Chapter 6 - FACILITY NINE
We should have gone to the police.
Every reasonable part of me knew that.
But Luka showed me why we couldn't.
Three police commissioners.
Two federal investigators.
A state senator.
All appeared in old Calloway financial records.
Charles hadn't built a company.
He had built protection.
So we went to Facility Nine ourselves.
The building had been abandoned publicly for fourteen years.
Privately, electricity still flowed through it.
Derek knew an old service tunnel.
We entered shortly after midnight.
Luka moved first.
Derek followed.
I stayed between them with Grace strapped against my chest.
“I hate this plan.”
Luka glanced backward.
“So do I.”
“Then why are we doing it?”
“Because Charles has spent twenty-five years controlling where we look.”
“Tonight we look somewhere he doesn't want us to.”
The tunnel ended behind a maintenance room.
Beyond it stretched a spotless white corridor.
This place wasn't abandoned.
It was operational.
We passed rooms filled with medical equipment.
Then I saw photographs on a wall.
Children.
Dozens of them.
Different ages.
Under every photograph was a number.
M-1.
M-2.
M-3.
All the way through M-16.
Derek stopped.
“These are the babies.”
Luka looked sick.
“They survived.”
Some photographs had black lines across them.
Others had dates.
Death dates.
Experiment results.
My anger became nausea.
“These people were children.”
Luka nodded.
“To Charles, they were inventory.”
We reached M-8.
Derek stared.
The photograph showed a little boy.
Same eyes.
Same mouth.
Same face.
“That's me.”
Nobody spoke.
Derek touched the photograph.
“I was M-8.”
His mother had been participant eight.
The supposedly failed pregnancy had produced Derek.
Charles had raised his own experimental child as his son.
Derek backed away.
“My entire life…”
Luka finished the thought.
“Was another experiment.”
A woman's voice came from behind us.
“Yes.”
We turned.
An elegant woman in her sixties stood at the end of the corridor.
Derek stopped breathing.
“Mom?”
Evelyn Calloway smiled.
“My beautiful boy.”
Derek stepped forward.
Then Luka grabbed him.
“Don't.”
Evelyn's smile faded.
“Still suspicious, Luka.”
“You sent men to kill us.”
“To retrieve what belongs here.”
Her eyes moved toward Grace.
I stepped backward.
“She doesn't belong to you.”
“No.”
Evelyn smiled.
“She belongs to history.”
I wanted to hit her.
“You're insane.”
“Your mother said the same thing.”
The words sliced through me.
“You knew my mother?”
“I loved your mother.”
Evelyn's expression changed.
“Until she betrayed us.”
“What did she do?”
“She discovered the truth.”
Luka raised his weapon.
“What truth?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“M-17 was never designed to cure disease.”
She looked at Grace.
“It was designed to create inheritance.”
My stomach tightened.
“Inheritance of what?”
“Resistance.”
“To disease?”
Evelyn smiled.
“To death.”
Behind us, steel doors slammed shut.
Red lights began flashing.
Derek spun around.
Evelyn stepped backward.
“You should never have brought the baby here.”
Gas began pouring through vents.
Luka grabbed my arm.
May you like
“RUN.”
But there was nowhere left to run.
