CHAPTER 13 THE WOMAN BENEATH ST. CATHERINE’S
St. Catherine’s Hospital burned against the night sky.
Flames climbed through the broken windows of the abandoned east wing.
Black smoke rolled across the parking lot.
Fire engines blocked every entrance.
Federal vehicles surrounded the property.
Clara stepped out of Daniel’s SUV with Eli holding tightly to her hand.
The boy stared at the flames.
“Is my dad inside?”
Clara looked toward the burning building.
“I don’t know.”
Daniel closed the vehicle door behind them.
“Andrew escaped through the emergency tunnel less than fifteen minutes ago.”
“He had enough time to reach St. Catherine’s.”
“And enough time to start the fire,” Clara said.
A firefighter ran toward them.
“Agent Cross?”
Daniel showed his badge.
“What do we have?”
“Primary fire began in the records basement.”
“Secondary fires started in the old maternity wing.”
“Someone used accelerants.”
“Any civilians inside?”
“Security reported the building empty.”
Clara looked at him.
“It isn’t.”
The firefighter frowned.
“This hospital has been closed for twelve years.”
“There is a woman beneath the basement.”
Daniel turned toward Clara.
“Malcolm could have lied.”
“He said she knows Hope’s real name.”
“He says whatever keeps him useful.”
Eli pulled Clara’s sleeve.
“What does real name mean?”
Clara crouched beside him.
“It means someone may know who Hope was before they called her Hope.”
“Is Hope my mom?”
“Yes.”
“Does she know her name?”
“No.”
Eli looked toward the fire.
“Then we have to find the lady.”
Daniel glanced at the boy.
Then toward the building.
“We are not taking Eli inside.”
“I know.”
Clara turned toward an approaching federal agent.
“Stay with him.”
Eli immediately gripped her hand harder.
“No.”
“Eli.”
“You said you wouldn’t leave me.”
“I said I would take you out.”
“This is how I bring your mother back to you.”
“What if you don’t come back?”
Clara looked into his frightened eyes.
Then she removed the gold wedding ring from her finger.
The ring that had opened Room 402.
The ring that had carried Thomas’s hidden code.
She placed it in Eli’s palm.
“You keep this.”
“Why?”
“Because I always come back for what matters.”
Eli closed his hand around it.
Clara stood.
“Do not let anyone take him away.”
The agent nodded.
Daniel handed Clara a respirator.
“You stay behind me.”
“No promises.”
“Clara.”
She placed the mask over her face.
“I have had enough men tell me where to stand.”
Daniel almost smiled.
Then the west entrance exploded outward.
Glass and smoke burst across the parking lot.
Firefighters ducked.
A figure stumbled through the doorway.
A woman.
Her clothes were burned at the sleeves.
Blood covered one side of her face.
She collapsed on the pavement.
Clara ran toward her.
The woman rolled onto her back.
Clara froze.
“Collins?”
Hope Collins coughed through the smoke.
Her surgical bandages were torn.
The bullet wound Andrew had given her was still bleeding.
“You should be in surgery,” Clara said.
Hope grabbed her coat.
“He took me.”
“Who?”
“Andrew.”
Daniel knelt beside her.
“He removed you from the hospital?”
Hope nodded weakly.
“He came through the surgical recovery entrance.”
“He said Rose was dead.”
Clara’s chest tightened.
“She’s alive.”
Hope’s eyes filled.
“Are you sure?”
“She made it into surgery.”
Hope released a broken breath.
“He said Arthur ordered the doctors to let her die.”
“Arthur is in federal custody.”
“He said Arthur controls the hospital.”
“The accounts are frozen.”
“The network is collapsing.”
Hope shook her head.
“You don’t understand.”
“Andrew didn’t bring me here to escape.”
“Why did he bring you?”
“To prove Malcolm lied.”
“About what?”
Hope looked toward the flames.
“My mother.”
Daniel helped her sit upright.
“What did Andrew find?”
“A birth room under the chapel.”
“He found records Malcolm never moved.”
