Chapter 13 - The tunnel led deeper underground.Far deeper than Jonathan expected.
The walls were covered with old medical records.
Names.
Dates.
Photographs.
Every generation of the Vale family.
The farther they walked, the older the records became.
Eventually, they reached a massive underground chamber.
At its center stood seven glass cylinders.
Six were empty.
The seventh contained something.
Jonathan walked closer.
It was a small metal box.
Evelyn stopped him.
"Don't."
"Why?"
"Because that's where it started."
Jonathan ignored her.
He opened it.
Inside was a recording.
An old woman appeared on the screen.
Jonathan recognized her.
His grandmother.
She spoke directly into the camera.
"If you are watching this, then Project Echo has succeeded."
Jonathan stared.
"The human body can be restored."
The recording continued.
"But there is one limitation."
His grandmother held up a medical chart.
"The regenerative mutation cannot survive indefinitely in a single body."
She paused.
"So we created carriers."
Six children.
Six generations.
But there was a problem.
One child began absorbing genetic patterns from every person he touched.
Michael.
The seventh subject.
"He was never designed."
Jonathan whispered:
"Then why was he created?"
Evelyn answered quietly.
"Because the original six began dying."
Jonathan looked at her.
"They needed a control."
"No."
Evelyn shook her head.
"They needed a memory."
Michael stared at the recording.
His eyes changed.
Suddenly, he screamed.
The recording stopped.
Michael collapsed.
Jonathan caught him.
"What happened?"
Michael whispered:
"I remembered."
"Remembered what?"
"My birth."
Everyone became silent.
Michael looked at Jonathan.
"You were there."
Jonathan's heart pounded.
"You saw me?"
"I saw you holding Lily."
Jonathan froze.
"She was crying."
Michael continued:
"You were crying too."
Evelyn covered her mouth.
Michael looked at her.
"You told him she was dead."
Jonathan slowly turned toward his wife.
"Why?"
Evelyn started crying.
"Because if Kane knew she survived, he would have taken her."
"You gave me a fake funeral."
"I had no choice."
"You buried an empty coffin."
Evelyn nodded.
Jonathan's voice broke.
"I mourned my daughter for fourteen years."
"I know."
"You let me."
"I know."
He stepped backward.
"And my legs?"
Evelyn whispered:
"I damaged them."
Jonathan froze.
"What?"
"I had to make you disappear from their radar."
She explained.
Jonathan's accident had been staged.
His paralysis was temporary in theory.
But the experiment had failed.
His spinal nerves had been damaged beyond repair.
Evelyn had spent years searching for a way to reverse it.
Then Lily returned.
Jonathan stared at her.
His daughter.
His cure.
His family's weapon.
Everything he had lost was standing in one tiny body.
Then the chamber doors opened.
Kane entered.
Behind him stood Jonathan's father.
But something was wrong.
His father no longer looked old.
The man walked without a cane.
His posture was straight.
His skin looked younger.
Jonathan stared.
"What happened to you?"
His father smiled.
"I completed the treatment."
Jonathan's stomach dropped.
"You used one of the children."
"Yes."
"Which one?"
His father didn't answer.
Emma screamed.
Jonathan turned.
One of the children's beds was empty.
Noah was gone.
Michael shouted:
"NOAH!"
They ran.
Too late.
A monitor displayed Noah's blood analysis.
His regenerative cells had been extracted.
Jonathan's father had injected them into himself.
Jonathan raised his gun.
"You monster."
His father smiled.
"I am the future."
Jonathan fired.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
The old man barely moved.
The wound closed.
Jonathan stared.
His father pulled the bullet out.
Then smiled.
"Now you understand."
Kane stepped forward.
"The children are no longer required."
Jonathan's blood froze.
"Then why keep Lily?"
Kane answered:
"Because she's the source."
Michael suddenly grabbed Jonathan's hand.
His eyes turned silver.
Jonathan saw something.
A vision.
A laboratory.
Noah strapped to a table.
Doctors surrounding him.
And one man standing behind them.
Jonathan's father.
The old man leaned toward Noah.
"Your blood will save millions."
Noah cried.
"Please."
The old man smiled.
"It already has."
The vision ended.
Michael collapsed.
Jonathan looked at Marcus.
"We have to get Noah."
Marcus nodded.
But Evelyn stopped them.
"There is something you don't know."
Jonathan turned.
"What?"
Evelyn looked terrified.
"Noah wasn't taken for his blood."
Jonathan stared.
"Then why?"
Evelyn whispered:
"Because he isn't Noah."
Silence.
Jonathan's face went cold.
Evelyn pointed at the empty bed.
"The real Noah died years ago."
Jonathan felt his heart stop.
"The boy you know..."
Evelyn swallowed.
"Was created from Jonathan's DNA."
Jonathan whispered:
May you like
"What?"
"And he was made to replace you."
