Chapter 15 - THE DOOR MARKED E
Seven minutes remained.
Evelyn studied the facility map.
The manual overflow controls were located beneath the quarantine chamber.
Julian claimed stopping the water would kill the subjects in the lower level.
Vale claimed releasing it might transform modern medicine.
Thomas wanted the vector destroyed.
Margaret wanted it to save Ryan.
Daniel had just learned he might be Subject J.
No one had proven any of it.
“Nora,” Evelyn said, “can you access the lower medical files?”
“I’m trying.”
“Forget the identity records. Find life-support data.”
Nora searched rapidly.
“Thirty-two active biometric signals.”
“Thirty-two people?”
“Maybe.”
“Are they connected to the contaminated reservoir?”
Nora opened a system diagram.
“The water passes through a heat exchange unit beneath their chambers.”
Thomas looked at the screen.
“Then Julian lied. They do not need the vector to remain alive.”
Julian’s image remained on the monitor.
“You are reading an old system map.”
Nora checked the metadata.
“He’s right. It’s twelve years old.”
“Find a current map.”
“There isn’t one.”
The timer reached six minutes.
Daniel picked up Vale’s access card.
“I’ll go to the lower controls.”
Evelyn blocked his path.
“You may be the person controlling the facility.”
“I don’t remember any of this.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re not connected.”
Daniel looked at her.
“I lied about my father because I was ashamed of his connection to Lakewood. I did not know I was born here.”
“You knew my father was alive.”
“I learned three days ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Thomas asked me to help move him before Vale found the facility.”
“And instead Vale captured you.”
“Yes.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
His answer surprised her.
Daniel continued.
“But you know I would never sacrifice you.”
“I no longer know what you would do.”
Pain crossed his face.
The timer reached five minutes.
Ryan removed his respirator.
“Let me go.”
Margaret grabbed his arm.
“No.”
“I caused this.”
“You were manipulated.”
“I stole the data. I lied to Evelyn. I led her into the ambush.”
“You were trying to survive.”
Ryan looked at his mother.
“That is what you call every terrible thing you do.”
He turned toward Evelyn.
“I’ll stop the overflow.”
“You don’t know what is below.”
“Neither do you.”
“You could die.”
He smiled weakly.
“You always said I never finish anything.”
“This is not how you prove me wrong.”
“Maybe it is.”
Thomas called Evelyn’s name.
His voice was weaker.
She returned to his bedside.
He pressed his hand against hers.
“Behind the lower control station is a sealed room.”
“What room?”
“A chamber marked E.”
“What is inside?”
“The original embryo archive.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“I was told it burned.”
“We saved part of it.”
“Why?”
“Because Julian believed one embryo remained viable.”
Margaret heard them.
Her face changed.
“No.”
Thomas looked at her.
“You knew.”
Margaret backed away.
“That embryo was destroyed.”
“Vale took it after the fire.”
Vale smiled behind his restraints.
“You finally understand.”
Evelyn felt dread settle over the room.
“Understand what?”
Vale looked at the monitor showing Julian.
“The Evelyn standing here was not the only Subject E.”
Margaret shook her head.
“That is impossible.”
Vale continued.
“Two embryos survived the cardiac adaptation. One became Evelyn Carter.”
“And the other?” Daniel asked.
Vale’s smile widened.
“The other was carried to term by a different mother.”
Evelyn looked toward the photographs on the wall.
Subject M.
Subject J.
No second Subject E had appeared in the records.
“Who is she?”
Vale looked directly at Nora.
The room became silent.
Nora slowly stepped away from the computer.
Evelyn stared at her closest friend.
Her assistant.
The woman who knew every company password, every private appointment, every fear Evelyn had hidden from the world.
“Nora?” Evelyn whispered.
Nora’s face was pale.
“I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
Vale laughed.
“You were placed beside Evelyn for a reason.”
“No.”
“Your adoptive records were created by Lakewood.”
Nora shook her head.
“My parents adopted me through a private agency.”
“An agency owned by Julian Mercer.”
Evelyn watched Nora’s hands begin to tremble.
The timer reached three minutes.
Julian’s face disappeared from the monitor.
A new camera feed appeared.
It showed the corridor outside the lower control station.
A steel door stood at the end.
A single letter was painted across it.
E.
The door slowly opened.
A woman stepped into the corridor.
She had Evelyn’s face.
Not exactly.
She was thinner, with longer hair and a scar running from her temple to her jaw.
But the resemblance was undeniable.
Margaret screamed.
Thomas tried to rise.
Vale’s expression transformed from confidence to fear.
The woman looked directly into the camera.
Then she spoke.
“Evelyn Carter.”
Her voice echoed through the chamber speakers.
“You have lived my life long enough.”
The timer reached two minutes.
Evelyn moved closer to the screen.
“Who are you?”
The woman smiled.
“My name is Eleanor.”
Behind Eleanor, dozens of containment doors began opening.
Nora stared at the woman as though looking into a broken mirror.
Daniel examined the control panel.
“Someone is overriding the quarantine.”
Margaret gripped Evelyn’s arm.
“We have to leave.”
“You said the doors were sealed.”
“They were.”
The lower-level biometric count began rising.
Thirty-two.
Forty-one.
Fifty-eight.
Seventy-three.
Thomas looked at the numbers in horror.
“There were never this many subjects.”
Vale pulled against his restraints.
“Julian built another program.”
Eleanor stepped closer to the camera.
The scar along her face caught the emergency light.
“You were given the company,” she said. “The father. The name. The treatment.”
Evelyn felt her mother’s fingers tighten around her arm.
Eleanor continued.
“I was given the basement.”
The overflow timer reached one minute.
Water pressure climbed.
Daniel moved toward the lower access door.
Ryan followed him.
Evelyn looked from the timer to Eleanor.
“What do you want?”
Eleanor smiled.
“The same thing you wanted when your mother entered your hospital room.”
Evelyn remembered the broken monitor.
The blood.
The unsigned transfer document.
Justice had seemed simple then.
An attacker.
A victim.
A witness.
But nothing in her life had ever been simple.
“What did I want?” Evelyn asked.
Eleanor’s smile disappeared.
“For the person who stole your life to lose everything.”
The lower doors unlocked.
A deep mechanical sound traveled upward through the facility.
Nora touched Evelyn’s shoulder.
“Someone is coming.”
Footsteps echoed beyond the quarantine chamber.
Not one person.
Dozens.
The overflow timer reached thirty seconds.
Thomas pointed toward the screen.
“Evelyn, look at Eleanor’s hand.”
Evelyn looked.
Eleanor wore a silver ring.
Thomas’s wedding ring.
Margaret saw it too.
Her face collapsed.
“No,” she whispered.
Evelyn turned toward her.
“What does that mean?”
Margaret backed against the wall.
“I thought she died.”
“Who?”
Margaret’s eyes filled with a terror deeper than anything Evelyn had seen before.
Before she could answer, the chamber door began to open.
The timer reached ten seconds.
Vale shouted for them to stop the overflow.
Julian’s voice returned through the speakers, warning them not to touch the controls.
Daniel raised his weapon.
Ryan stepped protectively in front of Thomas.
Nora stood beside Evelyn, staring at the woman who shared their face.
Margaret covered her mouth.
The door opened completely.
A figure stood on the other side.
Evelyn could not see the person’s face.
Only the object held in their hand.
A hospital referral paper.
At the bottom was Evelyn’s signature.
A signature she had never written.
The figure entered the light.
Margaret whispered a name.
But the overflow alarm drowned it out.
May you like
The timer reached zero.
And somewhere beneath Lakewood, something began to breathe.
