CHAPTER 13 THE LETTER WAS A TRAP
Samuel's hand slipped from Marcus's jacket.
It hit the concrete floor with a dull thud.
He didn't move again.
For a heartbeat, the world seemed to stop.
Marcus stared at the old man who had waited twenty-three years to keep a promise...
Only to die moments after fulfilling it.
Then Samuel's final words echoed in his mind.
"Don't believe... the letter."
Gunfire erupted again.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Concrete exploded around the filing cabinets.
Marcus rolled behind a steel shelf as bullets ripped through stacks of ancient files.
Yellowed papers swirled through the air like snow.
The Phoenix commander raised one hand.
"Cease fire."
Instant silence.
He walked calmly through the smoke.
"I told you."
"The Director wants him alive."
Marcus gritted his teeth.
"Then come get me."
The commander smiled.
"You're angry."
"You should be."
"Everything you've believed your entire life has been manufactured."
Marcus reached into his jacket.
The letter.
Still there.
He remembered Samuel's warning.
Don't believe the letter.
Slowly...
He unfolded it again.
The first line still read:
If you are reading this, Genesis has already found you...
He skipped ahead.
The letter claimed Edward Thorne had rescued him from Project Genesis.
It described secret escape routes.
Hidden allies.
Safe houses.
Everything sounded believable.
Too believable.
Marcus looked closer.
Something felt wrong.
The handwriting.
Halfway through the second page...
The slant changed.
Tiny differences in pressure.
Different spacing.
It looked as though two people had written the same letter.
Richard had once taught him to notice details like that.
Marcus flipped to the final page.
A signature.
Edward Thorne.
Below it...
Barely visible under the ink...
Another imprint.
He rubbed the paper gently.
A second signature emerged.
Not Edward.
Someone had erased the original.
Replaced it.
Samuel hadn't been warning him about the story.
He had been warning him...
About the forgery.
Meanwhile...
Richard crawled through an abandoned maintenance tunnel beneath the hospital.
The concrete passage hadn't been opened in nearly twenty years.
Rusted pipes hung overhead.
Dust coated every surface.
His flashlight caught something strange.
Fresh boot prints.
Not one person.
Many.
"They came this way."
He pressed forward.
The tunnel split in two.
One branch descended toward Sublevel G.
The other...
Led somewhere not shown on the blueprints.
Richard hesitated.
Then noticed something scratched into the wall.
A crude drawing of a wooden horse.
Beneath it...
Only one number.
12
Marcus had been here.
Or someone wanted Richard to believe he had.
Back in the records room...
The Phoenix commander picked up the forged letter.
"You noticed."
Marcus remained silent.
The commander laughed softly.
"Good."
"It means you're finally thinking for yourself."
He tore the forged letter into pieces.
The fragments drifted to the floor.
"I didn't come here to lie."
Marcus stared at him.
"Then tell me the truth."
The commander nodded.
"The truth is simple."
"Genesis was never a laboratory."
Marcus frowned.
"It was a selection program."
"For what?"
The commander looked directly into Marcus's eyes.
"For inheritance."
Marcus blinked.
"I don't understand."
"Twelve children."
"Twelve bloodlines."
"One would survive."
Marcus felt a chill crawl down his spine.
"You experimented on children..."
"...to choose an heir?"
The commander's smile disappeared.
"No."
"We protected them."
Marcus almost laughed.
"You call memory wipes protection?"
"We erased memories..."
"...because people were hunting those children."
Marcus's grip tightened around the fire axe.
"Who?"
The commander answered quietly.
"The people who created Genesis."
Marcus frowned.
"Aren't you Genesis?"
"No."
The commander shook his head.
"We're what's left after Genesis fell."
Suddenly...
A loud explosion shook the corridor outside.
Dust poured through the doorway.
One Phoenix operative rushed in.
"Commander!"
"What?"
"We're under attack."
The commander frowned.
"By whom?"
The soldier looked genuinely confused.
"We don't know."
"They're eliminating everyone."
Gunfire echoed from deeper in the underground complex.
Not suppressed.
Heavy automatic fire.
Even the Phoenix soldiers looked alarmed.
The commander immediately barked orders.
"Defensive positions!"
Marcus listened carefully.
Different weapons.
Different footsteps.
A second force had entered the hidden facility.
Not police.
Not hospital security.
Someone else.
Upstairs...
Khloe suddenly sat upright in her hospital bed.
Ignoring the pain.
Ignoring the stitches.
Dr. Bennett tried to stop her.
"You've just had surgery."
"I know where he is."
Bennett froze.
"What?"
"I remember."
She looked toward the floor beneath her feet.
"There was another level."
Richard hadn't told her about Sublevel G.
No one had.
Yet she knew.
Tears filled her eyes.
"They're taking him back..."
"...to the Observation Hall."
Dr. Bennett's face turned pale.
"You remember that room?"
Khloe nodded.
"I remember everything."
For the first time since the attack...
Her memories had returned.
Not pieces.
All of them.
She looked directly at Dr. Bennett.
"You were there."
Bennett lowered his head.
"I know."
"You watched."
"...Yes."
"You never stopped them."
He couldn't answer.
Khloe whispered,
"I trusted you."
Before Bennett could speak...
Khloe pulled the IV from her arm.
Blood trickled onto the floor.
She swung her legs over the side of the bed.
"I'm bringing him home."
Deep underground...
Marcus cautiously stepped into the corridor.
Bodies lay scattered.
Not Phoenix soldiers.
Unknown attackers dressed in dark gray tactical gear.
No insignias.
Professional equipment.
One dying operative grabbed Marcus's sleeve.
His breathing was shallow.
"They're..."
He coughed blood.
"They're not Genesis..."
Marcus knelt beside him.
"Who are they?"
The man struggled to speak.
His final words were barely audible.
"The Foundation..."
Then he died.
Marcus slowly stood.
The Phoenix commander walked beside him.
For the first time...
Neither man pointed a weapon at the other.
Both stared down the corridor where the firefight continued.
The commander spoke quietly.
"We're no longer hunting you."
Marcus looked at him.
"We're trying to keep you alive."
At the far end of the hallway...
A massive reinforced vault door began to unlock with a deep metallic rumble.
Warning lights flashed.
An old computerized voice echoed through the underground facility:
GENESIS ARCHIVE OPENING.
PRIMARY DNA VAULT UNSEALED.
The commander looked horrified.
"No..."
Marcus frowned.
"What is it?"
The commander whispered one sentence that changed everything again:
"The people attacking us..."
"...didn't come for you."
He looked toward the slowly opening vault.
"They came..."
May you like
"...for your daughter."
END OF CHAPTER 13