Clara remembered Malcolm’s final words.
Hope had another name.
Another mother.
“What did the records say?”
Hope stared at Clara.
“Rose is not my biological mother.”
Clara felt the world shift.
“But Arthur said you and I were twins.”
“Arthur lied.”
“Rose remembered two babies.”
“One was you.”
Hope swallowed painfully.
“The other was already dead.”
Clara stared at her.
“No.”
“Malcolm replaced Rose’s second baby before she woke up.”
“With you?”
Hope shook her head.
“With a different infant.”
“Then where did you come from?”
Hope looked toward the burning maternity wing.
“That woman beneath the hospital.”
Clara’s pulse quickened.
“She is your mother?”
“I don’t know.”
“What is her name?”
Hope’s voice became barely audible.
“Rachel Morgan.”
Lillian Morgan’s family.
Andrew’s bloodline.
Clara looked at Daniel.
“Rachel was related to Lillian?”
Hope nodded.
“Her daughter.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“If Rachel is Lillian’s daughter, then she is Andrew’s cousin.”
Hope looked toward Eli across the parking lot.
“And my mother.”
The truth landed hard.
If Rachel Morgan was Hope’s mother, then Eli carried the Morgan line through both parents.
Andrew and Hope were not strangers selected by Malcolm.
They were relatives.
Malcolm had created Eli through incestuous genetic manipulation.
Clara looked toward Eli.
The boy stood beside the federal agent, clutching the ring.
He looked small beneath the flashing lights.
Hope saw Clara’s expression.
“Don’t look at him like that.”
“I’m not.”
“He is not what they did.”
“I know.”
Hope’s eyes hardened.
“He is my son.”
“Yes.”
“And Andrew knew.”
Clara looked back at her.
“Before tonight?”
“He found the records six months ago.”
Daniel spoke sharply.
“Then why pretend Eli’s existence surprised him?”
“Because he didn’t know whether Eli was alive.”
Hope began coughing.
“He thought Malcolm destroyed the failed subjects.”
Clara stared toward the hospital.
“Eli was considered a failed subject?”
Hope’s face twisted.
“He refused conditioning.”
“He kept asking for his mother.”
Clara felt anger rise inside her.
“So they moved him to Room 402.”
Hope nodded.
“Andrew spent six months trying to find the lower ward.”
“Why didn’t he tell you?”
“He didn’t trust me.”
“But he used you.”
“Yes.”
“He sent you after Thomas.”
“Yes.”
“He made you believe Elaine abandoned you.”
“Yes.”
“Then he shot you.”
Hope looked down at the blood on her clothes.
“He believed I was working with Malcolm.”
“Were you?”
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
Hope looked toward the burning building.
“Because Andrew said Rachel was still alive.”
Daniel stood.
“We need to find another entrance.”
The firefighter shook his head.
“The basement stairs are gone.”
“What about the chapel?”
“Roof collapse.”
Hope grabbed Clara’s arm.
“There is a tunnel from the old laundry building.”
“Where?”
“South side.”
Daniel spoke into his radio.
“Team Four, move to the laundry annex.”
“Thermal scan the underground structure.”
A voice answered.
“We have one heat signature beneath the basement.”
Clara looked at Hope.
“Rachel.”
Another voice interrupted.
“Correction.”
“There are two heat signatures.”
Daniel’s hand tightened around the radio.
“Locations?”
“One stationary.”
“One moving toward the first.”
Andrew.
Clara turned toward the south side of the hospital.
A brick annex stood behind the smoke.
Half the windows had been boarded.
Fire had not reached it yet.
Daniel pointed toward Hope.
“You stay with the paramedics.”
“No.”
“You were shot twice tonight.”
“I know the tunnel.”
“Tell us the route.”
“It splits beneath the chapel.”
“One path leads to the basement records room.”
“The other leads to the birth chamber.”
“Which one did Andrew take?”
“I don’t know.”
Clara helped Hope to her feet.
“She comes.”
Daniel stared at her.
“She can barely stand.”
