Chapter 10 - The Account That Used Margaret's Name
Margaret swore she had not accessed Noah's medical file.
Daniel wanted to believe her.
The evidence did not.
"Your username."
"Someone used it."
"Password?"
"I haven't had access to Carter Biotechnics in years."
Daniel contacted company security.
Margaret's legacy account had been reactivated eleven months earlier.
Authorization came from an executive administrator.
Name:
David Sloan.
Daniel knew him.
Chief operating officer.
His father's former protégé.
A man who had worked with the family for thirty-two years.
Daniel called him.
David answered immediately.
"Daniel."
"Why was my mother's account reactivated?"
Silence.
"What account?"
"Don't."
David sighed.
"Legacy migration."
"Try again."
"Daniel, this isn't a phone conversation."
"Then come to the mansion."
"I'm in Boston."
"When are you back?"
"Tomorrow."
Daniel's voice hardened.
"Tonight."
David hesitated.
"I'll see what I can do."
The call ended.
Emily watched her husband.
"You trust him?"
"I did."
"Past tense?"
Daniel looked at the USB.
"Everything is past tense now."
They continued reading.
Project Helix had not ended in 1999.
It changed names.
Moved offshore.
Returned years later through a subsidiary.
The research involved a rare inherited cellular marker associated with unusually rapid tissue recovery.
Not immortality.
Not anything fantastical.
A potentially valuable medical characteristic.
Claire had carried it.
Daniel did not.
That explained why Claire had been central.
But then why Noah?
Emily opened another document.
Noah did carry the marker.
Through Emily.
Not Daniel.
Everyone stared.
Emily frowned.
"That makes no sense."
Daniel read the file.
The marker was not exclusively Carter.
Emily's family line could have carried it independently.
But somebody had noticed.
Someone had reopened a decades-old research program around their son.
Margaret whispered:
"They didn't come back for Claire."
Emily looked at her.
"They came back because they found Noah."
The room became silent.
Suddenly the threatening letters at the Manhattan apartment looked different.
The move to the mansion looked different.
Daniel's business travel looked different.
Someone might have deliberately created the conditions that placed Noah inside the Carter house.
Emily felt sick.
"Who suggested we move here?"
Daniel answered automatically.
"David."
Margaret closed her eyes.
Daniel stood.
He called security.
"David Sloan is not allowed on this property."
The security director hesitated.
"Sir."
"What?"
"Mr. Sloan entered twenty minutes ago."
Daniel stopped.
"Where?"
"He used executive credentials at the west gate."
"I told you he was in Boston."
"Apparently not."
They checked cameras.
David's car sat outside.
But he was nowhere on the first floor.
Emily ran upstairs.
"Noah!"
His bedroom was empty.
Daniel followed.
They searched.
Bathroom.
Closet.
Hall.
Nothing.
Margaret came running.
"Where is he?"
Emily's panic became rage.
"Security!"
Then they heard Noah crying.
From downstairs.
The laundry wing.
Emily ran.
The corridor door was locked.
She slammed against it.
"NOAH!"
A muffled voice answered.
"Mom!"
Security forced the door.
Inside, David Sloan stood beside the old washing machine.
Noah was against the far wall.
David held no weapon.
But he was blocking the exit.
Daniel charged him.
David raised both hands.
"Listen to me."
Daniel punched him once.
David fell.
Emily grabbed Noah.
"Did he hurt you?"
"No."
David coughed.
"I was protecting him."
Daniel grabbed his jacket.
"From whom?"
David pointed toward Margaret.
"Her."
Everyone turned.
Margaret stared at him.
May you like
David whispered:
"Ask your mother who really moved Claire the night she disappeared."
