Chapter 10 - The Pregnancy That Came Before
Emily stared at the ultrasound until the numbers blurred.
The patient name had been removed.
The date was unmistakable.
Twenty-two months before Maisie’s birth.
Peter looked over her shoulder.
“I’ve never seen that.”
Emily turned on him.
“Is Maisie mine?”
“Yes.”
“Do not lie to me again.”
“She is your daughter.”
“Then explain this.”
“I can’t.”
Emily raised the gun.
Beck stepped between them.
“The DNA result confirms Emily is Maisie’s biological mother.”
“Then whose ultrasound is this?” Emily demanded.
Beck examined the codes.
“E-19 may not refer only to Maisie.”
A weak voice came from behind the blood racks.
“Correct.”
Colonel Adrian Ross emerged from the shadows.
A bandage covered his head.
Emily aimed at him.
“You were supposed to be in a military hospital.”
“So were the men who tried to kill me.”
Beck moved forward.
“Evelyn said you accessed the terminal.”
“She used my credentials.”
“Why did your note say ask Maisie?”
Ross pointed at the stuffed fox Emily still carried inside her bag.
“I placed the memory card there during a security inspection at the manor.”
“Peter said he put it there.”
Peter stared at Ross.
“I did.”
Ross shook his head.
“You placed a card inside the toy. Helen found it two weeks later.”
Peter’s face fell.
“The recording Emily watched was copied before Helen destroyed your original. I replaced it.”
Emily lowered the gun slightly.
“Why?”
“Because I owed your mother.”
Ross walked toward the ultrasound image.
“E-19 was the first genetically compatible embryo created from Elaine’s preserved ovarian tissue.”
Emily felt the room tilt.
“My mother had another child?”
“No. The embryo was never brought to term.”
“Then why does the record say biological continuation achieved?”
“Because tissue from E-19 was used to stabilize your pregnancy.”
Peter sat heavily against a metal cabinet.
Emily looked at him.
“You knew something happened during the fertility treatment.”
He rubbed his face.
“We were told the clinic used an experimental hormone protocol.”
“You signed the forms.”
“So did you.”
“I was sedated during the retrieval procedure.”
Peter looked sick.
“My mother chose the clinic.”
The memory returned in pieces.
After two miscarriages, Helen recommended a private fertility specialist connected to Orison.
Emily had been desperate.
She signed forms she barely understood.
Maisie was conceived months later.
Ross opened another file.
“Your mother’s marker was dormant in you. Orison used E-19 tissue to activate it before implantation.”
“They experimented on me.”
“Yes.”
“And on Maisie.”
“Before she was even born.”
Emily pressed one hand against the cold metal table.
“Why would Helen need her now?”
“Because Maisie is the first living subject to carry the complete stable sequence.”
Beck examined the facility map.
“If Helen extracts enough stem cells, she can reproduce the activation key.”
“Will it hurt Maisie?” Emily asked.
Ross was silent.
“Answer me.”
“It could kill her.”
Peter lunged toward Ross.
Beck restrained him.
“You knew this!” Peter shouted. “You knew and you let them take her!”
“I spent four months trying to locate this facility.”
“You were inside the manor!”
“I could not move without exposing the investigation.”
Emily struck the table with the gun.
“Enough.”
Everyone fell silent.
She looked at the map.
“Where is the medical chamber?”
Ross pointed to a lower level.
“Sector Seven.”
“How do we reach it?”
“Through the central laboratory.”
Peter shook his head.
“Helen will expect that.”
“Then we use another route.”
Ross tapped a section labeled Cryogenic Disposal.
“There is an old waste shaft running beneath Sector Seven.”
Beck contacted the remaining agents.
Static answered.
The facility was blocking radio signals.
They moved through the refrigerated room toward the disposal shaft.
As Emily passed the final rack, she noticed a blood bag labeled M. Carter.
Maisie Carter.
Collection date: today.
Helen had already taken her blood.
A red symbol beside the label read Sequence Confirmed.
Emily placed the bag inside her jacket.
Then she saw another bag behind it.
May you like
The label read E. Carter.
The collection date was tomorrow.
