Chapter 10 - the fire was michael's plan)
Daniel shut the laptop.
"No."
Rachel stared at him.
"You need to hear the rest."
"No."
"Daniel."
"My brother just said he caused the fire that killed three people."
"We don't know why."
"What reason makes that acceptable?"
"None. But we need the truth."
Daniel walked to the window.
For seven years he had built Michael into a memory he could survive.
Brilliant.
Protective.
Flawed, but good.
Now Graybridge was dismantling even the dead.
Rachel reopened the video.
Michael continued.
"I set the fire in the east archive room because Victor was removing evidence. I believed the suppression system would contain it."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"I was wrong."
Michael's face tightened.
"The explosion was not mine. Someone had altered gas lines beneath the laboratory. When the fire reached the east wall, the building became a weapon."
Daniel turned back.
Michael continued.
"I intended to destroy the physical Graybridge archive before Victor could relocate it. I also intended to escape."
He gave a sad half smile.
"Obviously, if you're watching this, at least one of those plans failed."
Rachel's eyes filled.
Michael continued.
"Daniel, I am sorry I agreed to use C17 on you."
Daniel clenched his jaw.
"You had seen Subject Zero. You had heard her speak. Victor told me that if you remembered, he would kill you before sunrise."
Michael looked downward.
"I believed temporary memory suppression could buy enough time to expose Graybridge."
He looked back at the camera.
"I was wrong about that too."
The recording changed.
Security footage appeared.
Daniel seven years earlier walked through the laboratory.
He approached a restricted room.
Inside sat a woman.
She lifted her face.
The video pixelated automatically.
Her identity had been intentionally obscured.
Daniel whispered, "Why hide her?"
Michael's recorded voice continued.
"Subject Zero is the reason Graybridge exists."
Another image.
Brain scans.
Medical notes.
A woman in a hospital after a vehicle accident.
Michael continued.
"She was the first patient to receive an early compound designed to reduce traumatic memory."
Rachel watched.
"The treatment did not erase memory."
Pause.
"It changed access to memory."
Daniel frowned.
Michael explained.
"Under certain prompts, memories could be suppressed. Under others, restored."
Quinn whispered, "Controlled retrieval."
Michael nodded almost as if answering her from seven years earlier.
"The implications were obvious. Victor saw opportunity where I saw danger."
Another document appeared.
"Subject Zero eventually began remembering not only what Graybridge had suppressed but conversations she heard while sedated."
Daniel's stomach tightened.
"She knew names."
Michael continued.
"Payments. operations. clients. locations."
Rachel understood.
"She became a living archive."
Michael's video returned.
"Victor needed her silent. I helped her disappear."
Daniel looked at Rachel.
Michael continued.
"If Daniel remembers her face, he may remember where she went."
The video ended.
Daniel sat.
He felt hollow.
Rachel asked quietly, "Do you?"
"No."
"Try."
"I have been trying."
Quinn said, "Don't force it. We have the archive."
"Not enough."
"The identity is encrypted."
Daniel looked at her.
"Victor kidnapped my mother because he thinks I know where Subject Zero is."
"Yes."
"And Adrian manipulated us into opening the drive because he wants the same thing."
"Possibly."
Daniel's phone rang.
Evelyn's number.
He answered.
"Mom?"
No response.
Then crying.
"Evelyn?"
Victor spoke.
"Sunrise has passed."
"Don't hurt her."
"I haven't."
"What do you want?"
"You know what I want."
"The drive isn't enough."
Victor laughed softly.
"Good. You're remembering faster than expected."
Daniel's blood chilled.
"Subject Zero."
Rachel looked up sharply.
Victor continued.
"Your brother made one mistake. He believed memory could be hidden forever."
"Where is my mother?"
"Ask Evelyn."
The phone shifted.
Evelyn spoke.
"Daniel."
"Mom, listen to me. Where are you?"
"I don't know."
"Did Michael tell you anything about Subject Zero?"
Silence.
"Mom."
"I promised him."
Victor's voice came from nearby.
"Evelyn."
She began crying harder.
Daniel shouted, "Leave her alone."
Evelyn suddenly said, "The lake house."
Daniel froze.
Rachel mouthed, What?
Evelyn continued rapidly.
"Michael went there the week before the fire. He took someone with him."
The line cut.
Daniel stared at the phone.
The Hale family owned a lake house in Vermont.
They had not used it in years.
Daniel remembered Michael borrowing the keys.
He had said he needed privacy to write.
Maybe that had been a lie.
Quinn ordered a team to search the property.
Daniel insisted on going.
Rachel insisted on coming.
This time Quinn didn't argue.
The lake house stood beside a dark stretch of water surrounded by pine trees.
Dust coated the interior.
No sign anyone had lived there recently.
They searched every room.
Nothing.
Then Daniel entered Michael's old bedroom.
The closet contained an antique cedar chest.
Inside were blankets.
Fishing gear.
Photographs.
One photograph showed Michael on the dock.
Beside him stood a woman.
Her face had been torn away.
Daniel held it.
Memory struck.
The laboratory.
Subject Zero looking at him.
Daniel asking Michael, "Why does she look familiar?"
Michael answering, "Because you've met her before."
Daniel stumbled.
Rachel caught him.
"What?"
"I knew her."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
He turned the photograph over.
Writing on the back.
A date.
And two words.
ELEANOR HOME.
Quinn searched public records.
Eleanor Home was not a person.
It had been a private rehabilitation center outside Burlington.
Closed six years earlier.
The team traveled there.
The abandoned building looked empty.
Inside, they found one room recently cleaned.
Fresh sheets.
Food.
Medication.
Someone had been staying there.
On the bedside table sat a photograph.
Daniel picked it up.
It showed Michael.
Daniel.
And a young woman standing between them.
Her face was clear.
Dark hair.
Green eyes.
Daniel's knees weakened.
He knew her.
Not from Graybridge.
Not from the fire.
From childhood.
"Anna."
Rachel stared.
"Who is Anna?"
Daniel couldn't take his eyes off the photograph.
"Anna Mercer."
His voice cracked.
"Michael's fiancée."
Rachel looked stunned.
"You told me Michael never married."
"He didn't."
"What happened to her?"
Daniel's memory returned piece by piece.
Anna had disappeared eight years ago after a car accident.
Everyone believed she left Michael during recovery.
Michael refused to discuss her.
One year later, Michael died.
Daniel looked at the cleaned bed.
"Anna was Subject Zero."
A voice came from behind them.
"No."
Everyone turned.
Vanessa stood in the doorway.
Quinn's hand went to her weapon.
"How did you get here?"
Vanessa ignored her.
She stared at Daniel.
"Anna wasn't Subject Zero."
Daniel held up the photograph.
"Then who was?"
Vanessa's face had gone white.
She looked at Rachel.
Then Daniel.
"Subject Zero was Anna's sister."
Daniel whispered, "Anna didn't have a sister."
Vanessa shook her head.
"Yes, she did."
May you like
She pointed at the woman in the photograph.
"Rachel."
