CHAPTER 5 “DADDY”
The word echoed through the underground facility.
“Daddy.”
I stopped breathing.
Amelia stared past me.
Not at Luka.
Not at Daniel.
At Dr. Marcus Vale.
The man who had just told me I was the experiment.
I looked down at my daughter.
Her tiny eyes were wide open.
Too focused.
Too aware.
Newborn babies weren't supposed to look at people like that.
They weren't supposed to recognize faces.
They weren't supposed to speak.
And yet she had.
“Daddy.”
Marcus smiled.
“There she is.”
Luka stepped between us.
“Don't come any closer.”
Marcus laughed.
“You still think you're protecting her?”
“I am.”
“No.”
Marcus's smile vanished.
“You're protecting yourself.”
He raised a small remote.
The countdown appeared on every screen.
08:41
08:40
08:39
I stared at the numbers.
“What happens when it reaches zero?”
Marcus looked directly at me.
“The transfer begins.”
“What transfer?”
“Yours.”
My throat tightened.
“I don't understand.”
“You will.”
He pointed toward the wall.
A large screen flickered on.
An old video appeared.
My mother.
She looked younger.
Maybe thirty.
She was sitting inside the same laboratory.
A baby was sleeping in her arms.
Me.
I recognized the blanket.
I recognized the small silver bracelet around my wrist.
My mother's voice filled the room.
“If you're watching this, then they failed to erase me.”
I covered my mouth.
Marcus looked at me.
“Your mother knew.”
The recording continued.
“They told me the procedure would preserve my daughter's memories.”
My mother's eyes filled with tears.
“They lied.”
The video suddenly distorted.
Then her voice became clearer.
“They weren't transferring memories.”
I whispered,
“What were they transferring?”
The answer came from the recording.
“The person.”
My blood ran cold.
My mother looked directly into the camera.
“Emma, if you're watching this when you're an adult, there is something you need to know.”
She paused.
“You were never their first attempt.”
The screen changed.
Photographs appeared.
Children.
Dozens of them.
Some newborns.
Some toddlers.
Some older.
Every child had the same mark.
My stomach twisted.
My mother continued.
“They called us hosts.”
I looked at Marcus.
“You put this in children?”
Marcus shook his head.
“No.”
“Then who?”
“Your father.”
The words hit me like a physical blow.
My mother continued speaking.
“He believed consciousness could survive the death of the body.”
The screen showed a diagram of a human brain.
Then another.
Then another.
“Your father developed a method to copy neurological patterns from one brain to another.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“That isn't possible.”
Marcus glanced at him.
“You helped build the first machine.”
Daniel went pale.
“No.”
“You held the instruments.”
“I was twenty-two.”
“You still did it.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I didn't know what it was.”
Marcus smiled.
“You always say that.”
I turned toward Daniel.
“You worked on this?”
He couldn't look at me.
“Emma…”
“You worked on this?”
“I was forced.”
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“You knew my mother.”
Daniel's eyes filled with tears.
“Yes.”
I felt something inside me collapse.
“Did you know she was alive?”
“No.”
Marcus laughed.
“She isn't alive.”
I looked at him.
“But you said—”
“The heartbeat you're seeing isn't hers.”
My eyes went to the monitor.
“Then whose is it?”
Marcus looked at Amelia.
“Yours.”
My blood froze.
“What?”
He pointed to the monitor.
The heartbeat wasn't coming from my mother.
It was coming from me.
I looked down at my daughter.
My own heart was pounding.
The monitor matched every beat.
Marcus spoke quietly.
“You are the original M-17 host.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“You were born with the marker.”
“No.”
“Your father modified you before you were born.”
“My father would never—”
“He did.”
Marcus's voice became cold.
“He altered your mother during pregnancy.”
I couldn't move.
“He used her body as the first transfer chamber.”
I looked at Daniel.
He finally whispered,
“It's true.”
I slapped him.
Hard.
“You knew?”
“I found out later.”
“How much later?”
“After your mother disappeared.”
“You let me grow up without telling me?”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
My voice broke.
“Everyone keeps using that excuse.”
Luka stepped closer.
“Emma.”
I turned toward him.
“You knew too.”
He didn't answer.
My stomach dropped.
“You knew.”
“I knew about M-17.”
“You knew about me?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
He looked at the floor.
“Six years.”
I stared at him.
“You've been watching me for six years?”
“I was assigned to protect you.”
“By whom?”
Luka finally looked up.
“Your mother.”
Silence.
My mother.
Dead for fifteen years.
Luka reached into his jacket.
He pulled out a small envelope.
It was old.
The paper was yellowed.
My name was written across the front.
EMMA HALE.
My hands shook as I took it.
“Where did you get this?”
“Your mother gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
I opened it.
Inside was a single photograph.
My mother.
Luka.
And another man.
My father.
All three standing together.
On the back, my mother's handwriting read:
If Emma ever becomes pregnant, bring her to the hospital immediately.
I stared at the sentence.
Then another line.
