Chapter 5 - What Was Inside the BallThey drove to an old cabin deep in the mountains.
Mara had used it only once.
That was enough.
No one knew it existed.
Or so she thought.
Evan placed the ball on a wooden table.
Lucas watched anxiously.
Mara locked the door.
“Before you open it,” she said, “understand this.”
Evan looked at her.
“If what I believe is inside that ball is still there, Helix will kill anyone who sees it.”
Lucas whispered:
“What is it?”
Mara answered:
“A recording.”
“Of what?”
“Your father.”
Evan went still.
His father had been dead for eighteen years.
“How?”
“I found it after he died.”
“Why hide it?”
“Because it proves he was involved.”
Evan picked up a knife.
The blade hovered over the seam.
He stopped.
“What if we don't?”
Mara stared at him.
“Then we spend the rest of our lives running.”
Evan cut.
The leather opened with a soft tearing sound.
Inside was a tiny metal capsule.
No larger than a fingernail.
Lucas gasped.
Evan removed it.
On the capsule was a symbol.
A six-pointed Helix.
Mara whispered:
“That wasn't there when I gave him the ball.”
“What?”
“I didn't put it inside.”
Evan looked at her.
“Then who did?”
A sound came from the hallway.
Three knocks.
Everyone froze.
Lucas stepped behind Evan.
The cabin had no reason to have visitors.
Evan drew the weapon he'd taken from one of the attackers.
Another knock.
Mara whispered:
“Don't open it.”
A man's voice came from outside.
“Evan.”
Evan's face drained.
He knew the voice.
His father.
Impossible.
The voice came again.
“Evan, you need to hear this.”
Mara shook her head violently.
“It's a recording.”
Evan realized.
The door remained closed.
He placed the capsule on the table.
A tiny light flickered.
A holographic projector activated.
His father's face appeared.
Older.
Tired.
Frightened.
Evan couldn't breathe.
“If you're watching this,” the recording said, “then I failed to stop Helix.”
Evan moved closer.
“You were never their first subject.”
His father looked directly into the camera.
“You were the prototype.”
Mara covered her mouth.
Evan stared.
“The reason they wanted you wasn't your memory.”
The recording paused.
“They wanted to determine whether memory could be passed from one generation to another.”
The hologram flickered.
“If Lucas exists, then the experiment succeeded.”
Evan's heart stopped.
His father continued.
“Your child will remember things he has never experienced.”
Lucas stepped backward.
“I don't remember anything.”
Evan looked at him.
The recording continued.
“Do not let them take him to the White Room.”
The hologram glitched.
“If they take Lucas to the White Room, they will use his brain to reconstruct Subject Zero.”
Evan whispered:
“Me.”
His father nodded from the recording.
“They will not need you alive.”
Then the image changed.
A photograph appeared.
A laboratory.
A young Evan strapped to a chair.
Mara started crying.
Lucas stared at the image.
“That’s you.”
Evan couldn't answer.
His father spoke again.
“There is one person you can trust.”
The image shifted.
A name appeared.
DR. ELENA VOSS.
Mara inhaled sharply.
“No.”
Evan looked at her.
“You know her?”
Mara whispered:
“She died.”
The screen flickered.
A final message appeared.
SHE DIDN'T.
Then the projection died.
The cabin fell silent.
Outside, branches cracked.
Someone was approaching.
Evan looked at the windows.
One figure.
Then another.
Mara grabbed Lucas.
“We have to leave.”
But Evan couldn't move.
His father's final words kept repeating inside his head.
Do not let them take him to the White Room.
Then Lucas whispered:
“Dad?”
Evan turned.
Lucas looked terrified.
“I remember something.”
“What?”
The boy's face had gone pale.
“A woman.”
“Who?”
“She was crying.”
“When?”
“I don't know.”
Lucas squeezed his eyes shut.
Then whispered:
“She told me…”
“What did she say?”
Lucas opened his eyes.
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“She said, ‘Evan is coming.’”
The door exploded.
