Chapter 10 - Room 17The school was empty.
Summer break had started three days earlier.
Evan parked behind the gym.
They entered through a side door.
Lucas walked ahead.
No hesitation.
Left corridor.
Stairs.
Basement.
Voss followed behind him.
“You've never been here?”
Lucas shook his head.
“Then how do you know where to go?”
“I don't.”
He stopped.
“My body does.”
They reached a locked metal door.
Number 17.
Evan stared.
Mara whispered:
“This room shouldn't exist.”
Lucas touched the handle.
The door opened.
Inside was a classroom.
Old desks.
Dust.
But one wall was covered with photographs.
Dozens of children.
Lucas.
Other children.
And one photograph of Evan.
Taken twenty years ago.
Voss whispered:
“They moved the program here.”
Evan stepped closer.
“What program?”
“School-based observation.”
Parents were told their children were participating in cognitive development tests.
In reality, Helix was identifying children who exhibited inherited memory traits.
Lucas was one of them.
Mara sat down.
“You said he was the first.”
Voss shook her head.
“No.”
She pointed at the photographs.
“He was the strongest.”
Evan noticed one photograph at the bottom.
A girl.
Same age as Lucas.
Her eyes were crossed out.
“Who is she?”
Voss refused to answer.
“Mara.”
“I don't know.”
Lucas looked at the photograph.
“I do.”
Everyone turned.
Lucas whispered:
“Her name is Nina.”
Voss went pale.
“You remember her?”
“She was my friend.”
Mara stared.
“You never told me about a Nina.”
“I don't remember from before.”
“Then how?”
Lucas touched his temple.
“Because she's still here.”
A sound came from inside the wall.
Three knocks.
Lucas stepped backward.
“No.”
Three more knocks.
Voss approached the wall.
“There is a chamber behind this.”
Evan helped break through the panel.
A narrow passage appeared.
Inside was a hidden room.
And a little girl sat on the floor.
Alive.
About ten years old.
Lucas froze.
“Nina.”
The girl looked up.
Her eyes widened.
“Lucas?”
Mara covered her mouth.
“How is she alive?”
Voss couldn't speak.
The girl stood.
“They said you would come.”
“Who?”
Nina pointed toward a camera.
“Your grandmother.”
Evan's blood turned cold.
A monitor switched on.
His mother's face appeared.
She looked older.
Calm.
Almost affectionate.
“My dear Evan.”
He stepped toward the screen.
“You're alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because someone had to finish the work.”
“You kidnapped children.”
“I preserved them.”
“You experimented on us.”
“I gave you something no one else possesses.”
“Trauma?”
“Possibility.”
Evan's voice shook.
“Where is my father?”
His mother's expression changed.
“Dead.”
“Did you kill him?”
“Yes.”
Silence.
She continued.
“He wanted to destroy the project.”
Mara shouted:
“You killed him!”
“I protected the research.”
Evan clenched his fists.
“Why Lucas?”
His mother looked at the boy.
“Because he inherited the memory.”
Lucas stepped toward the screen.
“What memory?”
She smiled.
“The memory of what happens next.”
The monitor flickered.
A countdown appeared.
48 HOURS.
“Until what?”
“Until the event.”
“What event?”
His mother's voice became almost gentle.
“The day Subject Zero returns.”
Evan's face went cold.
“Where?”
She smiled.
“You're already standing on top of it.”
The school floor began to shake.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Then the lights went out.
Nina grabbed Lucas's hand.
“Run.”
A deep mechanical sound rose beneath them.
The floor cracked open.
And from the darkness below came a voice Evan had heard only once in his life.
May you like
His own.
“Evan…”
