Chapter 7 - The Child in the White Room
Clara kept the pistol aimed at the girl.
The child sat calmly beneath the white light.
She wore a pale blue dress.
Her dark blond hair had been cut unevenly around her shoulders.
A thin bruise circled one wrist.
Everything about her seemed real.
Too real.
Behind Clara, Alexander groaned on the vault floor.
Miriam called her name.
Clara did not answer.
The girl tilted her head.
“You look older than the recordings.”
“Who are you?”
The child smiled.
“Twenty-One.”
“What is your name?”
“That is my name.”
“No. Your real name.”
The child looked confused.
Clara lowered the gun slightly.
“Who brought you here?”
“Mother.”
“Helena?”
The girl’s eyes brightened.
“She said you would know her.”
Clara stepped closer.
“Where is she?”
“Watching.”
Clara glanced around the white room.
A dark lens was hidden above the door.
She moved toward it.
The girl spoke again.
“Mother said you would point the weapon at me.”
Clara stopped.
“She said that would prove you were still afraid.”
“I am not going to hurt you.”
“Mother said you would say that too.”
The child recited each sentence without emotion.
Clara recognized the pattern.
Not confidence.
Programming.
She crouched several feet away.
“Did Helena tell you what to do when I came inside?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
The girl touched the silver key around her neck.
“I give you this.”
She removed the chain.
Clara did not take it.
“What does it open?”
“The place where the first family sleeps.”
Clara felt a chill move through her.
“What first family?”
The girl extended the key.
“Yours.”
Miriam appeared in the doorway behind Clara.
When she saw the child, she made a sound somewhere between a sob and a gasp.
“No.”
The girl looked at her.
“Nurse Miriam.”
Miriam gripped the doorframe.
“You know me?”
“I know your file.”
Alexander entered behind her, one hand pressed to the wound on his forehead.
His eyes fixed on the child.
“Who is she?”
“Candidate Twenty-One,” Clara said.
Alexander looked horrified.
“The program ended.”
“No,” Miriam whispered. “It moved.”
The child continued holding out the key.
Clara finally accepted it.
The metal was warm from the girl’s skin.
A number had been engraved on the reverse side.
317.
“Does that number mean anything?” Clara asked.
Alexander stared at it.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“It was Evelyn’s private laboratory code.”
“Where?”
“The original Vale estate.”
“The one that burned?”
Alexander nodded.
“The estate was rebuilt, but the eastern foundation was sealed.”
Clara looked at the girl.
“Is that where Helena is?”
The child smiled.
“Mother is everywhere.”
A sound came from the vault.
Footsteps.
More than one person.
Alexander moved to the door and raised his weapon.
“Turn off the light.”
Clara searched the wall.
No switch.
The white room remained painfully bright.
Miriam pulled the child from the chair.
The girl did not resist.
Masked men entered the vault.
Alexander fired.
Gunshots echoed violently in the enclosed space.
Clara pushed Miriam and the girl behind the chair.
Bullets tore through the doorway.
Alexander fell back, struck in the shoulder.
Clara fired blindly.
A masked attacker dropped.
Another reached the white room.
Clara shot again.
The weapon kicked against her hands.
The man collapsed inches from the child.
Blood spread across the white floor.
The girl looked down at the body without reacting.
Clara grabbed her shoulders.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“You are safe.”
“No one is safe.”
The child spoke the words with complete certainty.
An alarm began pulsing.
A recorded message filled the room.
“Purification sequence initiated.”
Alexander looked toward the ceiling.
“Fire suppression.”
Miriam smelled the air.
“That is not water.”
White vapor began spilling from vents.
The masked attackers retreated from the vault.
Clara covered the child’s mouth with her sleeve.
“What is it?”
Miriam’s eyes watered.
“Sedative gas.”
Alexander forced himself upright.
“There is another exit.”
He kicked the fallen chair aside.
Beneath it was a metal hatch.
The child had been sitting on top of it.
Alexander pulled the hatch open.
A ladder descended into darkness.
Miriam climbed first with the girl.
Clara followed.
Alexander entered last and sealed the hatch above them.
They descended into a narrow stone passage.
The air was cold and damp.
