Chapter 5 - THE BROTHER WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEADJulian Marlowe.
Gabriel's older brother.
Brilliant.
Cold.
Ambitious.
Officially dead after a boating accident seven years earlier.
Gabriel had identified the body himself.
Or believed he had.
He spent the next six hours digging through every record available.
Birth certificate.
Death certificate.
Autopsy.
Hospital documents.
Police reports.
Nothing.
But then he noticed one detail.
Julian's death certificate had no signature from the attending physician.
Gabriel knew the doctor.
He had left the country two weeks after Julian's death.
Gabriel called him.
An elderly voice answered.
“What do you want?”
“Did Julian die?”
Silence.
“Doctor?”
“No.”
Gabriel's hand tightened around the phone.
“What happened?”
“I was paid to certify a body.”
“Whose body?”
“I don't know.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“Who paid you?”
The call ended.
Before Gabriel could call again, Hannah's voice came from the security monitor.
“Gabriel.”
He turned.
The screen showed her sitting in the dark room.
Julian stood behind her.
“Don't trust him,” Hannah whispered.
Julian slapped her.
Eli screamed.
Gabriel stepped toward the monitor.
“Touch her again and I swear—”
Julian smiled.
“You still think money solves everything.”
“Where are you?”
“Closer than you think.”
Then Julian looked directly into the camera.
“Look behind you.”
Gabriel turned.
Nothing.
Then a soft click.
The office door locked.
Gabriel spun around.
His head of security entered.
But he wasn't alone.
Two armed men stood behind him.
Gabriel stared.
“You.”
The security chief lowered his weapon.
“You were never supposed to see the files.”
Gabriel moved in front of Eli.
“What files?”
The man laughed.
“All of them.”
He pulled out a tablet.
A photograph appeared.
Claire.
Pregnant.
Then another.
Eli as a toddler.
Then another.
Gabriel himself.
Walking into a laboratory.
Gabriel stared.
“I've never seen this place.”
“You have.”
The security chief zoomed in.
Gabriel was wearing a white laboratory coat.
His face was clearly visible.
Eli looked at his father.
“You said you never knew about the research.”
Gabriel's heart sank.
“I didn't.”
The security chief smiled.
“That's the problem, Mr. Marlowe.”
He looked at Eli.
“Your father knows much more than he remembers.”
Gabriel frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“Ask him about the night of the explosion.”
“I remember everything.”
“No.”
The man stepped closer.
“You remember what they allowed you to remember.”
A sudden noise came from the ceiling.
Someone was moving through the ventilation system.
The security chief looked up.
Too late.
A metal panel crashed down.
Hannah dropped from above.
She kicked the weapon from his hand.
Gabriel grabbed Eli.
Chaos erupted.
One guard lunged.
Hannah struck him with a metal pipe.
The second ran.
Gabriel locked the door.
For several seconds, everyone breathed heavily.
Hannah turned toward Gabriel.
“We don't have much time.”
“Who is Julian?”
“Your brother.”
“I know that.”
“No.”
Hannah looked at him.
“Julian wasn't your brother when you were born.”
Gabriel stared.
“What?”
“He became your brother later.”
Silence.
Hannah opened a small envelope.
Inside was a photograph of two newborn babies.
One was Gabriel.
The other was Julian.
But the hospital records listed only one child.
Eli looked at the picture.
“Why?”
Hannah's voice dropped.
“Because only one of you was legally born into the Marlowe family.”
Gabriel felt dizzy.
“Then who was the other child?”
Hannah looked at him.
“Your father bought him.”
Gabriel's stomach turned.
“Why?”
“So he could test something.”
“What?”
Hannah stared at Eli.
“Whether a human being could be genetically engineered to survive damage that should kill them.”
Gabriel stepped backward.
The implication hit him.
Eli wasn't merely a victim.
He was the continuation of the experiment.
And Claire had discovered it.
Before she died.
Then Hannah handed Gabriel another photograph.
Claire was standing beside a laboratory table.
On the table was a child's medical file.
The name on the folder:
ELIAS MARLOWE.
But beneath it was another name.
SUBJECT ZERO.
Gabriel looked at Eli.
His son whispered:
“Dad…”
May you like
Then the laboratory lights behind them switched on.
Someone had been waiting.
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