Chapter 8: The Woman Behind the Glass
Ethan stared at his empty arms.
For one impossible second, his mind refused to understand what had happened.
The baby had been there.
Warm.
Breathing.
His tiny fingers had wrapped around Ethan's hand.
Now there was nothing.
"No."
Ethan spun around.
"WHERE IS HE?"
The nurse backed away.
"I don't know."
Michael rushed toward the crib.
Empty.
The blanket was still warm.
Ethan's breathing became frantic.
"Sophie!"
She was still there.
Lily was still there.
Both girls were pressed against the wall.
Sophie was crying.
"Daddy..."
Ethan grabbed both girls.
"Stay with me."
A mechanical sound came from behind them.
Click.
A section of the wall opened.
Inside was a narrow elevator.
Michael stared.
"They took him through the wall."
Ethan looked at the elevator.
"Who?"
Michael didn't answer.
Then the speaker came alive.
Ethan's mother's voice filled the chamber.
"You have five minutes."
Ethan stared upward.
"Bring my son back!"
A soft laugh.
"He's not your son."
Ethan's fists tightened.
"He's my child."
"Biology is complicated."
"Where is Emily?"
"Waiting for you."
Ethan looked at Michael.
"We're going up."
Michael shook his head.
"It's a trap."
"I don't care."
"They want you."
"I know."
Michael stepped in front of him.
"And that's exactly why you shouldn't go."
Ethan looked at him.
"My wife is alive."
"My son is alive."
"My daughters are here."
"I've spent six years believing they were all gone."
He stepped toward the elevator.
"I'm done running."
Michael stared at him.
Then slowly lowered his weapon.
"Then I'm coming with you."
Celeste followed.
The elevator doors closed.
The machine began moving upward.
No one spoke.
Sophie held Lily's hand.
Ethan looked at them.
Two girls.
Same face.
Same eyes.
Same mother.
And somewhere above them was a third child.
Their brother.
The elevator stopped.
The doors opened.
Ethan stepped out.
He found himself inside an enormous underground laboratory.
Glass walls surrounded the room.
Medical machines filled the space.
Monitors displayed genetic sequences.
Hundreds of files were stacked on shelves.
At the center stood a long glass chamber.
And inside it...
was Emily.
Ethan stopped breathing.
"Emily."
She was sitting on a chair.
Her wrists were restrained.
A small tube ran from her arm to a medical device.
Her hair was longer.
Her face was thinner.
But it was her.
His wife.
Alive.
Emily lifted her head.
Their eyes met.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Emily whispered:
"Ethan."
He ran toward the glass.
"Emily!"
She began crying.
"I'm sorry."
He pressed his palm against the glass.
"Are you hurt?"
She shook her head.
"Not anymore."
"Who did this?"
Emily looked behind him.
Her eyes widened when she saw Sophie and Lily.
"My girls."
Sophie ran toward the glass.
"Mommy!"
Emily pressed both hands against it.
"Sophie."
Lily stood frozen.
Emily looked at her.
"Lily."
The little girl began crying.
"You remember me?"
Emily nodded.
"I never forgot you."
Ethan's voice broke.
"How long?"
Emily looked at him.
"Six years."
He closed his eyes.
"Why didn't you come home?"
"I tried."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I couldn't."
"Why?"
Emily looked toward the ceiling.
"Because your mother was watching."
Ethan's jaw tightened.
"She's here."
Emily nodded.
"Yes."
"Where?"
Emily didn't answer.
Instead, she looked toward a dark hallway.
Then she whispered:
"She's coming."
Footsteps echoed.
Slow.
Measured.
A woman appeared at the end of the corridor.
Ethan stared.
His mother.
Margaret Carter.
She looked almost exactly as he remembered her.
Elegant.
Calm.
Impossibly composed.
Ethan's mother had supposedly died eighteen years ago.
But there she stood.
Alive.
She smiled.
"Hello, Ethan."
Ethan couldn't speak.
Sophie moved behind him.
Lily grabbed his hand.
Margaret looked at the girls.
Then smiled.
"Beautiful."
Ethan stepped forward.
"You kidnapped my son."
Margaret shook her head.
"I rescued him."
"From what?"
"From you."
Ethan stared at her.
"You've lost your mind."
Margaret's expression didn't change.
"You still don't understand."
