Chapter 8 - THE FLOODED ARCHIVE
Water reached Sarah’s knees before Evelyn opened the emergency passage.
The underground corridor tilted downward, forcing the rising flood toward the archive rooms. Daniel pushed Sarah through a narrow steel door while Evelyn remained at the controls.
“Come with us,” Sarah shouted.
“The door must be locked manually.”
“You’ll drown.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“I should have done this twenty-four years ago.”
The door began closing.
Sarah reached toward her, but Daniel pulled her back.
Evelyn removed the engraved necklace from her pocket and tossed it through the narrowing gap.
Sarah caught it.
“Find Room Zero,” Evelyn said.
The steel door sealed.
A second later, water crashed against the other side.
Daniel guided Sarah through a service tunnel barely wide enough for them to move side by side.
“You knew her,” Sarah said.
“Yes.”
“You knew Elaine.”
“Yes.”
“You helped them remove me from Marrow.”
“Yes.”
Sarah stopped.
Daniel turned.
“Not here.”
“You lied to me.”
“I withheld information until I could verify who was watching you.”
“You watched me for twelve days while knowing who I was.”
“I watched you for twenty-four years.”
The tunnel seemed to shrink around her.
“What?”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“After Elaine took you, Adrian ordered everyone involved in your escape killed. I was a teenager. My father worked security at the main center.”
“Your father helped the experiments?”
“He helped you escape.”
Sarah stared at him.
“He died three days later.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So was I.”
The bitterness in his voice disappeared quickly.
“Elaine moved you repeatedly. I kept track from a distance. When she died, I lost access.”
Sarah remembered Elaine’s funeral.
A stranger had stood near the cemetery gate wearing a dark coat.
She had never seen his face.
“That was you.”
Daniel nodded.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Elaine made me promise not to interfere unless Marrow returned.”
“And now he has.”
“Yes.”
They continued through the tunnel.
At the end, a ladder led into the basement of a farmhouse several hundred yards from the church.
Daniel opened the hatch carefully.
The farmhouse was empty.
Dust covered the furniture, but fresh footprints crossed the floor.
Sarah followed them to a kitchen.
On the table stood a laptop.
The screen lit as she approached.
Live video appeared.
Noah and Lily sat inside a moving vehicle.
Their hands were not bound, but a transparent partition separated them from the driver.
Noah saw the camera.
“Mom?”
Sarah leaned toward the screen.
“Can you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No. The agents moved us, but then another car hit them.”
Lily clung to her brother’s arm.
A distorted voice came through the laptop speakers.
“The children are unharmed.”
Sarah looked around the room.
“Where are they?”
“You have something we require.”
“The second embryo?”
“Room Zero.”
“What is Room Zero?”
“Ask Daniel.”
Sarah turned toward him.
Daniel’s face had gone pale.
“What is it?” she asked.
He did not answer.
The voice continued.
“Daniel Cross knows what happened before M-One.”
Sarah stared at him.
“You told me my father began with twelve children.”
“He did.”
“Then what was before M-One?”
Daniel approached the laptop.
“You will release the children.”
“You are in no position to give orders.”
“I know where Adrian is.”
The distorted voice paused.
Sarah looked at Daniel.
“Do you?”
“No,” he admitted.
The voice laughed.
“No more lies, Daniel. You were always terrible at them.”
The video shifted.
A second camera feed appeared beside Noah and Lily.
It showed the examination room at the hospital.
Vanessa lay on the bed.
Bradley stood nearby.
Dr. Mercer moved the ultrasound wand across her stomach.
The footage was live.
Someone inside the hospital had access to the room’s cameras.
Then a third image appeared.
A cryogenic container rested inside a laboratory.
Its display read M7-E2.
The missing embryo.
A gloved hand entered the frame and removed a frozen vial.
Sarah stepped closer.
“What are they doing?”
The distorted voice answered.
“Preparing the final transfer.”
“To whom?”
The hospital feed zoomed in on Vanessa.
Sarah understood before the voice confirmed it.
“The capsule inside her is not only an identifier,” the speaker said. “It is a release mechanism.”
Daniel grabbed the laptop.
“What does it release?”
“Ask Dr. Mercer.”
The screen went black.
Seconds later, Sarah’s secure phone rang.
Agent Reyes’s name appeared.
Sarah answered.
Reyes did not waste time.
“We found a second chamber inside the capsule.”
“What is in it?”
“We don’t know. Mercer believes it may open when exposed to a specific ultrasound frequency.”
Sarah thought of the frozen vial on the screen.
“They are going to activate it.”
“When?”
A mechanical tone sounded from the laptop.
A countdown appeared.
00:09:59.
Daniel looked at Sarah.
May you like
She spoke into the phone.
“In ten minutes.”
