CHAPTER 27: THE FIRST SON

Daniel explained that before Grace, before Eli and before the other children, Sebastian had experimented on an adult.

The subject’s real name was Nathan Cross.

Sebastian’s first son.

Victoria turned pale.

“My brother died when I was ten.”

“No,” Daniel said. “Your father erased him.”

Nathan had been born with a heart condition.

Sebastian implanted experimental nerve technology into the boy’s brain and chest.

The treatment saved him.

It also gave him the ability to connect with other implants.

Unlike Grace, Nathan could not feel pain or empathy through the network.

He could only command.

“Why didn’t I know?” Victoria asked.

“Because he made you forget,” Grace said.

She touched Victoria’s forehead.

Victoria staggered.

Images returned.

A teenage boy locked behind glass.

Her father forcing her to watch.

Nathan promising he would someday escape.

Victoria screamed and fell to her knees.

“He was alive.”

Daniel nodded.

“And Sebastian was afraid of him.”

Every screen in the clinic turned black.

Nathan appeared.

He looked approximately forty, with a shaved head and a thin scar running down the center of his face.

“Hello, Victoria.”

She stared at him.

“Brother?”

“You grew up.”

Tears filled her eyes.

“So did your lies.”

Nathan looked toward Grace.

“I have been waiting for you.”

Grace stepped behind Daniel.

Nathan smiled.

“Do not fear me. We are the only two who can free the others.”

“By controlling them?” Grace asked.

“People already live under control. Governments. Employers. Fear. I merely make the chains visible.”

Adrian moved in front of the camera.

“You used innocent people.”

Nathan studied him.

“Adrian Vale. The man who signed the first authorization.”

“I’m ending Helix.”

“You cannot end what lives inside millions of bodies.”

The clinic doors locked.

Every guard outside turned toward Adrian.

Their eyes were empty.

Nathan’s voice filled the hallway.

“Bring Grace to me, or I will make every implanted person stop breathing.”

A timer appeared.

TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.

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Then Nathan added one final instruction.

“And bring Eli. His gift is the only thing that can make me human again.”