CHAPTER 9 THE TWO HEIRS
The syringe plunged into the port.
Ava’s body jerked against the restraints.
“Ava!”
Ethan slammed both hands against the monitor.
The glass shuddered beneath the force.
On-screen, the black-labeled fluid disappeared into the tubing connected to Ava’s chair.
Her eyes widened.
Then her head fell back.
The countdown vanished.
For one terrible second, no one moved.
Marcus stared at the frozen footage of Charles Caldwell holding the newborn child marked with his name.
Ethan stared at Ava.
Margaret stared at both men.
“No.”
Her voice was barely audible.
“This cannot be happening.”
Ethan turned on her.
“You knew there were two boys.”
Margaret stepped back.
“I knew there were two infants.”
“That is not what I asked.”
Her face tightened.
“I was told one of them died.”
Marcus finally looked away from the monitor.
“Which one?”
Margaret did not answer.
Marcus crossed the room in three steps.
“Which one of us was supposed to die?”
Lena moved between him and Margaret before he could reach her.
“Marcus.”
“Move.”
“Not until we get Ava back.”
His breathing was hard and uneven.
For the first time since Ethan had met him, the detective looked less like an officer and more like a man whose entire life had been ripped open.
On the screen, Harris removed the empty syringe.
Ava remained motionless.
Ethan turned toward the control panel.
“Find me a way down.”
Marcus forced himself to look at the system.
His hands moved over the keys.
“Primary controls are locked.”
“Then break them.”
“I’m trying.”
Margaret suddenly rushed toward the panel.
Marcus caught her wrist.
“What are you doing?”
“There is a manual emergency override.”
“You said you did not know about Level F.”
“I knew the architecture.”
Her eyes darted toward the monitor.
“I did not know Harris had restored the lower facility.”
Ethan grabbed her shoulder.
“Where is the override?”
Margaret pointed toward the far wall.
“Behind the oxygen control panel.”
Lena hurried across the chamber and pulled open a steel cabinet.
Inside were pressure gauges, medical valves, and a narrow mechanical lever painted yellow.
Eleanor stared at it.
“That was not there before.”
Margaret’s eyes stayed on Ava.
“Charles added it after your first treatment.”
Eleanor’s face hardened.
“You mean after you nearly killed me.”
Margaret ignored her.
“Pull it down, then turn the center valve counterclockwise.”
Lena wrapped both hands around the lever.
“Do it,” Ethan said.
She pulled.
The lever resisted.
Marcus joined her.
Together they forced it downward.
An alarm immediately sounded.
MANUAL TRANSIT INTERRUPTION INITIATED.
A second message appeared.
WARNING: RAIL PRESSURE FAILURE POSSIBLE.
The image of Ava flickered.
Her compartment shook violently.
Harris grabbed the side rail.
“What did you do?” Ethan demanded.
Margaret looked at the warning.
“I stopped the transport.”
“The compartment is still moving.”
“It will brake.”
The rail beneath Ava screamed.
Sparks flashed outside the glass.
The compartment lurched sideways.
Ava’s wheelchair slammed against the restraint frame.
Ethan’s face went white.
“Turn it off!”
“If we release the override now, the transport could drop.”
“You said it would brake.”
“It should.”
Ava suddenly inhaled.
Her back arched.
Her eyes opened.
But something in them had changed.
She looked around the compartment without recognition.
“Ava,” Ethan whispered.
She turned toward the camera.
“Can you hear me?”
Her lips parted.
No sound came.
Harris leaned closer to her.
“What is your name?”
Ava looked at him.
Her expression remained empty.
Harris smiled.
“Good.”
Ethan’s hand tightened into a fist.
“Ava, look at me.”
Her gaze drifted toward the monitor displaying Ethan’s face.
She studied him.
There was no warmth in her expression.
No relief.
No fear.
Only confusion.
“Ava,” Ethan said again.
She finally spoke.
“Who are you?”
The words struck harder than any blow.
Lena covered her mouth.
Eleanor closed her eyes.
Margaret looked away.
Ethan stepped closer to the screen.
“It’s Ethan.”
Ava frowned.
“I don’t know that name.”
Harris laughed softly.
“The compound works faster than expected.”
