CHAPTER 24: THE SLEEPING CHILDREN

The archive was not filled with computer files.

It was filled with people.

Children of different ages slept inside vertical capsules.

Some appeared five years old.

Others were teenagers.

Their names had been replaced by numbers.

Eli stared through the glass door.

“There were only seven at my facility.”

Daniel’s voice was hollow.

“There were hundreds across the world.”

Adrian descended the staircase.

“How long have they been here?”

“Some for more than twenty years.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Their bodies were slowed. Their nervous systems were placed into artificial sleep.”

The little girl who had opened her eyes pressed one hand against her capsule.

Daniel approached her.

A label read SUBJECT ZERO.

Adrian looked at Elena’s image on the wall screen.

“Who is she?”

Elena closed her eyes.

“My daughter.”

Adrian turned sharply.

“We had only one child.”

“She was not yours.”

Silence fell across the archive.

Sebastian laughed from the upper level.

“At last, one honest sentence.”

Elena ignored him.

“After Daniel was taken, Sebastian tried to create another stable carrier. He used my cells and his.”

Adrian looked at Sebastian with disgust.

The girl inside the capsule had Elena’s eyes.

“She has been asleep for twenty-three years,” Elena said. “Her body has barely aged.”

“Why wake her now?”

“Because she can destroy the control network.”

Daniel touched the capsule.

“Or control every subject connected to it.”

Elena nodded.

“That is why Sebastian kept her hidden.”

The countdown reached two minutes.

Naomi examined the release panel.

“If we wake all of them at once, their hearts could fail.”

“If we leave them, they die in the collapse,” Mason said.

Eli called through the glass.

“I can help them.”

Emma grabbed his shoulders.

“No.”

“I don’t need my legs to use my hands.”

“You’ve already lost too much.”

Eli looked at the sleeping children.

“They’ve lost their whole lives.”

Daniel pressed his palm against Subject Zero’s capsule.

The glass opened.

The girl fell into his arms.

Her eyes focused on him.

“Brother,” she whispered.

Then every capsule in the archive unlocked at once.

Hundreds of children opened their eyes.

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