“She is the only person who has been inside.”
Hope looked at him.
“And Rachel may trust me.”
“You have never met her.”
“She may know my face.”
Daniel glanced toward the burning hospital.
Then toward the ambulance.
“Medic.”
A paramedic approached.
“Stabilize her wound.”
“Five minutes.”
Hope shook her head.
“We don’t have five.”
Daniel ignored her.
“You have three.”
The paramedic began wrapping fresh pressure bandages around Hope’s side.
Clara returned to Eli.
The boy looked at Hope.
“Is that my mom?”
Clara hesitated.
Hope answered herself.
“Yes.”
Eli stared at her.
Hope stared back.
Neither moved.
The fire engines roared around them.
The distance between mother and son was less than twenty feet.
But it held years of stolen time.
Eli stepped forward first.
Hope’s breath caught.
He stopped several feet away.
“Do you know me?”
Hope shook her head.
“No.”
Eli looked down.
“But I know they took you from me,” Hope said.
He looked up.
Hope’s voice trembled.
“I know I should have been the person who gave you your name.”
“I know I should have held you.”
“I know none of this was your fault.”
Eli looked toward Clara.
Then back at Hope.
“My name is Eli.”
Hope’s lips parted.
“Eli.”
She repeated it as though it were the first honest word she had ever spoken.
“That is a good name.”
“Clara gave it back to me.”
Hope looked at Clara.
“Thank you.”
Eli opened his hand.
The wedding ring rested in his palm.
“Clara says she comes back for what matters.”
Hope’s eyes filled.
“She does.”
“Will you?”
Hope looked toward the hospital.
Then knelt despite the pain.
“Yes.”
Eli moved closer.
He did not hug her.
Not yet.
He touched two fingers against her hand.
Hope held perfectly still.
The brief contact seemed to break something inside her.
She began to cry silently.
Eli whispered, “Come back.”
Hope closed her hand gently around his fingers.
“I will.”
Daniel approached.
“We move now.”
Clara kissed Eli’s forehead.
The boy allowed it.
Then she, Daniel, and Hope ran toward the laundry annex.
Two federal agents followed.
Inside, the air smelled of dust and smoke.
Old washing machines lined the walls.
Hope pointed toward a rusted industrial dryer.
“Move it.”
The agents pulled it away.
A square trapdoor appeared beneath.
Daniel opened it.
A concrete ladder descended into darkness.
Heat rose from below.
Clara climbed down after Daniel.
Hope followed slowly.
The tunnel beneath the annex was narrow.
Old water pipes ran overhead.
Ash floated through the air.
They moved beneath the burning building.
Every few seconds, the ceiling shook.
Hope reached a fork.
“Left goes to the records basement.”
“Right goes to the birth chamber.”
Daniel checked the thermal scanner.
“One heat signature is to the right.”
“The moving signature disappeared.”
Clara looked around.
“Andrew knows we are coming.”
Hope pointed toward the left tunnel.
“He may have crossed through the records room.”
Daniel sent one agent left.
The rest continued right.
The walls changed from concrete to pale tile.
Small brass plates had been mounted beside old doors.
DELIVERY ONE.
DELIVERY TWO.
RECOVERY.
OBSERVATION.
Clara stopped beside a door labeled:
MATERNAL CORRECTION.
“What happened in there?”
Hope looked away.
“I don’t know.”
Daniel opened it.
Inside stood a single metal chair.
Leather restraints covered the arms and legs.
A projector faced the chair.
Words had been painted on the opposite wall.
YOUR BABY NEVER EXISTED.
YOUR MEMORIES ARE FALSE.
YOU ARE DANGEROUS.
Clara felt sick.
“This is how they erased mothers.”
Hope stared at the chair.
“Maybe Rachel sat there.”
A sound came from farther down the tunnel.
A woman humming.
Softly.
The melody was broken and repetitive.
Hope froze.
“I know that song.”
“How?”
“I used to hear it in dreams.”
They followed the sound.
At the end of the tunnel stood a heavy steel door.
