Chapter 10 - Eight Becomes One
Armed men dragged them from the ventilation shaft.
Evelyn fought until someone struck her across the shoulder.
Mia screamed for her mother.
Valeria could barely remain conscious.
Blood had begun seeping through the bandage beneath her shirt.
Dr. Vale noticed immediately.
“You should not have left the hospital.”
“You shouldn’t have left tissue inside me,” Valeria replied.
Vale’s expression showed no shame.
“That was not my decision.”
“Holloway ordered it?”
“No.”
“My father?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Dr. Vale looked toward the dark observation window above the room.
“Someone who wanted you to become desperate.”
Holloway ordered the guards to place the girls in chairs.
Teresa struggled against her restraints.
“Let them go.”
“You stole Six,” Holloway said. “You created this situation.”
“I saved a child.”
“You compromised twenty years of work.”
Mia stared at her mother.
“You knew?”
Teresa began crying.
“I was trying to tell you.”
“When?”
“When you were older.”
“I am older.”
“I wanted you to have a life before this found you.”
“It found me anyway.”
Holloway moved to Valeria.
“The police will enter the front wing in approximately six minutes.”
“You sound nervous.”
“I am prepared.”
“You lost the phone.”
“I recovered the phone.”
“Did you recover the backup?”
For the first time, Holloway’s confidence shifted.
Valeria saw it.
The phone had uploaded a partial backup to Mia’s cloud account months earlier.
They had not told Bell because Valeria had forgotten it existed until the hidden device was taken.
Mia had sent access credentials to Detective Bell before leaving the hospital.
Holloway leaned closer.
“What backup?”
Valeria smiled despite the pain.
“The one the police are reading.”
Dr. Vale turned sharply.
“You told me the device was isolated.”
“It was,” Holloway said.
“You assured me.”
Holloway pulled out his phone.
There was no signal underground.
Dr. Vale’s calm expression cracked.
“The records include the implantation files.”
“What implantation?” Valeria asked.
Vale ignored her.
Holloway grabbed the doctor’s arm.
“You said the internal archive was secure.”
“It was secure until Mercer began photographing documents.”
“My father stole files?”
“Your father was preparing leverage,” Holloway said.
“He knew you planned to kill me.”
“He knew the trust would transfer if you died before eighteen.”
Valeria stared at him.
“And he wanted the money.”
“Daniel wanted control. Money was the easiest word for him to understand.”
A low explosion shook dust from the ceiling.
The tactical team had breached the building.
One of the guards spoke into his radio.
No response.
Holloway looked toward Dr. Vale.
“Begin the transfer.”
Vale hesitated.
“She is septic and unstable.”
“We do not have another opportunity.”
Valeria’s chair was rolled beside the metal table.
Mia fought against the guards.
“What transfer?”
Dr. Vale opened a refrigerated container.
Inside were several sealed vials and a small metal capsule.
“The sequence inside your cells is degrading,” Vale told Valeria. “The transplant at the lake house was intended to correct it.”
“You made me pregnant to fix my cells?”
“The pregnancy was not natural.”
Valeria felt sick.
“What was inside me?”
“An accelerated gestational construct derived from V-0.”
Teresa began shouting.
“Do not listen to her!”
Vale continued.
“The construct was designed to produce regenerative material compatible with all surviving iterations.”
“You used my body as a laboratory.”
“We used your body to save the line.”
“You infected me.”
“That was an unexpected immune response.”
Holloway checked the door.
“Enough. Perform the extraction.”
Dr. Vale reached for a syringe.
Evelyn suddenly dropped from her chair.
The guard behind her stumbled.
She had used a broken plastic restraint to cut his hand and seize his weapon.
“Step away from her,” Evelyn said.
The second guard raised his gun.
Mia kicked his knee.
A shot struck the ceiling.
Teresa threw her chair sideways into Holloway.
Chaos filled the room.
Valeria rolled off the table and struck the floor.
Pain blinded her.
Dr. Vale grabbed the refrigerated container.
Holloway reached for the capsule.
The red door burst open.
Detective Bell entered with armed officers.
“Drop everything!”
Holloway raised the capsule above his head.
“You have no idea what this is worth.”
Bell aimed at him.
“Put it down.”
Dr. Vale backed toward the observation window.
Her hand moved beneath her coat.
Valeria saw the detonator.
“She has a trigger!”
Bell turned.
Vale pressed the button.
Nothing happened.
Evelyn held up a disconnected wire.
“I found the control box on the way in.”
For one second, everyone remained still.
Then Holloway grabbed Mia and pressed a surgical blade against her throat.
“Lower your weapons.”
Bell did not move.
Mia looked at Valeria.
The childhood rhyme returned to both of them.
Six for the son.
Seven remembers.
Eight becomes one.
Mia whispered, “What does the last line mean?”
Dr. Vale answered from across the room.
“It means you were never separate.”
The observation window lit up.
Behind the glass stood another girl.
May you like
She had Valeria’s face.
And she was awake.
