Chapter 5 - THE PEOPLE WHO STOLE MY CHILDHOODThe first alarm sounded thirty seconds later.
Not a fire alarm.
A security alarm.
Quiet.
Three short pulses.
Then every glass door on the medical floor locked automatically.
Caleb pulled a handgun from a concealed holster beneath his jacket.
I stared at it.
He noticed.
“Licensed.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
For the first time, he grinned.
“You really are my sister.”
Julian moved toward the wall panel.
“West elevator disabled.”
Adrian checked his phone.
“Security is sweeping floors forty through fifty.”
Helena remained beside me.
Calm.
Focused.
But I could see tension in her hands.
“Can you shut the implant off?” I asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because it is integrated with your nervous system.”
“That sounds concerning.”
“It is concerning.”
“Mom,” Julian said sharply.
The room went still.
It was the first time I heard him call her that.
Helena looked at him.
“Sorry.”
Her attention returned to me.
“The implant cannot override your choices. It cannot force movement or alter memory. But the original beacon protocol can expose approximate proximity under certain conditions.”
“So whoever’s looking for me knows I’m here.”
“They know you’re somewhere in this building.”
Wonderful.
Seven years in prison.
One afternoon with my biological family.
Already under attack.
I almost laughed.
Instead, I asked, “Who has access to the original signal?”
Helena looked at Adrian.
“That list is very short.”
“How short?”
“Seven people.”
Julian swore.
“Three are dead.”
“Two work for us,” Adrian said.
“And the other two?”
Silence.
Caleb answered.
“One disappeared twenty-one years ago.”
I stared at him.
“And the seventh?”
He looked toward the locked door.
“Dr. Victor Soren.”
Helena’s expression became stone.
“He designed the early implant architecture with me.”
“Where is he?”
“No one knows.”
Of course.
The universe apparently believed subtlety was overrated.
A second alert sounded.
Caleb checked his phone.
“Unauthorized vehicle entering underground garage.”
Julian cursed.
Adrian spoke into his earpiece.
“Seal Level B.”
Then the lights went out.
Emergency illumination flickered red.
For one second, nobody moved.
Then a blast shook the floor.
Glass rattled.
Smoke alarms screamed.
Caleb grabbed my uninjured arm.
“We move now.”
The system voice sounded.
【Time remaining: 11 minutes.】
We rushed through a rear access corridor.
Two security officers met us at the stairwell.
“Garage breach,” one said. “Three vehicles. Armed team.”
“Destination?” Adrian asked.
“Unknown.”
Caleb shook his head.
“Not unknown.”
He looked at me.
“They came for her.”
My pulse remained strangely steady.
The implant.
I realized.
It was regulating me.
Keeping panic below a certain threshold.
We descended two flights.
Then Helena stopped suddenly.
“No.”
Julian turned.
“What?”
“They expect us to move down.”
Adrian understood immediately.
“Roof.”
Caleb nodded.
“Extraction helicopter?”
“Four minutes.”
We reversed direction.
The first gunshot came from below.
Muted.
Suppressed.
Security returned fire.
The stairwell filled with sharp cracks.
Julian shoved the roof door open.
Cold night air hit my face.
A helicopter hovered above the neighboring tower.
Too far.
“Where is ours?” Caleb shouted.
Adrian checked his phone.
“Thirty seconds.”
Behind us, the stairwell door slammed.
A security officer shouted.
“Go!”
We ran.
The roof was enormous.
Wind tore at my borrowed coat.
Then the stairwell door burst open behind us.
A man in tactical gear appeared.
He raised his weapon.
I didn’t think.
My body moved.
I grabbed Helena and pulled her down.
A shot cracked over our heads.
Caleb fired twice.
The attacker dropped.
My ears rang.
Helena stared at me.
“You saved me.”
“Instinct.”
“No.”
She touched my cheek.
“You always did that.”
A helicopter rose over the roof edge.
Black.
Unmarked.
Side door open.
Julian pushed us toward it.
“Move!”
Another attacker emerged.
Then another.
Security exchanged fire.
We reached the helicopter.
Adrian climbed in first.
Helena followed.
Caleb turned to cover Julian.
I was halfway inside when a voice shouted behind me.
“Elara!”
Everything stopped.
Not because of the name.
Because I recognized the voice.
Impossible.
I turned.
A man stood near the roof entrance.
Late fifties.
Gray hair.
Thin face.
No weapon.
He looked directly at me.
And suddenly I remembered a white room.
Metal restraints.
A man bending over me.
“Good girl, Chloe.”
Pain exploded behind my eyes.
I screamed.
The memory hit so violently my knees collapsed.
Caleb caught me.
The man smiled.
“Still remembering?”
Helena went white.
“Victor.”
Dr. Victor Soren.
The man who had disappeared twenty-one years ago.
The man who helped design the implant.
The man from the blank years of my childhood.
Julian raised his gun.
Soren lifted both hands.
“You shoot me, you never learn who sold her.”
Adrian stared at him.
“SOLD?”
Soren smiled.
“The Carters weren’t the first family chosen for her.”
My blood turned cold.
Helena whispered, “What are you talking about?”
Soren’s eyes never left mine.
“We needed a stable environment. Wealth. Medical access. A family desperate enough to adopt quickly.”
I could barely breathe.
“You arranged my adoption.”
“Yes.”
The helicopter blades thundered above us.
Soren continued.
“Not personally. But we influenced it.”
My mind raced.
“Why?”
“To observe you.”
Helena looked physically ill.
Soren’s smile widened.
“The implant was never just seizure control.”
“Shut up,” Helena snapped.
He ignored her.
“It was adaptive resilience. Stress learning. Neurochemical regulation.”
I felt suddenly cold.
“You put me in that family to test me?”
“No.”
Soren tilted his head.
“We put you in several environments.”
Several.
A flash.
A locked basement.
A woman shouting.
A needle.
A child crying.
Me.
I doubled over.
Caleb caught me again.
“Elara!”
Soren’s expression became almost affectionate.
“You survived every one.”
Julian fired.
The bullet struck the metal wall beside Soren.
“Next one goes through your face.”
Soren didn’t flinch.
Sirens approached from below.
He began backing toward the stairwell.
“You think the Carters are monsters?”
He looked at me.
“They were amateurs.”
Then he smiled.
“Ask Richard Carter who paid his company fifteen million dollars the year before they adopted you.”
And disappeared down the stairs.
Adrian shouted into his radio.
“Take him alive!”
Security rushed after him.
Caleb pulled me into the helicopter.
The door slammed.
We lifted into the night.
Inside my mind, the countdown reached zero.
【Host extraction complete.】
Then another message appeared.
【Primary safety environment recognized.】
For the first time in seven years, the voice went silent.
But I could still hear Soren.
Ask Richard Carter.
May you like
Fifteen million dollars.
A year before they adopted you.
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