Chapter 8 - The Brother in the DarkThe meeting place was an abandoned train station.
I arrived alone.
Or so I wanted Logan to believe.
The platform was empty.
Rain struck the broken roof.
Then I heard footsteps.
Slow.
Familiar.
A man stepped from the darkness.
Older.
Thinner.
Scar across his cheek.
Logan.
For several seconds neither of us spoke.
Then he smiled.
“You got old.”
I nearly laughed.
“So did you.”
He looked at my tattoo.
“They never removed it.”
“You knew I'd find you?”
“I hoped you would.”
“Eli?”
“He's safe.”
“Where?”
“Far away.”
“You kidnapped him.”
“I protected him.”
“You let me believe you were dead.”
“I had no choice.”
“You always have a choice.”
His jaw tightened.
“You don't remember.”
“Then help me remember.”
Logan stepped closer.
“Eight years ago, I discovered Helix.”
“I know.”
“You think it was a government program.”
“It wasn't?”
“It started that way.”
He looked around.
“Then someone changed it.”
“Who?”
“Voss.”
“Commissioner Voss?”
“Yes.”
“He built the Wardens.”
“Not exactly.”
Logan reached inside his coat.
He pulled out a small notebook.
Names filled its pages.
“This is everyone who knows about Helix.”
I scanned them.
Some were dead.
Some missing.
Some still held powerful positions.
Then I saw one name.
My own.
“What is this?”
Logan's eyes hardened.
“You were one of them.”
“No.”
“You were recruited.”
“Impossible.”
“You don't remember because they made sure you wouldn't.”
He handed me another photograph.
Me.
Logan.
And Commissioner Voss.
Standing beside a machine.
I stared at it.
“I don't remember this.”
“I know.”
“What did we do?”
Logan hesitated.
“We destroyed the original Helix.”
“Then why is it still operating?”
“Because we didn't destroy the program.”
His voice lowered.
“We only destroyed the people running it.”
I looked at the notebook.
“Then who runs it now?”
Logan didn't answer.
A gunshot cracked through the station.
Logan shoved me down.
Another shot.
He fired toward the rafters.
“Snipers!”
We ran.
I heard boots behind us.
Logan grabbed my shoulder.
“There's a tunnel.”
We escaped into darkness.
After several hundred yards, he stopped.
He was breathing hard.
“You need to listen.”
“To what?”
“They'll try to make you believe I killed Eli's mother.”
I stared.
“Eli's mother?”
Logan closed his eyes.
“She was killed.”
“By who?”
He looked directly at me.
“By you.”
The world stopped.
“What?”
Logan's voice broke.
“Colin... you killed her eight years ago.”
I couldn't breathe.
“That isn't possible.”
“It happened.”
Then he handed me a photograph.
A woman lay dead beside Blackwater Bridge.
And standing over her...
May you like
Was me.
Holding the gun.