Clara’s lungs burned from the gas she had already inhaled.
The passage led beneath the estate grounds.
Miriam carried the child when her small legs began to tire.
Alexander moved more slowly, blood running down his sleeve.
Clara tore fabric from the bottom of her dress and wrapped his shoulder.
He looked at her.
“You should not help me.”
“That is my decision too.”
He almost smiled.
The tunnel ended at a rusted iron door.
The silver key marked 317 fit the lock.
Clara opened it.
They emerged outside the estate walls near a wooded road.
A black vehicle waited beneath the trees.
The driver’s door stood open.
No one was inside.
A phone rested on the hood.
It began ringing.
Clara answered.
Helena’s voice returned.
“You protected Twenty-One.”
“She is a child.”
“So were you.”
“What do you want from her?”
“What Evelyn once wanted from you.”
“To heal trauma?”
“To inherit it.”
Clara looked at the girl in Miriam’s arms.
“Why does she look like me?”
Helena paused.
“Because she was made from you.”
Clara’s hand tightened around the phone.
“What does that mean?”
“Ask Alexander what Vale Biogenics stored before the fire.”
Clara looked at him.
His expression answered before his words did.
“Embryonic material,” he said.
Clara felt nauseated.
“Mine?”
Alexander nodded slowly.
“Evelyn had tissue samples taken during the project.”
Helena laughed through the phone.
“Twenty-One is not your daughter.”
“She is not your sister.”
“She is not your clone.”
Clara looked at the child.
“Then what is she?”
“A continuation.”
The call ended.
Headlights appeared on the road.
Three dark vehicles approached rapidly.
Alexander raised his weapon.
Miriam pulled the child behind the waiting car.
Clara checked her pistol.
Only one bullet remained.
The vehicles stopped twenty feet away.
Doors opened.
Federal agents stepped out with weapons raised.
At their center stood a woman in a dark coat.
She displayed identification.
“Special Agent Naomi Reed.”
Alexander did not lower his weapon.
“How did you find us?”
“We tracked the Bennett recovery unit.”
“You arrived after they escaped.”
“We were delayed.”
“By whom?”
Naomi looked at Clara.
“By someone inside our own task force.”
Clara studied her.
“Where is Julian?”
“Missing.”
“And Helena?”
“We do not have anyone by that name in custody.”
“You saw the hospital feed.”
“We saw portions.”
Naomi looked toward the child.
“Who is she?”
The little girl answered before Clara could.
“Candidate Twenty-One.”
Several agents exchanged uneasy glances.
Naomi lowered her weapon.
“We need to move.”
Clara remained where she was.
“Where?”
“A secure federal location.”
Alexander laughed bitterly.
“Julian escaped from federal custody less than two hours ago.”
Naomi’s expression tightened.
“That convoy was compromised.”
“Then your secure location is only secure until someone sells it.”
“Staying here is not an option.”
The child tugged at Clara’s sleeve.
Clara looked down.
Twenty-One held a folded piece of paper.
“Where did you get that?”
“Mother put it in my dress.”
Clara opened it.
A hand-drawn map showed a coastline and a small island.
At the bottom was another message.
THE FIRST FAMILY IS WAITING.
Naomi saw the map.
Her face changed.
Clara noticed immediately.
“You recognize this place.”
Naomi looked away.
Alexander stepped closer.
“Agent Reed.”
Naomi slowly removed a photograph from inside her coat.
It showed the same island from the air.
A ruined compound stood near the cliffs.
“This was taken three days ago.”
“By whom?” Clara asked.
“A surveillance drone.”
“What did it find?”
Naomi handed her a second image.
Several people stood in the courtyard.
Men.
Women.
Children.
All wearing white.
At the center stood Helena.
Beside her was Julian.
He was no longer tied to a chair.
He was smiling.
Clara stared at the timestamp.
The photograph had been taken three days earlier.
Long before Julian’s arrest.
Long before the ballroom auction.
Long before Helena appeared to capture him.
The image from the white room had been staged.
Julian had never been her prisoner.
He had been working with her.
Clara turned the photograph over.
A message had been written on the back.
May you like
The auction begins with Candidate Twenty.
It ends when Candidate Twenty-One chooses her replacement.
