Chapter 10 - The ArchitectThe memory came like a flood.
I was twenty-one.
Brilliant.
Angry.
Convinced I could build something better than the men who had raised me.
My father recruited me into Harrow.
I believed it was about saving lives.
I designed the genetic tracking system.
I created the identification protocol.
I wrote the algorithm that predicted which children would inherit the sequence.
Then I discovered what Walter intended to do with it.
I tried to destroy everything.
My father helped me.
Lucas helped me.
Victor helped me.
And that was when Walter turned on us.
The memory fractured.
Gunfire.
Fire.
Lucas screaming.
My father telling me to run.
Victor grabbing me.
Then Walter's voice.
"If you remember this, they'll kill you."
I remembered.
All of it.
I collapsed to my knees.
Christine stood beside me.
"You really built it."
"Yes."
"How could you?"
"I didn't know."
"You didn't know?"
"I was twenty-one."
She stared at me through tears.
"Children suffered because of your work."
"I know."
"And you erased your own memory."
"I know."
Lucas stepped toward me.
"We all paid for it."
I looked at him.
"Why didn't you hate me?"
"I did."
He paused.
"Then I remembered what you were trying to do."
"What was I trying to do?"
"Save us."
Mara entered the room.
"We have twenty minutes."
"Until what?"
"They're moving Jake."
"Where?"
"Underground facility."
"Can we stop them?"
Mara looked at Lucas.
"Only if Ethan remembers the final protocol."
I closed my eyes.
The final protocol.
There had been one part of Harrow I never documented.
Something that existed only in my head.
A kill switch.
A system designed to destroy the entire database.
"Where?"
Mara answered.
"Mercer Ridge."
I looked toward the floor.
"Then that's where we go."
We reached the underground laboratory.
The doors were already open.
Walter stood in the center.
Brian and Scott beside him.
Jake was strapped to a chair.
Christine screamed his name.
Walter smiled.
"Good."
I stepped forward.
"Let him go."
Walter shook his head.
"You still don't understand."
"I understand everything."
"No."
He pointed at Jake.
"Your son is the culmination of twenty years of work."
I looked at Jake.
His eyes found mine.
"Dad?"
"I'm here."
Walter said, "You built the system."
"I destroyed it."
"You hid the code."
"I protected it."
Walter smiled.
"Same thing."
I stared at him.
"Where is my father?"
Walter's smile disappeared.
"Dead."
"You're lying."
"I killed him."
The room went silent.
Then Walter leaned toward me.
"He begged me to tell you."
"Tell me what?"
Walter's eyes hardened.
"That your mother never abandoned you."
He pointed to a monitor.
A file appeared.
A video.
My mother.
Alive.
Recorded two months ago.
She looked directly into the camera.
And said:
"Ethan, if you're seeing this..."
She took a breath.
"...Christine was never the enemy."
I looked at my wife.
Walter smiled.
"The enemy has been inside your family from the beginning."
May you like
Then the lights shut off.
And Jake screamed.
