Chapter 12 - Beneath the Lake
Robert could not crawl far.
Blood soaked his shirt. Dr. Lawson compressed the wound while Sarah and June supported him through a narrow passage beneath the operating theater.
Maya was carried on a rolling surgical stretcher.
The facility shook as lake water flooded the upper levels.
Agent Keene’s team cut through one of the security shutters and followed.
The passage descended toward a circular vault.
Robert pointed toward a biometric scanner.
“It requires two authorized profiles.”
“Whose?” Keene asked.
“Vale’s and mine.”
“You’re barely conscious.”
“Use my hand.”
He pressed his palm against the scanner.
The system rejected him.
AUTHORIZATION REVOKED
Vale had removed his access.
Robert laughed weakly.
“She always planned to kill me.”
Sarah looked at him.
“You expected loyalty from her after betraying everyone else?”
He closed his eyes.
June approached the scanner.
“It may recognize me as Vale.”
She placed her hand on the glass.
PARTIAL AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED
SECOND PROFILE REQUIRED
Maya lifted her head.
“Me.”
Sarah shook her head.
“You’re not getting off that stretcher.”
“The system knows me.”
Maya reached for the scanner.
Sarah helped guide the stretcher closer.
Maya placed her trembling palm beside June’s.
The vault unlocked.
Inside, blue light surrounded a towering column of transparent machinery.
Cables descended into black water beneath the platform. Thousands of small signals moved through the column like stars.
“The primary node,” Lawson said.
June checked the synchronization display.
Eight minutes.
Agent Keene examined the control terminal.
“Can we shut it down?”
“Not safely,” Lawson replied.
“We don’t need safe. We need possible.”
Sarah looked at Robert.
“You said you knew how to reach it. What else do you know?”
He struggled to speak.
“The first ledger contains an override.”
“Vale took the drive.”
“There’s a backup.”
“Where?”
Robert touched his wedding ring.
Sarah stared at it.
For years, he had worn the plain silver band she placed on his finger at their wedding.
It contained a hidden memory chip.
June removed the ring and inserted it into the terminal.
A command directory opened.
PRIMARY NODE CONTROL
SUBJECT SEPARATION
EMERGENCY TERMINATION
Sarah looked at Lawson.
“Choose separation.”
“It requires the root key.”
June connected the locket disk.
The terminal requested a third component.
ORIGIN PROFILE REQUIRED
“What is that?” Keene asked.
Lawson looked at Sarah.
“Your mother’s biological data.”
“The sample from the clinic.”
Agent Keene had sent the ampoule to a federal laboratory hours earlier.
They did not have it.
Robert’s breathing became shallow.
“There’s another source.”
“Where?” Sarah demanded.
He looked at her locket.
“The photograph.”
Sarah removed the image of herself holding newborn Maya.
A brown stain marked one corner.
She had always assumed it was age damage.
Lawson examined it.
“Blood.”
“Whose?”
Robert whispered.
“Helen’s.”
Sarah stared at him.
“You put my mother’s blood inside a locket and gave it to me?”
“She gave it to me.”
“You said she was alive.”
“She was.”
“Where is she now?”
Robert’s eyes closed.
“I don’t know.”
Sarah grabbed his shirt.
“Stay awake.”
June scraped a microscopic sample from the photograph and inserted it into the terminal’s analyzer.
ORIGIN PROFILE ACCEPTED
The separation program opened.
Three neurological waveforms appeared.
Helen.
June.
Maya.
All were connected.
Sarah felt the room tilt.
“My mother is part of their link.”
Lawson read the data.
“Meridian did not begin with June. It began with Helen. Vale copied portions of Helen’s altered neural profile into June’s embryonic development. Maya inherited another engineered portion through Sarah’s reproductive material.”
Sarah looked at him.
“Are you saying I was modified too?”
“Yes.”
The answer came from the vault speakers.
Dr. Vale appeared on a screen.
“The maternal line was always the key.”
June raised her gun toward the camera.
“Where are you?”
“Leaving.”
“You won’t get far.”
“I don’t need to. The network will continue without me.”
Sarah stepped toward the screen.
“What did you do to my mother?”
“I helped her survive.”
“You turned her into an experiment.”
“Helen volunteered.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
Vale displayed an old recording.
Sarah’s mother appeared on screen, young and frightened.
“My name is Helen Ward,” she said. “I consent to the Adaptive Response Trial because my daughter carries the same condition I do.”
Sarah stared at the image.
“What condition?”
Helen continued.
“When we experience severe fear, our nervous systems produce an abnormal electrical cascade. It can cause memory loss, hallucinations, cardiac arrest, or violent behavior.”
The recording ended.
Vale spoke.
“Your mother joined the trial to protect you.”
“You used her.”
“I perfected her.”
“Where is she?”
“Ask Maya.”
Sarah turned.
Maya sat upright on the stretcher, eyes unfocused.
“I can hear her.”
“Who?”
“Grandma.”
A voice emerged from the node.
Faint.
Distorted.
“Sarah.”
Sarah stepped toward the column.
“Mom?”
The synchronization clock reached four minutes.
Lawson selected the separation command.
The system displayed two options.
SEVER M-2
SEVER M-3
June read the screen.
“It will only free one of us.”
Sarah looked at Lawson.
“There has to be another option.”
“Not in this program.”
Maya took June’s hand.
“We don’t choose.”
June looked at her.
“What?”
“We change it.”
The blue signals inside the node accelerated.
Maya closed her eyes.
June did the same.
The terminal began rewriting its own command lines.
Lawson stared.
“They’re accessing the network together.”
Vale’s calm finally broke.
“Stop them!”
Automated weapons unfolded from the ceiling.
Agent Keene fired at the first.
Detective Ortiz pulled Sarah behind the terminal.
Bullets struck the platform.
Robert dragged himself toward a manual power lever.
Sarah saw him.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving them time.”
“You’ll die.”
He looked at Maya.
“I know.”
For the first time, he did not bargain.
He did not make an excuse.
May you like
He pulled the lever.
The vault went dark.
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