Chapter 15 - The Call From the Brother With David’s Voice)
No one in the room moved.
Even Liam had stopped crying.
David held the phone.
His hand trembled.
“Daniel?”
The man laughed softly.
“You really did forget everything.”
David looked at Richard.
Richard appeared stunned.
Mark leaned against the table.
Chloe covered her mouth.
Maya moved beside David.
“Where are you?”
“Close enough.”
“You tried to take my wife.”
“No.”
“My son.”
“No.”
“Your people were in that hospital.”
“They were not my people.”
“Evelyn authorized them.”
“Yes.”
David’s jaw tightened.
“Our mother.”
“Her motherhood is debatable.”
Despite himself, David felt something twist inside him.
The voice sounded like his own speaking back.
Not electronically altered.
Not imitation.
His twin.
“What do you want?”
“For thirty years?”
Daniel paused.
“To know whether you survived.”
“I did.”
“I know.”
“You were watching.”
“Yes.”
“Photographing Maya?”
“No.”
David looked toward Hall.
“Then who?”
“The Doctor.”
Richard stood.
“He’s alive?”
Daniel laughed.
“You still ask the wrong question, Richard.”
“What question should we ask?”
“Who became the Doctor after the first one died?”
Silence.
David frowned.
“A title.”
“Yes.”
“Not a person.”
“Finally.”
Hall wrote rapidly.
“How many?”
“Four so far.”
“Who is current?”
Daniel ignored him.
“David.”
The use of his chosen name surprised him.
“Yes?”
“You have something he needs.”
“The case?”
“No.”
“The list?”
“No.”
“What?”
Daniel’s voice softened.
“Liam.”
Maya immediately took the baby from Richard and held him tightly.
David’s anger erupted.
“If anyone comes near my son—”
“I’m trying to prevent that.”
“Then tell me why they want him.”
“I don’t know completely.”
“Not good enough.”
“No.”
Daniel’s tone sharpened.
“But it is the truth.”
David began pacing.
“What do you know?”
“The Doctor abandoned first-generation identity replacement years ago.”
“Why?”
“Too unstable.”
“And?”
“They began studying inheritance.”
“Trauma.”
“More than trauma.”
David stopped.
“What?”
“Memory.”
“That isn’t inherited.”
“Not memory itself.”
“Then what?”
“Response patterns.”
Hall spoke.
“Genetic predisposition?”
“Partly.”
Daniel continued.
“They spent decades collecting children from subjects who had grown up.”
David felt sick.
“Second generation.”
“Yes.”
“How many babies?”
Silence.
“Daniel.”
“I found records for thirty-eight.”
Maya sat down slowly.
David stared at Liam.
“Where are they?”
“Some were returned.”
“Some?”
“Some vanished.”
David closed his eyes.
“What happened to them?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel’s voice cracked slightly.
The first emotion he had shown.
“That is why I took Northstar.”
“To find them.”
“Yes.”
“And did you?”
“Some.”
David looked at Mark.
Mark nodded.
“He rescued children.”
“Why didn’t you go public?”
Daniel answered.
“Because the moment the network knows which files I have, the children become evidence to destroy.”
Hall looked grim.
“That makes sense.”
David hated that it did.
“What do you need from me?”
Daniel was quiet.
“Remember.”
“Remember what?”
“The red door.”
“I remember part.”
“What was behind it?”
David closed his eyes.
Concrete.
A corridor.
A silver ring.
A little boy.
He saw Daniel crying.
Then something else.
A woman.
Not Evelyn.
A nurse.
Dark hair.
She picked David up.
Carried him toward the door.
The woman turned.
Her face.
David opened his eyes.
He looked directly at Eleanor.
“No.”
Eleanor’s expression changed.
David’s chest tightened.
“You were there.”
She started crying.
“Nathan…”
“You carried me out.”
“Yes.”
“Richard didn’t rescue me.”
“No.”
“You did.”
“Yes.”
David stared.
“Then why did Richard think he did?”
Eleanor whispered:
“Because I never told him what happened first.”
Richard stepped forward.
“What happened?”
Eleanor looked terrified.
Before she could answer, Daniel spoke through the phone.
“Ask her who opened the red door.”
David stared at Eleanor.
“Who?”
She shook her head.
Daniel’s voice became colder.
“Ask her.”
David moved closer.
“Who opened it?”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“Jonathan.”
David froze.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“You said he died before that.”
“I lied.”
Richard swore.
David’s mind raced.
“When did Jonathan die?”
Eleanor whispered:
“Years later.”
Everything stopped.
Evelyn had lied.
Eleanor had lied.
Richard had believed another story.
David felt rage rising.
“You let me think my biological father died when I was a child.”
“I had to.”
“Why?”
“Because he became dangerous.”
Daniel interrupted.
“No, Eleanor.”
His voice contained hatred now.
“That is not why.”
David looked toward the phone.
“Then why?”
Daniel replied:
“Because Jonathan became the second Doctor.”
No one breathed.
David slowly sat down.
His biological father had tried to expose the program.
Or maybe that had been another lie.
“Is he alive?”
Daniel did not answer.
“Daniel.”
“I saw him three years ago.”
David’s heart pounded.
“Where?”
“Geneva.”
The city where Richard Carter had supposedly died.
The connection felt deliberate.
“What happened?”
“He asked about you.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That you were dead.”
David stared.
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
“There it is again.”
Daniel fell silent.
David continued.
