Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
“And she certainly never told you that Rachel is alive.”
Marcus forgot about Chloe for exactly one second.
One unforgivable second in which the name of his dead wife erased everything else from his mind.
Then Chloe shifted on the surveillance screen, and reality crashed back into him.
“Where are you?” Marcus shouted at the monitor. “Where is my daughter?”
Adrian Vance looked directly into the camera.
Eleven years had changed him. His hair had turned almost completely gray, his face was thinner, and deep lines surrounded his eyes. Yet Marcus could still see the father who had taught him to ride a bicycle, who had corrected his homework in red ink, who had disappeared behind a highway barrier and supposedly burned beyond recognition.
“Marcus,” Adrian said, “if you're watching this, listen carefully. You don't have much time.”
“Can he hear us?” Marcus asked.
Ruiz examined the terminal.
“No. I think this is prerecorded.”
As if answering him, Adrian continued.
“This message will play only if someone opens the C-17 archive.”
Marcus looked at the folder in Harrison's hands.
A trigger.
They had activated the recording themselves.
On-screen, Chloe remained perfectly still beside Adrian.
That meant the video had been recorded earlier.
But how much earlier?
Marcus leaned toward the monitor.
Chloe was wearing the same hospital gown.
The same identification bracelet.
Tonight.
“Find the timestamp,” he ordered.
Ruiz searched through the interface.
“There isn't one.”
“Then find where it was recorded.”
“I’m trying.”
Behind Marcus, Eleanor moved toward the door.
Sarah noticed.
“Mrs. Vance?”
Eleanor stopped.
Marcus turned.
“Where are you going?”
“To get Chloe.”
“You know where she is?”
Eleanor’s expression betrayed her.
Marcus stepped between her and the doorway.
“You know.”
“I know where Adrian would take her.”
“Where?”
She hesitated.
Marcus grabbed the Subject C-17 file and held it in front of her.
“No more half-truths. Rachel is dead. I watched her die.”
Eleanor’s eyes filled with something Marcus could not identify.
Pity.
“Did you?”
The question struck him harder than an accusation.
He remembered Rachel's final weeks.
The private room.
The medications.
The specialists Eleanor had arranged.
The night Rachel supposedly died, Marcus had been called away from the hospital because Chloe had developed a fever.
When he returned, Rachel had already been declared dead.
He had kissed her cold forehead.
He had attended the cremation.
He had scattered her ashes along the Massachusetts coast.
Except—
Marcus suddenly remembered something.
The coffin had remained closed.
Just like his father's.
He looked at Eleanor.
“No.”
“Marcus—”
“No.”
“Your grief is distorting—”
“Did I bury Rachel?”
Eleanor said nothing.
Marcus's voice dropped.
“Did I bury my wife?”
“No.”
The word was almost inaudible.
Marcus stumbled backward.
Sarah caught his arm.
“You told me she wanted to be cremated immediately.”
“She did.”
“Was she dead?”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“No.”
Marcus lunged toward her.
Ruiz caught him around the chest before he reached her.
“You stole my wife!”
“I saved her!”
“From what?”
“From Adrian!”
The room fell silent.
Eleanor pressed both hands against her face.
When she lowered them, the controlled executive was gone.
What remained was an exhausted old woman carrying eleven years of fear.
“Rachel discovered what Adrian had done after Chloe was born,” she said.
Marcus stopped struggling.
“What did he do?”
“He used material from his own experimental program during Rachel’s fertility treatment.”
Marcus stared at her.
“Rachel never had fertility treatment.”
“She did.”
“No.”
“You and Rachel tried for almost three years.”
Marcus remembered.
Tests.
Appointments.
Disappointments.
Then Rachel had become pregnant unexpectedly.
She had called it their miracle.
Eleanor continued.
“Rachel came to Adrian privately. She didn't want you to know because she knew how badly you wanted a child.”
“What material?”
“I don't know the full protocol.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I handled money and administration. Adrian handled the science.”
Harrison stepped forward.
“What kind of intervention?”
Eleanor looked at the neonatal file.
“Epigenetic modification. Neural-development markers. Experimental vectors. Adrian believed trauma responses could be encoded, transferred and reactivated.”
“That isn't inherited memory,” Harrison said.
“Adrian didn't care what anyone called it. He believed he had created a bridge between biological memory and conscious recall.”
Marcus looked at Chloe on the screen.
“Captain Brown.”
Eleanor nodded.
“Chloe knows things she was never taught.”
Marcus felt nauseated.
“Because of my father?”
“Possibly.”
“No. Don't say possibly. Tell me what you know.”
