Chapter 13 - Nursery C
The entrance to Nursery C was hidden beneath the cellar of silver cups.
Sylvia’s access card opened the steel door at the end of the tunnel.
Beyond it, a freight elevator descended far deeper than the mansion’s foundation.
Anna, Camille, Lena and Dr. Reed entered with Sylvia.
The elevator display showed no numbers.
Only letters.
A.
B.
C.
When the doors opened, cold white light flooded the chamber.
Nursery C was not abandoned.
Rows of glass rooms extended beneath the estate. Medical equipment hummed. Freezers lined one wall. Surveillance monitors displayed live images from clinics, homes and hospital rooms.
Anna recognized women from the Continuity files.
Some were pregnant.
Some held newborns.
None appeared aware they were being watched.
“This is still operating,” Lena whispered.
Sylvia looked genuinely shocked.
“Not under my authority.”
“Your name is on the building,” Anna said.
“That does not mean I knew.”
“It always means you knew enough.”
They entered a laboratory filled with cryogenic storage units.
Each drawer contained identification codes.
J-Series.
R-Series.
A-Series.
Anna found a drawer marked Rebecca Vale.
Inside were multiple sealed vials.
Her mother’s cells had been stored for fifteen years.
Camille searched the Julian drawers.
Most were empty.
One contained a recent date.
“Someone used this sample four months ago.”
Anna counted backward.
The timing matched the implantation.
Dr. Reed examined the procedure log.
“Malcolm combined Rebecca’s preserved egg with Julian’s genetic material.”
“Then Anna is carrying her own sibling,” Lena said.
“Biologically, the child would be a complex reconstructed embryo. Rebecca supplied the maternal nucleus, but mitochondrial material appears to have been taken from Anna.”
Anna felt nauseated.
“What does that make me?”
Dr. Reed struggled to answer.
“Both gestational mother and biological contributor.”
A voice spoke through the ceiling.
“It makes you unique.”
Dr. Kessler appeared on every monitor.
He stood in another room beside Aaron, who was restrained in a chair.
Aaron’s face was bruised.
“Anna,” he said. “Don’t listen to him.”
Kessler adjusted the camera.
“You’ve created unnecessary chaos.”
“You assaulted me,” Anna said.
“I continued research your mother began.”
“My mother tried to stop you.”
“Rebecca objected to the method, not the goal.”
“What goal?”
“Human continuity beyond ordinary reproduction.”
Sylvia stepped toward the monitor.
“You used my facility without permission.”
Kessler laughed.
“Your facility? Sylvia, you were a grieving socialite with money. I built everything.”
“And I can destroy it.”
“You had thirty years.”
Alarms sounded.
Red lights flashed across the laboratory.
Kessler had sealed every exit.
On another monitor, Agent Grant entered the elevator.
Dozens of armed men followed.
Kessler’s voice remained calm.
“Bring Anna to the surgical room. I release Aaron, Camille and the others.”
“No,” Aaron shouted.
Kessler struck him.
Anna stepped closer to the screen.
“What surgery?”
“A corrective procedure.”
“I’m not sick.”
“The embryo is unstable.”
Dr. Reed examined the laboratory data.
Her face tightened.
“What did you alter?”
Kessler smiled.
“The J-Series child carries a dormant vector. With the proper activation, damaged cells can be repaired across generations.”
“And without it?” Anna asked.
“The pregnancy will fail.”
Camille grabbed Sylvia by the coat.
“You knew this?”
“No.”
Kessler continued.
“The silver formula stabilizes the vector. Anna has refused sufficient doses.”
Anna thought of the cup.
The liquid she believed was poisoning her might also have been keeping the child alive.
Dr. Reed shook her head.
“He’s manipulating you. We don’t know what the compound does.”
The baby moved inside Anna.
A sudden sharp pain crossed her abdomen.
She doubled over.
Lena caught her.
Blood appeared on Anna’s dress.
May you like
Kessler’s voice came softly through the monitor.
“You have approximately forty minutes.”
