CHAPTER 12 — PHASE TWO
"Identity verification initiated. Candidate Nathan Harrington has entered the program."
The mechanical voice echoed through every hallway.
Then the emergency lights changed.
White...
to blue.
Every corridor inside St. Mary's Children's Hospital was suddenly bathed in the same cold blue glow Daniel had feared.
The Blue Ward.
Nathan's chest tightened.
"So this is what you meant..."
He looked at Daniel's hospital room down the corridor.
"...the blue room."
Officer Collins slammed her fist against the nearest security door.
It didn't move.
"Control room!" she shouted into her radio. "Override every electronic lock!"
Only static answered.
The entire communications network had been cut off.
Noah grabbed Nathan's hand.
"They're waking it up."
Nathan looked down.
"What?"
"The system."
"What system?"
Noah swallowed.
"The one Dr. Whitmore always talked about."
He pointed toward the ceiling.
"He said the hospital remembers everything."
Almost as if responding to him...
hidden speakers crackled.
A calm female voice spoke again.
"Facial recognition confirmed."
"Welcome, Nathan Harrington."
"Charles Harrington Protocol transferred."
Nathan's blood ran cold.
"My father's protocol?"
Officer Collins looked toward the nearest surveillance camera.
The red indicator light blinked.
Someone...
or something...
was watching them.
Every monitor lining the hallway suddenly came to life.
Instead of medical charts...
old security footage began playing.
Nathan watched himself on the screen.
London.
Six years earlier.
Walking through Heathrow Airport.
Another clip.
Singapore.
A board meeting.
Another.
New York.
Signing merger documents.
Thousands of hours of his life.
Someone had been following him for years.
Officer Collins frowned.
"Those aren't public recordings."
Nathan nodded slowly.
"They came from private security cameras."
Noah quietly whispered,
"They watched you because they were waiting."
"Waiting for what?"
Noah didn't answer.
The screens changed again.
This time...
they showed Daniel.
Five years old.
Sitting alone inside Blue Ward.
A small boy entered the room.
Noah.
The twins looked at each other.
Neither smiled.
Neither spoke.
They simply reached across the space between their beds...
and held hands.
Nathan felt tears sting his eyes.
"They knew..."
The recording continued.
The door opened.
Dr. Whitmore walked in carrying two folders.
He looked at one child.
Then the other.
Finally he said,
"Remember..."
"...only one of you gets to leave."
The video froze.
Officer Collins whispered,
"My God."
Before anyone could speak—
all the monitors went black.
One screen flickered back on.
A live camera feed.
Victoria.
She was alone.
Locked inside another room somewhere in the hospital.
She looked frightened for the first time since Nathan had seen her in the basement.
"Nathan!"
She pounded desperately on the glass.
"You have to listen!"
The speaker activated.
Her voice filled the hallway.
"They're coming for Emma!"
Nathan stepped closer.
"What are you talking about?"
Victoria's eyes filled with panic.
"Emma was never supposed to survive."
Nathan's heart stopped.
"What?"
"I changed the records."
The words hit him like a hammer.
"I switched two patient files after they took Noah."
Officer Collins looked sharply at her.
"You altered hospital records?"
"Yes!"
Victoria didn't deny it.
"They planned to remove two children."
"I only managed to save one."
Nathan stared at the screen.
"You've known all these years?"
Victoria nodded, crying openly now.
"I was twenty-seven."
"I had just given birth."
"They threatened to kill all four babies if I told anyone."
Nathan struggled to breathe.
"So you chose?"
Victoria closed her eyes.
"No."
"I failed."
The video feed suddenly distorted.
Static filled the screen.
A new face appeared.
The elderly man with the silver cane.
Number One.
He smiled politely.
"I dislike interruptions."
The image zoomed closer.
"Victoria always believed she was protecting the children."
He chuckled.
"She never realized she was following our plan."
Nathan's voice hardened.
"What plan?"
The old man answered calmly.
"To teach them fear."
The monitor switched again.
Another recording.
Daniel.
Emma.
Sophie.
Locked in the basement.
Nathan watched in horror.
Then he noticed something.
Victoria entered carrying food.
Three trays.
She placed them on the floor.
Before the children could eat—
Dr. Whitmore walked into the room.
He quietly removed two of the trays.
Victoria tried to stop him.
He pushed her aside.
Nathan stared.
The image wasn't what he had expected.
The old man spoke over the recording.
"Truth is rarely clean, Mr. Harrington."
"You saw one moment."
"You believed you understood ten years."
Nathan clenched his jaw.
He looked at Officer Collins.
"Authenticate that footage."
The forensic technician was already working.
A few moments later he looked up.
"No edits."
"No digital manipulation."
Nathan slowly looked back at the screen.
Had Victoria abused the children?
Yes.
The riding crop.
The fear.
The locked basement.
Those things were real.
But perhaps...
she hadn't been acting alone.
Perhaps someone had been directing her all along.
Suddenly, every light in the hallway flickered violently.
Emergency power shifted.
The computerized voice returned.
"Phase Two complete."
"Proceeding to Final Selection."
Noah's entire body became rigid.
"No..."
Nathan knelt beside him.
"What is Final Selection?"
The boy's lips trembled.
"They make brothers choose."
Nathan felt the air leave his lungs.
"Choose what?"
Noah looked at Daniel's room.
Then at himself.
Finally he whispered the sentence that froze every officer in the corridor.
"Only one son..."
"...gets to leave with you."
At that exact moment—
every door in the pediatric wing unlocked simultaneously.
A loud metallic click echoed through the hospital.
Officer Collins raised her weapon.
"Everyone move!"
From the far end of the corridor...
slow footsteps approached.
Not one person.
Several.
Dark silhouettes emerged beneath the blue lights.
At their center walked Number One.
But this time...
he wasn't alone.
Beside him walked a teenage boy, perhaps sixteen years old, wearing a hospital bracelet and the same silver ring around his neck on a chain.
When the boy raised his head...
Nathan's heart nearly stopped.
May you like
He had Nathan's eyes.
And Charles Harrington's unmistakable smile.
