Chapter 14 - The Daughter Before Nicole
Evelyn nearly dropped the phone.
Daniel looked as shocked as she felt.
“That’s impossible,” he said.
Nora Tate replied, “No, Daniel. It is merely inconvenient.”
Evelyn stared at her husband.
“You know this woman?”
“I knew a Nora Tate at Site Seven. She was an intelligence officer.”
“Did you have a child with her?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
Nora laughed softly through the speaker.
“I did not say Daniel was Nicole’s father.”
Evelyn’s face went cold.
Daniel took the phone.
“Explain.”
“Nathaniel’s succession program began before Nicole was born. He selected children from military families and tested memory conditioning, stress resistance, and pattern recall.”
“What does that have to do with Nicole?”
“One subject was genetically modified using material collected from multiple donors.”
Evelyn stepped back.
“No.”
Daniel’s voice hardened.
“Nicole is our daughter.”
“She is the child Evelyn delivered,” Nora said. “But the embryo was altered without your knowledge.”
Evelyn felt the world tilt.
She remembered the military hospital where Nicole was born.
Nathaniel arranging the doctors.
A nurse taking Nicole away for “routine observation.”
Daniel sat down heavily.
“Who were the donors?”
Nora replied, “Nathaniel, myself, and another source I never identified.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled with rage.
“He experimented on my child.”
“Yes.”
Daniel whispered, “Why tell us now?”
“Because the archive opened a file Nathaniel kept hidden from me. Nicole was not intended to become his successor.”
“Who was?” Evelyn asked.
“I was.”
“What changed?”
“I escaped the program. Nathaniel believed I died in 2002.”
Daniel looked at the phone.
“You sent the photograph of me to Nicole.”
“Yes.”
“You knew I was alive.”
“I helped keep you alive.”
“And you allowed my family to believe I was dead.”
“I prevented Nathaniel from using them to break you.”
Evelyn took the phone.
“Everyone keeps explaining cruelty as protection.”
Nora became silent.
Evelyn continued.
“Where is Nicole being taken?”
“Not to federal custody.”
Daniel stood despite the paramedic’s protest.
“What?”
“Deputy Director Price’s convoy was diverted six minutes ago.”
Evelyn looked toward the road.
“By whose order?”
“A command authority labeled NIGHTFALL.”
Daniel’s face drained of color.
“What is Nightfall?”
“The original succession protocol. It activates when Nathaniel’s command archive is exposed.”
“What does it do?”
“It transfers control to a candidate judged capable of preserving the network.”
Evelyn understood.
“Nicole.”
“Yes.”
“She would never accept.”
“Acceptance is not required.”
Daniel grabbed the ambulance rail.
“Where are they taking her?”
“I’m tracing the convoy.”
“Send us the location.”
“I will when I have it.”
The call ended.
Evelyn looked at Daniel.
“Tell me everything about Nora.”
Daniel sat beside her.
“She served under Nathaniel. Brilliant, disciplined, and completely loyal until she discovered the conditioning program targeted children.”
“Did you trust her?”
“For a while.”
“What happened?”
“She vanished during the Site Seven fire.”
“Did you love her?”
“No.”
Evelyn searched his face.
“Did she love you?”
Daniel did not answer.
That was answer enough.
At the federal convoy, Nicole sat across from Deputy Director Price.
Hale occupied the rear compartment of another vehicle.
Rain streaked the armored windows.
Nicole watched road signs.
They were traveling north, away from the nearest federal detention center.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
Price did not respond.
“Director Price.”
The woman stared straight ahead.
Nicole noticed a small earpiece beneath her hair.
Her pupils were dilated.
“Can you hear me?”
Price turned slowly.
“Honor survives the grave.”
Nicole’s body tensed.
Price drew a pistol.
Nicole kicked the weapon aside as it fired.
The bullet shattered the window.
The vehicle swerved.
Agents in front shouted.
Nicole used her restrained hands to pull Price forward and struck her wrist against the seat frame.
The pistol fell.
Price moved with unnatural precision, showing no pain.
Conditioning.
Nicole remembered Hale’s explanation.
The sequence could initiate or interrupt programmed responses.
She spoke the childhood words.
“Red barn. Silver coin. Blue train. Seven white stones.”
Price froze.
Her breathing became rapid.
Nicole added, “Black river.”
Price collapsed.
The vehicle crashed through a guardrail and stopped in a field.
Nicole found the restraint key on Price’s belt.
She freed herself.
The front agents were unconscious but alive.
Outside, the second vehicle had stopped.
Hale emerged, guarded by two confused officers.
Nicole raised her hands.
“We are not your enemies.”
One officer looked at Price.
“What happened?”
“She was activated.”
“By whom?”
A radio transmission interrupted.
A voice identical to Nicole’s spoke through the channel.
“Convoy status.”
Everyone looked at her.
The voice repeated.
“Convoy status. Confirm Colonel Turner secured.”
Hale took the radio.
“Identity code?”
The voice answered.
“N.T. Seven-one-three.”
Nicole shook her head.
“That isn’t me.”
The radio replied, still in Nicole’s voice.
“No. You are the unfinished version.”
A location transmitted to the vehicle navigation system.
Bellhaven Municipal Hospital.
The place where Nicole had been born.
Then the radio went silent.
Hale looked at her.
“Whoever copied your identity wants us there.”
Nicole examined Price’s files.
One transfer order listed a patient admitted under military authority.
No name.
Age: 43.
Nicole was forty-three.
The medical notes contained one line:
ORIGINAL SUBJECT AWAKE.
She looked toward Bellhaven’s distant lights.
May you like
Somewhere inside the hospital was another woman with her face, her voice, or her history.
And she had been waiting longer than Nicole had been alive.
