Chapter 5 - The Boy in the Vent
Aaron Pike pressed the gun against Emily’s ribs.
“Don’t scream.”
“How did you escape?”
“I didn’t.”
Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow. His wrists were bruised where handcuffs had been removed.
“The police transport never reached the station,” he said. “Men wearing federal badges stopped it. They killed the driver.”
“Why are you here?”
“To finish what I started.”
He forced her deeper into the archive room.
Gunfire continued above them.
Emily studied Aaron’s posture. His weight favored his right leg. His left hand trembled. He was exhausted and frightened.
“You never intended to shoot the patients.”
“No.”
“You wanted me to disarm you.”
“I needed to know.”
“Know what?”
“If you were really E-17.”
Emily looked at the childhood photograph.
“And now?”
“Now we find M-04.”
“Who is he?”
Aaron’s face tightened.
“You don’t remember him?”
Emily looked again at the boy in the photograph.
He appeared seventeen or eighteen, with pale hair and a narrow face. There was a scar near his chin.
Something stirred inside her mind.
A dark room.
An air vent between two cells.
A boy whispering, Count the footsteps.
Emily heard herself answer, Why?
Because the guards change every forty-seven seconds.
The memory sharpened.
“Micah,” she whispered.
Aaron lowered the gun slightly.
“You remember his name.”
“Micah Rowan.”
The name unlocked another fragment.
Micah sliding folded notes through the vent.
Micah teaching her how to fake unconsciousness.
Micah promising that if one of them escaped, they would return for the others.
Emily touched the scar on her left palm.
She had always believed it came from a childhood kitchen accident.
Now she remembered gripping broken glass while Micah cut a cable behind the observation wall.
“We started the fire,” she said.
Aaron nodded.
“You and Micah sabotaged the electrical system. Dr. Vale used the fire to erase the ward.”
“What happened to him?”
“No one knows.”
Emily turned toward the wall of files.
“Why do you?”
“Because I was here too.”
Aaron pulled up his sleeve.
A faded designation had been tattooed near his elbow.
K-09.
Emily stepped back.
“You’re one of the active patients.”
“Vale found me eight years ago. She told me Meridian would kill me unless I helped locate you.”
“So you followed me.”
“I watched you. I photographed you. But I never planned to hurt you.”
“You carried a loaded rifle into a hospital.”
“It was the only way to trigger your conditioning.”
“My conditioning?”
“Ward Twelve trained us to respond under pressure. You were the best. Vale believed extreme danger might break the memory blocks.”
“You could have killed someone.”
“I loaded one live round. The rest were blanks.”
“You fired that round.”
“Into the ceiling.”
“After I moved the barrel.”
Aaron looked ashamed.
“I knew you would.”
Emily grabbed his wrist and twisted.
The gun fell.
She caught it before it hit the floor and aimed at his chest.
“You did not know anything.”
Aaron raised his hands.
“You’re right.”
Footsteps approached the passage.
Emily pulled him behind a filing cabinet.
Two tactical operators entered the archive.
One carried a scanning device.
“E-17’s signal is active,” he said.
“She removed the transmitter.”
“It’s not external.”
The men moved toward Emily’s position.
Aaron whispered, “They track the implant.”
“What implant?”
“Behind your right ear.”
Emily touched the skin beneath her hair.
A small hard shape sat under the surface.
She had assumed it was an old cyst.
The operators drew closer.
Aaron pointed toward a shelf of chemical containers.
Emily understood.
She shot the overhead light.
Darkness filled the room.
Aaron threw a container across the floor. Glass shattered. A sharp chemical smell spread through the archive.
One operator fired blindly.
Emily moved toward the sound, struck his wrist, and drove him into the shelf. Aaron tackled the second attacker.
The scanning device skidded across the floor.
Emily seized it.
A map glowed on the screen.
Three signals flashed.
E-17 was directly above the device.
K-09 was beside her.
M-04 was moving through the lower tunnels.
Emily stared at the third signal.
“He’s here.”
Aaron grabbed the scanner.
“That’s impossible.”
The marker stopped on the other side of the archive wall.
A soft knock came through the concrete.
Three knocks.
Pause.
Two knocks.
Pause.
Three knocks.
Emily knew the pattern.
It was the code she and Micah had used through the air vent.
She approached the wall.
“Micah?”
A hidden door opened.
A man stepped through.
He was older now, with dark blond hair and the same scar near his chin.
His eyes met Emily’s.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
Then Micah smiled.
“You took long enough.”
Aaron lowered his weapon.
Emily felt sixteen years collapse around her.
“You’re alive.”
May you like
Micah’s smile disappeared.
“So is your father.”
