Chapter 10 - Clara’s Confession
Marcus spent the night in state custody.
Evelyn remained missing.
Nathan remained missing.
Jonathan remained missing.
Thomas Reid was apparently no longer reliably dead.
And Danielle’s company appeared to be the resurrection of technology invented by a seventeen-year-old twenty-six years earlier.
Clara asked to see Danielle alone.
They met inside a protected apartment.
Danielle entered carrying two coffees.
Clara refused hers.
That was the first warning.
The second was that Clara would not look at her.
“Marcus said something before they took him.”
Clara’s hands tightened.
“What?”
“He told me to ask why you married Nathan.”
Clara closed her eyes.
Danielle waited.
Finally Clara spoke.
“I met Nathan at Marrow.”
Danielle frowned.
“I thought you met at the hospital fundraiser.”
“That’s what I told you.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t want you asking why I was at Marrow.”
Danielle sat opposite.
“Why were you?”
Clara looked at her.
“Because of you.”
Silence.
“Me?”
“Seven years ago Thomas came to me.”
Danielle stopped breathing.
“He told me you were starting a company. He said people might become interested in your work.”
“What people?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
“So?”
“He wanted someone close to you watching for unusual contacts.”
Danielle stared.
“You were spying on me?”
“Protecting you.”
“Without telling me.”
“Yes.”
“For seven years?”
Clara’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Danielle stood.
Everything inside her hurt.
“You let me believe I built my life freely.”
“You did.”
“No. Thomas arranged our meeting. He funded the company. You monitored me.”
“You still built Meridian.”
“Did I choose Marcus?”
Clara said nothing.
Danielle’s voice sharpened.
“Did Thomas arrange Marcus too?”
“No.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“I don’t know.”
Danielle turned away.
Clara continued.
“Nathan approached me at Marrow after I started investigating an old patient database.”
“What database?”
“People connected to Dominion Gate.”
Danielle looked back.
“Jonathan?”
“Among others.”
Clara had discovered medical records for dozens of individuals tied to high-level finance, politics and defense contracting.
Many had undergone experimental neurological treatment.
Memory therapies.
Behavioral conditioning.
Drug protocols.
Some records were decades old.
Some recent.
Nathan caught her accessing them.
Instead of reporting her, he claimed he wanted to help.
They became close.
Too close.
Clara married him.
“At first he really did help me.”
“With Thomas?”
“No. Thomas had disappeared by then.”
“Before his death?”
“Yes.”
Danielle frowned.
“You said nothing.”
“I thought he was hiding.”
Then Nathan began manipulating Clara.
Changing records.
Isolating her.
Convincing her that she was paranoid.
By the time Clara discovered he worked for Evelyn, she had already told him almost everything she knew.
Danielle whispered, “So Marcus was right.”
“Yes.”
“You helped them.”
“Without knowing.”
“That still helped them.”
Clara nodded through tears.
“I know.”
Danielle wanted to be angry.
She was angry.
But Clara’s bruises remained visible.
Her terror was real.
Her guilt was not an excuse, but neither was it a reason to abandon her.
Danielle sat again.
“Tell me something useful.”
Clara wiped her face.
“Nathan once called Evelyn ‘the Custodian.’”
Danielle frowned.
“Of what?”
“I don’t know.”
“He ever mention Jonathan?”
“Not by name.”
“Thomas?”
“Yes.”
Danielle leaned forward.
“What did he say?”
“That Thomas betrayed the first design.”
“What first design?”
“I thought he meant Meridian.”
“Maybe he did.”
Clara shook her head.
“No. He said Meridian was only the second door.”
Danielle became still.
“What was the first?”
Clara took a folded page from her pocket.
“I found this inside Nathan’s old notebook.”
A hand-drawn symbol.
Two circles.
One vertical line.
Beneath it:
JANUS.
Danielle stared.
“Roman god.”
Clara nodded.
“Two faces.”
“Past and future.”
“Or two identities.”
Danielle looked at the drawing.
“What does it have to do with us?”
Clara whispered, “Jonathan has the same symbol burned into his shoulder.”
Danielle looked up.
“Burned?”
“He showed me.”
“When?”
“At Marrow.”
“Why?”
“He said everyone who survived the first program had one.”
Danielle’s blood went cold.
“Everyone?”
Clara nodded.
“Jonathan wasn’t the only child at Marrow.”
Before Danielle could ask more, the apartment lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then went dark.
Danielle stood.
Emergency lights activated.
A speaker in the ceiling crackled.
A voice came through.
Male.
Distorted.
“Candidate D.”
Danielle froze.
Clara grabbed her hand.
The voice continued.
May you like
“You were not supposed to learn about Janus yet.”
Then the locks on every apartment door engaged simultaneously.