“I know Rachel discovered abnormalities in Chloe’s genetic testing. I know she confronted Adrian. And I know three days later Adrian's car supposedly went through that barrier.”
“You helped him disappear.”
“At first.”
“Why?”
“Because he convinced me someone was trying to steal the research.”
“Who?”
“I never knew.”
Adrian's recorded voice interrupted them.
“If Eleanor has begun explaining Project Mnemosyne, assume half of what she tells you is true.”
Eleanor spun toward the monitor.
Adrian smiled without warmth.
“The difficulty, son, is determining which half.”
Marcus stared at his father.
Even prerecorded, Adrian seemed to control the room.
Then the image changed.
A map appeared.
Ruiz moved closer.
“That’s this level.”
A red marker blinked at the far eastern end of Sublevel Three.
Adrian's voice continued.
“Chloe will be safe for twenty minutes after this recording begins. After that, the automated protocol will activate.”
Harrison frowned.
“What protocol?”
The screen displayed a countdown.
**19:43**
**19:42**
**19:41**
Marcus's fear returned instantly.
“What happens at zero?”
Adrian answered.
“Her memory trial begins.”
Marcus punched the monitor.
The screen cracked but continued displaying the countdown.
“Where is she?”
Ruiz pointed at the map.
“Eastern wing. Move.”
---
They ran.
The corridor narrowed as they traveled deeper underground.
Room numbers disappeared, replaced by letters.
MN-A.
MN-B.
MN-C.
Marcus barely noticed.
All he could see was the countdown in his mind.
Nineteen minutes.
Then eighteen.
They reached a security door.
Eleanor pressed her thumb to the scanner.
Red.
**ACCESS DENIED.**
“Again,” Marcus said.
She tried.
Red.
Ruiz examined the keypad.
“Her credentials have been revoked.”
“Can you break it?”
“Not quickly.”
Marcus looked through the narrow reinforced window.
Another corridor lay beyond.
At the far end was a light.
Then a figure crossed it.
A woman.
Marcus slammed his palm against the glass.
“Hey!”
The figure stopped.
Marcus froze.
Even from fifty feet away, there was something familiar about the way she stood.
The slight tilt of her head.
The narrow shoulders.
One hand unconsciously touching the opposite wrist.
Rachel used to do that whenever she was frightened.
Marcus stopped breathing.
“Rachel?”
The woman turned.
Too far away.
Too dark.
But Marcus knew.
“Rachel!”
She ran.
Not toward him.
Away.
Marcus began pounding the door.
“RACHEL!”
Eleanor whispered behind him, “Oh God.”
Marcus turned.
“You saw her.”
Eleanor didn't deny it.
“You knew she was here.”
“No.”
“Open this door!”
“I can't!”
Ruiz drew his sidearm and stepped back.
“Everyone away.”
He fired twice into the electronic lock.
Sparks erupted.
The door remained closed.
Harrison shouted, “That’s reinforced!”
Sarah pointed toward the ceiling.
“Maintenance access.”
A ventilation panel ran above them.
Ruiz climbed onto a utility cabinet and tore open the grille.
“Marcus, stay here.”
“No.”
“You don't know what's beyond that door.”
“My daughter is beyond that door.”
Marcus climbed after him.
---
The ventilation shaft was barely large enough to crawl through.
Marcus dragged himself forward on his elbows while Ruiz followed.
Below them, voices echoed through ventilation grilles.
At first Marcus couldn't understand them.
Then he heard a woman.
“I told you I wouldn't do this again.”
Rachel.
Marcus stopped crawling.
Ruiz nearly collided with him.
“What?”
Marcus held up one finger.
Below them, a man answered.
Adrian.
“You don't have a choice.”
“She’s a child.”
“She is the only viable subject.”
“She is my daughter.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
Rachel.
Alive.
His wife was alive.
And she was talking to his dead father about Chloe.
Rachel continued.
“You promised Marcus would never be involved.”
“He involved himself when he found the DNR.”
“That wasn't part of the plan.”
“No.”
“Then Eleanor did it?”
A pause.
Adrian answered.
“I don't know.”
Marcus looked back at Ruiz.
If Adrian hadn't planted the DNR...
And Rachel hadn't...
Then who had tried to kill Chloe?
Ruiz gestured forward.
They crawled toward the next grille.
Below was a laboratory.
Marcus looked through.
Chloe sat in a medical chair.
Electrodes had been attached to her temples.
Rachel stood beside her.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
Marcus's chest tightened painfully.
Adrian adjusted a machine near Chloe.
The countdown on its display read:
**07:12**
Marcus whispered, “Seven minutes.”