The child will activate M-17.
My hands went numb.
I looked at Amelia.
“So that's why.”
Luka nodded.
“That's why everyone wanted your pregnancy.”
“But why did Daniel marry me?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Marcus answered for him.
“Because he was assigned to monitor you.”
I looked at my husband.
My entire marriage suddenly felt like a carefully constructed lie.
“You married me because of M-17.”
Daniel's voice broke.
“At first.”
“At first?”
“I fell in love with you.”
I laughed through my tears.
“That's supposed to make this better?”
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“I loved you before I knew what they wanted.”
“Then why did you abandon me?”
He looked at Amelia.
“Because they threatened to kill you.”
“You left me anyway.”
“I thought if I made you hate me, you'd survive.”
“And Victoria?”
“I needed her to believe I was cooperating.”
I shook my head.
“You could have told me.”
“They were watching every call.”
“Then you could have fought.”
“I tried.”
“You failed.”
He lowered his head.
“Yes.”
Marcus suddenly clapped his hands.
“Touching.”
Luka raised his gun.
“Enough.”
Marcus smiled.
“Time.”
The countdown reached:
04:59
Marcus pressed the remote.
The room changed.
Metal restraints rose from the floor.
A circular platform opened beneath my feet.
I stumbled backward.
Luka grabbed me.
“What are you doing?”
Marcus looked at Amelia.
“Starting the transfer.”
“No!”
I held my daughter tighter.
Marcus's eyes narrowed.
“You misunderstand.”
He pointed at me.
“The baby isn't going onto the machine.”
I looked at the platform.
“Then who?”
“You.”
The platform began glowing.
My head suddenly throbbed.
A sharp pain shot behind my left eye.
I screamed.
Images flashed through my mind.
A laboratory.
My mother crying.
My father holding a newborn.
A machine.
Luka standing beside it.
Daniel covered in blood.
And then—
A little girl.
The same six-year-old girl behind the glass.
She was holding my hand.
But I had never met her.
Or had I?
Another memory hit me.
I was six years old.
Standing in a white room.
The little girl was beside me.
She whispered,
“Don't forget me.”
I gasped.
“No…”
Luka caught me.
“What did you see?”
“I know her.”
“Who?”
“The girl.”
His expression changed.
“That's impossible.”
“She was with me when I was a child.”
Marcus smiled.
“Now you're remembering.”
I looked at him.
“What did you do to me?”
He stepped closer.
“Nothing.”
He pointed toward the machine.
“Your father did.”
The countdown reached:
02:00
The little girl behind the glass suddenly screamed.
“EMMA!”
I turned.
She slammed both hands against the glass.
“DON'T LET HIM TAKE THE BABY!”
Marcus's face changed.
For the first time, he looked frightened.
“Kill the lights.”
The guards moved.
Luka fired.
The facility erupted into chaos.
Daniel grabbed my arm.
“Emma, run!”
“Where?”
“Anywhere!”
Marcus shouted,
“STOP HER!”
Luka pulled me toward the service tunnel.
The little girl kept screaming.
“EMMA!”
I looked back one last time.
She was crying.
Then she shouted something that froze my blood.
Not “run.”
Not “help.”
She screamed:
“YOU PROMISED MOM YOU'D COME BACK!”
I stopped.
Mom.
My mother.
I looked at Luka.
His face had gone pale.
“Luka…”
“What?”
“How did that girl know my mother?”
He didn't answer.
I stared at him.
“You knew her.”
His silence confirmed it.
Before I could ask anything else, the entire facility shook.
The countdown hit:
00:59
Marcus screamed from behind us.
“GET THE BABY!”
Luka pushed me into the tunnel.
“Go!”
We ran.
Behind us, metal doors slammed shut one after another.
Then a gunshot.
Another.
Then silence.
We reached the elevator.
Daniel hit the button.
Nothing happened.
“Why isn't it moving?”
Luka looked at the control panel.
His face changed.
“They locked it from above.”
“Then we're trapped.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“There is another way.”
He pressed a hidden button beneath the panel.
The elevator floor opened.
A narrow shaft appeared beneath us.
I stared down.
“How far?”
Luka looked into the darkness.
“Thirty floors.”
I nearly laughed from disbelief.
“We can't climb down thirty floors.”
“We don't have to.”
A light appeared far below.
Then another.
Then dozens.
The darkness beneath us slowly illuminated.
And I saw an enormous underground chamber.
Hundreds of glass containers stretched into the distance.
Each one held a human body.
Men.
Women.
Children.
Some looked asleep.
Some looked dead.
And every single container had one number.
17.
Luka whispered,
“This isn't a laboratory.”
I stared down in horror.
“What is it?”
He looked at me.
“A graveyard.”
Then one of the containers opened.
A woman stepped out.
She was naked, trembling, and covered in medical wires.
She looked up toward us.
I couldn't breathe.
Because she had my face.
Exactly.
The woman smiled.
May you like
And whispered one sentence.
“Tell Emma I remember everything.”
