CHAPTER 6: THE METAL UNDER HIS SKIN

The mansion entered emergency lockdown.

Steel shutters covered every window.

Guards blocked the hallways.

In the medical room, Adrian lay face down while Mason used a portable scanner on his lower spine.

The screen revealed a small object embedded beside Adrian’s spinal cord.

It was no larger than a coin.

Dr. Hale had never mentioned it.

Mason enlarged the image.

“Some kind of implant.”

Adrian remembered waking after the car crash twelve years earlier.

Dr. Hale had been standing beside his hospital bed.

He had said the damage was permanent.

“What does it do?” Adrian asked.

“I’m not a surgeon.”

Eli stood in the doorway.

“It keeps the nerves asleep.”

Mason looked at him.

“How would you know?”

“I saw one before.”

“Inside whom?”

Eli hesitated.

“My mother.”

Adrian lifted himself onto his elbows.

“Emma has one too?”

“She said it stopped her from remembering.”

A crash echoed from the lower floor.

Gunfire followed.

The guards shouted through the radios.

The attackers had entered through an old drainage tunnel beneath the estate.

Mason drew his weapon.

“We’re moving you.”

Adrian pulled himself into the wheelchair.

Eli suddenly grabbed Adrian’s wrist.

“Listen to me. The implant has a receiver.”

“A receiver for what?”

“A signal.”

The mansion lights flickered.

A sharp electric pain exploded through Adrian’s spine.

His body locked.

He fell sideways from the wheelchair.

Eli dropped beside him and pressed both hands against Adrian’s lower back.

“Don’t,” Adrian gasped. “It hurts you.”

“If I don’t, your heart will stop.”

Warmth spread from the boy’s fingers.

The pain weakened.

Blood ran from Eli’s nose onto Adrian’s shirt.

Downstairs, the shooting moved closer.

Adrian felt his legs again.

Not only movement.

Strength.

He grabbed the side of the examination table and pulled himself upright.

His knees shook violently, but they held.

For the first time in twelve years, Adrian Vale stood without assistance.

Eli collapsed at his feet.

Before losing consciousness, the boy whispered one name.

“Daniel.”

Adrian froze.

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