar's security team had discovered her decoy trail heading south. She had maybe twelve hours before they realized she'd gone north instead.

Finding a secluded spot beneath a highway overpass, Nydia set up her portable laboratory equipment. The microscope confirmed her suspicions—nanobots, thousands of them, designed to track her location and vital signs.

"So that's your game," she muttered, pulling out her tablet. "You're not tracking a pregnancy, you're tracking me."

Her fingers flew across the touchscreen as she accessed the backdoor she'd planted in Caesar's network. The Li Corporation's security was impressive, but she'd spent months preparing for this day, mapping vulnerabilities in their systems while pretending to be the docile substitute bride.

The nausea hit again, stronger this time. Nydia doubled over, expelling another wave of nanobots. As she recovered, a realization dawned—if she could hack these trackers, she could send Caesar a message he wouldn't forget.

Six hours of coding later, Nydia had reprogrammed the expelled nanobots to transmit false biometric data. According to Caesar's monitoring systems, she was now in cardiac distress somewhere in Nevada. But her true victory came when she gained access to the Li Corporation's oil reserve controls.

"Let's see how you like this prenatal vitamin," she smirked, initiating the remote detonation sequence.

The tablet displayed multiple security camera feeds from the Li Corporation's largest oil storage facility. Workers were evacuating as alarm systems blared. Three, two, one...

The explosion was magnificent. Storage tanks erupted in sequence, flames reaching hundreds of feet into the air. Nydia quickly set up a secure broadcast stream and sent the link to Caesar's personal devices.

"Thought you'd enjoy watching your quarterly profits go up in smoke," she narrated as the facility continued to burn. "Consider this the first lesson in my unique approach to prenatal education: The Art of Explosions."

She added hashtags for good measure before closing the connection and moving on. The explosion would buy her time, but she needed to keep moving.

As she packed up her equipment, another wave of nausea hit—different this time, more intense. Nydia clutched her abdomen, surprised by the sharp, rhythmic sensation. Not pain exactly, but deliberate movement.

"Impossible," she whispered. She was barely eight weeks along according to her calculations. Too early for movement.

Yet there it was again—distinct taps against her uterine wall. Three short, three long, three short. Her blood ran cold as she recognized the pattern.

SOS in Morse code.

"What are you?" she whispered to her belly.

The tapping continued, forming a clear message: "M-O-M-M-Y B-L-O-W U-P D-A-D-D-Y H-O-U-S-E."

Nydia sat frozen, trying to process what was happening. The embryo Caesar had created wasn't just genetically modified—it was conscious, communicating, and apparently shared her vindictive streak.

"You want me to target his ancestral home?" she whispered in disbelief.

Three taps. Yes.

The implications were staggering. Whatever Caesar had done with her DNA and his experimental techniques had created something unprecedented—a fetus with accelerated development and apparent cognitive abilities beyond anything scientifically documented.

Her tablet pinged with an alert. Caesar's helicopter squadron had changed course—they'd discovered her deception sooner than expected. She had minutes, not hours.

Gathering her equipment, Nydia sped toward the coast on her motorcycle. The coastal cliffs would provide her only chance at escape. According to her intelligence, Caesar's security grid had a blind spot over the northern Pacific waters—if she could reach it.

The sound of helicopter rotors grew louder as she pushed the motorcycle to its limits. The cliff edge approached rapidly, the ocean churning hundreds of feet below. Behind her, three black helicopters closed in, Caesar himself visible in the lead aircraft.

Nydia skidded to a stop at the cliff's edge. The helicopters formed a semicircle, blocking any retreat. Armed security personnel rappelled down, weapons trained on her.

Caesar's voice boomed through a megaphone: "It's over, Nydia! You've destroyed company property worth billions. Return what belongs to me!"

"What belongs to you?" she shouted back. "My DNA? My embryo? My future?"

"All of the above!" Caesar's helicopter hovered closer. "That child you carry is the culmination of fifteen years of research! It's not just a baby—it's the future of human evolution!"

