Chapter 9: Activation
The words appeared on every screen.
SUBJECT ETHAN CARTER: ACTIVATION PHASE ONE.
Ethan stared at them.
Then at his son.
Then at Emily.
"What does that mean?"
Emily's face had gone pale.
"Ethan, get away from the chamber."
"Why?"
"Now!"
He stepped backward.
The medical chamber began filling with a pale blue light.
The baby started crying.
Ethan felt something strange in his chest.
A sudden pressure.
Then heat.
His vision blurred.
He grabbed the edge of the table.
"Ethan?"
Michael rushed toward him.
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not."
Ethan looked at his hands.
They were trembling violently.
A monitor beside him suddenly activated.
His heart rate appeared.
Then his blood oxygen.
Then another reading he didn't understand.
Michael stared at the screen.
"What is that?"
Emily whispered:
"Genetic response."
Ethan looked at her.
"To what?"
"To the baby."
He stared at his son.
The baby's crying became louder.
And with every cry, Ethan's heartbeat accelerated.
The monitor began beeping faster.
Margaret's voice came through the speakers.
"Beautiful."
Ethan looked toward the ceiling.
"You did this."
"Not me."
"Then who?"
"Your father."
Ethan's jaw tightened.
"My father has been dead for years."
Margaret laughed softly.
"Death is not always what you think it is."
Emily suddenly shouted:
"She's lying!"
Margaret's voice became colder.
"Am I?"
A screen changed.
An old video appeared.
Ethan recognized the room immediately.
His father's study.
The footage looked like it had been recorded years ago.
His father sat behind a desk.
Older.
Tired.
But alive.
Ethan stopped breathing.
His father looked directly into the camera.
"If you're watching this, then Margaret has already activated the program."
Ethan stepped closer.
"No."
His father continued.
"I failed to stop her."
Ethan's eyes filled with tears.
His father had been dead for fifteen years.
Yet there he was.
Speaking to him.
"I know what you're going to think."
"You'll believe I created Meridian."
"I did."
Ethan clenched his fists.
"But I did not create it for the reasons Margaret will tell you."
The video continued.
"Meridian began as a research organization."
"We were trying to cure a disease that has existed in our bloodline for generations."
His father paused.
"Your mother became obsessed with the research."
"She wanted more than a cure."
"She wanted to defeat death itself."
Ethan stared at the screen.
His father leaned toward the camera.
"That obsession destroyed our family."
The recording suddenly changed.
A hospital room appeared.
Ethan's mother was lying in a bed.
She looked young.
Healthy.
Beside her stood Emily.
Ethan's father was holding a newborn baby.
Ethan.
Ethan's breath caught.
His father was holding him.
A nurse stood nearby.
"Your son is the key," his father said.
Ethan whispered:
"Me."
Emily nodded.
"Yes."
The video continued.
"His cells regenerate faster than normal."
"His genetic structure is unique."
"He's resistant to the disease."
"More importantly..."
His father looked directly into the camera.
"He can pass the trait to his children."
The video stopped.
Ethan turned toward Emily.
"So Sophie, Lily, and my son..."
"All inherited different parts of it."
"Yes."
Michael stepped closer.
"That's why Meridian wanted the children."
Ethan looked at the medical chamber.
"Then why was the baby hidden?"
Emily looked away.
"Because he was the strongest match."
Ethan stared at her.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I tried."
"When?"
"Every time I came home."
Ethan's expression changed.
"What?"
Emily's eyes filled with tears.
"I was in the house."
"After you supposedly died?"
"Yes."
Ethan remembered the strange nights.
The footsteps.
The lights turning on by themselves.
The feeling that someone was watching him.
"You were there?"
Emily nodded.
"I watched Sophie grow up."
Ethan's voice cracked.
"Why didn't you come to me?"
"Because they threatened to kill you."
"Who?"
"Everyone."
She pointed toward Margaret's security cameras.
"Meridian had people everywhere."
Ethan stared at his mother.
"Why did she keep you alive?"
Emily answered.
"Because I knew where the third baby was."
Ethan looked at the chamber.
"She knew?"
"She suspected."
Emily lowered her voice.
"But she didn't know where I had hidden him."
Ethan froze.
"You hid him?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
Emily looked toward him.
"In this mansion."
Ethan's eyes widened.
"The nursery."
Emily nodded.
"The room behind your wife's bedroom."
Ethan suddenly remembered.
The hidden nursery.
The toys.
The photographs.
The secret room.
Emily had been there all along.
"You lived underneath my house."
"For six years."
"Why?"
"Because it was the only place Meridian couldn't enter without exposing themselves."
Ethan looked toward the medical chamber.
"Then how did they find him?"
Emily's expression changed.
"Someone betrayed me."
Everyone looked at Celeste.
Celeste shook her head.
"It wasn't me."
Michael suddenly stepped forward.
"Then who?"
Emily looked at him.
"Richard."
Michael's face hardened.
"I knew it."
Ethan turned.
"Where is Richard?"
No one answered.
Then the laboratory doors opened.
Richard walked in.
