Chapter 6
Richard watched the video three times.
The young man beside Sophie appeared confused rather than afraid.
He kept looking at the little girl as though trying to understand why they had been placed together.
Sophie reached for his hand.
He let her take it.
“His name is Adam,” Maria whispered from somewhere outside the camera’s view.
Thomas tightened his grip on her.
The video ended.
Daniel leaned over Richard’s shoulder.
“If Adam is alive, Evelyn has probably kept him under observation his entire life.”
“Why didn’t you tell me Thomas might be my son?”
“I didn’t know Maria gave the baby to his family.”
Richard looked at the frozen image.
Thomas stood close to Adam.
Their faces shared no resemblance.
“Thomas cannot be his father.”
“He was barely twenty-four,” Caroline said. “He could have helped arrange the adoption.”
Mason examined the black truck’s tire marks while waiting for another vehicle.
“This attack was designed to take Maria, not kill us.”
“She knows where the adoption records are,” Daniel said.
Richard turned to him.
“Evelyn already has Adam. Why would she need records?”
“To prove ownership.”
Richard’s expression hardened.
“A human being cannot be owned.”
“Not legally. But the old program treated patients as assets. If Adam’s identity becomes public, every surviving record could expose the program.”
Police vehicles arrived.
Mason ordered officers to establish a wide perimeter around the maternity center.
No sirens.
No visible approach.
Richard climbed into an armored SUV with Daniel and Caroline.
During the drive, Maria’s unfinished explanation tormented him.
She had trusted a family with his son.
Thomas had worked for the Sterlings ever since.
Had he protected Adam?
Or delivered him to Evelyn?
The maternity center appeared beyond a line of pine trees.
Its brick exterior looked peaceful from the road.
A faded sign still carried the shape of a mother holding a baby.
Mason stopped the vehicle half a mile away.
Satellite images showed two vehicles near the private airfield.
“If Evelyn intends to leave, she’ll use the tunnel,” Mason said.
Daniel pointed at the map.
“There’s an old oxygen intake behind the surgical wing. Caroline and I can enter through it.”
“You are not separating from me,” Richard said.
Caroline looked at him.
“If we all use the main entrance, Evelyn will see us.”
“She asked for you.”
“She wants our research access codes.”
“What research?”
Daniel pulled a small metal drive from beneath his shirt.
“Evidence Elizabeth collected.”
“You had it all this time?”
“It’s encrypted. Caroline and I each know half the password.”
Richard nearly struck him.
“People died while you protected a piece of metal.”
“We protected the only evidence capable of convicting everyone involved.”
“My daughter was eating from a dog bowl.”
Daniel flinched.
“I am sorry.”
“Sorry is what people say when they arrive too late.”
Richard took the drive.
Daniel grabbed his wrist.
“If Evelyn gets that, every witness is dead.”
“If she hurts Sophie, no evidence matters to me.”
“It would have mattered to Elizabeth.”
Richard pushed him away.
“You don’t get to tell me what mattered to my wife.”
Mason stepped between them.
“Enough. We need both of you focused.”
The plan was simple.
Richard would approach the main entrance carrying the drive.
Mason’s team would wait beyond the cameras.
Daniel and Caroline would enter through the oxygen intake and locate Sophie.
Richard slipped his watch back onto his wrist.
Thomas was monitoring the watch microphone through police equipment.
At the gate, Richard held up the metal drive.
A speaker crackled.
“Come in,” Evelyn said.
The gate opened.
Richard walked alone toward the building.
The front door unlocked.
Inside, lights flickered above an empty reception desk.
The walls were decorated with faded paintings of smiling infants.
“Keep walking,” Evelyn instructed through hidden speakers.
He followed a corridor to an elevator.
The doors opened.
There were no buttons inside.
The elevator descended.
When it stopped, Richard entered a bright underground ward.
Modern medical equipment filled rooms that should have been abandoned decades earlier.
Several beds were occupied.
Men and women lay unconscious beneath white blankets.
Richard’s anger turned to horror.
The program had never ended.
Thomas stepped from a side room.
He carried no weapon.
“Where is Sophie?”
“Safe.”
“You betrayed us.”
Thomas lowered his eyes.
“I protected Adam.”
“You gave my daughter to Evelyn.”
“She threatened to kill Maria.”
“You had security officers at the house.”
“She controlled their families.”
Richard held up the drive.
“Take me to my children.”
Thomas looked at it.
“That is not the real drive.”
“You’ve never seen the real one.”
“No. But Evelyn has. Daniel wore it around his neck in every photograph.”
Richard had expected that.
He lowered his hand.
“Then tell her Daniel has it.”
“He is already inside.”
Richard kept his face still.
Thomas smiled sadly.
“Evelyn knew about the oxygen intake.”
A door opened behind him.
Two guards dragged Daniel and Caroline into the ward.
Daniel had blood on his collar.
Caroline was conscious but unsteady.
Evelyn followed them.
Richard’s mother looked older than he remembered, but her posture remained elegant.
She wore a dark blue suit and pearl earrings.
She could have been arriving for a charity dinner.
“Hello, darling.”
Richard stared at her.
“You let me believe you were dead.”
