Chapter 8 - Two Daniels
The man inside the station called himself David.
He claimed Daniel was the replacement.
Daniel claimed David was lying.
Police could not immediately verify either identity because both men’s fingerprints matched archived records for Daniel Mercer.
Their facial measurements were nearly identical.
Preliminary DNA tests confirmed that they were brothers.
Identical twins.
Linda had raised one publicly.
The other had been hidden inside Helix Bridge.
Emily remained in the command vehicle while Detective Reyes negotiated with the hooded woman.
“Release Natalie and the child,” Reyes said over the phone. “Then we can discuss the company.”
“The company is not the prize,” the woman answered.
“What is?”
“Ownership of the research.”
“Who are you?”
“You know my name.”
“Evelyn Voss?”
The woman removed her hood.
She appeared to be in her late sixties, with silver hair cut sharply beneath her jaw and skin untouched by visible emotion.
Dr. Evelyn Voss.
The woman who supervised Helix Bridge.
Natalie looked terrified beside her.
Grace did not.
The child leaned against David as though she knew him.
Emily watched carefully.
“Why does Grace call him Daddy?”
Voss smiled toward the camera.
“Because he raised her.”
Daniel stepped closer to the monitor.
“That’s impossible.”
“Four years ago,” Voss said, “David was assigned to oversee Grace’s development.”
“Assigned by whom?”
“Linda.”
Daniel looked stunned.
The woman continued.
“Linda was not merely your mother. She was a custodian. She managed the public family while I protected the viable subjects.”
“Protected?” Emily said. “You kidnapped children.”
“I preserved them from a society that destroys exceptional potential.”
“Where are the other children created from my embryos?”
Voss’s smile faded.
“Two died.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“One was removed from the program by Natalie. Grace remained. The fifth implantation produced twins.”
“How many children are alive?”
“Three.”
Grace and two others.
“Where are they?”
“Safe for now.”
Reyes signaled technicians to continue tracing the transmission.
Voss appeared aware of the attempt.
“You will find no usable location. The station feed was recorded twenty minutes ago.”
The tactical team entered the building.
The benches were empty.
The duplicate Daniel, Natalie, Grace, and Voss had already left.
Only a speaker and a projector remained.
Reyes struck the table with her palm.
The woman’s voice continued through Emily’s phone.
“If you want the children returned, bring the original Helix key to Mercer Medical headquarters tomorrow.”
“What key?” Daniel asked.
Voss looked directly into the camera.
“The one Malcolm placed inside D-1.”
Daniel touched his chest.
“I don’t have a key.”
“Not inside you,” Voss said. “Inside your memory.”
The call ended.
Police brought Daniel and Emily to a secure location.
David’s existence changed the investigation.
If two identical men shared fingerprints and DNA, either could have appeared in security footage.
Either could have married Emily.
The possibility was so disturbing that she could barely allow herself to think it.
Daniel sat across from her in the interview room.
“What was our first trip together?” Emily asked.
“Seattle.”
“Where did we stay?”
“The Marlow Hotel.”
“What happened on the second night?”
“You locked yourself on the balcony because you thought the door opened from both sides.”
Despite everything, Emily almost smiled.
“What did you do?”
“I called hotel security, and three firefighters climbed through the room while you shouted that I was overreacting.”
“That memory isn’t public.”
“No.”
“David could have been told.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“You think he replaced me?”
“I think people have altered records, identities, and memories for years. I don’t know what is possible anymore.”
He looked wounded.
“Ask me something else.”
“What did you whisper before our wedding ceremony?”
Daniel answered without hesitation.
“I told you that if you wanted to run, I would carry your shoes.”
Emily remembered laughing so loudly the wedding coordinator scolded them.
Tears reached her eyes.
“That was you.”
“Yes.”
“At least that day.”
His face fell.
Emily hated herself for saying it, but the doubt had already entered.
Detective Reyes opened the door.
“Linda is conscious.”
They returned to the hospital under heavy guard.
Linda’s neck was bandaged, and one arm was restrained to the bed.
When Daniel entered, she stared at him for several seconds.
“Which one are you?”
He stopped.
“You raised me. You tell me.”
Linda examined his hands.
“Show me your wrist.”
He did.
No tattoo.
Linda relaxed slightly.
“You are Daniel.”
“The other man says he is.”
“The other man is David.”
“You had identical children and hid one?”
Linda closed her eyes.
“Rebecca gave birth to twins. Malcolm wanted one heir. Evelyn wanted two experimental subjects.”
“Which one did you take?”
“You.”
“How do you know?”
“You had a birthmark beneath your shoulder.”
Daniel pulled down his collar.
There was no birthmark.
Linda stared.
Then her face changed.
“No.”
Daniel stepped back.
“You chose the wrong child.”
“No. I checked.”
“Then who am I?”
Linda’s heart monitor accelerated.
She looked toward Emily.
“Take him away from me.”
Daniel’s voice broke.
“Mother.”
“Take him away!”
Nurses hurried in.
Reyes moved Daniel into the hall.
Emily remained.
Linda’s breathing became ragged.
“Why are you afraid of him?”
“Because the birthmark was removed.”
“Why would anyone do that?”
“To make the twins interchangeable.”
“Who could have done it?”
“Evelyn.”
Emily leaned closer.
“Is the man I married Daniel or David?”
Linda’s eyes filled with something close to shame.
“I stopped knowing years ago.”
“When?”
“The night of your charity dinner.”
The missing ninety minutes.
“What happened that night?”
“Evelyn activated both of them.”
“What does that mean?”
“She needed to learn which twin would choose you without orders.”
Emily’s stomach tightened.
“And which one did?”
Linda looked toward the hallway where Daniel waited.
“The one you married.”
“That still doesn’t tell me his name.”
“No,” Linda whispered. “It does not.”
A nurse checked Linda’s IV.
Linda watched her leave before speaking again.
“The Helix key is a phrase Malcolm embedded through conditioning. It opens an encrypted archive containing every child’s identity, every surrogate, and every family who purchased access.”
“What is the phrase?”
“Daniel does not consciously know it.”
“Can you recover it?”
“Only through the original memory sequence.”
“Where?”
“At Mercer Medical headquarters.”
Emily thought of Voss’s demand.
“She wants us there.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the archive requires two subjects.”
“Daniel and David?”
Linda shook her head.
“D-1 and E-5.”
Daniel.
And Emily.
“Why me?”
“Because Malcolm did not design Helix Bridge for the Mercer heirs.”
May you like
Linda looked at her with deep, exhausted fear.
“He designed it for your family.”
