Chapter 13 - The Uncle Who Came Back From the Dead)
Peter Carter contacted Daniel first.
Not by phone.
By walking into a federal field office in Washington at 8:12 the next morning.
Sixty-six years old.
Thin.
Grey beard.
No weapon.
He carried a leather bag.
Inside were seventeen notebooks belonging to Henry Carter.
Claire called Daniel immediately.
Daniel arrived an hour later.
Peter sat behind glass.
He looked older than Daniel remembered.
The last time Daniel had seen him, Peter was thirty-nine and furious.
He and Henry had fought at Christmas.
Peter left the house.
Never returned.
Daniel entered the interview room.
Peter looked up.
“You look like your father.”
Daniel sat.
“Where is he?”
Peter gave a tired smile.
“Straight to the important question.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel’s hand tightened.
“You were tracking his medical condition.”
“I was.”
“Then you know.”
“I knew until yesterday.”
“What happened?”
“Samuel moved him.”
“Why?”
“Because Samuel thinks I betrayed Henry.”
“Did you?”
Peter was silent.
Daniel leaned forward.
“My father called me and said not to trust you.”
Peter closed his eyes.
“That sounds like Henry.”
“He said your name.”
“I know.”
“You sound very calm about it.”
“Because Henry has memory problems.”
Daniel froze.
“What kind?”
“Drug-induced.”
“Hale?”
“Partly.”
Peter reached toward the leather bag beyond the glass.
“The notebooks explain most of it.”
“I want you to explain it.”
Peter nodded.
“When Henry learned Bellhaven had restarted, he tried to infiltrate it.”
“I know.”
“He discovered Hale, Evelyn, Margaret, several donors.”
“My mother was working with them?”
“At first.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Peter continued.
“Margaret changed sides.”
“When?”
“After Hale proposed using Noah.”
Daniel stared.
“She suddenly developed a conscience?”
“No.”
Peter looked at him.
“She developed one slowly.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“Convenient.”
“I hate Margaret more than you do.”
“I doubt that.”
“She destroyed my daughter.”
Daniel paused.
“What daughter?”
Peter looked away.
“My daughter was one of the later Bellhaven subjects.”
Daniel stared.
“I didn’t know you had a daughter.”
“Exactly.”
“Who?”
Peter’s eyes returned to him.
“Evelyn.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Her mother was Laura Price. We were together briefly after I left the family.”
Daniel remembered Evelyn’s original surname.
Price.
“You’re telling me my wife is my cousin?”
“Not by blood to you beyond being my daughter.”
“My cousin.”
“Yes.”
Daniel stood.
“This is sick.”
“I agree.”
“Did Evelyn know?”
“No.”
“Does Margaret?”
“Yes.”
“Hale?”
“Yes.”
Daniel felt disgust.
“Why was none of this discovered before we married?”
“Her birth record was altered.”
“By whom?”
“Margaret.”
Daniel stared through the glass.
“Why?”
“Because she wanted Evelyn connected to the Carter family without anyone understanding why.”
“Why?”
Peter’s face hardened.
“To regain access to Henry.”
Daniel stopped.
Not Daniel.
Henry.
“What did she want from him?”
“The archive.”
Everything returned to the archive.
Daniel sat again.
“What is inside it?”
“Evidence that would destroy dozens of powerful people.”
“Names.”
“Judges. executives. doctors. defense contractors. politicians. families who financed Bellhaven.”
“Then why didn’t Henry release it?”
“Because the archive also identifies the children.”
Daniel understood.
Victims.
Medical records.
Trauma.
Lives.
Publishing everything would expose them too.
“He wanted a way to prosecute without sacrificing the victims.”
“Yes.”
“Did he find one?”
“Maybe.”
“Where is the archive?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel stared.
“Everyone says that.”
“Henry became paranoid.”
“With reason.”
“Yes.”
Peter looked exhausted.
“He separated the archive into three parts.”
“What parts?”
“Names. evidence. authentication.”
“And the key?”
“Authentication.”
Daniel frowned.
“The microfilm?”
“First stage.”
“Where are the other two?”
“Samuel had one.”
“And the other?”
Peter looked at Daniel.
“Henry placed it with someone no one would suspect.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel’s patience snapped.
“Then why are you here?”
Peter leaned forward.
“Because Hale was only one doctor.”
“I know.”
“The continuation network has at least four facilities.”
Daniel stared.
“Four.”
“Maybe more.”
“And Noah?”
“His file was circulated to all of them.”
Daniel’s blood went cold.
“Why?”
“His genetic profile.”
“Stop talking about him like a specimen.”
“I’m telling you how they see him.”
Peter’s voice lowered.
“Hale believed Noah’s resistance could help them understand why some children never fully respond to conditioning.”
Daniel looked toward the window.
Peter continued.
“Your father believed the real goal was not Noah.”
“Then what?”
“You.”
Daniel slowly turned.
“Why?”
“Because you grew up.”
Daniel frowned.
Peter explained.
“You were one of the few Bellhaven children exposed to the early protocols who became a stable, successful adult without continued treatment.”
“Stable is debatable.”
“Compared to others.”
Daniel remembered Evelyn.
Thomas.
Unknown victims.
“Bellhaven wants to know why you recovered.”
“I had my father.”
Peter nodded.
“That is Henry’s theory.”
Daniel’s throat tightened.
“Attachment.”
“Yes.”
“The thing Bellhaven tried to manufacture.”
“Your father believed real attachment defeated it.”
Daniel thought of Noah screaming Daddy in the foyer.
The realization hurt.
Every time Daniel had been absent, he had unknowingly weakened the very thing Henry believed protected children.
Peter seemed to read his expression.
“Don’t turn this into guilt.”
Daniel looked at him sharply.
“You don’t get to advise me.”
“Fair.”
Claire entered.
She carried a tablet.
“We located Samuel.”
Daniel stood.
“Where?”
“Not Samuel exactly. His vehicle.”
“Where?”
“Outside Richmond.”
“Henry?”
“No sign.”
“Blood?”
“None.”
“What happened?”
“The vehicle was abandoned.”
She handed Daniel the tablet.
A highway camera showed Samuel’s car entering a private medical complex.
It never left.
The facility’s owner was listed as a shell corporation.
Peter leaned toward the screen.
His face changed.
“What?”
“I know that building.”
Daniel looked at him.
“How?”
Peter whispered, “That was Bellhaven’s first adult facility.”
Claire asked, “Adult?”
Peter nodded.
“When the children grew up, they started studying what remained.”
Daniel stared at the image.
His father had been taken to a place designed to examine adults who had once been Bellhaven subjects.
Which meant Henry might not be the patient.
Daniel might be.
“What was the facility called?” he asked.
Peter answered.
“Second House.”
Daniel looked at Claire.
“When do we go?”
“Now.”
As they left, Peter spoke through the doorway.
“Daniel.”
Daniel turned.
“If you find Henry, ask him one question before you trust anything he says.”
“What question?”
May you like
Peter’s face had gone pale.
“Ask him who died in the fire.”
