Chapter 5 - THE OTHER LAUREN
Her name was Claire Bennett.
Forty-one.
Former Army intelligence.
Similar build.
Similar face after surgery.
She had trained for two years to replace me if I refused to cooperate with the Night Harbor cover-up.
Claire knew my voice patterns, signatures, scars, and deployment history.
She had already attended two remote briefings under my identity while I recovered from the training fire.
The accident that burned me had not been random.
It was designed to remove me temporarily while Claire entered command systems.
I pushed two soldiers clear and survived more strongly than planned.
That delayed the replacement.
Margaret’s boiling-water assault was intended to worsen the burns and force hospitalization.
Thomas allowed it because he believed the camera evidence would expose the family faster.
Again, I was treated as a tactical object.
Claire surrendered after learning Victor planned to kill both of us once the transition completed.
She gave us the real General Brooks’s location.
Federal and military teams raided the old hospital.
They recovered him alive.
He confirmed Victor had replaced him.
But then he looked at me and said:
“Colonel Hayes, your commission record is also false.”
I had served twenty years.
Every promotion.
Every deployment.
Every medal.
What could be false?
He placed my original birth certificate on the table.
Name: Lauren Bennett.
Mother: Evelyn Bennett.
Father: Unknown.
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The Brooks family had adopted me through the same military placement program that produced Thomas.
My entire family connection to General Brooks and my father’s line had been constructed.
