Chapter 5 - Red Haven
Arthur's truck reached Red Haven at 8:02 a.m.
Emily sat beside him.
Neither had obeyed the message.
The old facility stood beyond a rusted security fence in thick woodland.
From the road, it looked abandoned.
Broken windows.
Faded brick.
Collapsed roof sections.
But Arthur noticed fresh tire tracks.
"Someone's here."
Emily tightened her seat belt.
Arthur parked behind a maintenance building where the truck could not easily be seen.
He opened the glove box.
Emily looked at him.
"Please tell me that's not a gun."
"It isn't."
He removed a flashlight, a folding knife, and an old field medical kit.
Emily stared.
"You just carry that?"
"Habits."
They approached on foot.
The red-tipped key opened a side entrance.
Inside, dust covered most surfaces.
But a narrow path along the floor had been disturbed recently.
They followed it.
Emily saw faded numbers beside doors.
11.
12.
13.
Then 17.
Arthur inserted the key.
The lock opened.
The room beyond was not abandoned.
Power hummed.
A refrigeration unit operated against one wall.
Shelves contained archival boxes.
An old hospital bed sat beneath a ceiling camera.
Emily whispered, "What happened here?"
Arthur noticed scratches along the wall.
Not random scratches.
Words.
HELP ME REMEMBER.
DON'T TRUST RICHARD.
ARTHUR LIVES.
Arthur touched the last line.
The handwriting was unmistakable.
Daniel's.
He felt suddenly unsteady.
Emily saw his expression.
"He was here."
Arthur nodded.
"For years."
At the far end of the room sat a metal desk.
A cassette recorder rested on it.
Arthur pressed play.
Static.
Then Daniel's voice filled the room.
Weak.
Hoarse.
But alive.
"Arthur, if you're hearing this, I was wrong about one thing."
Arthur's breath stopped.
"The explosion wasn't meant to kill me."
Emily moved closer.
Daniel continued.
"It was meant to erase the evidence I carried."
A pause.
"I don't know how much time I have before they move me again."
Arthur gripped the desk.
"I need you to understand Sterling Seventeen."
Static interrupted.
Then Daniel spoke again.
"It's not a person."
Arthur looked at Emily.
"It's a protocol."
Footsteps sounded outside.
Arthur shut off the recorder.
He pulled Emily behind a shelving unit.
The door opened.
Two men entered.
One was from outside the NICU.
The older one.
The man who had smiled at Arthur.
He carried the premature baby in a transport carrier.
Emily's hand flew to her mouth.
The infant was alive.
The second man placed a portable oxygen unit beside her.
The older man said, "He's here."
Arthur stepped from hiding.
"Put her down."
Both men turned.
The older man smiled.
"Sergeant Vance."
Arthur stared at him.
"I know you."
"Do you?"
Arthur searched his memory.
Then he saw a younger face beneath the older one.
A civilian contractor at the Kandahar medical station.
Dr. Elias Mercer.
Daniel's emergency physician.
Arthur whispered, "You pronounced him dead."
Mercer smiled.
"Someone had to."
Emily moved slowly toward the baby.
Mercer raised a pistol.
"Stay where you are."
Arthur's entire body changed.
His trembling stopped.
His shoulders settled.
The softness vanished from his face.
He looked like a soldier again.
Mercer noticed.
"Still there, isn't it?"
Arthur said, "The baby."
"She'll live."
"Give her to the nurse."
"Not yet."
"What do you want?"
Mercer glanced toward the cassette recorder.
"Daniel left something behind."
"Then find it yourself."
"We've spent seventeen years trying."
Arthur understood.
"You think he told me."
"No."
Mercer's smile widened.
"I think he trained you."
Arthur frowned.
Mercer continued.
"That is why the infant calmed down."
Emily stared at him.
"What are you talking about?"
"Recognition."
"She's a newborn."
"Recognition doesn't always require memory."
Arthur looked at the baby.
Mercer said, "Daniel understood what his father was trying to build. He redesigned part of the protocol."
"Sterling Seventeen."
"Exactly."
A tiny sound came from the transport carrier.
The baby began crying.
Mercer grimaced.
Arthur stepped forward instinctively.
Mercer raised the pistol.
"Stop."
The baby screamed louder.
Arthur stared at her.
Something about the rhythm felt familiar.
Three short cries.
Pause.
Two.
Pause.
Three.
Arthur remembered Daniel tapping patterns against armored vehicles during deployment.
A joke between them.
Three-two-three.
Their squad signal for safe exit.
Arthur looked at the wall.
Three scratches.
Two scratches.
Three scratches.
His gaze moved toward the refrigeration unit.
He understood.
Daniel had hidden something inside.
Mercer followed his eyes.
May you like
And smiled.
"Thank you."
