Part 8 — The Voice from the Past
The red laser point burned steadily on Elias's chest, right over his pounding heart. Rain pelted rhythmically against the stone pavement of the arch bridge, and the black canal water lapped sluggishly beneath their feet.
“A syringe?” Julian asked with a contemptuous undertone, stepping slowly closer. His boots crunched on the wet cobblestones. “Do you really think Mother put a four-billion-euro fortune on a USB drive? That is synthetic DNA, you crazy old fool! The account passwords are encoded in that fluid. It only needs to be run through a sequencer. Give it to me!”
Elias looked from the silver-glowing syringe to his son's face. In Julian's features, he no longer saw the boy he had once taught to ride a bicycle. He saw the cold, ruthless determination of a predator—the exact same determination that, as Piet had explained, had once defined his own life as Viktor Kroll.
Was it genetics? Was evil hereditary? Or was Julian merely the victim of a terrible chain of lies that Anna had set in motion?
“Julian...”, Elias said softly, his voice strangely calm despite the laser point trained on him. “You don't know what this syringe really is. It isn't just a password. It is my past. Your father's past.”
Julian laughed drily. “My father was Viktor Kroll! A man of power, a man who ruled the world! Not a pathetic, petty accountant who spent eight years crying over a dead woman in a dusty apartment!”
Elias felt a deep, agonizing pang. “I am Viktor Kroll, Julian.”
Julian froze in mid-stride. The laser point trembled for a fraction of a second on Elias's chest.
“What kind of nonsense are you spewing?” Julian hissed, though his voice lost some of its firm confidence.
“Anna didn't kill Kroll,” Elias continued, taking a small step forward, ignoring the laser. “She reprogrammed his mind. She erased the monster's memories and created a new human being. Me. Elias Vermeer. I am the man you are looking for. I am your biological father.”
A long silence fell over the dark canal. Only the patter of the rain could be heard. Julian stared at Elias, his features contorting. Confusion, disbelief, and a sudden, deep disgust fought for dominance on his face.
“You're... you're lying!” Julian suddenly screamed out. The silenced pistol trembled visibly in his hands now. “You're just trying to buy time! My father was a titan! You are nothing! You are merely a shadow!”
“Do you want to hear the truth?” Elias asked. He held up the small cassette recorder from the box. “Mother left this tape behind. For the day the truth would come to light. Let's listen to what she has to say.”
Elias pressed his thumb down on the rusty play button of the recorder.
A soft static hissed from the tiny speaker. Then a voice resonated.
It was Anna's voice.
Soft, clear, but filled with an infinite sorrow. Elias's heart squeezed painfully as he heard that familiar voice again after eight years of silence.
“Elias... or should I call you Viktor? If you are hearing this tape, it means the house of cards has collapsed. It means my experiment has failed—or succeeded, depending on who is listening.”
Julian took another step closer, mesmerized by his mother's voice. He unconsciously lowered his weapon by a few inches.
“Viktor... when I transformed you thirty years ago, I did it out of vengeance and out of hope. Vengeance for all the lives you destroyed as the head of the syndicate. But hope was stronger. I wanted to prove that love can heal a human being, even the cruelest sinner. I gave you a new life. I gave you Elias. And throughout all those years we spent together... I learned to love Elias with all my heart.”
Elias felt hot tears streaming down his cheeks. She had loved him. The marriage hadn't been a pure lie. The feeling had been real.
“But I committed a terrible sin,” the voice on the tape continued. “I lied to Julian. I wanted to protect him from his father's legacy, but by withholding the truth, I planted the seeds of hatred in his heart. Julian... my beloved son... if you are hearing this, I beg for your forgiveness.”
Julian breathed heavily. His lips trembled slightly.
“The fortune in Liechtenstein exists,” Anna's voice said. “But the syringe does not contain passwords. It contains the reversal serum for the Janus Project. Whoever receives this injection will regain all their original memories—but will lose the memories of their new life. If Elias takes the shot, Viktor Kroll will awaken. And Elias Vermeer will die forever.”
The tape ended with a soft click. Silence shrouded the bridge once more.
Elias looked down at the silver syringe in his hand. So that was the choice.
Either he remained Elias—the broken old man without a real past, hunted by his own son. Or he injected himself with the serum, becoming the powerful, ruthless Viktor Kroll capable of fighting back against Julian and the network... but he would lose every memory of his love for Anna, the years of peace, and his humanity.
“A reversal serum...”, Julian whispered. A sinister gleam returned to his eyes. The momentary emotion vanished, replaced by a new, even more dangerous idea. “If you become Viktor Kroll again... then you hold the access data in your head! You won't need passwords on hard drives! You will know where the billions are hidden!”
Julian raised the gun, aiming it directly at Elias's head once more.
“Take the shot, Dad!” Julian commanded, his voice cold as ice. “Awaken the monster! Give me back my real father so he can hand over my inheritance! And if you don't... I will shoot you right here, right now, and take the serum to a lab myself!”
Elias looked at his son. The tragedy had reached its climax. His son was demanding he sacrifice his soul to give birth to a monster.
Elias raised the syringe. The needle glinted in the light of the streetlamp. He pressed the tip against his carotid artery.
“You want Viktor Kroll back, Julian?” Elias asked softly, a dark gleam entering his own eyes. “You have no idea what you are calling upon.”
Before Julian could react, Elias depressed the plunger of the syringe.
