Chapter 7 - The Baby Taken Before Birth
The Monroe Research Annex stood beyond the city’s industrial border, surrounded by dead trees and rusted fencing.
Clara remembered visiting it once as a child.
Her father had shown her a room filled with early computers and told her that information could protect people only if good people controlled it.
The building burned three days after Samuel’s supposed death.
Insurance records said nothing survived.
Yet as Clara’s convoy approached, lights glowed behind boarded windows.
Marcus wanted to wait for the police.
Samuel refused.
“Adrian has contacts inside every agency involved in the old program. A public response will warn him.”
Julian checked the ammunition in a handgun Marcus had reluctantly given him.
Clara watched.
“Have you ever fired one?”
“At a range.”
“This isn’t a range.”
“I’m not staying in the car.”
“No,” Samuel said. “You’re going through the eastern entrance.”
Julian looked at him.
Samuel unfolded an old blueprint across the hood.
“The main corridor is visible from the control room. The eastern entrance leads through chemical storage.”
“How do you know it’s still open?” Marcus asked.
“Because I used it six months ago.”
Clara turned.
“You’ve been here recently?”
Samuel did not answer immediately.
“I needed records proving your treatments were manipulated.”
“You had proof and still didn’t contact me?”
“I was trying to identify everyone involved.”
“You chose evidence over your daughter.”
“I chose the only path that might keep you alive.”
Clara looked toward the building.
“People keep making decisions for me and calling it protection.”
She took the flashlight from Marcus.
“That ends tonight.”
They entered through a service tunnel beneath the eastern wing.
Water covered the floor. Exposed cables hung from the ceiling. The air smelled of damp concrete and burned plastic.
Samuel moved with the certainty of someone returning to a nightmare.
At the first junction, they found Chloe’s hospital bracelet.
At the second, a drop of blood.
Julian bent to examine it.
“Is it hers?”
“We keep moving,” Clara said.
They reached a metal door.
Voices came from the other side.
A man was speaking calmly.
“The trust requires two heirs. We have the unborn one. Bring Clara.”
Chloe answered through tears.
“She won’t come.”
“She came before you finished saying her name.”
Clara recognized the male voice from old company recordings.
Adrian Vale.
The Custodian.
Samuel placed one finger against his lips.
Marcus’s team split into position.
Before they could enter, an alarm blared.
The door opened.
Gunfire erupted.
Clara fell behind a concrete column as bullets struck the wall.
Julian fired twice.
One masked guard collapsed.
Samuel disappeared through the smoke toward the control room.
Marcus dragged Clara through the doorway.
Chloe lay strapped to a medical bed. Sensors covered her abdomen. An intravenous line ran into her arm.
Adrian stood beside her.
He was in his late sixties, tall and sharply dressed despite the abandoned facility around him. A silver version of Samuel’s ring hung from a chain around his neck.
“Clara Monroe,” he said. “You look like your mother.”
Clara aimed her weapon.
“Release Chloe.”
“You don’t even like her.”
“She is carrying my family.”
Adrian smiled.
“That instinct is why Samuel failed. He believed family could restrain power.”
“Where is Daniel?”
“Alive, for now.”
Julian entered from the side corridor.
“Step away from her.”
Adrian looked at him almost kindly.
“Richard’s frightened son.”
Julian’s hands tightened around the gun.
“You killed Daniel.”
“No. Your mother ordered the vehicle failure. I replaced Daniel before the fire reached the car.”
Clara stared at him.
“Why save him?”
“He had seen the ledger. I needed to know what he copied.”
Chloe struggled against the straps.
“Julian, get me out.”
Adrian pressed a button.
A screen on the wall illuminated.
Daniel appeared inside a glass room somewhere deeper in the facility. He was chained to a chair but conscious.
Chloe sobbed.
“Daniel.”
His face changed when he saw her.
Then he noticed Julian.
A terrible understanding passed across his expression.
Adrian held up the black metal case.
“The second ledger is inside. Samuel’s key can open it. Clara’s blood and the unborn child’s blood can activate the trust.”
“You don’t have the ring,” Clara said.
“No. You brought it.”
A second group of armed guards entered behind them.
Clara, Julian and Marcus were surrounded.
Samuel’s voice came over the building’s speakers.
“Adrian, you always did enjoy long explanations.”
Adrian looked toward the ceiling.
The lights went out.
Emergency red lamps flashed on.
Sprinklers burst overhead.
Samuel had activated the fire system.
Marcus attacked the nearest guard.
Clara lunged toward Chloe.
Julian fired at the restraints.
Adrian seized the black case and ran.
Clara released Chloe’s right wrist.
“Can you stand?”
“I don’t know.”
A contraction seized Chloe.
She screamed.
Water poured across the floor.
Julian lifted her from the bed.
“We need a hospital.”
“No hospital connected to Crowe,” Clara said.
Samuel appeared through the smoke.
“Daniel is in the west containment wing.”
Clara looked at Chloe, then at the corridor leading to Daniel.
Julian understood.
“I’ll take her.”
“You’ll take her to Marcus’s private clinic. Now.”
“What about you?”
“I’m bringing my brother home.”
Clara and Samuel ran toward the west wing.
They reached the glass room.
It was empty.
Daniel’s chains lay open on the floor.
May you like
On the glass, written with blood, were four words.
Do not trust Samuel.
