Chapter 14 - The Truth She Had ForgottenRachel stared at the screen.
“That's impossible.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“It isn't.”
Daniel was losing blood, but he was conscious.
He looked toward the screen.
“What does it mean?”
Adrian answered:
“Your mother taught you.”
Rachel shook her head.
“I don't remember.”
“You were two.”
Adrian explained that Elise had discovered Project Mercy was using children as genetic keys.
She refused to let Rachel become another subject.
So she did something dangerous.
She altered Rachel's early medical records.
She embedded fragments of the system's shutdown code into Rachel's memory exercises.
Songs.
Numbers.
Shapes.
Words.
Things Rachel had been taught as a child.
Rachel stared.
The strange childhood routines.
Her mother's habit of repeating certain numbers.
A bedtime rhyme.
A sequence of colors.
All meaningless memories.
Until now.
Adrian handed her a notebook.
Inside were the sequences.
Rachel recognized them instantly.
“That's why I was good at spotting corrupted records.”
“Yes.”
“That's why I noticed the serial numbers.”
“Yes.”
“That's why I could recognize the inconsistencies.”
Adrian nodded.
“You were trained to see the system.”
Rachel felt tears fall.
“My mother made me into the person who could destroy it.”
“She made you into the person who could survive it.”
Daniel tried to stand.
Rachel stopped him.
“Don't.”
He smiled faintly.
“You're giving orders now.”
She laughed despite herself.
Then she looked at the room.
The archive was dying.
The machines were shutting down.
The Project Mercy logo disappeared from every monitor.
But one terminal remained active.
Rachel approached it.
A final file.
She opened it.
Her father's name appeared.
Adrian Voss.
But beneath it was another.
Second Architect: Isabella Moretti.
Then another.
Third Architect: Daniel Moretti.
Rachel froze.
Daniel stared.
“What?”
Rachel turned.
“Your name.”
Adrian's expression changed.
“That isn't possible.”
Daniel stared at the screen.
He was too young when Project Mercy began.
“How could I be an architect?”
The file opened.
It showed Daniel as a child.
Age fifteen.
A training room.
A young Daniel sitting beside his father.
Listening.
Learning.
Rachel stared.
“They trained you too.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don't remember.”
Adrian said quietly:
“That was the point.”
The system had wiped portions of Daniel's childhood memory.
Rachel realized the cruelty.
They had been preparing both of them for years.
Not as lovers.
Not as husband and wife.
As keys.
Then the terminal displayed another message:
ALL PRIMARY SUBJECTS RELEASED.
EXCEPT ONE.
Rachel frowned.
“Who?”
The screen showed a name.
EMMA MORETTI.
Rachel's heart stopped.
Emma was still at the hospital.
Daniel immediately called.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then a nurse answered.
“Mr. Moretti?”
“Yes.”
“Your sister's room is empty.”
Daniel's face drained of color.
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
Rachel looked at the screen.
A timer had appeared.
47:12
Adrian saw it.
“What is that?”
Rachel whispered:
“A countdown.”
“For what?”
The answer appeared.
SUBJECT E-M3 TRANSFER INITIATED.
Daniel grabbed his jacket.
“We're going.”
They raced back toward the city.
Halfway there, the timer dropped below forty minutes.
Rachel opened the archive.
Emma's location appeared.
A private medical facility.
One owned by Moretti Holdings.
Daniel stared.
“I never knew this place existed.”
Adrian looked at the map.
“Neither did I.”
Rachel opened the satellite view.
Then froze.
The building sat on land owned by a shell company.
The owner name was hidden.
She searched the registration.
One result appeared.
The same company from the original shipment.
Northshore Emergency Solutions.
Rachel whispered:
“The fake supplier.”
Daniel's eyes hardened.
This had never been an old operation resurfacing.
Someone had kept it alive.
Someone was still moving equipment.
Still abducting patients.
Still running experiments.
And now Emma had been taken there.
The timer reached thirty minutes.
Rachel looked at Daniel.
“We're running out of time.”
Daniel nodded.
“Then let's end this.”
As they approached the facility, his phone rang.
A distorted voice answered.
“Bring the access card.”
Daniel asked:
“What happens if we don't?”
The voice laughed.
“You'll find out what happened to Emma.”
Rachel looked at Daniel.
Then the voice continued.
“And Daniel?”
He said nothing.
“You should know…”
A pause.
“Your wife was never the final key.”
Rachel's face tightened.
The voice whispered:
May you like
“She was the first.”
The call ended.
