Location: Vatican Sublevel – ONYX CORE Site Omega
Time: 6:03 PM
A man like Ryan Bruce shouldn't be breaking into a cathedral.
Especially not through a side crypt entrance under a gift shop that sold glow-in-the-dark rosaries and Pope bobbleheads.
"Okay, that's officially the weirdest place I've drawn my weapon," Ryan whispered, pushing open a rusted gate.
Emily followed behind, flashlight in one hand, tranquilizer dart gun in the other. "You broke into a clown convention dressed as a janitor."
"I said one of the weirdest."
They moved fast. Down narrow limestone tunnels, past old bones and forgotten Latin graffiti. Bella trailed behind, typing on a sleek wrist-pad, rerouting Vatican security grids.
"ONYX CORE leased this sublevel decades ago," she said. "No cameras. No priests. Just paranoid tech, buried deep."
Ryan stopped at a stone door with a strange seal: the ONYX symbol cracked in half. "That's comforting."
With a hiss, the seal disengaged.
Inside: a cathedral-sized vault of tech nightmares.
Rows of glass coffins, lit from within. Some empty. Some occupied. The clone pods.
But the center chamber—the Clone Control Nexus—was worse: a glass interface shaped like a rosary cross, pulsing with deep blue light.
Bella stared. "That's the broadcast core. Shut it down, and the Frayborn signal dies."
Ryan nodded, stepping forward—when suddenly—
CLANG.
Automatic doors slammed shut. Lights turned red.
And from the far end of the vault came footsteps.
Metal scraping metal.
Then: two clones.
Version Two: the drone-linked predator.
Version Three: the fast-thinker.
Both stepped into view, eyes glowing orange. Behind them: Frayborn.
"I found my brothers," he rasped.
Ryan raised his pistol. "And I found your off switch."
"No," Frayborn said, stalking forward. "You found your replacement. You are a man torn between two codes. Spy… or father. I'm not torn. I'm free."
Ryan fired. The bullet pinged off Frayborn's shoulder armor.
Bella ducked behind a pillar. "Okay, now might be the time for a very cool plan!"
Emily tossed Ryan a cryo disk. "Left pocket!"
Ryan caught it, rolled, and slapped it on Version Two's chest. A flash of frost froze the clone mid-step, locking its drone feed with a crackle.
Emily fired a dart into Version Three's throat. "Don't mess with Mama Bear."
Frayborn charged.
Combat was brutal. Up close. Personal.
Ryan blocked with forearms, dodged a sweeping punch, countered with a grapple and tossed Frayborn into a support beam.
Glass shattered.
Alarms flared.
And something snapped in Frayborn's voice. "You don't deserve the life I remember."
Ryan pinned him. "Then forget it."
And he jammed the clone command key into the cross-shaped broadcast core.
Everything stopped.
Clones froze. Eyes dimmed. And Frayborn collapsed, convulsing—then silent.
7:12 PM – Vatican Courtyard, Post-Mission
Emily leaned against the van, exhaling. "I am never traveling with you without pepper spray again."
Ryan wiped clone blood off his collar. "We're not doing this again. No more family missions. No more near-death vacations. This ends now."
Bella handed Ryan a flash drive. "The last logs. Everything ONYX CORE was hiding. This brings down the people funding Frayborn… and your agency's dirty little secrets."
Ryan stared at it. Then at Emily. Then nodded.
"I'm tired of being two men," he said. "From now on—I'm just me. The one who still tucks his kids in at night."
Final Scene – ONYX CORE HQ, One Week Later
Ryan stood in front of an inquiry panel. Dark suits. Cold stares.
They reviewed everything. The Frayborn project. The Vatican vault. The cover-ups.
Then:
A single official walked in. Older. Stern. Medal on his chest. Government-level clearance.
"You're the one they sent to die," he said. "But you kept your family alive. You exposed the rot."
He reached out a hand.
"Congratulations, Agent Bruce. ONYX CORE is being restructured. We need one man to help rebuild it."
Ryan stared at the hand, then the room.
"I'll help. But on one condition."
"Name it."
"My wife doesn't join. Not now, not ever."
A beat.
The official nodded. "Deal."
Final Hook – The Bruce House, 9:37 PM
Holly and Faith snored in their bunks.
Emily sat on the porch, sipping tea.
Ryan stepped outside, sat beside her.
She smiled. "You really done?"
"No," he said. "I'm just getting started. But this time, I'm the only one going undercover."
She kissed him. "Then I'll be the one who keeps the home base warm."
Camera pans upward—stars over New Orleans.
(TO BE CONTINUED…)