Chapter 7 - The Daughter Richard Erased
Richard Sterling was gone when Arthur and Emily returned to the hospital.
According to hospital administration, he had left voluntarily.
According to security footage, he had entered a private elevator and never appeared on another camera.
Arthur did not believe in disappearing elevators.
Emily placed Baby Girl Sterling back in the NICU under a temporary security restriction.
The infant was stable.
That was the only good news.
Arthur remained beside the incubator.
Emily returned an hour later with a laptop.
"I copied the drive."
Arthur looked up.
"You opened it?"
"It was encrypted."
"And?"
"It wasn't encrypted well."
Arthur almost smiled.
"What kind of nurse are you?"
"The kind who had an unhealthy computer phase in college."
She sat.
"There are medical files. Hundreds."
Arthur looked toward the baby.
"Her?"
"Some."
"And Daniel?"
"Many."
Emily opened a folder.
Photographs appeared.
Daniel in a hospital bed.
Daniel restrained.
Daniel undergoing neurological scans.
Daniel walking with a cane.
Daniel staring at a wall.
The dates continued for eight years after his supposed death.
Arthur turned away.
Emily paused.
"You don't have to look."
"Yes, I do."
The final photograph showed Daniel standing alone beside a lake.
Date: May 17, 2017.
"He escaped soon after this?"
Emily nodded.
Arthur continued through the folders.
Then he found Rebecca Sterling.
Daniel's sister.
Arthur remembered her only from photographs.
She had been nineteen during the war.
The file contained an obituary.
REBECCA STERLING
1989-2018
Died following a private boating accident.
Arthur stared.
"Richard never mentioned she died."
Emily opened another document.
Rebecca had been a researcher at the Sterling Institute.
Her personnel file indicated neurological genetics.
Then they found a video.
Rebecca appeared on screen.
She looked frightened.
"If anyone is watching this, my father knows."
Arthur leaned forward.
Rebecca continued.
"Daniel survived Red Haven. I helped him escape."
Arthur's eyes widened.
"My father will say Daniel was unstable. He'll say I was manipulated. Neither is true."
She looked over her shoulder.
"The Sterling Seventeen protocol began with military trauma subjects, but it became something else. They discovered that infants exposed to certain recurring sensory signatures could develop unusually strong regulation responses to selected caregivers."
Emily whispered, "Selected caregivers."
Rebecca continued.
"Voice cadence. Heartbeat patterns. Chemical scent markers. Repeated auditory sequences."
Arthur looked at the baby.
Emily said quietly, "Someone exposed her to recordings associated with you."
Arthur's stomach turned.
Rebecca continued.
"Daniel secretly changed the reference target."
Arthur's eyes narrowed.
"He replaced himself with someone he trusted."
Emily looked at him.
"You."
Rebecca seemed almost to look through the screen.
"If Arthur Vance is seeing this, Daniel was right about you."
Arthur stared.
Rebecca continued.
"My father wanted controllable attachment."
"Daniel wanted protection."
"He believed that if the program continued after our deaths, a child connected to Sterling Seventeen should instinctively regulate around one person outside the Sterling family."
Arthur closed his eyes.
That explained the baby's immediate calm.
Rebecca continued.
"But there is something more dangerous."
"The genetic material used in the current S-17 embryo was not authorized by Daniel."
"It was stolen."
Emily froze the video.
"Current embryo."
Arthur looked at the date.
The recording had been made eight years earlier.
Meaning Rebecca had known they might eventually create the baby.
Emily resumed.
Rebecca said, "If a child is born, find her biological mother."
"The mother will be the only person who knows where Daniel went."
The video ended.
Arthur stared at the screen.
Emily whispered, "So the baby's mother knows where Daniel is."
Arthur nodded.
"And Richard knows who she is."
His phone buzzed.
A text.
No number.
A single photograph.
Richard Sterling was tied to a chair.
Behind him stood a woman holding a pistol.
Arthur recognized her.
The pregnant woman from Daniel's photograph.
May you like
Beneath the image were four words.
COME GET YOUR ANSWERS.