Smoke curled beneath it.
A small observation window had been blacked out.
Hope pressed her hand against the metal.
“Rachel?”
The humming stopped.
A woman answered from the other side.
“Who are you?”
Hope’s eyes filled.
“My name is Hope.”
Silence.
Then the woman whispered:
“No.”
Hope looked toward Clara.
The woman continued.
“Hope died.”
Hope leaned closer to the door.
“I’m alive.”
“You are not Hope.”
“My name may have been changed.”
The woman began humming again.
Hope placed her forehead against the steel.
“Did you have a daughter?”
The humming stopped.
“What did Malcolm tell you?”
“That she died.”
Hope closed her eyes.
“What was her name?”
The woman’s voice became weaker.
“Abigail.”
Hope’s face collapsed.
Clara caught her arm.
Abigail.
Hope’s real name.
The woman behind the door began crying.
“I named her Abigail Morgan.”
“She had a small red mark behind her right ear.”
Hope slowly touched the place behind her ear.
Her fingers found a faint birthmark.
Clara saw it.
Hope began shaking.
“Mom?”
A sob came through the door.
Then another sound.
A man’s voice.
“Do not open it.”
Andrew stepped from the darkness behind them.
His gun was aimed at Daniel.
His clothes were stained with blood and ash.
One side of his face was burned.
Daniel raised his weapon.
“Drop it.”
Andrew looked at Hope.
“Abigail.”
Hope stared at him.
“You knew my name.”
“I found it tonight.”
“You knew Rachel was alive.”
“I found that too.”
“And you brought me here.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Andrew’s eyes moved toward the steel door.
“Because Rachel knows how Malcolm created Eli.”
Hope’s expression hardened.
“Eli is a child.”
“He is more than that.”
“No.”
“He is our son.”
The words struck the tunnel like a physical blow.
Hope stepped toward him.
“You do not get to say that.”
“I did not know.”
“You knew six months ago.”
“I knew there was a child.”
“I did not know it was Eli.”
“You knew Malcolm used us.”
“I was trying to find him.”
“You shot me.”
Andrew’s jaw tightened.
“I thought you had betrayed me.”
“So you tried to kill me.”
“I made a mistake.”
Hope laughed bitterly.
“A mistake is forgetting a birthday.”
“You put a bullet in my back.”
Andrew’s eyes filled with something that might have been shame.
“I was wrong.”
Daniel kept his weapon steady.
“Put the gun down.”
Andrew ignored him.
“Abigail, Rachel can prove what Malcolm did.”
“Do not call me that.”
“It is your name.”
“My name is the one I choose.”
The woman behind the door struck the metal.
“Abigail!”
Hope’s face crumpled.
Andrew stepped closer.
“The fire has reached the ventilation shafts.”
“We have minutes.”
“Then open the door,” Clara said.
Andrew looked at her.
“It requires two Morgan blood signatures.”
“Yours and Hope’s.”
“Yes.”
Hope stared at the biometric panels beside the door.
Two black glass squares.
Andrew moved toward one.
Daniel blocked him.
“Weapon first.”
Andrew lowered the gun slowly.
He placed it on the floor.
Daniel kicked it away.
Andrew pressed his palm against the first scanner.
A green light appeared.
MORGAN LINE CONFIRMED.
Hope hesitated.
The woman behind the door coughed.
“Abigail…”
Hope pressed her hand against the second scanner.
MORGAN LINE CONFIRMED.
The locks released.
The steel door opened.
Smoke poured out.
A woman sat inside a glass containment room.
She appeared to be in her sixties.
Her gray hair fell past her shoulders.
Hospital restraints held her to a chair.
Lines ran from her arms into old machines.
She looked at Hope.
For one moment, neither spoke.
Then Rachel Morgan smiled through her tears.
“My baby.”
Hope entered the room.
Rachel reached for her.
The restraints stopped her arms.
Hope removed them.
Rachel touched her daughter’s face.
“You lived.”
Hope knelt beside her.
