CHAPTER 5: MY FATHER’S LAST SECRET
The gas burned my eyes immediately.
Dr. Shaw pulled three surgical masks from her bag, but they offered little protection.
“Ventilation panel!” she shouted.
I swung the metal bar at the ceiling grate.
Once.
Twice.
The grate fell.
Maren climbed onto the security desk and reached into the opening.
“There’s a fan!”
“Reverse it!”
“How?”
“Cut the blue wire and connect it to the secondary lead.”
She looked down.
“You know that because?”
“My father made me work maintenance here when I was sixteen.”
“Useful childhood.”
The door shuddered as guards struck it from outside.
Dr. Shaw wrapped Clara in a medical blanket and held her near the floor.
Maren found the wires.
“Which secondary lead?”
“The yellow terminal.”
“There are three yellow terminals!”
The glass cracked.
I looked at the panel.
“Middle one!”
She connected the wires.
The fan stopped.
Then it roared backward, pulling the gas into the ceiling shaft.
The room began to clear.
The door burst open.
The first guard entered wearing a respirator.
I struck his wrist. His weapon slid across the floor. Maren kicked it beneath the desk.
The second guard grabbed me from behind.
Dr. Shaw slammed a fire extinguisher into his knee.
Maren seized the first guard’s access card.
“Move!”
We escaped through a side door before Leonard’s team reached the room.
The corridor split in three directions.
Dr. Shaw pointed left.
“Central laboratory.”
“We’re not giving them Clara,” Maren said.
“No,” I replied. “But they think we are.”
We entered a supply room and found insulated transport containers.
Dr. Shaw placed medical weights inside one, arranged blankets around them, and activated a heat pad.
On security scans, it would resemble an infant carrier.
I carried the false container.
Maren and Dr. Shaw took Clara toward the pediatric wing.
“Meet at the evacuation loading bay,” I said.
Maren grabbed my arm.
“This isn’t redemption.”
“I know.”
“Saving one child doesn’t erase abandoning three.”
“I know.”
Her eyes searched mine.
“Then why are you doing this?”
“Because they’re children.”
For the first time, she seemed to believe me.
I entered the central laboratory alone.
Leonard waited beside a circular glass chamber surrounded by medical equipment.
Conrad sat in a wheelchair near the far wall, an oxygen tube beneath his nose. He looked older than he had at the gala.
Tessa stood beside him wearing black trousers and a rain-soaked coat.
Her engagement ring was gone.
Six armed guards surrounded the room.
“Put the carrier on the table,” Leonard ordered.
I obeyed.
Tessa watched me carefully.
“Where is Maren?”
“Gone.”
“You expect me to believe she gave you the baby?”
“She cares more about the twins.”
Tessa smiled faintly.
“That sounds like her.”
“You never understood her.”
“I understood her perfectly. She had dignity without money. People like that are exhausting.”
Conrad coughed.
“Enough. Begin.”
Leonard moved toward the container.
I placed my hand on it.
“First, tell me about my father.”
Tessa rolled her eyes.
“Rowan, this is not the time.”
“It’s the only reason you’re getting the carrier.”
Leonard looked at Conrad.
Conrad nodded.
“Your father discovered irregularities in the research budget,” Leonard said. “He began asking questions.”
“So you killed him.”
“He gave us no choice.”
“Everyone has a choice.”
“That is something wealthy men say after their choices have been protected.”
“You were wealthy.”
“Not when I began.”
Leonard stepped closer.
“My daughter was born with a degenerative disease. Insurance refused the experimental therapy that might have saved her. Your father’s company had the equipment. He refused compassionate access because the procedure had not been approved.”
“I was told your daughter died from the disease.”
“She died waiting for permission.”
Pain moved across Leonard’s face.
“For years, I believed rules protected people. Then I learned rules protect institutions. Conrad offered funding to continue the research without restrictions.”
“So you began stealing children.”
“We began using abandoned biological material.”
“They are human beings.”
“They became human beings to you only after you saw your own face in them.”
