Chapter 8 - The silence after Emily's warning was worse than the storm.Frank stared at his daughter.
She was alive.
But her face was bruised.
Her hands were bound.
A metal collar surrounded her neck.
Frank felt something inside him crack.
“Emily!”
She shook her head violently.
“No!”
Vale's voice echoed from the platform.
“She has excellent instincts.”
Frank turned.
“Release her.”
Vale smiled.
“You first.”
Frank looked at Mina.
Joseph stepped forward.
“Vale, let her go.”
Vale laughed.
“Joseph.”
He looked at Joseph with almost affectionate contempt.
“You still think you have leverage.”
Joseph's jaw tightened.
Vale pointed to Frank.
“You understand what happens next.”
Frank shouted:
“No one touches my family.”
Vale smiled.
“That is exactly why you're useful.”
Frank looked at Joseph.
“What is he talking about?”
Joseph didn't answer.
Frank grabbed him.
“What did you do?”
Joseph stared at him.
“Frank…”
“Tell me!”
Joseph closed his eyes.
“I contacted Emily.”
Frank froze.
“What?”
“I needed help.”
“You used my daughter?”
“No.”
“You brought her into this.”
“I didn't know Vale would find her.”
Frank stepped backward.
Emily shook her head again.
“Dad!”
Frank looked up.
Vale smiled.
“She knows everything.”
Frank's heart raced.
“What does she know?”
Vale answered:
“The truth about you.”
Frank turned toward his daughter.
Emily's eyes filled with tears.
“Dad, you weren't erased because you saw the facility.”
Frank stared.
“Then why?”
Emily swallowed.
“Because you helped build it.”
Frank stopped breathing.
Joseph looked at the ground.
Frank whispered:
“No.”
Emily continued.
“You worked there.”
Images flashed through Frank's mind.
Laboratory lights.
Glass tanks.
Mina as a tiny fish.
Joseph shouting.
A young Frank holding a clipboard.
Frank collapsed against the boat.
“No.”
Vale laughed.
“You designed the first neural conditioning system.”
Frank looked at his hands.
He remembered.
Not everything.
But enough.
He remembered the machines.
The experiments.
The screams.
He remembered telling himself it was for science.
For progress.
For human survival.
He remembered Joseph begging him to stop.
And he remembered signing the final order.
The memory hit him so hard he nearly fell.
Emily shouted:
“Dad!”
Frank looked at her.
“I did this?”
Joseph approached.
“You were manipulated.”
Frank shook his head.
“I remember.”
Joseph stared.
Frank's voice broke.
“I remember what I did.”
Joseph said:
“You were trying to destroy it from the inside.”
Frank looked confused.
“What?”
“You discovered what Vale was really doing.”
Frank's memories returned in fragments.
He had tried to sabotage the project.
Joseph had helped.
Vale caught them.
Frank was injured.
Joseph was taken.
And Frank's memory was erased.
Frank stared at the laboratory platform.
“So I didn't forget because I was weak.”
Joseph nodded.
“You forgot because they were afraid you'd come back.”
Frank slowly smiled.
“Bad news for them.”
Vale's face changed.
Frank stood.
He picked up the fishing oar.
“What are you doing?”
Frank raised it.
“Fishing.”
Vale frowned.
Frank suddenly swung toward the nearest control box.
CRACK!
The box exploded.
The electric field flickered.
Mina charged.
She slammed into the platform.
Soldiers fired.
Joseph pulled Frank down.
Emily screamed.
The cage door opened.
Frank looked up.
Mina tore through the steel bars.
Emily fell free.
Frank ran.
He grabbed his daughter.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“I'm okay.”
Frank hugged her.
For one moment, everything stopped.
Then the giant creature attacked.
It smashed into the platform.
The entire structure tilted.
Soldiers fell into the water.
Vale disappeared behind a wall.
Frank grabbed Emily.
“We're leaving.”
They ran toward the boat.
Joseph followed.
Mina swam beside them.
The giant creature struck the platform again.
Metal tore.
The cage collapsed.
The laboratory alarms screamed.
Frank reached the boat.
But Emily stopped.
“Dad.”
“What?”
She pointed toward the water.
A red glow was spreading beneath them.
Not from the giant creature.
From below the lake floor.
Frank stared.
Joseph whispered:
“No.”
The ground began to shake.
Emily looked at her father.
“Dad…”
Frank tightened his grip on her.
“What?”
She whispered:
“There is another facility underneath this one.”
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Then the lake opened.
And something even larger began to rise.
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