Chapter 13 - The Doctor Who Had Already Died
Dr. Adrian Voss was placed in a guarded hospital room while detectives prepared to transfer him to a federal detention facility.
His fingerprints, dental records, and employment history all identified him as Adrian Voss, age sixty-three.
But the photograph from 1989 showed the same face at approximately the same age.
Mara brought the photograph to Samuel Calder.
He had been moved to a secure private room under police supervision. Gabriel stood near the window, reading statements from the newly exposed patients.
Samuel examined the photograph for a long time.
“This is Dr. Alistair Voss,” he said.
“Adrian’s father?” Mara asked.
“His uncle.”
“He has the same face.”
“They all do.”
“Who are they?”
Samuel looked toward Gabriel.
“The original Mirror Protocol did not begin with replacement patients. It began with replacement doctors.”
Gabriel closed the file.
“You never told us this.”
“I tried to end it before you were old enough to understand.”
Samuel explained that several private medical families had preserved power by passing professional identities from one generation to another. Sons, nephews, and carefully selected protégés underwent years of training to assume the public roles of older relatives.
A doctor could appear to lead an institution for sixty years. In reality, two or three men used the same name, credentials, and reputation.
“Why?” Mara asked.
“Continuity. Influence. Protection from legal consequences.”
Mira studied the photograph.
“Nathaniel Wren was one of them.”
“Yes.”
“Which Wren did Daniel investigate?”
Samuel’s answer was quiet.
“I don’t know.”
The simplicity of the response disturbed Mara more than another secret might have.
Samuel Calder had built the hospital, the tunnels, and the first identity program. Yet even he had lost track of the people who wore inherited names.
Mara and Mira visited Voss’s guarded room.
He sat upright in bed, looking composed.
Mira placed the photograph before him.
“Is this you?”
Voss glanced at it.
“You already know the answer you prefer.”
“Who was Alistair Voss?”
“My predecessor.”
“Your father?”
“Biologically, no.”
Mara watched his expression.
“What happens when Adrian Voss becomes too old to continue?”
He smiled.
“Someone else becomes Adrian Voss.”
“Who?”
“That is decided by the College.”
“What college?”
“The institution that trained Samuel, Amelia, Wren, and every physician who understood the real purpose of the Mirror Protocol.”
Mira leaned closer.
“Where is it?”
Voss looked toward the window.
“You have spent one night exposing a basement and now believe the world has changed.”
“The patients are free.”
“Yes. That matters. More than you know.”
For the first time, his confidence appeared to weaken.
“Why did you put Lena in the laundry?” Mara asked.
“I did not.”
“Then who did?”
“A nurse found her breathing after the false declaration. Instead of reporting it, she placed Lena where she believed the cameras would not see her.”
“Who was the nurse?”
“I never learned her name.”
Mara remembered the blanket around Lena, the abandoned shoes, and the linen carts arranged as though someone had hidden her deliberately.
A person inside the hospital had risked everything to save the girl.
“Where is that nurse now?”
“Missing.”
Mira crossed her arms.
“You expect us to believe an unknown nurse defeated your security system?”
“No. She knew the system because she helped design it.”
Voss reached for the photograph.
His finger rested on a woman standing at the far edge.
Her face had been partially obscured by damage to the print.
“She called herself Dr. Evelyn Shore.”
Mara recognized the surname.
Before marrying Daniel, Mara’s name had been Mara Shore.
“My mother’s name was Evelyn,” she said.
Voss looked at her.
“I know.”
Mara’s mother had died when Mara was nine. She remembered very little about her work, only that she wore white uniforms and traveled often.
“That photograph was taken two years after my mother died.”
“Death certificates are unreliable documents in this hospital,” Voss replied.
Mara’s phone vibrated.
A new message had arrived from the same unknown number that warned her about Daniel.
It contained a live photograph of a woman boarding a train.
She had Mara’s eyes.
Beneath the picture was a message.
YOUR MOTHER SAVED LENA.
SHE WILL NOT SURVIVE THE COLLEGE ALONE.
Mara showed it to Mira.
Voss laughed softly.
“You opened the hospital,” he said. “Now they will open your family.”
The room door suddenly locked.
The lights dimmed.
A hospital announcement ordered an evacuation of the floor due to a fire alarm.
Mira checked the hallway through the window.
The guards were gone.
Voss removed the monitoring device from his wrist.
“You are not the only person with a key, Mara.”
A section of the wall opened behind his bed.
Before Mara could stop him, Voss stepped into a hidden passage.
Mira reached it first, but a steel panel dropped between them.
On the other side, Voss placed his hand against the glass.
May you like
“Tell Lena the inheritance was never money.”
Then he disappeared into the hospital.