She walked toward the glass chamber.
"Your father spent his entire life trying to preserve our bloodline."
Ethan laughed bitterly.
"By kidnapping children?"
"By protecting the future."
"You murdered people."
"Some sacrifices were necessary."
Emily shouted:
"Margaret!"
Margaret looked at her.
"You were always too emotional."
Emily's eyes filled with rage.
"You promised you'd leave my children alone."
"I did."
"Then why are they here?"
Margaret smiled.
"Because they are no longer children."
Ethan looked at her.
"They're six."
"Exactly."
She pointed toward Sophie.
"Six years old."
Then Lily.
"Six years old."
Then toward a monitor.
A genetic sequence appeared.
Margaret's eyes gleamed.
"And your son is six years old."
Ethan frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
Margaret stepped closer.
"Six years ago, Meridian discovered something extraordinary."
She pointed toward the monitor.
"The triplets developed differently."
Ethan stared.
"How?"
"Sophie carries one genetic sequence."
"Lily carries another."
"And the boy carries the third."
Ethan's pulse quickened.
"What third?"
Margaret smiled.
"The combination."
Silence.
"He carries all three."
Ethan's blood ran cold.
"That's why you wanted him."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because with his DNA, Meridian can recreate the genetic sequence your father spent decades searching for."
Ethan stared.
"And what does that give you?"
Margaret's smile disappeared.
"Immortality."
Ethan laughed.
"That's impossible."
Margaret shook her head.
"Your father didn't believe it was."
She pointed at the medical equipment.
"He was close."
Emily suddenly screamed.
"Don't listen to her!"
Margaret turned.
"Why?"
"Because she doesn't know what happened."
Emily looked at Ethan.
"Your father wasn't trying to create immortality."
Margaret's face hardened.
Emily continued.
"He was trying to cure a disease."
Ethan frowned.
"What disease?"
Emily looked at Margaret.
"Your mother has it."
Margaret went still.
Ethan looked between them.
"What disease?"
Emily whispered:
"Early-onset degenerative neurological disease."
Ethan stared at his mother.
"You were dying?"
Margaret's expression remained cold.
"Not anymore."
Emily shook her head.
"She was dying."
"Then Meridian found the children."
Ethan looked at the machines.
"They've been using their DNA."
"Yes."
"For what?"
"To slow her disease."
Ethan looked at his mother.
"You've been experimenting on my children to keep yourself alive."
Margaret's expression finally cracked.
"I am their grandmother."
"That doesn't make it right."
"They are my blood."
"They're my children."
Margaret stared at him.
"And that is precisely the problem."
Ethan stepped closer.
"What does that mean?"
Margaret smiled.
"Because you are the final piece."
Ethan's heart dropped.
"What?"
"Your DNA isn't merely compatible."
She looked at him.
"It is the source."
Ethan stared.
Margaret continued.
"Your father didn't discover the gene in the children."
"He discovered it in you."
Silence.
Emily suddenly shouted:
"Ethan, don't let her take you!"
Margaret turned toward the glass chamber.
"Too late."
A door opened behind Ethan.
Armed men entered.
Michael immediately raised his gun.
Gunfire erupted.
Glass shattered.
Alarms screamed.
Ethan grabbed Sophie and Lily.
Emily shouted:
"RUN!"
Margaret disappeared behind a security door.
Michael fired toward the guards.
"GET THE GIRLS OUT!"
Ethan pulled Sophie and Lily toward the corridor.
Then he heard a cry.
A baby's cry.
He turned.
His son was lying inside a transparent medical chamber.
Alive.
But surrounded by wires.
Ethan ran toward him.
A security door slammed shut between them.
"NO!"
He pounded on the glass.
Inside the chamber, the baby opened his eyes.
And then something happened that made Ethan freeze.
The baby's eyes changed color.
From brown...
to a brilliant gray.
The exact same gray as Ethan's.
A monitor beside the chamber began flashing.
GENETIC ACTIVATION DETECTED.
Margaret's voice came through the speakers.
"Now you understand."
Ethan looked toward the ceiling.
"What?"
Her voice was calm.
"The children were never the experiment."
A pause.
"You were."
The laboratory doors slammed shut.
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And every screen in the room displayed the same message:
SUBJECT ETHAN CARTER: ACTIVATION PHASE ONE.
