novelraw Chapter 367: Twin Signal
Chapter 367: Twin Signal
"Sir, an anomaly has just occurred, A-01 is reacting."
In the thick, dark underground space, where the scent of machinery and coolant mingled in a freezing embrace, the dim blue light from dozens of massive computer screens cast a glow on the angular profile of the man. He sat in absolute silence on the leather chair, his straight back turned toward the door, without the slightest intention of turning around. His gaze, hidden behind lenses, was pinned tightly to the violently spiking brainwave chart on the main monitor.
"Intensity?" His voice rang out evenly, as flat as a windless lake, completely betraying not a single ripple of surprise.
The researcher in the white blouse was sweating profusely, his two hands clutching an encrypted file as he cautiously reported every single word: "Unstable, but... it has exceeded the initial synchronization threshold, sir."
The atmosphere in the control room instantly plummeted. The surrounding researchers all held their breath, tensely exchanging glances laden with anxiety. Yet, the man sitting in the center appeared exceptionally calm. His slender fingers rhythmically tapped against the metallic glass desk: "How is B-00 reacting?"
The researcher hastily glided his hands over the keyboard, enlarging a crimson string of acoustic wave data in the right corner of the screen, and swallowed hard before replying: "The fluctuation index surged drastically for three seconds. B-00 came to a complete halt, heart rate pushed to the absolute maximum in that instant. Sir, both sides are currently sharing the exact same resonance frequency."
Unlike the extreme tension of his subordinates, the corners of the man’s lips curled up slightly. He stared fixedly at the two brainwave lines that had just formed a sharp peak before slowly stabilizing once more, his final syllable carrying a sickeningly morbid sense of amusement: "Finally... they have begun to find each other."
At the exact same time, at Ethan Caldwell’s private villa.
The night, carrying a crisp chill, crept through the yellowing foliage, entirely enveloping the riverside villa. In the spacious living room, the crystal chandelier radiated a soft yellow light, somewhat dispelling the darkness that lay in wait to swallow everything in the vicinity.
After the cognitive fracture from the morning, Julian Sterling was now much calmer. He sat relaxed on the soft sofa, his two small hands wrapping around a glass of warm water that Ethan Caldwell had just personally poured. The faint steam rising from the water’s surface transferred through his palms, gradually warming his still slightly freezing fingers. An exceedingly ordinary act of care, yet it acted as a sturdy anchor driven deep into reality, dragging Julian’s consciousness to remain fully grounded in this world.
Ethan Caldwell sat right beside him, the distance so incredibly close that Julian Sterling could smell the familiar scent radiating from Ethan. The man’s profound gaze did not leave him for even a single second, carrying an intense, vigilant guard.
Julian Sterling lowered his eyelashes, looking at his own reflection on the rippling surface of the water, slowly recounting the residual image that had just flashed across his retinas: "It was a room... stark white. The light was glaringly bright and inorganic, much like a laboratory. I saw a very frail back, wearing a baggy, pale-colored outfit. That person stood with their back turned toward me."
His voice lowered slightly, hesitating for a fleeting moment before looking up straight into Ethan Caldwell’s pitch-black eyes: "Ethan, the thing that makes me feel the most unsettled is not the fact that I suddenly saw those images. It is that... I was not afraid of it at all."
Logically speaking, when facing an existence created by the CORE organization, a specimen capable of directly influencing his own cognition, a human’s natural reaction should be sheer terror, defensiveness, or an urge to flee. But at the exact moment he was forcibly connected by that invisible gravitational pull, from the deepest depths of Julian Sterling’s subconscious, absolutely no sense of rejection arose.
Julian Sterling pursed his lips, the sound he made carrying a complexity that was terribly difficult to put into words: "I felt that it was... lonely."
So lonely that it seemed as if the universe had only its single soul left in utter isolation. From the perspective of Julian Sterling, at this very moment B-00 was merely a pitiful existence, a soul entirely stripped of its freedom, imprisoned within a freezing laboratory, exactly like what he himself had once been forced to endure.
Hearing Julian Sterling’s soft murmurs, Ethan Caldwell’s chest felt as though it were being crushed by a heavy boulder. The man’s gaze darkened significantly, hidden undercurrents beginning to surge fiercely.
