Chapter 9 - the sample
Noah had not visited a doctor in three months.
He had not been hospitalized.
He had not undergone bloodwork.
Yet someone had collected a biological sample from him two days earlier.
Eleanor called Samuel immediately.
"Check Noah."
"For what?"
"Needle marks. Anything."
Daniel drove back toward Westchester while Eleanor kept the call on speaker.
Samuel examined Noah.
No needle marks.
No injuries.
Then Noah remembered something.
"At school."
Eleanor’s heart sank.
"What happened at school?"
"The health people came."
"What health people?"
"They did cheek swabs."
Daniel looked at Eleanor.
"When?"
"Thursday."
"Why?"
"They said it was for allergy testing."
Eleanor closed her eyes.
The school had not notified her.
Daniel called the headmaster.
The headmaster denied authorizing any allergy program.
Security footage showed two individuals entering the school with forged Department of Health credentials.
They had collected samples from sixteen students.
Only Noah’s name appeared on the R-17 drive.
Someone was still conducting the program.
After seven years.
Eleanor looked at Daniel.
"If you’re telling the truth, then whoever used your approval code is still active."
Daniel nodded.
"We need federal authorities."
"Which ones?"
"I know someone at the Justice Department."
"No friends."
"He’s not a friend."
"I want someone outside your network."
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
"You can hate me later."
"I don’t hate you."
"That’s worse."
Eleanor looked through the windshield.
The city skyline appeared in the distance.
"I don’t know you."
Daniel said nothing.
At the house, Noah and Owen sat together at the kitchen island.
Noah had given Owen one of his sweatshirts.
They looked even more alike now.
But their mannerisms remained different.
Noah spoke quickly.
Owen watched first.
Noah trusted adults.
Owen watched exits.
Noah complained when the grilled cheese was slightly burned.
Owen ate his without comment and quietly wrapped half in a napkin.
Eleanor saw him slide it into his pocket.
"For later?"
He froze.
"You don’t need to save food here."
Owen looked embarrassed.
"I know."
But he did not take it out.
Eleanor understood that safety could not be explained into a child.
It had to be repeated until the body believed it.
That evening, Mara called again.
Her voice was weak.
"You found the storage unit."
"Yes."
"Then you know why I took him."
"I know what you claim."
"I deserve that."
"Where are you?"
"Not safe."
"Come to us."
"I can’t."
"Why?"
"Because they’re using me to find Owen."
"Who?"
Mara hesitated.
"R-17 was never one person."
"Then give me names."
"I only know one for certain."
Eleanor looked at Daniel.
"Who?"
Mara whispered, "Dr. Celia Voss."
Daniel’s face went blank.
Eleanor noticed immediately.
"You know her."
Mara heard.
"Daniel is there?"
"Yes."
"Then ask him what Celia Voss did for his father."
Eleanor covered the phone.
"Who is she?"
Daniel looked toward the boys.
Then back at Eleanor.
"My mother’s oncologist."
Eleanor stared.
Daniel’s mother, Vivian Whitmore, had died ten years earlier.
"She treated your mother?"
"Yes."
"Before Richard hired Mara?"
"Years before."
Mara spoke through the phone.
"Celia Voss did not treat Vivian Whitmore."
Daniel frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
"She recruited her."
"For what?"
"R-17."
The line went dead.
Daniel immediately called an old family attorney.
Eleanor went upstairs.
She found Noah and Owen asleep in Noah’s room.
Two boys under separate blankets.
One surrounded by a childhood of photographs.
The other with none.
On Noah’s desk was a framed picture of Daniel holding him at age three.
Owen had been alive somewhere nearby.
Eleanor’s grief changed shape.
Before leaving the room, she noticed the brass locket on the nightstand.
It was open.
The photograph of the twins faced upward.
She picked it up.
Something about the image bothered her.
She carried it beneath a lamp.
The two babies looked identical.
But in the corner of the photograph, partly hidden by one blanket, was a printed hospital code.
She magnified it with her phone.
R-17.
The photograph had not been taken after the twins were born.
May you like
It had already been processed as part of the program.
And someone had placed it inside the locket before the family ever brought the babies home.
