Chapter 9 - The Enemy in Elias’s House
Nora called Elias from the helicopter.
He answered immediately.
“I have Mia. She is safe.”
“There is another child using her identity.”
Silence.
“Where?”
“Your pediatric center.”
“That is impossible.”
“That word has lost its meaning.”
Nora sent him the file.
Elias read it while she listened to his breathing.
“The authorization bears my digital signature.”
“Did you sign it?”
“No.”
“Then someone inside Vale Meridian is part of Project Aster.”
Elias ordered the hospital locked down.
By the time Nora, Emily, and Lucy arrived, federal agents had surrounded the building.
Mia ran into Nora’s arms in the private family suite.
Nora held her until both of them were crying.
“You came back,” Mia whispered.
“I told you I would.”
“And the girl?”
Nora looked toward Emily and Lucy.
“We brought her home.”
Mia studied Lucy with solemn curiosity.
“Does her mouth hurt too?”
“No,” Lucy said.
Mia nodded.
“That’s good.”
The two girls sat together, each holding one side of Mia’s stuffed rabbit.
Nora turned to Elias.
“Where is the other child?”
“We are searching.”
“You own this hospital.”
“I own the company. That does not mean I know every hidden room.”
Emily examined the floor plans.
“Project facilities often use sealed recovery suites near radiology or transplant units.”
A senior hospital administrator entered.
Dr. Samuel Harlan had worked for Vale Meridian for thirty years. Nora remembered him from childhood photographs with her father.
He hugged Elias.
“I came as soon as I heard.”
Emily stiffened.
“You.”
Harlan’s face changed.
“You’re alive.”
“You signed my death certificate.”
Nora stepped between them.
“You knew Emily existed?”
Harlan backed toward the door.
Agents blocked him.
“I was following Charles Whitcomb’s orders.”
“You told our parents she died.”
“I was young. They threatened my family.”
“And the children here?” Emily demanded. “Who threatened you this time?”
Harlan’s shoulders sagged.
“Beatrice.”
“Where is the girl using Mia’s name?”
He remained silent.
Elias grabbed his coat.
“Samuel, answer her.”
Harlan looked at his old friend.
“She is in the legacy wing.”
“There is no legacy wing,” Elias said.
“There is beneath the original surgical building.”
They followed him through a staff elevator requiring three separate access codes.
The elevator descended below the listed basement.
When the doors opened, Nora saw a pristine laboratory.
Unlike Aster Ridge, this facility had not been abandoned or burned.
It was active.
Scientists stood behind glass walls.
Security officers reached for weapons but surrendered when they saw federal agents.
In a recovery room lay a little girl identified as Mia.
Her head had been shaved.
A bandage covered her hip.
Nora approached the bed.
The child opened her eyes.
She looked like Nora.
“Are you my mother?” she asked.
Nora’s heart broke.
“What is your real name?”
“They call me Number Four.”
Emily checked the monitors.
“She underwent marrow extraction.”
“How recently?”
“Within twelve hours.”
Nora looked at Harlan.
“Who authorized it?”
He glanced toward a closed office.
Elias opened the door.
Inside, Beatrice sat in a wheelchair receiving an intravenous infusion.
A clear bag of processed cells hung beside her.
“You used that child,” Nora said.
Beatrice looked almost serene.
“She was created for this purpose.”
“She is a human being.”
“She would not exist without the program.”
“That does not make her yours.”
Beatrice’s eyes shifted toward Elias.
“You abandoned the research because you lacked courage.”
“I abandoned it because it became monstrous.”
“You abandoned your family.”
Elias stepped inside.
“You stole my granddaughters.”
“I preserved your bloodline.”
“You turned it into inventory.”
Beatrice smiled faintly.
“And yet here you are, surrounded by descendants who would not exist without me.”
Emily moved toward the infusion pump.
Harlan blocked her.
“If you stop it suddenly, Beatrice could die.”
Nora looked at the child in the recovery bed.
“How much did they take?”
“Too much,” Emily said. “She needs a transfusion and immediate treatment.”
Agents arrested Harlan and the laboratory staff.
Beatrice remained under guard while doctors evaluated whether the infusion could be safely discontinued.
Nora refused to let medical ethics become another weapon.
“Treat her,” she told the attending physician. “But preserve every piece of evidence.”
Beatrice studied her.
“You are softer than I expected.”
“No,” Nora replied. “I will not become you.”
The girl called Number Four was transferred upstairs.
Mia sat beside her bed.
“You need a name,” Mia said.
The child blinked.
“Why?”
“Because numbers are for math.”
“What name?”
Mia considered carefully.
“Hope.”
The child tested the word.
“Hope.”
Nora looked at Emily.
Emily was crying.
Later that evening, an agent brought devastating news.
Garrett had offered to cooperate.
In exchange for reduced charges, he promised to identify every Project Aster facility and every official involved.
“He wants immunity?” Nora asked.
“Not full immunity. A sentencing agreement.”
“He kidnapped my daughter.”
“He also claims Beatrice ordered a murder connected to your parents’ plane crash.”
Nora went still.
“What does he know?”
“He says the crash was not intended to kill your parents.”
“Then who was the target?”
The agent looked at Elias.
“You.”
Elias sat down slowly.
Nora understood.
Her parents had taken Elias’s usual plane.
The sabotage had killed the wrong people.
May you like
Garrett claimed to possess proof.
But he would reveal it only if Nora agreed to meet him privately.
