Chapter 11 - The House With Yellow Cabinets
The blue house no longer existed.
But its foundation did.
Federal records showed Malcolm Voss had owned the property through a trust until twelve years earlier, when a fire destroyed most of the structure.
Afterward, the land had been sold to a shell company.
That company still owned it.
Agent Cole assembled a team.
Emily demanded to go.
"No."
"My daughter's memories are tied to that house."
"Which is why you're staying with your daughter."
"You think Voss left something there."
"I think Voss wanted us to think he did."
Emily stared.
"Then why go?"
"Because traps sometimes contain information."
Cole left at noon.
At 2:17, Emily received a video call.
Cole's face appeared.
Behind him stood charred concrete and weeds.
"We found a basement."
Emily looked at Maya.
Her daughter was watching from bed.
"Was there one in the old property plans?"
"No."
Cole turned the camera.
Agents stood beside a steel door hidden beneath collapsed timbers.
"We're going in."
The feed ended.
Three hours passed.
No call.
At 5:31, Cole returned to the hospital personally.
He carried a sealed evidence case.
Emily met him outside Maya's room.
"What happened?"
"The basement was a laboratory."
Emily's stomach tightened.
"St. Gabriel?"
"Earlier than St. Gabriel."
"How much earlier?"
"At least twenty years."
Emily stared.
"Before Maya was born."
"Yes."
"What did you find?"
Cole glanced through the glass toward Maya.
"Recordings."
"Of what?"
"Children."
Emily felt sick.
"Maya?"
"Some."
"Show me."
"Emily."
"Show me."
Cole opened the evidence case and removed a tablet containing a copied video.
The timestamp showed Maya at age five.
Emily stopped breathing.
Her daughter sat at a table in a white room.
A younger Malcolm Voss entered.
He placed a picture of the blue house before her.
"Do you know this place?"
Five-year-old Maya nodded.
"Where is it?"
"Home."
Emily's knees weakened.
On screen, Voss smiled.
"Whose home?"
Maya looked confused.
"Lucas's."
The recording continued.
Voss played the four-note melody.
Maya began crying.
"I want Mommy."
"Which mommy?"
Emily's heart broke.
Maya cried harder.
"My mommy."
Voss leaned closer.
"Say her name."
Maya whispered, "Emily."
Voss's smile faded.
He stopped the recording.
The screen went black.
Emily stared.
"Robert told me she was never taken there."
Cole's expression hardened.
"We found another video."
"Show me."
"This one is Robert."
The recording began.
Robert sat across from Voss.
He looked younger.
Terrified.
Voss asked, "Did your wife notice?"
Robert answered, "No."
"Good."
"She can't know you're still testing Maya."
Emily closed her eyes.
Still testing.
Not one procedure.
Years.
Voss said, "Subject seventeen exhibits transfer patterns."
Robert whispered, "She's my daughter."
"And therefore?"
"Stop doing this."
Voss smiled.
"You accepted payment."
"I want out."
"You don't get out."
Robert stood.
Voss spoke one sentence.
"Would you like Emily to know what really happened to Eli?"
Robert froze.
The recording ended.
Emily looked at Cole.
"What really happened to Eli?"
"We're still searching the files."
"You have a basement full of records."
"Many are encrypted."
Emily pointed toward the tablet.
"Robert was afraid of Voss."
"Yes."
"He still lied."
"Yes."
"He tried to stop it."
"It appears so."
Emily hated that complication.
It would have been easier if Robert were simply a monster.
Instead he was something less satisfying.
A coward who committed one unforgivable act, regretted it, and then spent fifteen years allowing fear to create dozens more.
Emily entered Maya's room.
Her daughter saw her face.
"You found something."
Emily sat.
"Videos."
"Of me?"
"Yes."
Maya went silent.
"At the blue house?"
"Yes."
"So the memories are mine."
Emily hesitated.
"Some are."
Maya looked relieved.
Then Emily added, "But maybe not all."
Maya stared.
"What does that mean?"
Before Emily could answer, Agent Cole entered quickly.
"We decrypted a portion of Voss's notes."
Emily stood.
"What did they say?"
Cole looked directly at Maya.
"The implanted material isn't only from Lucas Voss."
Maya's fingers gripped the blanket.
"Then whose?"
Cole paused.
"Several people."
Emily felt ice spread through her chest.
"How many?"
"At least four donors."
Maya whispered, "Four people are inside me?"
"Cellular material from four individuals."
"Who?"
"We know two."
"Lucas."
Cole nodded.
"And Eli Thorne."
Maya's face changed.
"My brother."
Emily closed her eyes.
Cole continued.
"The other two records were coded."
"Can you decode them?"
"We're trying."
Maya looked at him.
"What is Final Assembly?"
Cole hesitated.
Emily hated how often adults hesitated around her daughter.
"Tell her."
Cole took a breath.
"Voss believed the surviving tissue from several subjects could be combined into one stable biological structure."
Maya stared.
"Me."
"Yes."
"What for?"
Cole looked toward the monitor.
"According to his notes, he wasn't trying to grow an organ anymore."
Maya whispered, "Then what?"
May you like
Cole answered.
"A person."
