Chapter 8 - THE CLINICThe clinic was burning when they arrived.
Firefighters battled the flames.
Windows had blown outward.
A helicopter hovered overhead.
Nathan stared at the ruins.
“Is anyone alive?”
An agent shook his head.
“Five confirmed dead.”
“Patients?”
“Staff.”
Mara looked around.
“Where's the woman?”
“We don't know.”
Nathan noticed something beside the ambulance.
A red coat.
Burned at the sleeve.
He picked it up.
Inside the pocket was a handwritten note.
YOU WERE NEVER THE ONE THEY WANTED.
He looked at Mara.
“They're playing with me.”
“No.”
Mara shook her head.
“They're preparing you.”
“For what?”
She didn't answer.
Then an agent called from the wreckage.
“We found a survivor.”
Mara ran.
A nurse lay beneath a collapsed wall.
Barely conscious.
Mara crouched.
“Who did this?”
The nurse coughed.
“Men.”
“How many?”
“Six.”
“Did they take anyone?”
The nurse looked at Nathan.
Then whispered:
“The woman.”
“What woman?”
“The one who looked like your wife.”
Nathan's face hardened.
Mara went still.
“Describe her.”
The nurse shook her head.
“Same hair.”
“Same face?”
“Yes.”
Nathan looked at Mara.
“A double.”
Mara’s expression tightened.
Harbor Nine had access to identity fabrication, biometrics and surveillance.
They could build a person who looked like anyone.
But why make another Mara?
The nurse whispered again.
“She said one thing.”
“What?”
“Tell Nathan…”
She swallowed.
“…his mother is waiting.”
Then she died.
Nathan turned toward the destroyed clinic.
For years he had believed his mother was dead.
Now every piece of evidence said otherwise.
Mara called for a forensic team.
An agent ran toward them.
“Agent Hail!”
He held up a computer tablet.
“We intercepted a transmission.”
Mara read it.
Coordinates.
Two miles north.
An abandoned water-treatment plant.
Nathan pointed.
“That's where they want us.”
Mara shook her head.
“No.”
“You think it’s a trap.”
“I know it is.”
“Then why are we going?”
Mara looked at him.
“Because if they wanted us dead, we'd already be dead.”
Nathan nodded.
They moved.
The water plant was silent.
Too silent.
Inside, they found six empty chairs.
A projector.
And a single envelope.
Nathan opened it.
A photograph fell out.
It showed him at fourteen standing beside his father.
Beside him stood a young Mara.
They were all looking toward the same burning car.
On the back someone had written:
YOU FORGOT THE FIFTH PERSON.
Nathan stared at the picture.
“Who's missing?”
Mara looked carefully.
Then she saw it.
A hand.
A child's hand.
Peeking from inside the burning vehicle.
Mara whispered,
“There was someone in the car.”
Nathan looked at her.
“Who?”
Before she could answer, the projector turned on.
Evelyn Hail appeared on the screen.
Alive.
Older.
Terrified.
“Nathan,” she whispered.
“Do not trust Mara.”
Nathan slowly turned.
Mara reached for her weapon.
Then Evelyn said the final sentence.
“She was the one who pulled you from the fire.”
May you like
The projector shut off.
And the doors locked.