The accusation landed because part of it was true.
I had ignored suffering until it entered my bloodline.
Conrad leaned forward.
“Open the carrier.”
Leonard lifted the blanket.
The container held only weights.
Tessa’s expression changed first.
“She tricked you.”
“No,” I said. “We tricked you.”
The laboratory alarms sounded.
On the wall monitors, locked pediatric doors opened simultaneously.
Children began running into the corridors under Dr. Shaw’s direction.
Leonard struck me across the face.
“Where is Clara?”
“Safe.”
A guard raised his weapon.
Tessa stepped between us.
“Don’t shoot him.”
I stared at her.
She looked furious, but not afraid.
“Rowan is still useful.”
“To whom?” Conrad asked.
“To me.”
For the first time, father and daughter turned on each other.
Conrad’s face hardened.
“You have failed repeatedly tonight.”
“I protected this program for four years.”
“You became distracted.”
“By Rowan?”
“By the fantasy that marriage would make you legitimate.”
Tessa went pale.
Conrad continued.
“You were always emotional. Just like your mother.”
Tessa’s hands curled into fists.
“You said this would become mine.”
“You will inherit what remains after I survive.”
“And if you don’t?”
Conrad’s voice dropped.
“Then none of us matter.”
Leonard checked the security monitors.
“The subjects are moving toward the loading bay.”
Conrad pointed at me.
“Take him. He will draw out the woman.”
The guards dragged me through the laboratory.
As we entered the corridor, explosions shook the building.
Sprinklers activated.
Smoke filled the ceiling.
Gerald Knox’s voice came over the emergency system.
“Rowan, I hope you remember the west stairwell.”
I smiled despite the gun against my back.
Gerald had arrived.
The lights failed.
I drove my elbow into the nearest guard and ran.
Behind me, shouting filled the corridor.
I reached the west stairwell and descended two levels.
Gerald waited with three retired security officers loyal to my father.
“You look terrible,” he said.
“You look old.”
“I am old. That’s why I brought younger men.”
We moved toward the loading bay.
Along the way, Gerald handed me a small audio recorder.
“Your father gave me this two days before he died.”
I stopped.
“You had it for eleven years?”
“He told me to release it only if the Whitmores moved against you.”
“They destroyed my marriage and stole my child.”
“I didn’t know until tonight.”
I pressed play.
My father’s voice filled the stairwell.
“If you are hearing this, Rowan, then I failed to shut down the program. Leonard Price is involved, but Conrad Whitmore controls it. Trust no one on the board. Most importantly, protect Maren Ellis.”
I looked at Gerald.
“Maren?”
The recording continued.
“She is not who she believes she is. Her mother participated in the first regenerative trials. Maren carries the same marker they are searching for.”
My blood turned cold.
“Conrad may eventually discover that any child Maren has could inherit the trait. If that happens, he will not stop at one.”
The recording ended.
I stared toward the loading bay.
Clara was not valuable because of a random mutation.
The Whitmores had targeted Maren before our divorce.
The affair evidence had never been only about separating us.
It had been about isolating her while she was pregnant.
A gunshot sounded below.
Then another.
I ran down the stairs.
At the loading bay, children crowded inside a transport bus while Dr. Shaw treated an injured guard.
Maren stood beside the open door holding Clara.
Tessa stood behind her with a gun pressed to her back.
“Drop it,” Tessa said.
I lowered my weapon.
Maren’s eyes met mine.
Tessa smiled.
“You finally understand, don’t you?”
I said nothing.
“She was always the prize,” Tessa whispered. “The babies were simply proof.”
Then she forced Maren and Clara into a black transport van.
The doors slammed shut.
The van accelerated through the loading gate.
I ran after it, but it disappeared into the rain.
A message appeared on my phone seconds later.
COME ALONE TO THE WHITMORE ESTATE.
Beneath it was a live photograph of Maren tied to a chair.
Clara was not in the image.
May you like
The final line read:
CHOOSE WHICH ONE YOU WANT BACK.