“You remembered me.”
“I remembered everything.”
“Why didn’t you escape?”
Rachel looked toward Andrew.
“Because they needed my blood to create him.”
Andrew stopped.
“What?”
Rachel stared at him.
“You are not Lillian’s biological son.”
Andrew’s face emptied.
“No.”
“Arthur never fathered you.”
“You’re lying.”
“Malcolm created you from Lillian’s egg.”
“And whose blood?”
Rachel looked at herself.
“Mine.”
Hope stood.
“What does that mean?”
Rachel’s voice trembled.
“Andrew is my son.”
Silence consumed the chamber.
Andrew stared at Rachel.
“No.”
She reached toward him.
“You were the first embryo Malcolm created from the Morgan line.”
“He placed you inside Lillian.”
“She carried you.”
“She raised you for three weeks.”
“But your genetic mother was me.”
Andrew backed away.
Hope looked between them.
If Rachel was Andrew’s genetic mother, then Andrew and Hope were not cousins.
They were half siblings.
Eli had been created from a brother and sister.
Hope covered her mouth.
Andrew’s face twisted.
“Malcolm told me Arthur was my father.”
“Malcolm wanted you to hate Thomas,” Rachel said.
“He wanted you to inherit Arthur’s anger.”
“He designed your life around a lie.”
Andrew looked toward the floor.
Everything he had believed was collapsing.
His name.
His father.
His inheritance.
His revenge.
Hope stared at Rachel.
“Did you know Malcolm would use Andrew and me?”
“No.”
“I knew he collected my eggs.”
“I knew he created children.”
“I did not know he brought my daughter back.”
Rachel touched Hope’s cheek again.
“I thought you were dead.”
A deep explosion shook the chamber.
The ceiling cracked.
Fire burst through a ventilation duct.
Daniel moved toward the exit.
“We leave now.”
Rachel pointed toward a cabinet.
“The original Morgan records.”
Clara opened it.
Dozens of metal film canisters filled the shelves.
Medical files.
Birth certificates.
Embryo records.
Photographs.
Daniel called to the agents.
“Take everything you can carry.”
Smoke thickened.
Andrew remained still.
Hope grabbed his arm.
“Move.”
He looked at her.
“We made a child.”
“No.”
“They made a child from us.”
“He is still ours.”
Hope’s face hardened.
“He is his own.”
Andrew looked toward the flames.
“I don’t know how to be his father.”
“Then start by not dying in a basement.”
She pulled him toward the door.
Rachel tried to stand.
Her legs collapsed.
Clara and Hope lifted her.
They moved into the tunnel.
The fire followed them.
The ceiling began falling behind.
Daniel led the group toward the laundry annex.
Then the agent who had gone left appeared at the fork.
Blood covered his forehead.
“Records basement is gone.”
“Someone destroyed the supports.”
Daniel looked toward Andrew.
Andrew shook his head.
“That was not me.”
A voice came through the tunnel speakers.
Malcolm.
“You found Rachel.”
Andrew stopped.
Malcolm continued.
“You should have left her buried.”
Rachel looked toward the ceiling.
“You cannot erase us anymore.”
Malcolm laughed.
“I do not need to.”
“The Morgan line has already completed its purpose.”
Clara shouted, “What purpose?”
“To create a child capable of controlling every Bennett system.”
Eli.
The boy had opened the doors.
Rejected conditioning.
Activated the succession chamber.
He carried both the Morgan genetic line and the 402 program.
Malcolm’s voice continued.
“Eli was not a failed subject.”
“He was the final heir.”
Andrew looked toward the exit.
“He is at the surface.”
Malcolm laughed.
“Not anymore.”
Clara’s blood froze.
“What did you do?”
The federal agent beside Eli answered through Daniel’s radio.
His voice was frantic.
“Agent Cross!”
Daniel grabbed the radio.
“Report.”
“The boy is gone.”
Clara stopped moving.
“What?”
“Someone drove an ambulance through the west barricade.”
“They wore fire-rescue uniforms.”
