Chapter 14 - Seventy-Two Hours
Rachel Bell wasn't a prisoner.
That was the first surprise.
The second was worse.
She had been working with Voss.
Federal surveillance confirmed her entering and leaving the Pennsylvania facility repeatedly over the previous six months.
Jonah refused to believe it.
"She tried to save me."
Agent Cole showed him photographs.
Jonah stared until his hands shook.
"No."
"These were taken two weeks before you disappeared."
"No."
"Jonah."
"She hated him."
"People can hate someone and still work with them."
"No."
Emily stood in the hospital conference room, watching another family collapse beneath a truth it couldn't absorb.
She knew the feeling.
Jonah shoved the photographs away.
"Then why did she tell me he killed her?"
Cole frowned.
"She told you that?"
Jonah froze.
Emily noticed.
"You said Voss killed her."
Jonah looked confused.
"I..."
He pressed his palms against his temples.
"I remember her saying goodbye."
"When?" Cole asked.
"I don't know."
"Where?"
Jonah's breathing accelerated.
"I don't know."
Maya sat beside him.
"You remember things that aren't yours too."
Jonah looked at her.
His fear turned to understanding.
"What if my mom didn't say it?"
Maya nodded.
"What if someone else's mom did?"
Silence.
The biological archive.
Fragments of memory-like responses.
Cole stood.
"Until we know what's reliable, we treat every remembered detail carefully."
Emily looked at Maya.
"How much time?"
Dr. Harris checked the latest scan.
"The structure has grown another two percent."
Emily's throat tightened.
"In hours?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"We don't know."
"We keep saying that while she gets worse."
Harris didn't defend himself.
Maya's blood pressure was becoming unstable.
Her abdominal pain had returned.
A surgical team could manage another bleed.
But nobody knew what would happen if the tissue continued expanding.
The Pennsylvania facility might contain answers.
It might also be a trap.
Cole proposed a controlled operation.
Voss wanted Maya.
They would make him believe she was coming.
Emily objected immediately.
"Absolutely not."
"Maya doesn't need to enter the facility."
"Then what?"
"We transport her toward the location in a secured convoy. Voss monitors movement. He commits resources. Meanwhile another team enters from the north."
"What if he knows?"
"He probably expects something."
"Comforting."
Cole continued.
"Rachel Bell may have the stabilization protocol."
Jonah looked at him.
"Bring her here."
"That's the goal."
At hour fifty-two, the operation began.
Maya traveled in an armored medical vehicle with Emily, Dr. Harris, and two federal agents.
Jonah remained at the hospital.
Robert remained in custody.
The convoy moved east.
Maya watched trees blur past the reinforced window.
"This is the farthest I've been from home without Dad."
Emily looked at her.
"Feels weird?"
"Everything feels weird."
Maya leaned her head against the seat.
"Do you still love him?"
Emily wasn't prepared for the question.
"Your father?"
Maya nodded.
Emily thought carefully.
"I don't know what love becomes when trust dies."
Maya looked down.
"Do you hate him?"
"Sometimes."
"Is that bad?"
"No."
Maya rubbed her fingers together.
"I hate him."
Emily waited.
"But I also want him to be okay."
"Those things can exist together."
Maya looked at her.
"That's annoying."
Emily almost smiled.
"Very."
The convoy crossed into Pennsylvania at dusk.
At 7:42 p.m., Agent Cole's tactical team approached the pharmaceutical campus.
The site consisted of six abandoned buildings surrounded by woods.
Thermal imaging showed movement inside two.
At 7:51, the convoy slowed twenty miles away.
Cole gave the signal.
Federal agents breached Building Four.
No gunfire.
No guards.
Nothing.
The building appeared empty.
Then they found the laboratory.
Rachel Bell stood alone inside.
She raised her hands.
"I've been waiting."
Cole ordered her restrained.
"Where is Voss?"
"Gone."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"You worked for him."
"I worked against him."
Cole didn't believe her.
Rachel pointed toward a refrigerator unit.
"The protocol is there."
"What protocol?"
"For Maya."
Cole's expression hardened.
"If you say her name again, choose carefully."
Rachel looked exhausted.
"Agent, if she doesn't receive that compound within the next sixteen hours, her immune system will begin attacking the vascular connections."
Cole stared.
"Why should I trust you?"
"You shouldn't."
Rachel nodded toward a stack of drives.
"So verify everything."
At the convoy staging location, Emily received the call.
"They found Rachel."
"Does she have a treatment?"
"Possibly."
"Bring it."
"Already moving."
Then Cole added, "There's something you should know."
Emily closed her eyes.
"What?"
"Rachel says Voss lied about Final Assembly."
Maya looked over.
Emily put the call on speaker.
"How?"
Cole's voice came through.
"He doesn't want Maya's implanted tissue."
Maya frowned.
"Then what does he want?"
Cole hesitated.
"Her eggs."
Emily's entire body went cold.
"What?"
"Rachel says Voss believes Maya's genetic traits are inheritable. He wants to create another generation of hosts."
Maya's face filled with horror.
Emily gripped the phone.
"Where is he?"
"We don't know."
Then Dr. Harris looked at Maya's monitor.
"Her pressure is dropping."
Maya bent forward.
"Mom."
Emily caught her.
The alarm sounded.
Harris tore open the medical kit.
"Get us to the nearest hospital."
The driver accelerated.
Emily held Maya's face.
"Stay with me."
Maya gasped.
Then whispered, "I know where he is."
Emily froze.
"What?"
"Voss."
"How?"
Maya closed her eyes.
Her breathing became shallow.
"The song."
"What song?"
"Not the melody."
She opened her eyes again.
"The place where Lucas heard it."
Emily stared.
Maya whispered three words.
May you like
"The lake house."
Then she lost consciousness.
