Chapter 13 - The Mother Behind the Walls
Miriam wore a red coat over a hospital gown.
She did not appear surprised to see us.
“You always were impatient, Sarah.”
Marcus moved in front of me.
Miriam smiled.
“Still protecting a Mercer. After everything his family did to you.”
“What do you want?” I asked.
“My daughter.”
“Vanessa may be dead.”
“She is not.”
Miriam touched a control panel.
A video appeared showing Vanessa tied to a chair in another room.
Blood covered one side of her face, but her chest moved.
“You shot her.”
“I corrected her.”
“She is your child.”
“She stopped being my child when she chose your family.”
Miriam had survived the Bellweather fire and spent decades gathering evidence against Rainer and Mercer Global.
But revenge changed her.
She no longer wanted only to expose the program.
She wanted control of it.
Noah’s blood could stabilize the survivors.
Emily’s blood, according to Sarah’s research, carried another rare property.
It could reverse the neurological changes entirely.
“Then why target Emily now?” I asked.
“Because Sarah lied about the results.”
Miriam looked at her.
“For four years, she claimed the reversal process would kill the patient.”
“Would it?” I asked.
Sarah hesitated.
“Not necessarily.”
Miriam laughed.
“She delayed us because she wanted to decide who deserved treatment.”
“I delayed you because you wanted to sell it.”
“To fund justice.”
“To build another Bellweather.”
Their alliance had broken long before I arrived.
Sarah wanted to cure the survivors.
Miriam wanted to use the treatment as leverage against governments, corporations, and every person connected to the original trials.
Victor Sloane wanted to patent it.
My father had wanted all evidence destroyed.
Vanessa had tried to keep herself and Noah alive between them.
And Marcus had kept the files, believing he could control the outcome.
Everyone claimed to be protecting someone.
My children had paid the price.
“Where are Emily and Noah now?” Sarah asked.
“Safe.”
Miriam’s expression told me they were not.
The laboratory speakers activated.
Detective Ortiz’s voice came through them.
“Daniel, step away from Miriam.”
Armed officers entered from both corridors.
Ortiz walked behind them.
She had followed Marcus’s vehicle.
Or perhaps he had led her there.
Miriam raised her hands calmly.
“You arrived quickly.”
Ortiz aimed her weapon.
“You murdered Owen Briggs.”
“He murdered six children at Bellweather.”
“You still killed him.”
“Yes.”
The admission was effortless.
Ortiz ordered her to kneel.
Miriam looked at me.
“Ask the detective why her badge opened the basement beneath your home.”
Ortiz’s jaw tightened.
I remembered the laboratory records had been wiped minutes after police entered the mansion.
Someone with police access could have done it.
“Is that true?” I asked.
Ortiz kept her weapon on Miriam.
“My father worked security for Rainer.”
“That is not an answer.”
“I discovered the basement six months ago.”
“You knew my children were being taken there?”
“I suspected illegal research. I did not know the subjects were Emily and Noah.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I was building a case.”
The same excuse again.
Evidence.
Protection.
Timing.
My children suffering while adults built cases.
Miriam pressed a remote in her hand.
The monitor changed.
It showed the secure residence where Emily and Noah were staying.
The guards lay unconscious.
The children were gone.
“No,” I whispered.
Miriam smiled.
“They are coming home.”
“To the mansion?”
“To where everything began.”
Sarah rushed toward the computer.
Ortiz ordered her to stop.
Marcus grabbed one of the officers.
A gun fired.
The bullet struck a refrigeration unit.
Glass exploded.
White vapor filled the laboratory.
In the chaos, Miriam seized Sarah and pulled her through a side door.
Marcus followed.
I chased them into a tunnel carved through the cliff.
The passage opened onto a narrow platform above the sea.
A helicopter waited with its rotors turning.
Vanessa was already inside, still tied to the chair.
Miriam forced Sarah toward the aircraft.
Marcus stood between us with a pistol.
“Move,” I said.
“I can’t.”
“Are you working with her?”
His eyes were wet.
“She promised to cure me.”
The answer broke something final between us.
“You gave them the children.”
“No. I gave them the location. I thought they would take blood and release them.”
“You knew what Vanessa did. You knew what Rainer did. And you still delivered my children.”
“I am losing control, Daniel.”
His hand trembled around the pistol.
“The Bellweather effects are getting worse. I forget hours. I wake up in places I don’t recognize. Miriam said Emily could cure us.”
“You chose yourself.”
“I chose survival.”
He stepped aside only after the helicopter began lifting.
I jumped for the landing rail.
My fingers caught the metal.
For several seconds, I hung above the ocean.
Sarah reached down.
Miriam struck her.
The helicopter tilted.
My grip slipped.
Before I fell, Vanessa tore one hand free from the restraints and pressed a small object into my palm.
May you like
Then Miriam kicked my fingers from the rail.
I dropped into the black water below.
