Chapter 6 - What the Cast Was Really HidingNo one moved.
The tape continued.
“Noah, listen carefully.”
His father’s voice was tired.
“If Elias tells you he did everything to protect you, believe him.”
Noah looked at his grandfather.
“But don’t trust him.”
Silence.
Mara stared.
The tape hissed.
“The cast is not the secret.”
Daniel whispered:
“Then what is?”
His father continued.
“The cast is the key.”
A click.
The recording changed.
“Every patient in the Mercy Protocol receives a medical implant.”
Mara’s face tightened.
“What kind?”
“Not a tracker.”
She exhaled.
“Then what?”
The voice said:
“A recorder.”
Daniel looked horrified.
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
The cassette crackled.
“Heart rate. Stress response. Medication. Pain. Memory triggers.”
Mara stared at Noah.
“They recorded patients’ reactions.”
“Yes.”
“To manipulate them.”
“Yes.”
Daniel suddenly understood.
“They weren’t creating illnesses.”
“No.”
“They were creating experiments.”
Elias finally spoke.
“That was the official purpose.”
Noah turned.
“What was the real purpose?”
Elias looked at the floor.
“To build a system that could predict human behavior.”
Silence.
His mother whispered:
“And control it.”
Elias nodded.
Victor Hale’s voice suddenly came from the speaker.
“No.”
Everyone froze.
The tape was still playing.
But that voice wasn’t Noah’s father.
It was Hale.
The recording had been edited.
“I didn’t invent control,” Hale said.
“I perfected it.”
The tape stopped.
Then the farmhouse lights went out.
Noah screamed.
A gunshot cracked above them.
Another.
Daniel moved instantly.
“Down!”
The cellar door shook.
Mara pulled Noah behind the shelves.
Elias stood in the center of the room.
Calm.
Too calm.
His daughter stared at him.
“You knew.”
“I knew they would come.”
“You knew Hale was listening.”
“I knew everything.”
“Then why bring us here?”
“Because this is where your father hid the original evidence.”
Daniel turned.
“Where?”
Elias pointed toward the wall.
“There.”
Daniel searched the bricks.
Noah walked over.
He tapped one.
Hollow.
“Here.”
They pulled it out.
Inside was a small metal drive.
No label.
No key.
Mara grabbed it.
“What’s on it?”
Elias answered:
“The patient list.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That's not enough.”
Elias looked at him.
“It isn’t the patient list.”
He pointed toward Noah.
“It’s the names of everyone who was born from the experiments.”
Noah frowned.
“What does that mean?”
His mother slowly understood.
“They were testing the protocol on children.”
Elias nodded.
“Children who survived.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“How many?”
Elias whispered:
“Twenty-three.”
Noah’s mother opened the drive.
A folder appeared.
Twenty-three names.
Most crossed out.
One remained highlighted.
NOAH VANE.
Beneath it was a sentence.
PRIMARY SUBJECT. STATUS: ACTIVE.
Noah stepped backward.
“Why am I the primary subject?”
Elias looked at him.
“Because you were the only child who remembered.”
A tremendous crash shook the farmhouse.
The cellar ceiling cracked.
Hale’s voice echoed through the floor.
“Elias.”
The old man looked up.
“Bring me the boy.”
Noah’s mother stepped in front of him.
“No.”
Hale laughed.
“Then I’ll take him myself.”
The ceiling began to collapse.
And beneath the falling dust, Noah saw something painted on the concrete.
A symbol.
The same symbol from the photograph.
A circle around a single eye.
He touched it.
May you like
The wall moved.
A hidden door opened behind him.
