The Mafia Boss’s Baby Had Been Crying for Hours—Then He Saw Me, Reached Out His Tiny Arms, and His Father Went Pale at My Name Tag

"You're lying," Claire spat, her voice shaking with raw disgust. "He is an innocent baby! He is my son!"

"He is the weapon that ends all nations," Vivienne interrupted, pulling a sleek tablet from her tactical harness and tapping a sequence into the screen. "And it's time to test his calibration. Activate Protocol Zero."

A high-pitched, oscillating frequency suddenly screamed through the room's speakers.

Immediately, the second infant in Claire's harness began to convulse, his face turning crimson as an agonizing wail tore from his tiny throat. In the tanks behind the glass, the three floating clones began to thrash against their tethered wires.

Leo didn't scream. Instead, he reached out with both hands toward the second infant. As their tiny fingers brushed against each other, an electromagnetic shockwave rippled out from Claire's chest.

*CRACK!*

Every monitor in the corridor shattered in a burst of sparks. The lights overhead strobed wildly, dying into pitch blackness before the amber emergency backups hummed to life. The acoustic screech from the speakers cut out instantly, choked by a massive feedback loop.

"What did you do?!" Vivienne hissed, stumbling backward as her tablet caught fire in her hand, the battery swelling and bursting in a gout of black smoke.

"He didn't activate your protocol," Claire said, realization surging through her veins with electric intensity. She looked down at the two babies. Leo was holding his brother's wrist, the violet glow in his eyes burning brighter, hotter, and purer than ever before. "He shut it down. He doesn't belong to your machine, grandfather. He is the firewall."

Dante didn't waste the distraction. He lunged forward, tackling the two syndicate bodyguards flanking the gallery stairs before they could bring their weapons to bear. In the tight confines of the stairwell, Dante was a force of lethal nature, dispatching both men with brutal, bone-breaking strikes and sending their weapons clattering down the steel steps.