Chapter 6 - THE REPLACEMENT
The girl’s name was Lily.
She had lived beneath the workshop for almost two years.
She did not know her last name.
She knew only numbers.
Room Three.
Patient Six.
Replacement pending.
Nathan wrapped his coat around her shoulders.
“Where are the others?”
“Doctor took them.”
“Which doctor?”
She looked toward Jason.
He stood upstairs in handcuffs between two federal agents.
“His brother.”
Jason shouted from above,
“She’s lying!”
Lily flinched.
I moved between her and the stairwell.
“He cannot touch you.”
She looked at my bruises.
“He touched you.”
The truth hurt.
“Yes.”
“But he won’t again.”
Federal agents searched the lower level.
They found medical files belonging to pregnant women from three states.
Some were missing.
Some were officially dead.
Some had children whose birth records had been altered.
My name appeared on the newest folder.
SARAH MILLER.
FETAL STATUS: VIABLE.
MATERNAL COMPLIANCE: FAILED.
TRANSFER DATE: TONIGHT.
I stared at the page.
“Transfer where?”
Daniel entered the corridor supported by Nathan.
He looked at the file.
“To St. Augustine Research Center.”
Michael shook his head.
“That place closed after the fire.”
“No,” Daniel said. “It moved underground.”
Nathan looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“I worked there.”
Everyone went quiet.
Daniel met my eyes.
“I was not a mechanic when we met.”
I remembered him at twenty-two.
Grease beneath his nails.
Shy smile.
Always avoiding questions about family.
“What were you?”
“A security engineer.”
“For the research center?”
“Yes.”
Jason laughed from upstairs.
“He was supposed to protect the project.”
Daniel continued.
“The center paid women to participate in fertility studies. Then the women disappeared.”
“And you helped them?”
“At first, I believed the studies were legal.”
“When did you learn the truth?”
“When I saw a newborn listed as deceased being transferred alive.”
He exposed the program.
Someone sabotaged his truck.
The crash killed another man.
Jason identified the body as Daniel.
Then Jason found me.
Married me.
Watched me.
Waited until I became pregnant.
I looked at Jason.
“You chose me because of Daniel.”
“You were already damaged.”
Nathan drove him against the wall.
“Speak about her like that again.”
Jason smiled.
“You think your brother is innocent?”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
Nathan noticed.
“What did you do?”
Daniel looked at Lily.
“I designed the locks.”
The little girl stepped back from him.
He swallowed.
“I did not know who they were holding.”
“But you learned,” I said.
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“I copied the files.”
“Where are they?”
Daniel stared toward the chemical tank.
“Inside the control system.”
Michael opened the hoist terminal.
A password screen appeared.
Daniel entered a code.
The files began loading.
Then the lower-level doors locked simultaneously.
Red lights flashed.
A woman’s voice came through the speakers.
“Security breach detected.”
Lily started crying.
Daniel looked toward the ceiling.
“She knows we’re here.”
“Who?” Nathan asked.
May you like
Daniel’s face went pale.
“My mother.”
