Chapter 12 - THE FALSE FLATLINE
Dr. Reed reached Julian before anyone else.
The monitor had been disconnected.
Julian remained alive.
Thomas used the alarm to clear the corridor.
He entered Jonah’s room and took a blood sample.
Then he fled through the pharmacy elevator.
Security recovered the medical cooler.
Inside were samples labeled JULIAN, JONAH, and GABRIEL.
Thomas wanted all three Thorne boys.
The program had not ended with the vault.
A second laboratory still operated.
Dr. Reed blamed herself for missing signs during her marriage.
Thomas traveled constantly.
He kept locked offices.
He discouraged her from reviewing certain pediatric studies.
“He made normal life feel like proof of innocence,” she said.
I understood.
Manipulators did not hide only through darkness.
They hid through ordinary mornings.
Thomas contacted her directly.
He offered Julian’s complete cardiac protocol in exchange for the vault’s biological samples.
Dr. Reed refused.
He threatened Gabriel.
The boy carried an implanted tracker from the boarding school.
Staff removed it before Thomas could act.
The device contained coordinates to the second laboratory.
Thomas had expected investigators to discover it eventually.
The location was a trap.
An underground research site beneath a children’s rehabilitation charity.
Federal agents entered through multiple routes.
They found no staff.
No children.
Only incubators and archived embryos.
One chamber remained active.
Inside was a developing fetus created from Caroline’s stored egg and my biological sample.
Another child.
A daughter.
The program planned to use her as a future match for the boys.
Dr. Reed looked at the chamber.
“She is twenty-four weeks.”
The law, medicine, and ethics surrounding the situation were complex.
But one truth was simple.
She was not research property.
Federal courts placed the fetus under independent medical guardianship while specialists determined how to continue care safely.
Thomas appeared on the laboratory screen.
He smiled at Evelyn.
“You always wanted a daughter.”
Then he revealed the final trap.
The laboratory ventilation system had been sealed.
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Oxygen levels began falling.
Agents had nine minutes to escape with the chamber.
