Chapter 13 - The Choice Below Deck
Emily handed Liam to Reed at the helicopter deck entrance.
“Take him to the rescue boat.”
“Where are you going?”
“Daniel is below.”
“The fire is spreading.”
“My mother is there too.”
Reed looked toward the smoke pouring through the stairwell.
“I’m coming.”
“You take Liam.”
“Vale can take him.”
Emily caught Reed’s vest.
“No. I am trusting you with my son.”
The general understood the weight of the statement.
He nodded.
“I will not fail him.”
Emily descended into the burning ship.
Sprinkler systems released water, but several lines had ruptured. Smoke thickened across the lower corridor.
She wrapped cloth over her mouth and followed Daniel’s last radio signal.
“Daniel.”
Static answered.
She reached the synchronization level.
The elevator had failed, so she entered through a damaged service hatch.
Inside the chamber, Ava and two soldiers freed the children from the chairs.
“Where is Daniel?”
Ava pointed toward the control pit.
“He went after Patricia.”
Emily climbed over debris.
Daniel knelt beside Patricia near the shattered central machine.
A metal support beam trapped her legs.
Blood covered her face.
Daniel tried to lift the beam.
“It won’t move,” he shouted.
Emily joined him.
Together they raised it several inches.
Patricia screamed as Ava pulled her free.
Another explosion shook the chamber.
“Move,” Emily ordered.
They carried Patricia toward the service hatch.
She caught Emily’s hand.
“The file.”
“What file?”
“The red file Vane took.”
“Liam mentioned it.”
Patricia struggled to breathe.
“It contains the original subject list.”
“Your trial?”
“No.”
Her eyes found Emily’s.
“The infants.”
Emily froze.
“What infants?”
“Orion did not begin with adults. They began with newborns.”
Daniel looked at Patricia.
“Subject Zero.”
Patricia nodded.
“Richard told you to find Subject Zero?”
“Yes.”
“He lied about who it was.”
The ceiling groaned above them.
Ava shouted for them to move.
Emily lifted Patricia under one arm.
“Who is Subject Zero?”
Patricia’s voice became a whisper.
“You.”
Emily stopped.
“That is impossible. I was born years after the first trial.”
“The records were changed.”
“You gave birth to me.”
Patricia began crying.
“I carried you, but the embryo was not mine.”
The revelation was too large for the burning room.
Emily forced herself forward.
“Whose was it?”
“I do not know. Vane brought it to the institute.”
Daniel coughed heavily.
“Later.”
They moved through the hatch.
The corridor ahead had collapsed.
Flames blocked the main exit.
Vale’s voice came through the radio.
“Engine room secure, but the hull has sustained structural damage. We have twelve minutes before evacuation becomes impossible.”
Emily found an emergency schematic.
A ventilation shaft led toward the cargo deck.
They moved the children first.
Daniel entered the shaft behind Emily while Ava carried Patricia.
Halfway through, Patricia lost consciousness.
The ship tilted sharply.
Metal screamed around them.
They reached the cargo deck, where Vale’s team broke through a wall to reach them.
Rescue boats waited outside.
One by one, the children were transferred.
Patricia was placed on a stretcher.
Emily searched the deck.
“Where is Liam?”
Reed appeared through the rain.
“On the naval transport.”
Emily exhaled.
“Vane escaped.”
“We are tracking the helicopter.”
“He took a file identifying Subject Zero.”
Reed looked at her.
“Who is it?”
Emily did not answer.
The Northwind Dawn listed farther to one side.
They boarded the final rescue boat.
Minutes later, the vessel disappeared beneath the black water.
As the first light of morning touched the horizon, Emily sat beside Daniel beneath a thermal blanket.
Liam slept between them.
His bruised cheek rested against Daniel’s chest.
Daniel stared down at his son.
“I imagined this.”
“What?”
“Holding him.”
Emily watched Liam breathe.
“So did I.”
Daniel looked at her.
“I do not expect forgiveness.”
“Good.”
“I do expect questions.”
“I have thousands.”
“I will answer every one I can.”
“And the ones you cannot?”
“I will help you find them.”
Emily studied his face.
He looked older, thinner, and haunted.
But when Liam shifted in his arms, Daniel’s expression softened into the man she remembered.
“Do you still love me?” he asked.
Emily looked toward the burning wreckage disappearing beneath the sea.
“Yes.”
Hope entered his eyes.
She continued.
“That does not repair what happened.”
“I know.”
“Love is not the same as trust.”
“I know.”
“You will not leave again without telling me.”
“I won’t.”
“You cannot promise that until you decide whether you are my husband or an Aegis operative.”
Daniel looked down.
“Then I choose.”
“Do not answer quickly.”
He met her gaze.
“I already answered eighteen months ago. I was simply too afraid to live by it.”
Emily did not ask what he meant.
Not yet.
On the naval aircraft, Patricia underwent emergency surgery.
Madison waited outside the medical compartment.
When Emily arrived, Madison stood.
“Is Liam okay?”
“Yes.”
Madison’s shoulders loosened.
“Can I see him?”
“No.”
The answer hurt her, but she nodded.
“I understand.”
Emily sat across from her.
“Our mother may survive.”
“Do we know whether she is our mother?”
“She raised us.”
“Did she?”
Emily understood the question.
Had Patricia raised them, or merely kept them inside Richard’s system?
“Whatever she failed to do,” Emily said, “she stayed behind to save those children.”
Madison stared at her hands.
“Does one good choice erase everything?”
“No.”
“Then why does it matter?”
“Because it proves another choice was possible.”
Madison began to cry.
“I hit Liam.”
“Yes.”
“I heard him apologize after I hurt him.”
Emily said nothing.
“I sounded like Father.”
“Yes.”
Madison covered her face.
“I don’t want to be him.”
“Then do the work required not to be.”
The medical door opened.
A surgeon stepped out.
“Patricia is alive, but she has extensive internal injuries. She asked to speak with both daughters.”
Inside, Patricia looked small beneath the hospital equipment.
Madison stood on one side of the bed. Emily stood on the other.
Patricia opened her eyes.
“I need to tell you where Vane will go.”
“Where?” Emily asked.
“Saint Catherine’s.”
“The hospital where Madison was born?”
Patricia shook her head weakly.
“The hospital was built over the original Orion nursery.”
Madison gripped the bed rail.
“My records are there?”
“Every infant’s record.”
Emily thought of the red file.
Vane had a list.
But the original archive might still exist.
Patricia whispered, “There is something else.”
“What?”
“The baby who died the night Madison was brought to us did not die.”
Madison stared at her.
“Then where is she?”
May you like
Patricia’s eyes moved toward Emily.
“Richard gave her to General Vane.”