“You said it replaces memories,” Marcus said.
Harris looked toward the camera.
“It does.”
“With whose memories?”
Harris did not answer.
The emergency brake finally engaged.
Ava’s compartment stopped with a violent jolt.
The image shook.
The lights went out.
For several seconds, the monitors showed only darkness.
Then backup lighting activated.
A dim blue glow filled the tunnel.
Behind Ava, a metal door stood open.
A figure waited in the doorway.
Harris turned sharply.
“You were supposed to remain in isolation.”
The figure stepped forward.
He was an older man with a thin frame, white hair, and a scar running from his temple to his jaw.
He wore faded hospital clothing.
A metal identification tag hung around his neck.
Eleanor moved toward the screen.
Her knees nearly gave way.
“Charles.”
Ethan stared at her.
“What did you say?”
The old man came closer to Ava’s compartment.
His face became visible.
He looked older than the photographs.
Broken.
Exhausted.
But unmistakable.
Charles Caldwell.
The man believed dead for seventeen years.
Margaret screamed.
“No!”
She lunged for the control panel.
Marcus pulled her away.
“You killed him,” Ethan said.
Margaret fought against Marcus’s grip.
“He died.”
“Clearly, he did not.”
“That is not Charles.”
Eleanor never looked away from the screen.
“It is him.”
Charles placed one hand against the glass surrounding Ava.
“Ava Caldwell,” he said.
Ava stared at him.
“You know me?”
“I know what they put inside your mind.”
Harris reached for another syringe.
Charles moved faster than his age suggested.
He struck Harris’s wrist against the metal frame.
The syringe fell.
Harris shoved him backward.
Charles crashed into the wall but remained standing.
“You should have stayed forgotten,” Harris said.
Charles looked toward the camera.
“Ethan.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“You can see me?”
“I can hear you.”
Charles glanced toward Ava.
“You have very little time.”
“What did Harris give her?”
“The final version of Margaret’s memory transfer compound.”
Margaret shook her head violently.
“I never completed it.”
Charles looked directly toward her image on the monitor.
“No.”
His voice became cold.
“I did.”
Silence spread through Sublevel E.
Eleanor stared at him in disbelief.
“Charles, why?”
“To stop Margaret.”
“That makes no sense,” Ethan said.
Charles pressed a hand to the glass.
“The compound was designed to carry buried memories from one subject into another.”
Marcus looked toward the footage of the two infants.
“Whose memories are inside Ava?”
Charles’s expression changed.
Guilt.
Fear.
Something worse.
“Mine.”
Ethan’s breath caught.
Charles continued.
“She will begin remembering everything I witnessed.”
Margaret stopped struggling.
“No.”
“She will remember Eleanor’s imprisonment.”
“No.”
“She will remember the altered birth records.”
Margaret’s face collapsed.
“And she will remember what happened to Stephen Vale.”
Marcus stepped toward the monitor.
“My father.”
Charles looked at him.
“Yes.”
Marcus’s voice sharpened.
“What happened to him?”
Before Charles could answer, Ava lifted her head.
Her breathing became rapid.
Images seemed to flash behind her eyes.
A nursery.
A woman screaming.
Two newborn boys.
Blood on a white blanket.
Stephen Vale carrying one child toward a hidden door.
Margaret standing behind him with a gun.
Ava screamed.
The sound tore through every speaker.
Ethan reached toward the screen.
“Ava!”
She looked directly at him.
Recognition returned for one second.
But it was not her recognition.
It was Charles’s.
She whispered a name.
“Ethan.”
His eyes filled with relief.
Then her expression twisted in terror.
“No.”
She stared past him at Margaret.
“No, she found the second baby.”
Marcus went still.
“What second baby?”
Ava’s eyes locked onto him.
Her voice no longer sounded like her own.
“Marcus was not the child Stephen took.”
The room fell silent.
Charles closed his eyes.
Margaret smiled.
Ava began to shake against the restraints.
Then she spoke the secret Charles had tried to bury for decades.
“Ethan was.”
Marcus turned slowly toward Ethan.
And behind Ava, Charles whispered the final truth.
May you like
“Marcus is Margaret’s son.”
END OF CHAPTER 9