“Everyone decides what I should know. Everyone lies to protect me. Everyone turns my life into a locked room.”
“You’re right.”
The immediate admission disarmed him.
Daniel continued.
“That is why I’m calling.”
“What do you want me to know?”
“That your son was not targeted because of you.”
David looked at Liam.
“Then because of who?”
“His mother.”
Maya went still.
David turned.
“Maya?”
She looked completely confused.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel asked quietly:
“Maya, what was your mother’s maiden name?”
Maya stared.
“Why?”
“Answer.”
“Bennett.”
Silence.
Daniel exhaled.
“No.”
Maya frowned.
“Yes.”
“Your adoptive mother’s name was Bennett.”
Maya’s face drained of color.
“My mother is not adoptive.”
Daniel said nothing.
Maya looked toward David.
“David, he’s lying.”
David took her hand.
Daniel continued.
“You were born at St. Catherine’s Hospital in Baltimore.”
Maya shook her head.
“No. Boston.”
“Your birth certificate says Boston.”
“Yes.”
“Your original record says Baltimore.”
Maya stood.
“No.”
Daniel’s voice remained gentle.
“Your name was Maya Reed.”
Hall looked sharply toward the third-case files.
Thomas Reed.
One of the seven basement children.
Maya followed his gaze.
“What?”
Hall opened the file.
Thomas Reed.
Subject 07.
Transferred to Program Continuation.
David’s stomach dropped.
Daniel said:
“Thomas Reed had a daughter.”
Maya began shaking.
“No.”
“Born thirty-two years ago.”
“No.”
“He named her Maya.”
Maya pressed a hand to her mouth.
David wrapped an arm around her.
Daniel continued.
“The Doctor did not choose Liam because he is Jonathan Mercer’s grandson.”
David understood before the sentence ended.
Liam carried blood from two program families.
Mercer.
Reed.
Two lines of survivors.
Daniel said quietly:
“Liam is the first documented child born from two first-generation bloodlines.”
Maya held her baby tighter.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel answered with terrifying simplicity.
“It means they have been waiting for him.”
David’s anger became absolute.
“Then help me stop them.”
A pause.
“I’m trying.”
“Where are you?”
Daniel did not answer.
“Where is Jonathan?”
No answer.
“Who is the current Doctor?”
Daniel breathed slowly.
Then said:
“You already met her.”
David froze.
“Her?”
Maya looked at him.
Eleanor went pale.
Richard whispered something David could not hear.
Daniel continued.
“She has been closer to your family than I understood.”
“Who?”
The phone crackled.
Daniel suddenly stopped speaking.
A sound came through.
A door opening.
Then Daniel whispered:
“No.”
David stood.
“What?”
Footsteps.
Another voice in the background.
Female.
Calm.
Older.
“Daniel, give me the phone.”
David stared at Eleanor.
Eleanor shook her head violently.
“It isn’t me.”
Richard looked toward the windows.
Hall drew his weapon.
David gripped the phone.
“Who are you?”
The woman laughed softly.
Then spoke.
“You really don’t remember me, Nathan?”
David’s blood turned cold.
The voice triggered something buried deeper than the basement.
A white room.
A needle.
A lullaby.
A woman touching his hair.
The silver ring with three circles.
David whispered:
“The Doctor.”
The woman answered:
“Good boy.”
Maya moved backward with Liam.
David’s face hardened.
“Where is my brother?”
“Exactly where he belongs.”
Daniel shouted something in the background.
A struggle.
Then the woman spoke again.
“You have my property.”
David looked at Liam.
“No.”
“You misunderstand.”
Her voice remained calm.
“I’m not talking about the baby.”
David frowned.
“Then what?”
The woman said one final sentence.
“I’m talking about Maya.”
The connection died.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then every light inside the protected house went out.
Hall shouted:
“Lock the doors.”
Richard grabbed Maya and Liam.
Mark pulled Chloe behind a wall.
David stared into the darkness.
Outside, engines approached through the snow.
Not one vehicle.
Several.
Hall’s radio crackled.
“Multiple SUVs. No plates.”
David moved toward Maya.
“We’re leaving.”
Then the emergency generator came on.
Dim red lights flooded the hallway.
A monitor connected to the exterior cameras flickered.
One image appeared.
A woman stood alone in the snow outside the front gate.
Silver hair.
Dark coat.
Three-circle ring.
David stared at the screen.
It was not Evelyn.
It was not Eleanor.
But Maya suddenly made a broken sound behind him.
David turned.
She had gone completely pale.
“You know her?”
Maya could barely speak.
“That’s impossible.”
“Who is she?”
Maya looked at David with tears filling her eyes.
“My mother.”
David stared.
“You said your mother died when you were twelve.”
“She did.”
On the monitor, the supposedly dead woman lifted her face toward the camera.
Then smiled.
And behind her, another figure stepped from the black SUV.
A man with David’s face.
Daniel.
His hands were not tied.
He was not struggling.
He calmly walked beside the woman.
Maya whispered:
“Why is your brother with her?”
David had no answer.
Then Daniel looked directly into the security camera.
He raised one hand.
And held up a small photograph.
David leaned toward the monitor.
The photograph showed four children standing in front of the red door.
David.
Daniel.
Chloe.
And a fourth child.
A little girl with Maya’s eyes.
On the back, Daniel had written three words.
May you like
SHE REMEMBERS EVERYTHING.
The front gate began to open from the inside.
