Chapter 13 - THE AGREEMENT WRITTEN IN BLOOD
Evelyn placed her arm into the extraction unit.
Vale watched from behind the glass.
“One vial,” she said. “Then you release Ryan, Thomas, and Daniel.”
Vale smiled.
“You are negotiating from a weak position.”
“I am the only living Subject E.”
“That makes you valuable, not powerful.”
Evelyn looked toward Nora.
The file transfer had reached ninety-two percent.
Margaret moved beside the control panel.
“Let Ryan out.”
Vale turned toward her.
“Do not interfere.”
“You said he would not be harmed.”
“He has already been harmed. Long before tonight.”
Margaret pressed an override button.
Nothing happened.
Vale had disabled her access.
For the first time, Margaret appeared to understand that she had never been his partner.
She had only been useful.
The extraction needle entered Evelyn’s arm.
Dark blood flowed into a collection vial.
Inside the chamber, Ryan collapsed to his knees.
Daniel struggled against the restraints.
Thomas remained weakly conscious.
The vial filled.
Vale activated ventilation in Ryan’s chamber.
The gas stopped.
Ryan fell against the wall, breathing.
“Now release them,” Evelyn said.
Vale removed the fresh sample from the unit.
“No.”
Margaret stared at him.
“You gave your word.”
“My word kept her cooperative.”
Evelyn pressed a hidden emergency trigger Nora had attached beneath the extraction panel.
The laboratory lights died.
Nora’s computer reached one hundred percent.
Federal agents breached the outer corridor.
Gunfire echoed in distant sections of the facility.
Emergency lighting activated.
Margaret attacked Vale.
She grabbed the fresh blood vial from his hand.
He shoved her against the wall.
The vial fell but did not break.
Evelyn seized it.
Vale reached for her.
Daniel threw himself sideways with the chair, striking Vale’s legs.
Vale fell.
Margaret grabbed his access card.
She opened the chamber.
Evelyn ran to Ryan.
He was barely conscious.
Nora freed Daniel.
Thomas remained on the medical bed.
Evelyn knelt beside him.
“Dad.”
His eyes moved toward her.
“You came.”
“I’m getting you out.”
“No.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Listen.”
The alarms grew louder.
Daniel helped Ryan stand.
Margaret closed the chamber door, trapping Vale inside.
Vale struck the glass.
“You cannot leave me here!”
Margaret looked at him calmly.
“You left me in this place thirty-eight years ago.”
Thomas touched Evelyn’s hand.
“Margaret has the master record.”
Evelyn looked toward her mother.
“What record?”
Margaret’s face changed.
Thomas continued.
“She knows who Subject J is.”
“Why does that matter?”
“Because Subject J was designed to control the others.”
Vale laughed from inside the chamber.
“You still don’t understand, Evelyn.”
Daniel turned toward him.
“Be quiet.”
Vale pressed his face near the glass.
“Subject J is not another victim.”
“Who is he?” Evelyn demanded.
Vale smiled.
“He is the reason your father stayed hidden.”
Thomas’s monitor began to fail.
Evelyn held his hand tighter.
“Dad, stay with me.”
“I need the sample,” he whispered.
She looked at the fresh vial.
Marcus had said her blood might stabilize him.
But Thomas shook his head.
“Not me.”
“Then who?”
“Destroy it.”
Vale struck the glass again.
“No!”
Thomas’s voice weakened.
“If Helix-R combines with your current cells, it creates a transmissible repair vector.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“Transmissible?”
“It can spread from one person to another.”
“Like a virus?”
“A treatment that rewrites anyone it infects.”
Daniel looked horrified.
Vale shouted through the glass.
“It could cure millions!”
Thomas forced himself to continue.
“Or change them permanently.”
Evelyn held the vial above the floor.
Vale’s expression became desperate.
“Think about what you are doing. Cancer, organ failure, degenerative disease. All of it could be reversed.”
“At what cost?” Evelyn asked.
“Every advancement has a cost.”
Thomas whispered.
“Break it.”
Margaret suddenly aimed a gun at Evelyn.
Everyone froze.
“Give me the vial,” she said.
Evelyn stared at her mother.
“You still want it.”
“I want a future for my children.”
“You mean control.”
“I mean survival.”
“Ryan is alive.”
“For now. His neurological structure is deteriorating.”
Ryan lifted his head.
“What?”
Margaret’s eyes filled with tears.
“The modifications are becoming unstable.”
Ryan looked from Margaret to Thomas.
“You knew?”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Margaret continued.
“Without Helix correction, Ryan may lose impulse control completely. Hallucinations. Memory collapse. Violence.”
Ryan’s face emptied.
Evelyn looked at the vial.
It might save Thomas.
It might save Ryan.
It might create something no one could stop.
Federal agents reached the security door.
Daniel moved between Evelyn and Margaret.
“Lower the gun.”
Margaret’s hand trembled.
“Do not make me choose.”
Evelyn’s voice was quiet.
“You already did.”
She dropped the vial.
Margaret fired.
The bullet struck the floor beside Evelyn as Daniel pulled her back.
The vial hit the concrete.
It shattered.
Blood spread across the white surface.
Vale screamed.
Margaret stared at the broken glass as though she had watched both her children die.
Then the ventilation system activated.
The spilled blood moved toward an open floor drain.
Thomas looked at it in terror.
“Stop the air system.”
Nora rushed to the controls.
“Why?”
Thomas tried to sit up.
“The vector may already be active.”
A red light flashed above them.
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BIOLOGICAL CONTAINMENT FAILURE.
The facility sealed every exit.
