Chapter 18 - THE MAN UNDER THE HOUSEThe hand was covered in blood.
Leo stumbled backward.
Mia screamed.
Sarah shouted:
“Everyone back!”
Marcus dropped the ledger.
The floor fractured again.
A man crawled through.
Older.
Thin.
Gray hair.
But his eyes were Leo's.
Leo stared.
“Dad?”
The man looked at him.
His lips trembled.
“Leo.”
Leo ran forward.
They embraced.
His father cried.
“I thought you'd never come back.”
Leo buried his face against him.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I almost was.”
Marcus stood frozen.
Leo's father looked at him.
“You.”
Marcus lowered his head.
“I know.”
“You promised to protect them.”
“I failed.”
The father looked at Elena.
“She came back?”
No one answered.
Leo pulled away.
“Where is Mom?”
His father looked at him.
“She's inside.”
“Inside where?”
“The facility.”
“What facility?”
He pointed beneath them.
“Blackridge was never one building.”
Sarah realized.
“It’s underground.”
He nodded.
“The original laboratory is beneath this town.”
Noah entered the room.
Leo's father stared at him.
“You.”
Noah smiled.
“Hello.”
Leo looked between them.
“You know each other.”
His father nodded.
“He was the first child I tried to save.”
Leo frowned.
“Noah is younger than me.”
“No.”
His father shook his head.
“He isn't.”
Noah's expression changed.
“I was twenty-three when Blackridge ended.”
Leo stared.
“That’s impossible.”
Noah answered:
“They changed my age.”
Sarah stepped forward.
“Explain.”
Noah looked at Leo.
“They created a body to carry memories.”
Leo felt sick.
“I don't understand.”
“They used children as biological records.”
Sarah stared.
“They implanted memories.”
Noah nodded.
“Every generation.”
Leo looked at his father.
“Then what am I?”
His father's face broke.
“You are the archive.”
The word echoed.
“The entire Blackridge program was built around you.”
Leo shook his head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“The memories?”
“Stored in you.”
“The files?”
“Copies.”
“The people on the screens?”
“Afraid of what you remember.”
Leo backed away.
“What happened to Lucy?”
“She carries part of it.”
Mia looked at herself.
“And me?”
His father stared at her.
“You were created to stabilize the memories.”
Mia began crying.
“I’m not real.”
Leo immediately grabbed her.
“You're real.”
Mia looked at him.
“You promise?”
“Yes.”
Noah stepped forward.
“That's why they want all three of you alive.”
A siren suddenly screamed.
Sarah looked toward the stairs.
“We have to go.”
His father shook his head.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because there is one person we haven't found.”
Leo's father looked at the cracked floor.
“Your grandmother.”
Leo frowned.
“She died.”
His father shook his head.
“No.”
A voice came through the speaker.
Old.
Female.
Calm.
“Hello, Leo.”
The lights changed.
A video screen illuminated.
An elderly woman appeared.
Leo recognized her photograph.
His grandmother.
She smiled.
“You found the basement.”
Then she said the words that froze everyone.
“Now come find the child you were told died.”
The screen went black.
Leo looked at Lucy.
Lucy whispered:
“Who?”
May you like
His father answered:
“Your older brother.”