“They took Eli.”
Hope released Rachel.
She turned toward Andrew with murder in her eyes.
“Was this your plan?”
“No.”
“Who took him?”
Andrew looked toward the tunnel speaker.
“Malcolm.”
Daniel shouted into the radio.
“Track the ambulance.”
“No transponder.”
“Traffic cameras?”
“License plate is registered to St. Catherine’s.”
Rachel grabbed Andrew’s coat.
“Where would Malcolm take him?”
Andrew’s face became pale.
“There is one facility left.”
“Where?”
“Bennett Island.”
Clara stared at him.
“What is Bennett Island?”
“Arthur’s private research site.”
Daniel looked shocked.
“There is no island listed in the seized property files.”
“It was never held under the Bennett name.”
“What name?”
Andrew looked at Hope.
“Abigail Morgan Trust.”
Hope stared.
“An island belongs to me?”
“On paper.”
Malcolm’s voice returned through the speakers.
“Bring the heirs ledger to the harbor.”
“Come alone.”
“Or Eli enters the final trial.”
The tunnel began filling with fire.
The speaker cut out.
Daniel pushed everyone forward.
“Move!”
They climbed toward the laundry annex.
Clara supported Rachel.
Hope stayed beside Andrew.
The ceiling collapsed behind them.
They reached the ladder.
Agents pulled Rachel up first.
Then Hope.
Then Clara.
Andrew climbed last.
Just as he reached the opening, the tunnel exploded.
The force threw him across the laundry floor.
Clara crawled toward him.
“Andrew!”
His eyes opened.
He was alive.
Outside, the fire had spread across the hospital roof.
Federal agents carried Rachel toward an ambulance.
Hope ran toward the command vehicle.
“Find the harbor.”
Daniel studied an electronic map.
“There are twenty-three private docks within thirty miles.”
Andrew pushed himself upright.
“Only one has deep-water access beneath an abandoned cannery.”
“Location?”
“Port Mason.”
Daniel issued orders.
“Block every road to Port Mason.”
“Coast Guard airborne now.”
Clara looked toward the burning hospital.
Malcolm had Eli.
The final heir.
The child he had spent years designing.
Hope approached Andrew.
“If he hurts my son—”
“Our son,” Andrew said.
Hope slapped him.
The sound cut through the chaos.
“You do not earn that word through blood.”
Andrew did not defend himself.
Hope stepped closer.
“You earn it by what you do next.”
He looked toward the harbor on Daniel’s map.
Then toward Rachel being loaded into the ambulance.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Help me bring Eli home.”
Andrew nodded.
Clara looked at Daniel.
“We need the heirs ledger.”
“It dissolved with the network.”
Andrew shook his head.
“No.”
“The digital network dissolved.”
“The original ledger is physical.”
“Where?”
Andrew looked at the wedding ring still in Eli’s possession.
“The ring contains the first code.”
“Eli has the ring.”
“Yes.”
“And Malcolm knows it.”
Clara’s stomach tightened.
“What is the second code?”
Rachel called weakly from the ambulance.
“His mother’s name.”
Hope turned toward her.
Rachel looked directly at her daughter.
“Not Hope.”
“Abigail.”
Andrew’s face changed.
“The vault requires Eli to speak both names.”
“His assigned mother and his true mother.”
Hope climbed into the command vehicle.
“Then Malcolm will force him.”
Clara joined her.
“No.”
Eli had resisted Malcolm before.
He had chosen his own name.
He had refused the inheritance.
But he was still eight years old.
Alone.
Afraid.
Hope looked toward the highway.
“What happens if he opens the physical ledger?”
Andrew answered.
“Malcolm gains control of every dormant Bennett asset.”
“I thought the accounts were frozen.”
“Those were Arthur’s known accounts.”
“The dormant assets include private military contractors.”
“Offshore laboratories.”
“Medical databases.”
“Identity registries.”
Daniel stared at him.
“He could erase people legally.”
“He could create new identities.”
“He could rebuild the entire network.”
