Chapter 9 - The Child Who Counted the Lights
Emma coughed inside the glass room.
Sarah slammed both fists against the door.
Stop it.
Crane watched the monitor without emotion.
The keys.
Alejandro held out his hand to Sarah.
She stared at him.
If we give them to him, he gets everything.
If we do not, Emma dies.
Sarah placed the keys in his palm.
Alejandro approached the transfer drawer beneath the glass. Crane opened it remotely.
Before Alejandro released the keys, Emma lifted one finger.
Then two.
Then three.
She was counting.
Sarah followed her gaze. Along the ceiling, small indicator lights flashed green in sequence. One, two, three, pause. One, two, three, pause.
Emma had always counted lights when frightened. Streetlamps. Elevator buttons. Stars painted on her bedroom ceiling.
Now she pointed toward the fourth ceiling panel, the only one whose light never flashed.
Alejandro noticed.
The inactive panel was not connected to the room's primary ventilation circuit.
It was an access hatch.
Luca moved slowly along the wall, keeping Crane's attention on Alejandro.
Crane said, Put the keys in the drawer.
Alejandro set them down but did not push the drawer closed.
You said my mother hid the archive here. If you control the facility, why could you not find it?
Because she changed the biometric sequence.
Using whose blood?
Crane's eyes flickered toward Luca.
There it was.
The answer no one had spoken.
Luca saw it too.
My blood, he said.
Crane did not deny it.
Vittorio Moretti was not Luca's biological father. Isabella had conceived him during a brief separation, then raised him as a Moretti. Yet the rare immune marker came from Isabella's line, not Vittorio's. Both brothers carried part of the required sequence, but Luca carried the key variation.
That was why Crane had stolen Alejandro's blood. He needed to compare the brothers.
That was why the assassination had been designed to fail if Emma intervened. Crane wanted Alejandro alive and emotionally bound to the child, ensuring he would bring both family access and keys.
You planned the EpiPen, Sarah whispered.
Crane smiled.
I knew the child carried one. I knew she wandered near the study at that hour. I knew fear would delay the guards.
You risked killing him.
All useful experiments contain risk.
Alejandro's eyes became empty.
Sarah had seen anger in men before. Loud anger. Drunken anger. The anger of people who wanted witnesses.
Alejandro's anger made no sound because it had already become intention.
He pushed the drawer halfway.
Luca reached the inactive ceiling panel and climbed onto a metal cabinet.
Celia noticed.
She shouted.
Luca tore open the panel.
Crane pressed another control. The white vapor thickened. Emma began wheezing.
Alejandro kicked the transfer drawer. It jammed on Crane's side, trapping the keys between compartments.
Sarah seized a fire extinguisher and struck the glass beside the inactive vent. Once. Twice. A crack spread.
Crane backed away.
The glass is reinforced.
Luca reached into the ceiling shaft and pulled a manual release cable.
The room door unlocked.
Sarah entered before the vapor cleared.
Celia tried to stop her. Sarah swung the extinguisher into the nurse's knees. Celia fell. Sarah ripped the intravenous line from Emma's arm and lifted her.
Alejandro fired at Crane, but a steel barrier dropped between them.
Gabriel chased toward the control room. Luca helped Sarah carry Emma into the corridor.
Emma could not draw a full breath.
Her replacement injectors were back at the mansion.
Crane had taken her backpack.
Sarah searched Celia's pockets and found only keys and a sedative syringe.
Alejandro grabbed the wall phone and demanded emergency supplies. No one answered.
Emma's face began to pale.
Not again, Sarah whispered. Please, not again.
Luca looked toward the laboratory signs.
There must be epinephrine here.
They split. Alejandro carried Emma while Sarah and Luca opened cabinets. Most were empty or locked.
Gabriel returned from the control room.
Crane escaped through the lower tunnel. The system is sealing sections behind him.
Help us find epinephrine, Sarah shouted.
Gabriel searched a crash cart and found two unlabeled ampules.
Doctor Crane's voice came through the speakers.
One ampule contains epinephrine. The other contains potassium chloride.
Sarah froze.
A lethal injection beside a lifesaving one.
The liquids looked identical.
Crane continued, Daniel faced the same choice four years ago. He chose correctly. Let us see whether love is hereditary.
Alejandro laid Emma on the floor. Her breaths were thin whistles.
Gabriel examined the ampules.
No labels. No markings.
Luca searched for testing strips. Nothing.
Sarah held Emma's face.
Baby, stay with me.
Emma opened her eyes.
The bad doctor is lying.
How do you know?
He said two, Emma whispered. But I saw the nurse put one in her pocket.
Sarah looked at Celia's sedative syringe.
Not that pocket, Emma said. The tiny pocket.
Celia's uniform had a narrow inner seam. Sarah tore it open and found a packaged pediatric auto-injector.
Crane had never intended a fair choice. The ampules were theater.
Sarah pressed the injector into Emma's thigh.
Click.
Alejandro held the child as she drew one breath, then another.
The sound broke something inside him.
He looked toward the security camera.
Your experiment is over, he said.
Crane's voice answered.
No, Alejandro. It has only reached the control group.
The facility lights changed from white to red.
Heavy locks engaged throughout the corridor.
A countdown appeared on the wall monitors.
Ten minutes.
Gabriel read the system warning.
May you like
Thermal sterilization protocol.
The underground facility was preparing to burn itself clean.
