Chapter 10 - “I was there.”The words hollowed me out.
“You were at the hospital?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The night your wife died.”
“You never told me.”
“You never asked.”
I stepped closer.
“What happened?”
Emily looked down.
“Your wife asked me to protect Noah.”
“From whom?”
“Everyone.”
“That's not an answer.”
“She knew they were coming.”
“Who?”
“The doctors.”
“Victor?”
“He was one of them.”
“What did my mother do?”
Emily's lips trembled.
“She ordered the nurses to remove Noah.”
“Why?”
“Because he wasn't breathing properly.”
“He had just been born.”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
Emily swallowed.
“They put him under the warming system.”
I remembered the nursery.
Stop warming him.
My mother had known.
Emily continued.
“Your wife screamed that the heat was killing him.”
I stared.
“Exactly what she told you tonight.”
“Yes.”
“She knew?”
“She learned it from the trial.”
“What trial?”
Emily closed her eyes.
“The first time they used the therapy on us, my brother's temperature rose.”
“And?”
“His body shut down.”
A long silence.
“Why did my wife know about it?”
“Because she had been investigating them.”
“What did she find?”
“She discovered Noah had been genetically modified before birth.”
I shook my head.
“That is impossible.”
“Not in their world.”
“They altered my son before he was born?”
“They altered your wife's embryo.”
The words were almost impossible to understand.
She handed me another document.
The title read:
PROJECT NOAH: IN UTERO RESPONSE.
I read the first sentence.
Noah wasn't the first.
He was the most successful.
My stomach turned.
“What does successful mean?”
“He survived.”
“Survived what?”
“The first exposure.”
Emily pointed at a graph.
Temperature.
Heart rate.
Neurological response.
“Your son has a unique ability.”
“What?”
“He can survive a level of thermal stress that would kill another infant.”
“That sounds like a superpower.”
“It isn't.”
“What is it?”
“It's a switch.”
I stared.
Emily explained.
“The drug doesn't simply poison him.”
“It changes how his body regulates itself.”
“But why would they do that?”
“So they can study controlled shutdown.”
“For what?”
“To create soldiers who can survive extreme environments.”
I stared at the file.
This wasn't a children's medical experiment.
It was military research.
My mother had been involved.
My father had funded it.
My wife had discovered it.
And my son had become the result.
A sound came from the Blue Room.
A soft electronic beep.
Then another.
Emily looked terrified.
“They've started.”
“Started what?”
“Phase Three.”
I ran toward the door.
She grabbed me.
“No!”
I pushed it open.
The pressure sensors screamed.
Lights activated.
The room was enormous.
Cold.
Sterile.
At the center was an infant chamber.
Noah lay inside.
Alive.
His eyes closed.
Tubes ran beside him.
Monitors displayed his temperature.
88.2.
I almost collapsed.
“NOAH!”
A speaker crackled.
Victor's voice.
“Don't move.”
I froze.
“You're being watched.”
I looked around.
Cameras everywhere.
Victor continued.
“If you step closer, the chamber fills with nitrogen.”
My heart stopped.
“Open it.”
“No.”
“Then tell me what you want.”
A pause.
“You.”
“Me?”
“Your blood.”
I laughed.
“You've got billions of dollars. Buy blood.”
“We don't want your money.”
“What then?”
“Your genetic sequence.”
I stared at Noah.
“What does mine have to do with him?”
“Everything.”
Emily stepped forward.
Victor spoke again.
“Do you know why your father funded the project?”
I didn't answer.
“Because the Carter family carries a rare mutation.”
My blood ran cold.
“You inherited it.”
“And Noah?”
“Your son inherited both yours and your wife's.”
“What mutation?”
Victor laughed.
“The ability to survive.”
Suddenly Noah's monitor alarmed.
Temperature 89.1.
Emily shouted:
“Turn off the system!”
Victor replied:
“No.”
Noah's heart rate climbed.
Then dropped.
I slammed my fist against the glass.
“Stop!”
Victor said:
“You have sixty seconds.”
“For what?”
“To decide whether you want to save your son…”
A pause.
“…or learn why your father sacrificed hundreds of children to create him.”
The room went silent.
May you like
Then the countdown appeared.
00:59
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