Chapter 13 - The Founder’s Last Experiment
Gas did not enter the chamber this time.
Instead, a section of wall slid open, revealing a medical chair surrounded by robotic equipment.
A video screen displayed Sebastian Arden.
He lay in his chamber, his eyes open.
“My granddaughter,” he whispered.
He appeared to be looking at me rather than Sophie.
“You are Isabelle’s child.”
“My name is Emily.”
“Names are temporary.”
His voice came through speakers with a mechanical delay.
“You stole my daughter,” I said.
“I preserved my bloodline.”
“You treated babies like laboratory supplies.”
“I prevented humanity’s most valuable inheritance from vanishing.”
Marcus approached the console.
“Your institute is finished.”
Sebastian’s mouth moved into the faintest smile.
“Marcus. Still mistaking exposure for victory.”
Evelyn appeared on another screen.
Blood streaked her forehead, but she had survived the boat fire.
“The archive is open,” she said. “Its evidence belongs to us again.”
Lena searched beneath the console.
“There must be an emergency release.”
Sebastian watched Sophie.
“The child possesses a combination we have attempted to produce for thirty-four years.”
“She is not a product,” I said.
“She is continuity.”
A mechanical arm extended from the medical chair.
I stepped backward.
“If you touch her, I will destroy every machine in this room.”
“You cannot destroy what has already spread.”
Documents began appearing across the screens.
Embryo transfers.
Adoption records.
Hospital payments.
Lists of children assigned identification numbers.
One file carried my name.
EMILY GRANT-CARTER.
ORIGIN: SUBJECT I-4.
GESTATIONAL CARRIER: MARGARET REED.
My adoptive mother’s name was Margaret Carter, not Reed.
“What does gestational carrier mean?”
Sebastian closed his eyes.
“Ask the woman who raised you.”
I stared at the screen.
My mother had always said she and my father adopted me when I was three days old.
The file suggested she had given birth to me.
But not as my genetic mother.
Lena found an access panel.
“Marcus, help me.”
Together, they pulled wires from the locking system.
Evelyn’s face appeared larger on the screen.
“Do not damage the chamber.”
Marcus looked toward the camera.
“You should have died on that lake.”
“You lacked the courage to ensure it.”
“You used our son.”
“I created his purpose.”
Daniel’s voice suddenly came through the chamber intercom.
“Emily, can you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“The tunnel controls are connected to the cabin generator. I can overload the system.”
“You could flood the chamber,” Marcus warned.
Daniel heard him.
“I can give you thirty seconds before emergency doors open.”
Lena found the archive drive inside a protected slot.
“We need Sophie’s blood.”
I held my daughter tighter.
“There must be another way.”
Marcus studied the scanner.
“It accepts any verified founder-line descendant.”
He removed a pocketknife.
Daniel’s blood might work.
But he was not inside the chamber.
Marcus cut his palm and pressed it against the scanner.
Access denied.
Lena did the same.
Access denied.
The screen displayed:
DIRECT LINE REQUIRED.
Sebastian watched silently.
I understood.
My biological mother had belonged to the line.
So did I.
I pricked my own finger and placed one drop of blood on the scanner.
Access accepted.
The archive began uploading.
Evelyn screamed.
“Stop the transmission!”
Thousands of recipient addresses appeared.
News organizations.
Federal agencies.
Medical boards.
International courts.
The progress bar reached twenty percent.
Then the entire chamber shook.
Water burst through a seam in the wall.
“Daniel!” I shouted.
His voice returned.
“I didn’t trigger it.”
Sebastian smiled.
“The archive cannot leave the lake.”
Water rose around our ankles.
Lena pulled the drive from the slot, but the upload stopped at thirty-one percent.
The vault door remained locked.
Marcus struck the mechanism with a metal tool.
The water reached our knees.
I placed Sophie inside a waterproof equipment drawer and held her above the rising flood.
The monitor displayed a final message.
May you like
PURGE PROTOCOL ACTIVATED.
TIME TO STRUCTURAL COLLAPSE: 90 SECONDS.
