Chapter 11 - THE SECOND SARAH
The countdown stopped at one minute and forty-three seconds.
The woman in the underground chamber had reached toward a control pad beside her bed and entered a sequence.
At the hospital, the capsule inside Vanessa cooled.
Dr. Mercer confirmed the activation signal had ended.
Nobody celebrated.
The woman beneath the farmhouse was named Rebecca Ward.
At least, that was the name printed on the documents Daniel found in a locked cabinet.
Her biological records identified her as M-Seven-B.
Sarah was M-Seven-A.
Twins.
Rebecca’s existence had been erased before Sarah left the program.
Sarah sat beside the bed while Daniel disconnected the external network equipment.
“Why don’t I remember you?” Sarah asked.
Rebecca’s voice was weak.
“Because they made sure you wouldn’t.”
“How?”
“Medication. Repetition. Replacement memories.”
Sarah looked at the identical curve of Rebecca’s face.
“Elaine raised me.”
“She raised both of us at first.”
“No.”
“We lived in the same house for six months.”
“I would remember.”
Rebecca gave a sad smile.
“That is what I said about you.”
Sarah thought of the recurring childhood dream she had never understood.
Two beds.
Two blue blankets.
A girl humming from the other side of a wall.
She had always assumed the girl was herself.
“Why did Elaine separate us?”
“She didn’t.”
“Then who did?”
“Daniel.”
Sarah turned.
Daniel stood near the monitors.
His expression revealed the answer before he spoke.
“I was ordered to move one of you after Adrian’s people found Elaine.”
“You took her?”
“I moved Rebecca to another safe family.”
Rebecca laughed weakly.
“Safe.”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
“The people who received her were cleared by Elaine.”
“They sold me back to Marrow two years later.”
Sarah stood so quickly the chair struck the wall.
“You knew?”
“No,” Daniel said.
“I found out seven months ago.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I couldn’t locate her.”
“She was beneath a property you brought me to.”
“This chamber was not on the original plans.”
Rebecca watched them.
“Daniel has spent his entire life arriving after the damage.”
He accepted the accusation without defending himself.
Sarah looked at Rebecca’s pregnancy.
“Whose child are you carrying?”
“Yours.”
Sarah recoiled.
Rebecca continued.
“The embryo was created from your harvested cells and an unidentified paternal line.”
“Why implant it in you?”
“Because our bodies are nearly identical. Adrian wanted to compare gestational response.”
“Vanessa is carrying the first embryo.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know about her?”
“I knew another host existed.”
Sarah hated the clinical word.
Host.
As though these women were containers.
“Who stopped the capsule?” Daniel asked.
Rebecca pointed at the control pad.
“I did.”
“How did you know the cancellation sequence?”
“I helped design it.”
Sarah stared at her.
“You worked with Adrian?”
“I survived by becoming useful.”
“You helped continue the program?”
Rebecca’s eyes filled with something between shame and defiance.
“I spent nineteen years inside Marrow facilities. I learned every system, every drug, every lock.”
“You could have escaped.”
“I did. Three times.”
“What happened?”
“They found me.”
“Why?”
Rebecca looked at Sarah.
“Because you were outside.”
Sarah said nothing.
“As long as you were free, they knew I had somewhere to go. Somewhere to warn. Somewhere to lead them.”
“You stayed to protect me?”
“At first.”
“And later?”
Rebecca rested a hand over her abdomen.
“Later, I wanted answers.”
“Did you find them?”
“I found out Adrian was not in control.”
Sarah thought of the distorted voice, the remote activation, and Margaret’s role.
“Who is?”
Rebecca looked toward the ceiling.
“Someone who never appears in the records.”
Daniel searched the chamber.
Behind one panel, he found a communication terminal.
Its most recent message had been received that morning.
TRANSFER M7-E2 TO COLE PROPERTY.
“Cole property?” Sarah asked.
Daniel checked the ownership record.
“The farmhouse belongs to a trust.”
“Whose trust?”
He turned the screen toward her.
The beneficiary was Lily Cole.
Sarah’s daughter owned the property through an account Sarah had never seen.
Rebecca watched her reaction.
“Your children were placed in the structure before they were born.”
“What structure?”
“The succession plan.”
Sarah approached her.
“No more fragments. Tell me everything.”
Rebecca’s gaze moved toward the life-support monitor.
“I will tell you what I know.”
“Start with Noah and Lily.”
“They were created from genetic material belonging to the M-Eight twins.”
“Elias and Vanessa.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because M-Seven and M-Eight were designed as complementary lines.”
“Designed for what?”
Rebecca took a slow breath.
“To recognize each other.”
Sarah frowned.
Rebecca continued.
“Not emotionally. Biologically. Our nervous systems were conditioned to respond to chemical signals from theirs.”
“Why would anyone do that?”
“To create loyalty that could not be broken by memory, distance, or choice.”
Daniel looked disturbed.
“Engineered attachment.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Adrian wanted children who would find and protect one another without knowing why.”
Sarah thought of Bradley’s immediate attraction to Vanessa.
No.
Bradley was not part of the program.
But Noah and Lily were.
Their genetic material came from M-Eight.
Sarah and Rebecca came from M-Seven.
The children had always been unusually sensitive to Sarah’s emotions. Noah often knew when she was afraid before she spoke. Lily woke from nightmares whenever Sarah dreamed of the blue hallway.
Rebecca placed a hand over her stomach.
“The fetus reacted when you entered the farmhouse.”
Sarah looked at the monitor.
“That heartbeat appeared on the network.”
“It recognized you.”
Sarah stepped backward.
“No.”
Rebecca’s voice remained soft.
“This is why your father wanted the children together.”
“To test whether they remembered me?”
“To test whether they obeyed you.”
A phone rang inside the cabinet.
Daniel found it beneath a stack of files.
The screen displayed a live video request.
He answered without activating their camera.
Elias Marrow appeared.
The older version of Noah’s face filled the screen.
He sat inside a dark aircraft cabin.
“Rebecca,” he said. “You stopped the release.”
She looked at the screen.
“You activated it too early.”
“I did not activate it.”
“Then who did?”
Elias looked directly toward Sarah, as if he could see her despite the disabled camera.
“Our father is dead.”
Sarah felt cold.
“I heard him.”
“You heard recordings assembled by the system.”
“Margaret said he was alive.”
“Margaret believes whatever keeps her useful.”
Rebecca’s voice sharpened. “Who controls the system?”
Elias glanced toward someone outside the frame.
Then he smiled.
“M-Seven does.”
Sarah stared at him.
“I am M-Seven.”
“Part of it.”
The video ended.
A file began downloading automatically.
Its title appeared on the screen.
SARAH COLE AUTHORIZATION LOG.
Daniel opened it.
The record showed thousands of commands issued over the past eleven years.
Money transfers.
Medical authorizations.
Surveillance orders.
Embryo releases.
Each command used Sarah’s biometric signature.
Sarah looked at her identical sister.
Rebecca slowly shook her head.
“I did not do this.”
The computer displayed the most recent authorization.
It had been issued three minutes earlier.
ORDER: ACQUIRE NOAH AND LILY COLE.
LOCATION: MOBILE UNIT 7.
May you like
AUTHORIZATION: SARAH COLE.
Sarah heard Lily scream through the live connection.
