Chapter 3 - The FileEvan reacted before the gunman could.
He threw himself forward.
A body slammed against the basement stairs.
A shot thundered into the ceiling.
Mara grabbed Lucas.
“Run!”
They rushed through a narrow storage passage Evan hadn't even seen.
“Where does this go?”
“Garage.”
“How do you know?”
“I lived here.”
Another shot.
Dust dropped from the ceiling.
They reached the garage.
Mara opened the side door.
An SUV waited in the alley.
Evan stared.
“That's not yours.”
“No.”
“Then whose is it?”
“Yours.”
He looked at her.
“What?”
She shoved a set of keys into his hand.
“I took it from one of them.”
They piled inside.
Evan started the engine.
The vehicle screamed forward.
Behind them, men burst from the house.
One raised a weapon.
Evan accelerated.
The alley vanished behind them.
Lucas sat in the back, trembling.
Mara turned.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Evan looked at her through the mirror.
“You owe me answers.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
“What is Helix?”
“A private research and security company.”
“That doesn't explain why armed men are shooting at us.”
“They don't want anyone knowing what they did.”
“What did they do?”
Mara looked down.
“To your father.”
Evan frowned.
“What?”
“To my father.”
She corrected herself.
Then she whispered:
“Your father died because of them.”
Evan's hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“My father died in a car accident.”
“That’s what they told you.”
The road blurred through the windshield.
“What are you saying?”
Mara reached into her pocket.
She pulled out an old photograph.
Evan glanced at it.
A younger version of himself stood beside his father.
Behind them was a building.
A black symbol on the wall.
A silver hexagon divided into six pieces.
Helix.
Evan's jaw tightened.
“Where did you get this?”
“I was eighteen when I met a man named Dr. Adrian Vale.”
Evan stared.
“He recruited me.”
“For what?”
“Data analysis.”
“That sounds harmless.”
“It wasn't.”
She handed him the photograph.
“The company was conducting experiments on memory.”
Evan felt a chill.
“What does that have to do with me?”
Mara looked at Lucas.
“Everything.”
The boy was crying silently.
Evan slowed the vehicle.
“Lucas.”
The boy looked up.
“Do you know what your mother is talking about?”
“No.”
Mara interrupted.
“He doesn't.”
Then her phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
Her face changed.
“No.”
Evan noticed.
“Who is it?”
“I don't know.”
The phone rang again.
She answered.
A distorted voice said:
“You took the file.”
Mara said nothing.
“You should have destroyed it.”
She ended the call.
Evan stared.
“What file?”
Mara reached beneath her seat.
Pulled out a metal case.
Small.
Locked.
The silver key fit into it.
Evan watched her open it.
Inside was a stack of documents.
Medical records.
Photographs.
A birth certificate.
One page had been stamped repeatedly:
CLASSIFIED
Evan grabbed it.
His eyes stopped on one line.
SUBJECT: LUCAS BENNETT
His heartbeat stumbled.
“Why does my son have a classified file?”
Mara whispered:
“Because he wasn't supposed to be born.”
Evan stared at her.
“What?”
“The pregnancy was an accident.”
“No.”
“They told me to terminate it.”
“Who?”
“Dr. Vale.”
“Why?”
Mara looked at him.
“Because they believed your child would inherit something from you.”
“What?”
She hesitated.
“A genetic marker.”
“For what?”
Mara's voice broke.
“Memory retention.”
Evan almost laughed.
“That’s insane.”
“Is it?”
She pulled out another page.
A photograph.
Lucas as a baby.
Attached to a monitor.
A man's hand beside his head.
Evan recognized the hand.
He knew the ring.
A silver ring with the Helix symbol.
He had seen it before.
On the man standing outside the laboratory twenty years ago.
His own father.
Evan's face went numb.
“My father worked for Helix.”
Mara nodded.
“Yes.”
The car suddenly swerved.
A black SUV had appeared behind them.
Then another.
Mara whispered:
“They're here.”
Evan checked the mirror.
Three vehicles.
Closing fast.
Lucas cried out.
“What do they want?”
Mara stared at the file.
“They don't want you dead.”
Evan glanced back.
“What, then?”
She slowly turned the final page.
A single sentence had been typed across it.
THE BOY IS THE KEY TO RECOVERING SUBJECT ZERO.
Evan felt the blood leave his face.
“Who is Subject Zero?”
May you like
Mara looked at him.
“You.”
