Chapter 12 - The Woman Below
A floor plan appeared on the central monitor.
Beneath the laboratory was another level.
No entrance was marked on the original construction plans.
Thomas stared at the screen.
“Elena died in the fire.”
Vivian stopped struggling against the officers.
“No,” she said. “She didn’t.”
Everyone turned toward her.
Vivian’s face had lost its certainty.
For the first time, she appeared frightened.
Daniel stepped closer.
“You knew?”
“I suspected Richard moved her.”
“Why?”
“Elena created the biological framework that made the subjects viable. Without her, the research could not be replicated.”
“And she was Clara’s biological mother?”
“Yes.”
Clara stood very still.
“Why did you tell me you were my mother?”
“Because you needed a maternal authority figure during reconditioning.”
Clara’s face twisted.
“You built my entire life out of lies.”
“I gave your life purpose.”
“You gave me nightmares.”
The lower-level access point opened behind the central console.
A narrow elevator rose from darkness.
Its doors parted.
Inside was a medical transport bed.
Empty.
Fresh blood stained the restraints.
Ross drew her weapon.
“Someone was down there recently.”
Thomas approached the elevator.
“Elena would be nearly seventy.”
“So are you,” Mary said.
The words carried more pain than anger.
Dr. Ortiz finished stabilizing Sophie.
“The remaining capsules are dormant. I want her moved to surgery upstairs.”
A hospital team prepared a stretcher.
Sophie clung to Clara.
“Don’t let Grandma come.”
“She won’t,” Clara promised.
Vivian looked away.
Police escorted Adrian toward the exit.
He paused beside Daniel.
“You think exposing everything will make you a hero?”
Daniel did not respond.
“Mercer companies will collapse by morning. Employees will lose pensions. Hospitals funded by our foundation will close. Every person you wanted to protect will blame you.”
“You killed our father.”
Adrian’s eyes filled with resentment.
“I pushed him. Mother let him drown.”
Vivian turned toward him.
“Be silent.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“That’s all I ever did for you.”
He was taken away.
Officers prepared to move Vivian.
She looked at Daniel.
“Before you judge me, ask Thomas what happened to the first eleven children.”
Daniel turned toward him.
Thomas appeared exhausted.
“They died?”
“Some did,” Vivian said. “Some were hidden.”
“Where?”
“Ask your honest farmer.”
Mary closed her eyes.
Thomas lowered his head.
“I relocated them.”
“To families?”
“Yes.”
“With their consent?”
“They were children.”
“Did the families know?”
“Not everything.”
Daniel looked at the map of active bloodlines.
“Those subjects had children of their own.”
Thomas nodded.
“The program continued through inheritance.”
Ross spoke to her team.
“We need the lower level searched.”
Daniel looked at Clara.
She sat beside Sophie, torn between following her daughter and learning the truth about her mother.
“Go with Sophie,” he said. “I’ll find out what is below.”
“No.”
“Clara.”
“I have spent my entire life leaving rooms before people told me the truth.”
She stood.
“I’m going down.”
Dr. Ortiz objected.
“You were recently exposed to an activation signal.”
“I’m stable.”
Thomas shook his head.
“The lower level may contain frequencies designed for you.”
Clara faced him.
“Then you can explain why.”
Mary stepped between them.
“No more half-truths, Thomas.”
The elevator could hold six people.
Daniel, Clara, Thomas, Ross, and two armed officers entered.
Mary remained with Sophie and Leo.
As the doors closed, Vivian called from the corridor.
“Daniel.”
He looked at her.
“If Elena is awake, do not believe what she tells you about your father.”
The doors shut.
The elevator descended.
No floor numbers appeared.
Clara stood beside Daniel, trembling.
He took her hand.
“I don’t know who I am,” she whispered.
“You are Sophie’s mother. Leo’s mother. My wife.”
“What if I married you because the Garden conditioned me?”
Daniel had wondered the same thing.
He answered carefully.
“Then we will discover who we are without it.”
The elevator stopped.
The doors opened onto a dim medical ward.
Rows of beds lined the room.
Eleven were empty.
The twelfth contained a woman.
She had dark hair streaked with silver. Tubes ran from her arms into machines built decades earlier and updated repeatedly.
Clara approached.
The woman opened her eyes.
“Subject Seven,” she whispered.
Clara stopped.
“My name is Clara.”
The woman smiled.
“No.”
Her gaze moved to Daniel.
“That is not Daniel Mercer.”
Daniel felt Ross raise her weapon slightly.
May you like
The woman continued.
“Daniel Mercer died with his father at the lake.”