Hope looked toward the harbor.
“With Eli as the key.”
Andrew nodded.
Daniel entered the driver’s seat.
Federal vehicles formed behind them.
The convoy raced toward Port Mason.
Twenty minutes later, they reached the abandoned cannery.
The ambulance stood beside an empty dock.
Its rear doors were open.
No one was inside.
A small motorboat moved toward the dark horizon.
Coast Guard searchlights swept the water.
Daniel raised binoculars.
“They are heading toward a cargo vessel.”
Andrew looked through another pair.
“That is not a cargo vessel.”
“What is it?”
“The island ferry.”
Clara saw a dark structure beyond the waves.
At first, it looked like fog.
Then lights appeared.
A low island rose from the water.
Concrete walls surrounded it.
A medical tower stood at the center.
Bennett Island.
Daniel’s radio crackled.
“Coast Guard cannot approach.”
“Why?”
“Automated defense warning.”
“Radar has locked onto the aircraft.”
Andrew stared toward the island.
“Arthur installed anti-air systems.”
Daniel looked at him.
“You expect me to believe a private medical site has missiles?”
“Arthur believed governments were temporary.”
The ferry reached the island.
A gate opened.
Then closed behind it.
Hope stood at the edge of the dock.
“Eli!”
Her voice disappeared across the water.
Clara looked toward a small maintenance boat tied beneath the pier.
“We take that.”
Daniel shook his head.
“The island will see us.”
Andrew pointed toward the hull.
“That boat belonged to the cannery.”
“It still carries an old access signature.”
“How do you know?”
“I used it six months ago.”
Hope turned.
“You have been to the island.”
“Yes.”
“You knew where Malcolm might take Eli.”
“I did not know Malcolm controlled it.”
“What did you find there?”
Andrew looked at the tower.
“Children’s rooms.”
“Empty operating theaters.”
“And one nursery prepared for a single subject.”
Eli.
Hope stepped into the boat.
Clara followed.
Daniel ordered two agents aboard.
Andrew climbed in last.
The motor started quietly.
They moved across the black water.
No warning sounded.
The island gate opened automatically.
Andrew had been right.
The old access signature still worked.
They entered a narrow canal beneath the outer wall.
The gate closed behind them.
Ahead stood a concrete dock.
A child’s red shoe rested on the edge.
Hope grabbed it.
“Eli.”
The shoe was his.
She pressed it against her chest.
Then speakers across the island activated.
Malcolm’s voice filled the night.
“Welcome home, Abigail.”
Floodlights turned on.
Dozens of figures stood along the upper walls.
Adults in white uniforms.
Children beside them.
Each child wore a numbered wristband.
Clara stared upward.
The other sixty-five.
The missing children created from the 402 bloodline.
They had never been scattered.
They had been waiting on the island.
Malcolm appeared on a balcony above the dock.
Eli stood beside him.
The wedding ring hung around his neck.
Malcolm placed one hand on the boy’s shoulder.
Hope stepped forward.
“Let him go.”
Malcolm smiled.
“Tell your son his true name.”
“His name is Eli.”
“That is not the name in the heirs ledger.”
Clara looked toward the children lining the walls.
“What are their names?”
Malcolm raised one hand.
The children spoke together.
Their voices were flat.
Synchronized.
“We are the heirs.”
Hope stared at Eli.
The boy did not join them.
Malcolm noticed.
His hand tightened on Eli’s shoulder.
“Speak.”
Eli remained silent.
Malcolm leaned closer.
“What is your name?”
The boy looked down at Hope.
Then at Clara.
Then at Andrew.
His voice carried across the dock.
“My name is Eli.”
Malcolm’s smile vanished.
Eli continued.
“And I am not your heir.”
Every light on the island turned red.
A mechanical alarm began.
Malcolm stared at the boy.
“You have failed the final trial.”
Hope ran toward the stairs.
Guards raised their weapons.
Andrew stepped in front of her.
Malcolm lifted the wedding ring.
“Open the vault, Eli.”
