Chapter 6 - Beneath St. Catherine's
St. Catherine's public blueprints showed two basement levels.
The trust documents showed three.
Miriam led Sarah, Alexander, and the investigators through a service corridor while security evacuated the lobby. Richard followed despite repeated orders to remain upstairs. Celeste did not. She disappeared with his phone and one of his security men before anyone noticed.
The entrance to Sublevel Three stood behind a refrigerated pharmacy vault. Its steel door had no visible handle, only an old biometric plate and a narrow slot shaped like Sarah's brass key.
She held the key in her palm.
"My father expected me to come here," she said.
"Or expected someone to force you," Alexander replied.
One investigator examined the frame. "The lock was activated four minutes ago from the other side."
Sarah inserted the key.
The biometric plate lit green before she touched it.
WELCOME, SARAH BENNETT.
The door opened.
Cold air drifted up a descending ramp. Emergency lamps illuminated white walls lined with faded photographs of newborns. Each photograph bore a number, a date, and a family crest. Some crests belonged to old political dynasties, industrial families, and international royalty. Others were marked only with black circles.
"This was not a clinic," Richard whispered. "It was a registry."
They reached a circular room filled with sealed cabinets and obsolete computer terminals. In the center stood a glass chamber containing rows of cryogenic canisters. Several alarms flashed red.
A man in surgical scrubs waited beside the main console.
He was thin, silver-haired, and older than the photographs in Alexander's files, but Miriam recognized him.
"Conrad Voss."
Voss smiled. "Dr. Cole. Still rescuing patients from plans larger than your imagination."
Security raised their weapons. Voss lifted both hands.
"Shoot me and the archive purges itself."
Alexander stepped forward. "You stole my genetic material."
"Your father surrendered it to science. Helena merely gave that science purpose."
"You implanted an embryo without consent."
"Consent is a sentimental obstacle invented by people who do not understand legacy."
Sarah moved before anyone could stop her and slapped him across the face. The crack echoed through the chamber.
Voss touched his lip, surprised.
"That was for Lily," she said. "The next one will be for every mother whose body you treated as property."
Richard stared at the canisters. "What did my mother build?"
"Your mother preserved families," Voss said. "Do you know how many empires collapse because an heir is infertile, ill, or inconvenient? Meridian corrected chance."
"By switching children?"
"By placing the right child in the right bloodline."
Sarah thought of the message at Greyhaven. Only two belong to you. "How many?"
Voss's smile returned. "Enough that the truth would destabilize governments and markets."
The main console displayed a countdown: 00:18:42.
"What happens when it reaches zero?" an investigator asked.
"Every digital record is destroyed. The cryogenic inventory is sterilized."
Miriam swore under her breath. "That process will kill any viable embryos still stored here."
"Evidence," Voss replied. "Not children."
Sarah looked at the rows of canisters and felt rage sharpen into purpose. "Stop it."
"Only a verified trust beneficiary can override the purge."
The console showed three empty fields:
BENNETT LINE
VALE LINE
HAWTHORNE CUSTODIAN
Voss looked toward Sarah, Alexander, and Richard. "All three of you are required. Helena designed it that way. She never trusted any one family with the archive."
Richard laughed bitterly. "My dead mother calls me, sends you here, and expects us to cooperate?"
"Helena expects survival to overcome pride. It usually does."
Alexander placed his hand on the scanner first. His identity verified.
Sarah followed. The machine accepted her bloodprint.
Richard stood back.
"Do it," Sarah said.
"And give you control of Hawthorne assets?"
"There may be living genetic material in those tanks."
"There may also be evidence that destroys my company."
Sarah stared at him. "Five years ago, you chose your comfort over our lives. You are standing in the same decision again."
The countdown reached twelve minutes.
Voss watched Richard with clinical interest, as though the choice were another experiment.
Richard approached the scanner. For a moment Sarah believed he might finally choose differently.
Then an explosion shook the corridor.
The lights failed. Emergency shutters slammed down, separating Voss and Richard from Sarah and Alexander. Smoke filled the room. Through the glass partition, a masked figure struck the investigator nearest the console and entered a code.
The purge accelerated.
00:02:00.
Alexander pulled at the shutter. "Sarah, the manual override!"
A panel opened beside the cryogenic chamber. Inside were two levers positioned twenty feet apart. Both had to be held simultaneously.
Sarah ran to one. Alexander reached the other.
"What about the third verification?" she shouted.
On the opposite side of the shutter, Richard fought the masked intruder. The mask tore away.
Celeste.
She drove a syringe into Richard's shoulder. He collapsed beside the scanner.
"Celeste!" Sarah screamed.
Celeste pressed Richard's unconscious hand against the biometric plate.
HAWTHORNE CUSTODIAN VERIFIED.
The system accepted him.
Sarah and Alexander pulled the levers. The countdown froze at seven seconds.
The ventilation restarted. The shutters lifted.
Celeste was gone.
Voss lay unconscious near an open service hatch. Richard breathed shallowly on the floor.
On the main console, the purge warning disappeared and a new message appeared:
ARCHIVE CONTROL TRANSFER INITIATED.
BENEFICIARY REVIEW REQUIRED.
A list of names began to populate the screen. Sarah recognized Daniel, Emma, and Lily.
Then a fourth name appeared beneath them.
NOAH HAWTHORNE, AGE 7.
Richard opened his eyes and saw it.
"I do not have a son named Noah," he said.
May you like
From the dark service tunnel, a child's voice answered.
"Yes, you do."
