Chapter 11 - Ten MinutesThe room erupted into chaos.
Esteban raised his gun.
“Where is Rafael?”
Mateo pointed toward the hallway.
“He's coming.”
“How do you know?”
Mateo looked confused.
“He told me.”
Mariana crouched.
“Mateo, sweetheart, did someone speak to you?”
“No.”
“Then how?”
The boy touched his head.
“Here.”
Lucía closed her eyes.
“No.”
Mariana looked at her.
“What?”
Lucía whispered:
“The neural link.”
“What neural link?”
“The thing Meridian was built around.”
Mariana stared at Mateo.
“You implanted something in him?”
“No.”
“Then what is it?”
Lucía looked toward Esteban.
“Tell her.”
Esteban swallowed.
“Your son inherited it.”
“Inherited what?”
“A neurological anomaly.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“It allows him to detect patterns humans normally can't.”
Mariana stared.
“Patterns?”
“Frequencies. Signals. Electrical activity.”
Mateo walked toward a wall.
He put his hand against it.
“He's behind here.”
Esteban stared.
“That wall is solid.”
Mateo shook his head.
“No.”
He tapped twice.
A hidden panel opened.
Mariana's mouth dropped open.
Behind it was a staircase.
Rafael had hidden an entire level beneath the laboratory.
Esteban went pale.
“I didn't know this existed.”
Mariana stared at him.
“You're lying.”
“I'm not.”
Mateo began walking downward.
Mariana followed.
The stairs led to a circular chamber.
At the center stood a glass cylinder.
Inside was a man.
Older.
Pale.
Eyes closed.
Wires covered his body.
Mariana stepped closer.
Her blood turned ice cold.
The man's face was unmistakable.
Rafael.
Except older.
Deformed by years of medical procedures.
A second voice came from the speakers.
“Good evening, Mariana.”
Adrian.
His voice echoed around the chamber.
“You finally found the heart of Meridian.”
Mariana looked upward.
“Where are you?”
“Everywhere.”
“Let my son go.”
“Your son has never been mine.”
Mariana's fists clenched.
“Then what do you want?”
“I want what your mother stole from me.”
“What?”
“The original sequence.”
Lucía stepped forward.
“You'll never get it.”
Adrian laughed.
“Oh, Lucía.”
The lights brightened.
Another glass chamber appeared.
Inside was a child.
Maybe six years old.
Another red mark.
Three dots.
Mariana stared.
“How many children?”
Adrian answered:
“Thirty-two.”
Mariana's stomach twisted.
“Where are the others?”
“Some are dead.”
She looked at Lucía.
“Why?”
“Because they were experiments.”
Adrian continued.
“Your son is the only one who succeeded naturally.”
Mariana stepped closer to the glass.
Mateo stared at the child inside.
The child stared back.
Then something impossible happened.
Both children spoke simultaneously.
“He's waking up.”
The lights flickered.
Rafael's eyes opened.
His lips moved.
“Mariana.”
She froze.
The old man's voice came through a speaker.
“You shouldn't have come.”
“What did you do?”
He smiled weakly.
“I built Meridian.”
“You're a monster.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to control death.”
Mariana stared.
“And did you?”
Rafael looked toward Mateo.
“No.”
“The boy did.”
The chamber shook.
A deep mechanical sound vibrated through the floor.
Then the glass cylinder cracked.
Rafael gasped.
Alarms screamed.
Adrian's voice became urgent.
“Move the boy.”
Esteban grabbed Mateo.
“No!”
Mariana struck his arm.
“Let him go!”
Rafael's eyes widened.
“It's beginning.”
“What?”
He looked at Mariana.
“The sequence.”
A crack spread across the floor.
Then another.
Mariana heard a low rumble below them.
Not machinery.
Something alive.
Rafael whispered:
“The reason your family built Meridian…”
May you like
He looked at the ceiling.
“…was to wake what they found beneath the ocean.”
