Chapter 13 - The Eleven Percent
They took refuge in an abandoned mountain clinic forty miles from Lake Armitage.
Ruiz had used the building during an old witness protection operation. It had no active electronic records and did not appear on current state property maps.
The children slept in examination rooms under blankets taken from storage.
Vale treated her own leg wound and then began examining the youngest subjects.
Daniel stood guard near the entrance.
Micah sat beside Sophie but did not speak to her.
He seemed afraid that any word might confirm what Vale had revealed.
Emily understood the feeling.
Sophie was her daughter, yet every attempt to approach her felt like stepping into someone else’s life.
Ruiz made coffee on a gas stove.
“Who redirected the transfer?” he asked.
Emily looked at him.
“You know about the file?”
“I saw your expression.”
“No.”
“That means yes.”
Daniel entered the room.
“Tell us.”
Emily connected the drive to a disconnected laptop.
The video appeared.
The server chamber.
Gunfire.
Smoke.
Adrian at the console.
Then Aaron Pike moved along the upper walkway.
He knelt beside a secondary terminal and inserted a device.
The transfer destination changed.
Aaron had taken the directory.
Micah watched in silence.
Vale shook her head.
“He worked for Lane.”
“Or for someone else,” Emily said.
Ruiz leaned closer to the screen.
“Aaron was shot at the boat house. Maybe Nolan was silencing him.”
“Or helping him escape,” Daniel replied.
Emily opened the copied files.
The eleven percent Adrian had saved included medical reports, staff lists, and subject histories.
She searched for Sophie.
S-01 appeared.
The first second-generation subject.
Status: STABLE.
Activation potential: HIGH.
Maternal source: E-17.
Paternal source: M-04.
Emily looked toward Micah.
He had already read the same lines.
“I didn’t know,” he said.
“I believe you.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
The answer surprised both of them.
Micah turned toward Sophie.
“They used us.”
“They used everyone.”
Emily searched for her own intake record.
The file required a password.
She entered the sequence from her recovered memories.
Seven birds.
Three windows.
Forty-seven seconds.
The report opened.
Two girls had been admitted to Ward Twelve on October 18, 2002.
Elise Voss, age sixteen.
Evelyn Voss, age fourteen.
Biological sisters.
Emily stared at the second name.
“Evelyn.”
The memory returned violently.
A younger girl running through a train station.
A red scarf.
Emily holding her hand.
Their father shouting for them to stay together.
Men in dark coats separating them.
Emily screaming, “Evie!”
She fell against the table.
Daniel caught her.
“I had a sister.”
The file showed Evelyn had been assigned designation E-18.
Her status was not DECEASED.
It was TRANSFERRED.
“To where?” Micah asked.
Emily opened the transfer record.
The destination field contained a symbol instead of a facility name.
A circle divided by a vertical line.
Vale saw it and went pale.
“What is that?”
“The original Meridian headquarters.”
“Where?”
“I never knew.”
Daniel photographed the symbol.
“My brother drew this before Black Harbor.”
Everyone looked at him.
“He mailed me a letter three days before his team disappeared,” Daniel said. “This symbol was on the back.”
Emily scrolled.
Evelyn’s file contained recent updates.
The latest was dated three days earlier.
E-18 APPROVED FOR ASCENSION.
CURRENT DESIGNATION: SEAT THIRTEEN.
Ruiz frowned.
“Meridian has twelve seats.”
Vale stared at the screen.
“Not anymore.”
An audio file appeared beneath the report.
Emily pressed play.
A woman’s voice spoke.
It was calm, elegant, and strangely familiar.
“Elise, I hope you survive Lake Armitage.”
Emily’s skin prickled.
“Who is that?” Sophie asked.
Emily already knew.
The voice continued.
“Our father always believed you were the stronger one. He was wrong.”
Emily gripped the table.
“Evelyn.”
“I have the directory now,” her sister said. “Aaron delivered it exactly as promised.”
Micah stood.
“He works for her.”
The recording continued.
“Meridian’s twelve leaders built their world through secrecy. I intend to build mine through exposure. Governments will fall. Alliances will collapse. Millions will search for someone to tell them what remains true.”
A pause.
“That person will be me.”
Emily looked at the sleeping children.
Evelyn had not stolen the directory to destroy Meridian.
She had stolen it to replace them.
May you like
The message ended with one final sentence.
“Come find me before Sophie remembers what you did to her.”