Ruiz examined the grille.
“We drop through here.”
Marcus nodded.
Then Rachel spoke below.
“Adrian, there’s something you still don't understand.”
“What?”
“The transfer didn't come from you.”
Adrian stopped.
Marcus froze above them.
“What are you talking about?” Adrian asked.
Rachel looked at Chloe.
“I changed the protocol the night she was born.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“What did you change?”
Rachel whispered something Marcus couldn't hear.
Adrian grabbed her arm.
“Whose sequence did you use?”
Rachel pulled away.
“Mine.”
Adrian stared at her.
Then slowly looked toward Chloe.
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
“You destroyed the maternal sequence.”
“I told you I did.”
Adrian's expression changed.
For the first time, the brilliant scientist looked frightened.
“What memories does she have?”
Rachel looked at her daughter.
“Not memories.”
“Then what?”
“Recognition.”
“Of whom?”
Rachel hesitated.
“People she's never met.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Who?”
Rachel whispered, “The children.”
Silence.
Adrian’s face went white.
Marcus looked at Ruiz.
Children?
Rachel continued.
“C-17 wasn't the seventeenth experiment.”
Adrian said nothing.
“She was the seventeenth surviving child.”
Marcus felt his stomach drop.
Adrian whispered, “No.”
“There were sixteen before Chloe.”
“That program was terminated.”
“You thought it was.”
Rachel walked toward a computer terminal.
“Someone continued it after your disappearance.”
“Who?”
“I spent eight years trying to find out.”
She entered a password.
A list appeared on the screen.
Marcus could see names.
Sixteen of them.
Dates of birth.
Locations.
Status codes.
Several were marked:
**DECEASED**
Others:
**UNKNOWN**
Three:
**ACTIVE**
Adrian stared at the list.
“Who has access to this?”
Rachel looked directly toward the ceiling.
Toward Marcus.
For one impossible moment, he wondered whether she knew he was there.
Then she said:
“The person who authorized Chloe’s DNR.”
Marcus stopped breathing.
Rachel clicked another file.
A photograph appeared.
Marcus couldn't see it clearly from above.
Adrian could.
He staggered backward.
“No.”
Rachel nodded.
“She found us.”
“That's impossible.”
“She never stopped looking.”
Marcus pressed closer to the grille.
Who?
Adrian whispered a name.
Marcus couldn't hear it.
Then every light in the laboratory turned red.
An alarm sounded.
The countdown changed.
**00:30**
“Something triggered the protocol!” Rachel shouted.
Adrian ran toward Chloe.
Marcus kicked the ventilation grille.
Once.
Twice.
It broke free.
He dropped into the laboratory.
“GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!”
Rachel turned.
Her face went completely still.
“Marcus?”
He stared at the woman he had mourned for six years.
There would be time for rage.
For questions.
For grief.
But not now.
Marcus rushed to Chloe.
“Dad!”
He ripped one electrode from her temple.
Rachel screamed.
“No! Don't disconnect them in that order!”
Marcus stopped.
“What?”
**00:14**
Rachel ran toward him.
“The system is stimulating her autonomic pathways. If you pull the wrong lead, you could stop her heart.”
**00:09**
Marcus looked at the wires.
“Then stop it!”
“I can't!”
**00:06**
Adrian reached the terminal.
“Override rejected.”
**00:04**
Rachel grabbed Chloe's face.
“Baby, listen to me.”
**00:03**
Chloe stared at her mother.
She had never consciously known Rachel.
Yet tears suddenly filled her eyes.
“Mommy?”
Rachel froze.
**00:02**
Marcus stared at Chloe.
**00:01**
The machine activated.
Chloe screamed.
Every monitor in the laboratory went black.
Then silence.
Emergency lights slowly illuminated.
Marcus reached for Chloe.
Her eyes opened.
But when she looked at him, there was no recognition in them.
“Chloe?”
She tilted her head.
Then she looked past Marcus toward Eleanor, who had just entered the laboratory with Harrison and Sarah.
Chloe's expression transformed.
Fear.
Pure, immediate terror.
She pointed at Eleanor.
“You.”
Everyone turned.
Eleanor stopped walking.
Chloe began shaking violently.
“You killed them.”
Eleanor stared at her granddaughter.
“Killed who?”
Chloe's voice changed.
It was still a child's voice, but the words came with a certainty that did not belong to an eight-year-old girl.
“The sixteen children.”
Marcus slowly turned toward his mother.
Eleanor whispered, “That's impossible.”
Chloe looked directly at her.
Then she said the one thing that finally destroyed Eleanor Vance's composure.
“I remember where you buried them.”