Chapter 13 - The Key to Room 214
Every technician in the processing hall stopped.
Vale descended from the platform and approached Evelyn with open arms.
She stood motionless.
Emily remained hidden behind a bank of equipment with Mark.
“What is she doing?” Emily whispered.
Mark’s face was rigid. “I do not know.”
Vale touched Evelyn’s cheek.
“You took longer than expected.”
Evelyn did not pull away.
“Seven years is a long time to wait,” she said.
Emily felt something break inside her.
Vale looked toward the room. “Where is the active Carter?”
Evelyn glanced directly at Emily’s hiding place.
Mark raised his hand, warning Emily not to move.
Then Evelyn smiled.
“She is exactly where you trained her to be.”
The lights failed.
Darkness swallowed the underground hall.
A second later, emergency strobes flashed red.
Evelyn had pressed something into Vale’s coat during the embrace.
A stolen access card.
She ran.
Emily and Mark emerged.
Chaos erupted.
Patients screamed. Technicians shouted. Security doors began sealing.
Evelyn reached the main console and inserted the brass key Emily tossed to her.
A hidden menu opened.
ROOM 214 NETWORK.
FACILITY LOCKS.
PATIENT RELEASE.
MEMORY CORE.
FLIGHT AUTHORIZATION.
Evelyn selected PATIENT RELEASE.
Every restraint in the hall unlocked.
Lena tore free and tackled a technician.
The judges pulled off their headsets.
The child crawled beneath a table.
Mark fought a guard near the platform.
Emily climbed to the console.
Vale grabbed Evelyn from behind and pressed a scalpel to her throat.
“Stop the release.”
Emily froze.
Vale’s eyes were calm.
“You see the problem with compassion? It creates predictable decisions.”
Evelyn looked at Emily.
“Do not.”
Vale tightened his grip.
Blood appeared at Evelyn’s neck.
Emily’s hand hovered over the console.
The screen displayed 43 locks open.
Then another number appeared.
214 DEEP-SLEEP SUBJECTS.
“Two hundred fourteen,” Emily whispered.
Vale smiled. “The list.”
Room 214 was the number of original subjects held across the network.
“Where are they?”
“Safe, if you cooperate.”
“Alive?”
“Some.”
Mark disarmed the guard and aimed the weapon at Vale.
Vale positioned Evelyn as a shield.
“You will not shoot,” he said.
Mark’s expression changed.
Emily saw what he intended.
“No.”
Mark fired.
The bullet struck the scalpel from Vale’s hand and tore through his shoulder.
Evelyn dropped.
Emily pulled her behind the console.
Vale staggered but remained standing.
Lena kicked his knee, sending him to the floor.
She seized the scalpel.
For a moment, Emily thought she would kill him.
Instead Lena cut the identification chip from beneath his collarbone.
Vale screamed.
Lena held up the bloody chip. “Flight authorization.”
They inserted it into the console.
The underground hangar doors opened.
Outside, the waiting jet powered down.
Pilots ran from the cockpit.
A new alert flashed.
ARCHIVE PURGE IN 04:00.
Mark looked at the server racks. “They’re wiping the records.”
Evelyn searched the menu. “Memory core is separate.”
“Where?”
The map showed a chamber beneath the airstrip.
Lena approached, breathing hard.
“There’s another elevator behind the chapel.”
Emily stared at her. “You knew?”
“I was trying to tell Mark before you entered the room.”
“You called me a stupid cow.”
Lena winced. “Vale was listening. Mark and I used cruelty as code.”
Mark looked embarrassed.
Lena continued. “When I said you would hand over every dollar, I meant they believed the trust transfer was imminent. Mark knew the performance was collapsing.”
Emily wanted to hate her. It would have been easier.
“Why were you tied here?”
“Because I warned Nora.”
Emily realized Lena had sent the first message through Nora’s phone.
The purge timer showed 02:41.
They moved toward the chapel elevator, releasing patients as they went.
At the elevator, the brass key no longer worked.
Vale laughed from the floor.
“Only the active Carter opens the core.”
Emily pressed her palm to the scanner.
Denied.
Evelyn tried.
Denied.
Vale laughed harder.
“Neither of you is active.”
A third hand touched the scanner.
The light turned green.
Diane stood behind them.
She had arrived with Nora and a group of armed federal agents.
But the agents’ uniforms bore no agency name.
The elevator opened.
Diane looked at the sisters.
“I am sorry,” she said.
The doors closed around all three women.
Mark shouted and ran forward, but the elevator descended before he could enter.
Emily faced Diane.
“You opened it.”
Diane’s eyes filled with tears.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the active Carter was never one of my daughters.”
The elevator reached the memory core.
May you like
Inside, surrounded by glowing servers, sat Samuel Carter.
Alive.
