Chapter 4 - Daniel didn’t move.His mother’s voice came through the speaker again.
“Daniel. Come downstairs.”
He whispered, “My mother is dead.”
Marcus nodded.
“She is.”
“Then who is that?”
Marcus looked at Vanessa.
“Someone who sounds exactly like her.”
Daniel turned.
“How?”
Vanessa’s eyes were fixed on the speaker.
“Because she was there.”
“Where?”
“The night Emma disappeared.”
Daniel felt rage rising again.
“Tell me everything.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“No.”
“Enough secrets.”
“There are things you cannot unhear.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“My daughter is being hunted. A man was chained beneath my house. Someone is pretending to be my dead mother. And you expect me to protect you from the truth?”
Vanessa whispered, “I expect you to survive it.”
A metallic door opened at the end of the corridor.
Inside was a room filled with files.
Boxes.
Photographs.
Medical records.
Daniel walked inside.
The first folder he picked up had his name on it.
SUBJECT D-01
He opened it.
Birth records.
Blood tests.
Psychological evaluations.
Photographs from childhood.
He turned another page.
His hands began shaking.
There was a section titled:
GENETIC ACTIVATION TIMELINE
Beneath it were photographs of several family members.
His grandfather.
His father.
Emma.
Daniel.
Eli.
Lily.
Every one carried the same crescent-shaped mark.
Marcus stood behind him.
“Your family wasn’t chosen randomly.”
“Chosen for what?”
Marcus stared at him.
“To carry a gene.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“A gene for what?”
“Memory.”
Daniel looked at him.
Marcus continued.
“Not ordinary memory. Genetic memory.”
“That isn’t possible.”
“Your father spent millions proving it was.”
Daniel looked back at the files.
His father had been obsessed with memory disorders.
Daniel remembered that.
But he had never known why.
Another folder fell open.
Inside was a photograph of Emma.
She was seventeen.
Standing beside a man.
Daniel recognized him.
His father’s closest adviser.
Victor Kane.
A man everyone believed had died in a car accident.
But on the back of the photograph someone had written:
EMMA DISCOVERED THE SECOND SUBJECT.
Daniel looked at Marcus.
“Who was the second subject?”
Marcus didn’t answer.
Then Vanessa whispered:
“Eli.”
Daniel stared at her.
“What happened to him?”
She began crying.
“They took him.”
“Who?”
“Your father.”
Daniel slammed the folder shut.
“My father kidnapped his own grandson?”
“He believed Eli could remember things no human should remember.”
Daniel stepped backward.
“What things?”
Vanessa looked toward the ceiling.
“Things from before he was born.”
A sound echoed from somewhere beneath them.
Three slow knocks.
THUD.
THUD.
THUD.
Daniel looked at Marcus.
Marcus nodded.
“That’s him.”
“Eli?”
“Maybe.”
They followed the sound into another corridor.
At the end stood a heavy glass wall.
Beyond it was a laboratory.
An old one.
Machines covered in dust.
Medical equipment.
A monitoring table.
And on the far side, someone was sitting in a chair.
A young man.
His back was turned.
Daniel approached the glass.
“Eli?”
The man slowly turned.
Daniel stopped breathing.
He looked twenty-four.
Maybe twenty-five.
Dark hair.
Same eyes.
Same jawline.
Same crescent mark on his wrist.
Daniel whispered, “My son.”
Eli stared at him.
No emotion.
Then he smiled.
Not warmly.
Almost sadly.
“Dad?”
Daniel’s eyes filled with tears.
He rushed to the glass.
Eli raised one finger.
“Don’t.”
Daniel stopped.
“Why?”
Eli looked at Vanessa.
Then Marcus.
Then the ceiling camera.
“Because they’re listening.”
Daniel looked around.
“Who?”
Eli leaned closer to the glass.
And whispered:
“Everyone.”
The laboratory doors suddenly locked.
Red lights began flashing.
A siren erupted.
The speaker announced:
“CONTAINMENT FAILURE.”
Eli’s expression changed.
He stood.
Behind him, a second door opened.
A man stepped through.
Victor Kane.
Alive.
Holding a gun.
He looked directly at Daniel.
May you like
Then smiled.
“You’ve grown exactly as predicted.”
Related Stories