Ethan Caldwell was accustomed to summoning the wind and calling the rain in the business world, nor was he afraid of matters involving money and authority. He was supremely confident that with the power and network of the Caldwell Empire, he could raise the most impenetrable ballistic shield, protecting Julian Sterling from every spearhead directed by CORE. However, right now, he realized that the most terrifying thing was not firearms or underworld factions.
It was just like the way his parents had departed back in those years.
The very thing that made him feel suffocated was this completely invisible intrusion. There was an inexplicable force, both spiritual and scientific in nature, that was silently dragging Julian Sterling away from the ordinary world, away from Ethan’s embrace.
Ethan Caldwell stared intensely at him, his voice sounding slightly hoarse: "If one day you remember absolutely everything... if that synchronization completes, will you still be you?"
The hand holding the water glass of Julian Sterling slightly paused.
Would he still be himself? To tell the truth, Julian Sterling did not know; even now, regarding who he truly was and which memories were actually real, Julian could not even distinguish them anymore. With matters like these, Julian did not dare to promise Ethan Caldwell that he himself would remain here forever.
Because he himself was entirely unsure, if two souls were forcibly merged together, would this ego bearing the name Julian Sterling be utterly crushed and disappear for all eternity?
The atmosphere fell into a heavy silence for a long time; it was only after a long while that Julian Sterling slowly placed the water glass down onto the glass table. He gently turned his body, burying himself into the man’s embrace. Julian’s voice rang out with utmost gentleness: "At the very least, right now... I still remember that I love you."
Just that one incredibly simple sentence alone, yet it acted like an extremely potent tranquilizer, soothing the feral beast that was screaming wildly inside the heart of Ethan Caldwell.
A trace of tenderness flashed through the depths of the man’s eyes. He decisively wrapped his arms around Julian Sterling’s waist, lifting him up entirely and placing him neatly to sit on his own lap. The solid arms tightly constricted around the slender waist, trapping Julian within a warm chest. Ethan Caldwell lowered his head, planting a profoundly deep, lingering kiss on his soft hair, and then Ethan’s lips slid downwards, tenderly kissing his nape, caressing the rim of his ear. His movements carried an intensely fierce possessiveness, yet they were also brimming with immense cherishing and reverence.
"You are still right here." Ethan Caldwell whispered, his scorching breath sweeping against Julian’s flesh, seemingly speaking to himself, just as much as he was fiercely affirming it to the entire world.
The deeply intimate atmosphere had not lasted for very long before the encrypted phone’s ringtone on the tea table suddenly rang out.
Ethan Caldwell frowned slightly, yet he still held tightly onto Julian Sterling with one arm, while his other hand reached for the phone, pressing the button to accept the video call. On the screen was the face of Helen Lloyd, and behind her back were endless series of data files being continuously decrypted.
"Boss, I have just extracted some entirely new information from the leaked server system of CORE." Helen Lloyd’s voice was exceptionally cautious: "Eden phase 2 does not solely feature the existence of A-01 and B-00. According to the records, there were once countless other test subjects participating in this phase."
Julian Sterling sitting on Ethan Caldwell’s lap, felt his spine involuntarily tense up. He stared intently at the screen, anticipating the words that were to follow.
"But... all of them failed." Helen Lloyd continued to report, her delicate eyebrows knitting tightly together: "Every single one of the other test subjects could not withstand the synchronization process and perished. Only A-01 and B-00 alone remain surviving. And there is one extremely noteworthy piece of data."
The young secretary took a profoundly deep breath, seemingly feeling a visceral chill creeping through her own body at the terrifying nature of what she had just managed to uncover: "Within all of those archaic research reports, those scientists never once referred to the two subjects by their independent identification codes during the numerous experimentation phases. Instead, they consistently referred to both of them using a singular, collective designation: Twin Signal."
Helen Lloyd looked directly at Julian Sterling and Ethan Caldwell through the glowing monitor, her gaze exceedingly complex and laden with countless unspoken emotions, her tone carrying an arduous heaviness as she finally managed to speak: "I have this distinct, terrifying feeling... that they never once considered the two of them to be truly independent living entities."