Nydia stepped closer to the cliff edge. "Then you shouldn't have given it my stubborn genes!"

She felt another sequence of taps from within: "J-U-M-P N-O-W."

"Are you sure?" she whispered.

Three quick taps. Yes.

"That's my child," she smiled, then turned back to Caesar. "You should know—I reprogrammed your nanobots. They're not just tracking devices anymore!"

Caesar's expression shifted from confidence to concern. "What did you do?"

"Check your fuel systems!" Nydia shouted as she backed toward the edge. "I've always wondered if helicopter rotors can spin with sugar in the fuel line!"

As the pilots frantically checked their instruments, Nydia took her final step backward, free-falling toward the churning ocean below. Caesar's anguished scream followed her down.

The cold water hit like concrete, driving the air from her lungs. She plunged deep, disoriented, before her survival training kicked in. As she oriented herself underwater, a powerful searchlight cut through the depths below her.

Not a searchlight—illumination from a submersible, its hatch opening to reveal a pressurized chamber. Nydia swam toward it with desperate strokes, slipping inside just as Caesar's security team began firing into the water from above.

The chamber sealed automatically, draining water as Nydia gasped for breath. When the inner door opened, she found herself face-to-face with a woman identical to Rita Thompson—same striking features, same copper hair, same cold green eyes.

"You took your time, sister," the woman said, offering a thermal blanket. "I've been tracking your nanobots for days."

"Who—" Nydia began, but was interrupted by another series of taps from her abdomen.

The Rita lookalike smiled knowingly. "Yes, I can communicate with them too. The twins are quite precocious, aren't they? Takes after their mother."

"Twins?" Nydia collapsed into a seat as the submarine began to move. "And I'm not their mother—I'm just the unwilling surrogate."

"Genetically, you're more their mother than you realize," the woman replied, checking monitors showing Caesar's helicopters circling uselessly above. "I'm Vera, by the way. Rita's identical twin sister—the one Caesar doesn't know exists."

"How is that possible? He was obsessed with Rita."

"He was obsessed with a fabricated version of Rita," Vera corrected. "I've been tracking his experiments for years, waiting for the right moment to destroy him. When he abducted you, I knew we'd finally found our chance."

Nydia placed a protective hand over her abdomen as another Morse code message tapped from within: "A-U-N-T V-E-R-A N-I-C-E."

"They recognize you," Nydia whispered.

"Of course they do," Vera said, setting a course on the submarine's navigation system. "I helped design their cognitive enhancement. Though I never expected Caesar to use my sister's preserved eggs combined with your unique genetic markers."

"What makes my genetics special?" Nydia demanded.

Vera's expression turned serious. "You, dear sister, are the only successful subject from Caesar's first generation of experiments. The only one who survived childhood with the genetic modifications intact."

"That's impossible. I had a normal childhood. Parents. School."

"Carefully monitored foster parents. A controlled school environment." Vera pulled up a file on the submarine's computer. "Subject N-37, remarkable resilience, exceptional cognitive adaptability, perfect candidate for next-phase breeding program."

Nydia felt the room spinning around her. "I'm... I'm one of his experiments?"

"You're his greatest success," Vera corrected. "Which is why he's been planning for years to use you as the perfect incubator for the next generation."

The submarine dove deeper, activating its stealth systems as Vera pulled up a map on the main screen.

"Where are we going?" Nydia asked, still processing the revelation about her own origins.

"To my research facility. We need to ensure the twins develop safely—they're communicating early, which means their neural development is accelerating faster than projected."

"And then what?"

Vera's smile was chillingly similar to Caesar's. "Then we use his own creations against him. The ultimate paternal betrayal."

As the submarine disappeared beneath the waves, Caesar's helicopters returned to shore, empty-handed but for the discarded motorcycle and a message carved into the cliff face: "Didn't anyone tell you? Genetics is a two-way street."