Chapter 9 - THE MAN WHO BUILT THE BLOODLINE
Charles gave them an address.
An abandoned pharmaceutical facility outside Richmond.
Hale refused to let Sarah go.
Sarah refused to stay behind.
They compromised.
Federal tactical teams surrounded the property.
Sarah remained inside an armored vehicle with Sterling while Hale entered.
Twenty minutes later, a message came through.
Chloe found.
Alive.
Charles gone.
Again.
Inside the facility investigators found laboratories.
Old.
Mostly stripped.
But not abandoned.
Recent medical equipment remained.
Freezers.
Gene sequencing machines.
Files.
Hundreds of profiles.
Sarah.
David.
Chloe.
Marcus Hale.
Sterling.
Eleanor.
And dozens of people Sarah did not recognize.
Politicians.
CEOs.
Military officers.
Scientists.
Children.
Some profiles marked ACTIVE.
Others TERMINATED.
One file carried David’s photograph.
R-17.
STATUS: NONCOMPLIANT.
Sarah stared.
“Noncompliant?”
Sterling’s voice was hollow.
“He refused them.”
Another file.
SARAH MORGAN WHITMORE.
S-4.
STATUS: SUCCESSFUL PAIRING.
Pregnancy: confirmed.
Offspring designation:
R-17A.
Sarah tore the page in half.
Hale did not stop her.
Chloe arrived wrapped in a blanket.
She crossed the room and hugged Sarah.
For the first time in their relationship, Sarah hugged her back.
“I’m sorry,” Chloe whispered.
Sarah knew what she meant.
The funeral.
The ring.
The cruelty.
Years of hostility.
“We’ll deal with that later.”
Chloe cried.
“Mother was trying to protect the baby.”
Sarah pulled back.
“What?”
“Not correctly.”
“That’s an understatement.”
“She thought if everyone believed David wasn’t the father, the program wouldn’t claim your daughter.”
Sarah looked toward the files.
“Then why accuse me of killing him?”
Chloe swallowed.
“That wasn’t Mother.”
“What?”
“The attorneys who brought the evidence?”
“Yes.”
“They work for Charles.”
Sarah felt another layer fall away.
“Eleanor knew?”
“She realized after she surrendered.”
“Where is she now?”
Nobody answered.
Sarah turned toward Hale.
“Where is Eleanor?”
His expression told her.
Gone.
Transferred for questioning.
Convoy attacked.
Two agents injured.
Eleanor missing.
Sarah almost laughed from exhaustion.
“Everyone disappears.”
Then an alarm sounded from the laboratory.
One freezer had activated automatically.
A screen displayed:
R-17 ARCHIVE.
Sterling inserted a recovered access card.
Inside were biological samples.
David’s name appeared on dozens.
Blood.
Tissue.
Sperm.
Sarah stepped backward.
“What the hell?”
A reproductive specialist reviewed the inventory.
Her expression became increasingly disturbed.
“These samples were collected over many years.”
“Without consent?” Sarah asked.
“Some documentation suggests consent.”
Sterling searched the files.
Then stopped.
“Here.”
David had signed one form.
At seventeen.
During the mysterious months in Switzerland.
Sarah read the consent language.
It was deliberately vague.
Medical treatment.
Genetic preservation.
Research authorization.
He had been a minor.
Another record showed embryo creation attempts.
Sarah’s stomach turned.
“They used his genetic material.”
The specialist nodded.
“Potentially.”
“How many children?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Then the database search completed.
R-17 DERIVED OFFSPRING:
7.
Sarah felt the world tilt.
Seven.
David might already have biological children.
Created without his knowledge.
Sterling whispered, “Locations?”
The files showed codes.
No names.
No addresses.
Except one.
R-17-03.
Female.
Age: 12.
Current guardian:
ELEANOR WHITMORE.
Sarah stared.
“Eleanor has a child?”
Chloe looked horrified.
“No.”
They opened the attached photograph.
A twelve-year-old girl.
Blond hair.
Blue-gray eyes.
Sarah covered her mouth.
She looked like David.
Not vaguely.
Unmistakably.
The same eyes.
The same expression.
The same slight crookedness in the smile.
Chloe whispered, “Who is she?”
Name:
EMILY ROSS.
Sarah remembered the surname.
One of Eleanor’s household employees.
Helen Ross.
Quiet woman.
Worked at Eleanor’s estate for years.
Sarah had seen her daughter twice at Christmas events.
She had never noticed.
Now she could not unsee it.
Hale immediately called for agents to locate Helen and Emily.
No answer.
Their house was empty.
Neighbors said they left that morning.
A surveillance camera showed Helen placing luggage into a car.
Emily climbed into the passenger seat.
Then another person appeared.
Eleanor.
She entered the back seat.
The car drove north.
Chloe stared at the footage.
“Mother took her.”
Sarah shook her head.
“No.”
She looked at Eleanor’s posture.
The woman was injured.
Being helped into the vehicle.
“Helen took Eleanor.”
Why?
Then Sarah noticed the timestamp.
The footage was recorded before the convoy transporting Eleanor had supposedly been attacked.
Meaning Eleanor’s escape had been arranged in advance.
Hale’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression hardened.
“What?”
Sarah waited.
Hale lowered the phone.
“The agents transporting Eleanor.”
“Yes?”
“They weren’t federal agents.”
Sterling frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“They used valid credentials.”
“Then who were they?”
Hale looked toward the laboratory full of stolen identities and genetic records.
“We don’t know.”
A computer suddenly activated behind them.
David appeared on screen.
Sarah rushed forward.
Another prerecorded file.
He looked exhausted this time.
Older than in the funeral video.
“If you found the Northbridge lab, you found the children.”
Sarah’s eyes filled.
David continued.
“I don’t know how many are mine.”
He looked away.
“I’m sorry, Sarah.”
She touched the screen.
“I was seventeen when they started taking samples. I thought I was sick. I thought the treatments were helping me.”
His jaw tightened.
“They were using me.”
Sterling lowered his head.
David continued.
“I found Emily.”
Sarah looked toward Chloe.
“She’s innocent.”
David’s voice softened.
“She’s twelve years old. She likes astronomy. She hates tomatoes. She thinks her father died before she was born.”
A painful smile.
“I didn’t know how to tell her.”
Sarah cried silently.
“If I die before I can fix this, protect her.”
The video flickered.
Then David said something Sarah would never forget.
“And Sarah—”
He looked directly into the camera.
“Our daughter isn’t R-17A.”
Sarah froze.
“The genetic results were manipulated.”
Sterling leaned closer.
David continued.
“She’s something they didn’t expect.”
The recording cut out.
Sarah stared at the blank screen.
Something they didn’t expect.
Before anyone could react, the facility lights died.
Gunshots erupted outside.
Hale drew his weapon.
“Down!”
Sarah dropped behind a laboratory bench.
Glass shattered.
Men shouted.
Then someone grabbed Sterling from behind.
A masked attacker pressed a gun against the attorney’s head.
Sarah froze.
The attacker removed his mask.
Sterling stared at him.
“Nathan.”
His dead brother smiled.
“Hello, Sterling.”
May you like
Then Nathan looked directly at Sarah’s stomach.
“We need to talk about your daughter.”