“You were safer that way.”
“Where is Sophie?”
“You have always been impatient.”
She approached him.
He stepped back.
“Do not touch me.”
Pain flickered across her face.
“You used to run into my arms.”
“I was nine when you disappeared.”
“Your father forced me underground.”
“You built this place with him.”
“I built it for you.”
Richard glanced at the unconscious patients.
“What does any of this have to do with me?”
“You inherited my condition.”
“No.”
“You have not developed symptoms yet, but you will.”
Evelyn touched her temple.
“Tremors. Memory loss. Paralysis. Your grandfather died from it. I began showing signs at thirty-six.”
“You look healthy.”
“Because of the work conducted here.”
“Work performed on stolen children.”
Her expression sharpened.
“Work that saved my life.”
“Where is my son?”
A glass wall turned transparent.
Adam stood in the room beyond it with Sophie.
Maria sat in a chair nearby, her hands bound.
Sophie saw Richard and ran toward the glass.
“Daddy!”
He pressed his palm against it.
“I’m here.”
Adam moved beside her.
Up close, the resemblance was undeniable.
Richard’s throat tightened.
Adam stared at him with a mixture of anger and disbelief.
“You are my father?”
“Yes.”
“You knew I was here?”
“No.”
Evelyn spoke through a microphone.
“Adam has heard many lies.”
Richard turned toward her.
“Open the door.”
“Give me Daniel’s drive.”
Daniel laughed weakly.
“You cannot use it.”
“Caroline will provide the second password.”
Caroline raised her head.
“I would rather die.”
Evelyn sighed.
“You have always confused stubbornness with courage.”
She pressed a control.
A monitor beside Sophie lit up.
It displayed a countdown beginning at ten minutes.
Richard looked from the timer to Evelyn.
“What happens when it reaches zero?”
“A medication enters the room through the ventilation system.”
Sophie looked frightened.
Adam placed himself in front of her.
Evelyn continued calmly.
“Adam has received the protective treatment. Sophie has not.”
Richard moved toward her.
The guards raised their weapons.
He stopped.
“She is six years old.”
“She is the future of this research.”
“She is not yours.”
“She is a Sterling.”
“That name has already taken enough from her.”
Evelyn extended her hand toward Daniel.
“The drive.”
Daniel remained silent.
Nine minutes.
Richard looked at Caroline.
“If the evidence is released, can the police shut this place down?”
“Yes.”
“Can it save Sophie right now?”
“No.”
He faced Daniel.
“Give her the drive.”
Daniel shook his head.
“She will kill every patient and burn the facility.”
“Give it to her.”
“No.”
Richard crossed the room and punched him.
Daniel fell against a metal cart.
The guards moved, but Evelyn lifted one hand.
Richard grabbed the chain around Daniel’s neck and tore the drive free.
“Richard!” Caroline shouted.
He threw it to Evelyn.
She caught it.
“Passwords,” she said.
Daniel wiped blood from his mouth.
“Never.”
Eight minutes.
Evelyn turned to Caroline.
Caroline looked toward Sophie.
“First half is ELIZABETH.”
Daniel glared at her.
“You promised.”
“I will not watch her die.”
Evelyn entered the word into a computer.
“Second half.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“ADAM.”
The screen displayed ACCESS GRANTED.
Evelyn smiled.
Then the smile vanished.
A message appeared.
FILES TRANSMITTED.
Daniel began laughing.
“You wanted the passwords. We needed you to enter them.”
Police servers, federal regulators, and dozens of news organizations began receiving the evidence automatically.
Evelyn struck Daniel across the face.
“Stop the transfer!”
“I can’t.”
She turned to Thomas.
“Burn the servers.”
Thomas did not move.
“Now!”
“No.”
Evelyn stared at him.
Thomas took a key card from his pocket and threw it toward Richard.
It slid across the floor.
“Door control,” he said.
One of the guards raised his weapon at Thomas.
Maria screamed from behind the glass.
Adam grabbed a steel chair and struck the room’s control panel.
Sparks exploded.
The glass door unlocked.
Richard ran.
A guard seized his jacket.
Caroline drove her shoulder into the man, knocking him aside.
Richard reached the door and used the key card.
The lock released.
Sophie ran into his arms.
“Daddy!”
He lifted her.
Adam stepped into the ward behind her.
For the first time, father and son stood face-to-face.
Richard wanted to speak.
He wanted to apologize for twenty-eight lost years.
But the countdown continued.
Six minutes.
“The medication is already cycling through the system,” Caroline said. “We have to shut down the ventilation.”
Evelyn backed toward a red emergency switch.
“If I cannot protect this work, no one will take it from me.”
She pulled the switch.
Steel doors slammed across every exit.
A warning alarm began to sound.
AUTOMATIC DECONTAMINATION INITIATED.
Daniel stared at the ceiling vents.
“That isn’t medication.”
Richard held Sophie close.
“What is it?”
“Fire suppressant,” Daniel said.
Caroline shook her head.
“No. The old system used an oxygen-consuming gas.”
The timer reached five minutes.
May you like
Evelyn smiled.
“When the police enter, they will find an empty tomb.”
