Chapter 19 - The ChoiceVictor gave us ten minutes.
Two babies.
Two cribs.
Only one was genetically ours.
But the tests had been hidden.
Rachel had one device.
Mara had another.
Linda had the original medical records.
Victor had the facility.
And I had the only thing none of them trusted.
My memory.
The red door.
The hallway.
The voice.
I closed my eyes.
Fragments returned.
Nathan.
My father.
A machine.
A baby crying.
Then a sentence:
The real child will recognize the father.
I opened my eyes.
“Bring them here.”
Victor nodded.
The two babies were placed in identical cribs.
Both began crying.
I stepped forward.
One baby reached toward Emily.
The other stared at me.
I moved closer.
The baby who stared at me stopped crying.
My chest tightened.
I remembered.
A recording.
Nathan's voice.
“He won't recognize your face.”
I looked at the child.
“He'll recognize the pattern.”
I placed my hand near his face.
He grabbed my finger.
The other baby began screaming.
Victor's expression changed.
“You solved it.”
I looked at him.
“This is my son.”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
He reached for the other child.
“This one belongs to me.”
Mara raised her gun.
“Drop the weapon.”
Victor smiled.
“You still think this is about the children.”
He looked at me.
“It's about you.”
“What?”
“You were never Subject 001.”
I froze.
“What?”
Victor's voice became almost gentle.
“You were Subject Zero.”
The room went silent.
“You were the original successful experiment.”
The nightmares.
The memories.
The fear.
Everything suddenly connected.
Nathan hadn't created Lullaby.
He had escaped from it.
My father had been trying to reverse the damage done to me.
And my mother hadn't sold me.
She had saved me.
The agreement she signed had been a fake.
She had stolen my records.
Hidden me.
Then married another man to bury the trail.
Linda looked at me.
“I lied because I thought it was the only way.”
Victor laughed.
“She lied because she was afraid.”
Then he pressed a button.
The lights went red.
Every door locked.
And a monitor showed the two babies.
Their brain activity appeared.
One green.
One red.
Victor smiled.
“Only one can survive the activation.”
I stared at him.
“What activation?”
“The one that determines which memory belongs to which child.”
Emily grabbed my arm.
“Daniel.”
Victor looked at the countdown.
“Thirty seconds.”
Mara raised her gun.
Linda moved toward the control panel.
Rachel screamed:
“Stop!”
May you like
Victor pressed the final button.
And the machine began.