“No.”
“Say the first mother’s name.”
“No.”
“Say Hope.”
Eli looked at his mother.
“Her name is Abigail.”
Hope began crying.
Malcolm’s eyes widened.
Eli had spoken the true name.
A lock opened somewhere beneath the island.
Andrew shouted.
“Eli, do not say the second name!”
Malcolm smiled again.
“The first code is accepted.”
Clara stared toward the tower.
“What is the second name?”
Andrew looked at her in horror.
“Clara.”
The physical heirs ledger required Eli to speak the names of both women who had saved him.
Hope.
Clara.
Malcolm turned the boy toward Clara.
“Say her name.”
Eli looked down at her.
Clara shook her head.
“Don’t.”
Malcolm placed a gun against Eli’s back.
“Say it.”
Hope screamed, “Leave him alone!”
Eli’s eyes filled with tears.
Clara stepped forward.
“Eli, listen to me.”
Malcolm pressed the weapon harder.
“Say Clara.”
The boy looked directly into Clara’s eyes.
Then he whispered:
“She told me family doesn’t make you afraid.”
Malcolm’s expression changed.
Eli turned suddenly.
He bit Malcolm’s hand.
The gun fired.
Hope screamed.
Eli fell from the balcony.
Clara ran beneath him.
Andrew reached the railing first.
He threw himself forward.
His hands caught Eli’s wrists.
Andrew slammed against the balcony edge.
Half his body hung over the drop.
Eli dangled above the concrete dock.
“Dad!” the boy screamed.
The word changed Andrew’s face.
He held tighter.
Hope raced up the stairs.
Malcolm lifted the gun again.
Clara saw him.
“Andrew!”
Andrew looked back.
Malcolm aimed at his hands.
Hope reached the balcony.
She struck Malcolm from the side.
The gun fired into the air.
Malcolm fell against the railing.
Hope grabbed Eli’s arm.
Together, she and Andrew pulled him up.
Eli collapsed between them.
Hope wrapped her body around him.
Andrew remained on his knees.
The boy looked at him.
“You caught me.”
Andrew’s voice broke.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Andrew stared at his son.
“Because you matter more than anything I ever wanted.”
Eli reached one trembling hand toward him.
Before Andrew could take it, Malcolm stood.
Blood ran from his bitten hand.
He raised the gun toward Hope.
Clara reached the balcony.
She struck his arm.
The gun slid across the floor.
Malcolm grabbed Clara by the throat.
They crashed against the railing.
Below them, alarms sounded across the island.
The children remained standing in perfect rows.
Watching.
Malcolm tightened his grip.
“You were always the defect.”
Clara struggled for breath.
“No.”
She looked toward the children.
“I was the proof.”
“Of what?”
“That you could never erase choice.”
She drove her elbow into his wound.
Malcolm released her.
Andrew tackled him.
They hit the floor.
Hope pulled Clara away.
Daniel and the agents reached the balcony.
They restrained Malcolm.
The old man looked toward Eli.
“The vault is still waiting.”
Eli clung to Hope.
“I won’t open it.”
Malcolm smiled.
“You already did.”
A deep metallic sound rose from beneath the island.
The ground shook.
The medical tower doors opened.
Inside stood a massive circular vault.
The first code had unlocked it.
Only Clara’s name remained.
Then a voice came from inside the vault.
A child’s voice.
Identical to Eli’s.
“Clara.”
The second code was accepted.
The vault opened.
Eli stared at it.
“I didn’t say that.”
Andrew’s face became pale.
Malcolm laughed.
“The system did not need Eli.”
“It only needed his voice.”
“They had recorded him for years.”
The vault doors separated.
Inside were shelves filled with red ledgers.
Thousands of files.
And at the center sat a woman wearing a white dress.
She lifted her head.
Clara stopped breathing.
The woman had Clara’s face.
Older.
Thinner.
But unmistakably the same.
She looked toward the balcony.
Then she spoke.
May you like
“My name is Number 402.”
END OF CHAPTER 13
