Chapter 13 - lily's game)
Daniel almost followed the instructions.
Rachel stopped him physically.
"You are not going alone."
"He has Lily."
"And that's exactly why you're not going alone."
Daniel was barely listening.
He called the number.
Victor answered.
"Put my daughter on."
A pause.
Then Lily's voice.
"Daddy?"
Daniel closed his eyes.
"I'm here, sweetheart."
"Grandma Bell says we're playing hide and seek."
Daniel looked at Rachel.
Mrs. Bell was with her.
"Is Mrs. Bell there?"
"Yes."
"Is she okay?"
"She's sleeping."
Daniel's heart stopped.
"What do you mean sleeping?"
Lily's voice became quieter.
"The man gave her juice."
Rachel grabbed Daniel's arm.
Victor returned.
"Lily is unharmed."
"If you drugged Mrs. Bell."
"I didn't."
"Then who did?"
"Adrian."
Daniel froze.
"Adrian is with you?"
"Unfortunately."
A struggle sounded in the background.
Then the line ended.
Quinn traced the call only partially.
Industrial waterfront.
Several possible buildings.
Daniel paced.
Rachel tried to think like Anna.
Like Michael.
Why kidnap Lily now?
The archive had exposed Graybridge.
Victor wanted Subject Zero.
Adrian wanted the archive opened.
Anna was alive and somehow near Victor.
Director E was possibly Daniel's aunt Eleanor.
Lily had been preassigned a subject code.
Rachel suddenly looked at the family lineage file.
"Wait."
She zoomed in.
Lily's subject code included three letters.
A.V.E.
Daniel frowned.
"What is that?"
Rachel searched the archive.
The same code appeared in older records.
A.V.E. protocol.
Auditory Verbal Elicitation.
A technique using familiar voices to trigger suppressed memories.
Rachel stared at Daniel.
"They don't want to experiment on Lily."
"What?"
"They want to use her."
"Use her for what?"
Rachel pointed to another document.
SECOND GENERATION RELATIONAL TRIGGER MAY PRODUCE STRONGER RECALL IN PARENT SUBJECT.
Daniel understood slowly.
"They think Lily can make us remember."
Quinn nodded.
"Emotional cues."
Rachel's face went pale.
"Victor wants something I know."
"Director E's location."
"And he thinks hearing Lily will trigger it."
Daniel's phone rang again.
Not Victor.
Unknown.
He answered.
Adrian Vale whispered.
"Don't speak."
Daniel signaled Quinn.
Adrian continued.
"Victor does not control this site."
"Where is Lily?"
"Safe for the moment."
"Where?"
"You'll get coordinates."
"Why should I trust you?"
"You shouldn't."
Daniel nearly shouted.
Adrian continued.
"I was the one who put the bottle in Vanessa's bag."
Daniel stopped.
Rachel stared at him.
"What?"
"The tablets were markers."
"Markers for what?"
"Tracking a Graybridge shipment. I needed police to seize them."
"You used my daughter to accuse Vanessa."
"I knew Lily had seen Vanessa touch the milk."
"You knew?"
"I had a camera in the kitchen."
Daniel's anger became almost unbearable.
"You watched my wife being poisoned."
"I watched Vanessa add the neutralizer. The sedative was already present."
"Who put it there?"
Silence.
"Adrian."
"You won't believe me."
"Try."
"Mrs. Bell."
Daniel stared toward the empty hotel room.
"No."
Rachel heard.
Her face collapsed.
Adrian continued.
"She didn't know what she was giving Rachel."
"You're lying."
"Victor told her it was a supplement prescribed secretly because Rachel refused treatment."
"Mrs. Bell would ask Rachel."
"Victor used Evelyn's voice."
Daniel stopped.
"Deepfake?"
"Not exactly."
"What does that mean?"
"Graybridge has been manipulating more than memory for a long time."
Quinn gestured urgently for him to keep Adrian talking.
Daniel asked, "Where is Mrs. Bell now?"
"Unconscious. Alive."
"Lily?"
"With Anna."
Rachel grabbed the phone.
"My sister has Lily?"
Adrian went quiet.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because Anna is trying to get her out."
"Then why was she with Victor?"
"Because she's been pretending to work with him for eleven years."
Rachel covered her mouth.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Anna had not betrayed them.
She had infiltrated Graybridge.
Adrian continued.
"We are out of time. Victor learned Anna's identity yesterday."
"What?"
"He knows she has been working against him."
"Then why is she alive?"
"Because she told him Rachel knows where Eleanor is."
Rachel whispered, "I don't."
"You do."
"No."
"You just can't access it."
Daniel asked, "Where do we go?"
Adrian sent coordinates.
Quinn checked them.
An abandoned children's hospital near the waterfront.
Police began mobilizing.
Adrian gave one final warning.
"Do not let Victor play Lily's recording to Rachel."
Rachel stared.
"Why?"
"Because the last time Graybridge used relational recall on Rachel, she tried to kill herself."
Daniel's face went white.
The line ended.
Rachel sat silently.
Daniel crouched in front of her.
"You don't go inside."
"She's my daughter."
"I know."
"And Anna is my sister."
"I know."
"You cannot ask me to stay outside."
"I'm asking you to survive."
Rachel touched his face.
"Then stay with me."
The operation began twenty minutes later.
Police entered from the east.
Daniel and Rachel remained with Quinn until the first floor was secured.
Then gunfire erupted from above.
Smoke alarms activated.
Victor was repeating history.
Daniel smelled burning plastic.
For a second, the research center returned around him.
Michael.
Fire.
Subject Zero.
Rachel squeezed his hand.
"Stay here."
He looked at her.
Not the building.
Here.
Now.
They moved upstairs.
A child's cry echoed.
"Daddy!"
Daniel ran.
Quinn shouted after him.
He burst into a treatment room.
Lily sat behind a glass partition.
Anna stood beside her.
Victor stood at a console.
A recording of Lily's voice played through speakers.
"Mommy, wake up."
Rachel stopped in the doorway.
Her face changed.
Memory hit.
She saw a house.
A woman arguing.
Eleanor.
Evelyn.
Michael.
Anna.
A little girl.
Rachel herself.
Victor turned the volume higher.
Lily's recorded voice repeated.
"Mommy, don't die."
Rachel screamed and collapsed.
Daniel rushed toward her.
Victor smiled.
"Now she remembers."
Anna grabbed Lily.
Victor drew a gun.
Quinn entered.
"Drop it."
Victor pointed the weapon toward Anna.
Nobody moved.
Rachel lifted her head.
Tears streamed down her face.
She looked at Victor.
Then whispered a name.
"Eleanor."
Victor's eyes sharpened.
May you like
Rachel smiled through the pain.
"I know where she is."
