Chapter 6 - The laughter was impossible.Infants don't laugh like that.
Not at three in the morning.
Not while the entire house is under attack.
But Theo was laughing.
We could hear him through the ceiling.
A strange, soft chuckle.
Almost adult.
Marco looked at me.
“Stay here.”
I shook my head.
“I'm going.”
We ran upstairs.
The east wing had become chaos.
Guards moved through the corridors.
Gunfire echoed from outside.
Windows shattered.
The house security system was malfunctioning.
Every monitor displayed the same symbol.
A red circle.
With a black line through the center.
Caleb stopped.
“No.”
“What?”
He stared at the screen.
“They activated the Mercy Protocol.”
“What is it?”
“A cleanup.”
The nursery door was open.
I ran inside.
Theo sat upright in his crib.
Miles and Nora were sleeping.
Theo stared directly at me.
His eyes were wide.
Then he lifted one tiny hand.
Pointing.
At the wall.
I looked.
A red light blinked behind the plaster.
Explosives.
“GET THEM OUT!”
Marco grabbed Miles.
I took Theo.
Elena took Nora.
Caleb shoved open the window.
We climbed onto the balcony.
Three seconds later, the nursery exploded.
The blast threw me onto the grass.
I hit the ground hard.
Theo cried in my arms.
I rolled over.
The nursery windows were gone.
Smoke filled the east wing.
Marco emerged carrying Miles.
Elena followed with Nora.
Everyone was alive.
Barely.
But the attack hadn't ended.
Black SUVs entered the estate through the main gate.
Armed men poured out.
Caleb recognized their insignia.
“The Vale Foundation.”
“What?”
“Evelyn Vale.”
My jaw tightened.
“Then she wants the children.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“She wants something inside them.”
We moved toward the underground bunker.
It was built beneath the garage.
Another secret my father had apparently left behind.
Inside, we locked the doors.
The children were quiet.
Too quiet.
Sophie sat on the floor with her doll.
I looked at her.
“How do you know all these places?”
She shrugged.
“Daddy showed me.”
“Your father died two years ago.”
“Sometimes dead people still remember things.”
I didn't know what to say.
Caleb knelt beside her.
“Sophie.”
She looked at him.
“Do you remember the room with the red door?”
She nodded.
I looked at him.
“What red door?”
“The place where they kept the first children.”
My blood ran cold.
“How many?”
“Seven.”
“And where are they now?”
Sophie squeezed the doll.
“Five are sleeping.”
“Where?”
“Under the city.”
“Two?”
She looked at me.
“One became Daddy.”
Silence.
I stared at Caleb.
He lowered his eyes.
“You're one of them?”
He nodded.
“I was born under Project Mercy.”
That explained everything.
The training.
The loyalty.
The strange gaps in his history.
His impossible ability to predict danger.
I looked at the babies.
“What are they?”
Caleb's answer was quiet.
“They were designed to become the next generation.”
“Of what?”
“The syndicate.”
A massive explosion shook the bunker.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Someone was trying to breach the door.
Caleb grabbed a rifle.
“We need to leave.”
“Where?”
“Chicago.”
“Why?”
“Because Evelyn Vale has a laboratory there.”
“Where?”
He looked at me.
“Under your father's old casino.”
I knew the place.
An abandoned building on Wabash Avenue.
Closed for fifteen years.
Untouched.
I had always assumed it was because of a fire.
Caleb shook his head.
“Your father never shut it down.”
“Then why has nobody found it?”
“Because it isn't under the casino.”
“Where?”
“Under the church next door.”
I stared at him.
“The church?”
He nodded.
“Project Mercy was hidden beneath a church for twenty years.”
The bunker door shook.
Someone shouted outside.
Caleb opened a hidden passage.
We moved into the tunnel.
Halfway through, my phone vibrated.
Unknown number again.
I answered.
Lucia.
“Adrien.”
“Where are you?”
“I don't have much time.”
“Tell me.”
“I am at the place where they took me.”
“Where?”
“St. Michael's.”
The church.
My heart stopped.
“I'm coming.”
“No.”
“Lucia…”
“Listen to me.”
Her voice broke.
“If you come here, bring the children.”
“Why?”
Silence.
Then:
“Because one of them isn't yours.”
The line died.
I looked down at Theo.
Then Miles.
Then Nora.
Three tiny faces.
May you like
Three sleeping babies.
And suddenly I couldn't stop wondering which one was the stranger.
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