Chapter 14 - Ward Nine
Ashley left the room before anyone could stop him.
Emily tried to stand.
Mara placed a hand on her shoulder.
“You cannot follow him.”
“He thinks we lied to him.”
“You did not.”
“He’s alone.”
“Officer Ruiz went after him.”
Emily looked at Ruth.
“Why would Michael say not to trust Ashley?”
Ruth seemed unable to answer.
Sarah spoke from the corner.
“Because Michael found something.”
“What?”
“Before the elevator fell, he told me Ashley’s name appeared in the transfer logs.”
Emily looked at the laptop.
“Show me.”
Sarah hesitated.
“You said you didn’t know about the program.”
“I didn’t know everything.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Sarah stood.
Lena’s second officer moved closer, but Emily raised a hand.
“Let her speak.”
Sarah approached the computer.
She opened a hidden index file using Richard’s initials.
Hundreds of subject numbers appeared.
She searched for ASHLEY REED.
One result.
SUBJECT R-1.
STATUS: ACTIVE.
LOCATION: UNCONFIRMED.
RETRIEVAL PRIORITY: HIGHEST.
Emily felt cold.
“What is Subject R-1?”
Sarah shook her head.
“I’ve never seen that classification.”
Ruth had.
Emily saw it in her face.
“Tell me.”
Ruth sat down.
“Richard’s first successful embryo.”
Ashley returned to the doorway.
Lena stood behind him.
He had heard everything.
“What does successful mean?” he asked.
Ruth looked at him.
“Genetically modified.”
Nobody spoke.
Ashley laughed once.
It sounded empty.
“You’re saying I was engineered?”
“The records were incomplete.”
“Was I?”
“Yes.”
Emily reached for him.
This time he did not pull away.
Ruth continued.
“The program attempted to remove hereditary disease markers before implantation. Most embryos did not survive. One did.”
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“Who carried me?”
“A surrogate whose name was erased.”
“Who was my biological father?”
Ruth looked toward the laptop.
“Richard believed he was.”
Sarah’s face changed.
“That’s why he searched for you.”
Ashley stared at the screen.
“He wants me back.”
“Not only you,” Ruth said.
She looked at Emily’s belly.
“The replacement embryo may have been created from the same genetic line.”
Emily pressed a hand to her stomach.
“My baby and Ashley…”
“May be biologically related.”
The truth settled over them with suffocating weight.
Michael’s warning made sense.
Do not trust Ashley did not necessarily mean Ashley was dangerous.
It meant Richard had designed him.
And possibly designed the child Emily carried.
Lena’s radio crackled.
“Officer Ruiz, we have movement at Carter Medical. Multiple vehicles entering the east service tunnel.”
Sarah looked up.
“Ward Nine.”
Lena answered the radio.
“Any identification?”
“Hospital security, private contractors and one ambulance.”
Emily thought of Michael.
“Can you see the patient?”
“Male, approximately thirty-five. Shoulder injury.”
“He’s alive.”
Mara blocked the doorway.
“You are not leaving.”
Emily looked at the monitor beside her bed.
The baby’s heartbeat remained steady.
Her contractions had slowed.
“I’m not asking permission.”
“You could deliver at any moment.”
“Then prepare the ambulance.”
Ashley stepped closer.
“No.”
Emily looked at him.
“Michael knows the rest.”
“He could be leading us into a trap.”
“He warned us.”
“He warned you against me.”
“Because Richard wants you.”
Ashley looked toward the screen displaying Subject R-1.
Emily lowered her voice.
“You spent your whole life protecting me. Let me protect you now.”
Sarah crossed her arms.
“You won’t enter Ward Nine through the hospital.”
Lena turned to her.
“You know another way?”
“There’s an old research tunnel beneath the river.”
Ruth stared at her.
“That tunnel was sealed.”
“Officially.”
“How do you know?”
Sarah’s expression became guarded.
“Because I used it three months ago.”
Emily understood.
“When Dr. Monroe disappeared.”
Sarah looked away.
“You were there.”
“I followed Father.”
“What happened?”
“I saw Daniel taken below the east wing.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Ruth rose so quickly her chair fell backward.
“You knew?”
“I was afraid.”
“For three months?”
“My father said Michael would die if I spoke.”
Emily looked at the people around her.
A nurse who had lied for decades.
A sister-in-law who had participated in abuse but secretly weakened the chemical.
A brother who might be the product of an illegal experiment.
A police officer with limited time.
And a child whose true identity remained hidden.
“Take us to the tunnel,” Emily said.
Mara shook her head.
“You cannot go.”
Emily removed the monitor from her stomach.
“I’m going.”
Two hours later, beneath the abandoned east bank pumping station, Sarah opened a rusted steel door.
A tunnel stretched into darkness.
The air smelled of wet stone and antiseptic.
At the far end, a red light flashed.
Ashley raised a flashlight.
“What happens if Richard is waiting?”
Emily held the yellow blanket around her shoulders.
“Then he finally tells us why he built a family out of stolen children.”
They moved forward.
Halfway through the tunnel, a speaker crackled overhead.
Michael’s voice filled the darkness.
“Emily, turn around.”
She stopped.
“Where are you?”
“Ward Nine.”
“Are you alone?”
“No.”
A pause.
May you like
Then Michael whispered, “That’s the problem.”
All the lights went out.
