Chapter 12 - THE MAN ABOVE THEM ALLWe hid inside the church basement.
Glass shattered overhead.
Gunshots echoed.
Caleb was crying.
Emma clung to Daniel.
I stared at my husband.
“You knew about the mayor?”
Daniel nodded.
“I suspected him.”
Victor's organization had never been independent.
Mayor Hawthorne controlled contracts, police appointments, and political connections.
He had access to every system Victor used.
But there was something worse.
Hawthorne had been Daniel's former mentor.
He had helped him build Carter Logistics.
I remembered seeing Hawthorne at Daniel's funeral.
He had stood beside me.
He had told me:
“Your husband was a good man.”
I felt sick.
Miller entered the basement.
“We have to move.”
“Where?”
“There's a tunnel.”
Of course there was.
Old city churches were full of secrets.
We followed him.
The tunnel led beneath the street.
But halfway through, we found a locked door.
On it was a symbol.
A black circle.
Daniel stopped.
“This is their mark.”
“Whose?”
“The organization.”
Miller broke the lock.
Inside was a room filled with file cabinets.
Hundreds.
Maybe thousands.
Names.
Birth certificates.
Medical records.
Bank accounts.
Photographs.
Children.
I opened one drawer.
A familiar name.
Caleb Carter.
Another.
Emma Carter.
Another.
Sarah Carter.
I pulled out my own file.
Inside was a photograph of me taken outside my house.
The date was four years earlier.
One week before Daniel's crash.
Someone had been watching me.
I turned another page.
There was a doctor's report.
SUBJECT DISPLAYED MEMORY LOSS AFTER DELIVERY.
I looked at Daniel.
“You knew.”
He shook his head.
“Not all of it.”
“What does that mean?”
“The hospital gave you something after Emma was taken.”
“What?”
“A sedative.”
My chest tightened.
“They erased part of your memory.”
I could barely speak.
“Why?”
“To make you forget Emma.”
I stared at the file.
Everything I thought I'd forgotten naturally…
had been taken from me.
Then I saw another document.
PROJECT ECHO.
Underneath:
PRIMARY SUBJECT: EMMA CARTER.
But there was a second line.
SECONDARY SUBJECT: CALEB CARTER.
I looked up.
“Why Caleb?”
Daniel went pale.
“I don't know.”
Miller took the document.
There were notes about Caleb's blood type.
DNA.
Genetic markers.
And one sentence:
THE TWO CHILDREN SHARE THE SAME MARKER REQUIRED FOR THE TRIAL.
I felt sick.
“What trial?”
No one answered.
Then a door slammed.
Someone was coming.
Daniel pulled me behind a cabinet.
Footsteps grew louder.
A man entered the room.
Not Victor.
Not Hawthorne.
He turned on the light.
I saw his face.
My own doctor.
Dr. Bennett.
The doctor who had delivered Emma.
The doctor who had treated Caleb.
He looked around.
Then said:
“Where are the children?”
Daniel whispered:
“Don't make a sound.”
Dr. Bennett opened a cabinet.
He removed a file.
May you like
Then smiled.
“The experiment is finally ready.”