His shirt was torn.
There was blood on his forehead.
But he was smiling.
Ethan raised his weapon.
"Stay where you are."
Richard looked at him.
"You're finally beginning to understand."
Ethan's voice was cold.
"You betrayed Emily."
Richard shook his head.
"No."
He looked at Margaret.
"I betrayed Meridian."
Margaret's expression changed.
"What did you say?"
Richard walked toward the chamber.
"I've been working against you for six years."
Margaret laughed.
"You brought us the baby."
"Because I needed to get inside."
"You were supposed to kill Emily."
"I couldn't."
Margaret's eyes narrowed.
"Then why?"
Richard looked at Ethan.
"Because your wife saved my life."
Emily looked down.
Richard continued.
"Six years ago, I was ordered to eliminate Emily after she discovered the third pregnancy."
"I couldn't do it."
"So I staged her death."
Ethan stared.
"You caused the accident?"
Richard nodded.
"The woman who died in that car was one of Meridian's operatives."
Ethan's face went pale.
"So Emily has been alive because of you."
"Yes."
Margaret stepped forward.
"Then why bring us here?"
Richard smiled.
"Because I knew you'd eventually activate Ethan."
Margaret's expression changed.
Richard turned toward the monitors.
"And I needed Ethan's genetic response."
Michael frowned.
"For what?"
Richard looked at him.
"To destroy Meridian."
Silence.
Ethan stared.
"How?"
Richard pointed at the chamber.
"The activation is broadcasting Ethan's genetic signature through the facility."
Michael's eyes widened.
"You're using him as a key."
Richard nodded.
"The entire Meridian network is connected."
"Once the sequence completes, every encrypted archive opens."
Ethan understood.
"All their records."
"Every file."
"Every payment."
"Every child."
"Every person they bought."
Richard smiled.
"Everything."
Margaret suddenly pulled a weapon from beneath her jacket.
She aimed it at Richard.
"You've made a mistake."
Richard turned.
Margaret fired.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
He collapsed.
Emily screamed.
"Ethan!"
Margaret grabbed a control panel.
The chamber's temperature began dropping.
The baby started crying.
Ethan ran toward the glass.
"STOP!"
Margaret looked at him.
"Your son belongs to me."
Ethan slammed his fist against the glass.
"No."
Margaret smiled.
"You still don't understand the choice."
She pointed the gun toward Sophie.
"You can save the baby."
Then toward Lily.
"Or you can save your daughters."
Ethan froze.
Margaret continued.
"Only one containment system can remain active."
Emily screamed:
"She's lying!"
Margaret smiled.
"Choose, Ethan."
Three chambers appeared on the control screen.
One for the newborn.
One for Sophie.
One for Lily.
Two began flashing red.
The baby cried.
Sophie screamed:
"Daddy!"
Lily grabbed Ethan's hand.
"Don't leave me."
Ethan looked at all three children.
His children.
Then he noticed something.
The three chambers weren't connected to the same system.
There was a fourth connection.
A line leading directly to Margaret.
Ethan stared at it.
"Michael."
"Yes?"
"Look at the screen."
Michael followed his gaze.
His eyes widened.
"She's connected to the system."
Ethan nodded.
Margaret's smile disappeared.
"You don't understand what you're seeing."
Ethan finally smiled.
"No."
He stepped toward the control panel.
"I think I do."
He reached for the main switch.
Margaret raised her gun.
"Touch it and they die."
Ethan stopped.
Then he looked at Emily.
She was crying.
But she was smiling.
Because she had just noticed something too.
The bracelet around Lily's wrist.
The same silver bracelet Emily had once given Ethan.
It had a tiny hidden compartment.
Emily whispered:
"Ethan..."
He understood.
The bracelet wasn't jewelry.
It was a key.
And someone had deliberately left it where he would find it.
Ethan pulled it from Lily's wrist.
He opened the compartment.
Inside was a tiny electronic chip.
Michael stared.
"That's the master access key."
Ethan looked at Margaret.
Her face had gone completely white.
For the first time that night...
she looked afraid.
Ethan inserted the chip.
Every screen in the laboratory went black.
Then a single message appeared.
MERIDIAN ARCHIVE: UNLOCKED.
Thousands of files began downloading.
Names.
Bank accounts.
Medical records.
Photographs.
And then one final file appeared.
It was marked:
PROJECT CARTER.
Ethan opened it.
The first photograph made his blood run cold.
It showed his father.
His mother.
Emily.
Richard.
Michael.
And a sixth person.
Ethan stared at the photograph.
He knew that face.
Everyone in the room did.
Because the sixth person was the man they had believed was responsible for everything.
The man who had been speaking through the speakers all night.
But he wasn't a stranger.
He was Ethan.
A photograph of Ethan as a teenager.
Taken twenty years earlier.
Underneath it were four words:
SUBJECT WAS NEVER INFORMED.
Ethan stared at the screen.
Then a hidden door behind Margaret opened.
A man stepped out.
Ethan's father.
Alive.
May you like
And he looked directly at his son.
"It's time you learned why we had to erase your memories."
