CHAPTER 21 — TRINITY-D
The laboratory remained locked.
Rain struck the lighthouse walls above them.
Emily stared at the embryo photograph on the monitor.
“Who created Trinity-D?”
Vanessa’s recording continued.
“The fourth file was removed before the other embryos were implanted. I never learned who carried it.”
Charles stepped closer to the screen.
“There was no fourth embryo.”
Preston looked at him.
“You said you did not authorize the implantations. Why should anyone believe you know how many embryos existed?”
Charles had no answer.
Claire searched the laboratory database.
Every reference to Trinity-D had been deleted except the photograph Vanessa preserved.
Grant forced open an emergency cabinet and found a manual release.
The doors unlocked.
At that moment, his radio came alive.
“Convoy Two has been attacked.”
Emily turned toward Preston.
“That was the vehicle carrying one of the children.”
Grant demanded details.
The officer on the radio reported that the vehicle had been struck at an intersection.
No child was inside.
Someone had replaced the infant carrier before departure.
Everyone looked at Claire.
She shook her head.
“I checked all three carriers.”
Preston examined the remaining carriers.
Two babies slept inside them.
The third carrier contained blankets and a speaker playing a recorded heartbeat.
Emily’s biological daughter was gone.
“No,” Emily whispered.
Grant checked the lighthouse cameras.
The footage showed their arrival.
Claire removed the first carrier.
Charles removed the second.
Emily removed the third.
The baby had been inside when Emily entered the lighthouse.
Five minutes later, the recording changed.
One of the men with Nathan’s face walked past the carriers.
He blocked the camera for eleven seconds.
When he moved away, the child was gone.
Both identical men had entered the facility.
One was with Grant near the rear entrance.
The other stood beside Emily.
Grant turned toward the man near him.
“Where is the child?”
“I never touched the carrier.”
The man beside Emily said, “He is lying.”
Grant raised his weapon.
The accused man slowly removed his coat.
There was no child beneath it.
“Search the tunnels,” Emily ordered.
They found a narrow medical transport passage leading toward the cliffs.
At the end of the tunnel, waves crashed against black rocks.
A small boat was moving away from shore.
A hooded figure stood at the wheel.
An infant carrier rested beside the figure.
Emily ran to the edge.
“Stop!”
The figure turned.
It was Lydia.
She held up a phone.
Emily’s phone rang.
“You keep trusting faces,” Lydia said.
“You took my daughter.”
“I removed her before Helena could.”
“Bring her back.”
“Not until you understand who is betraying you.”
Emily looked at the two identical men.
“Which one?”
“Both have lied.”
“Which one took the child from the carrier?”
Lydia remained silent.
“Tell me!”
“The man who removed her was not Nathan.”
Emily’s eyes moved to the men.
“Was he Nicholas?”
“No.”
The boat continued into the rain.
Emily could barely hear Lydia’s final words.
“He is not a Bennett.”
The call ended.
Grant ordered the coast guard to intercept the boat.
Preston stood near the tunnel wall, examining the old security keypad.
“There is a secondary exit.”
He entered a code.
A hidden door opened beside the tunnel.
Behind it was a room filled with photographs.
Hundreds of images covered the walls.
Nathan as a child.
Nicholas as a child.
The twins after the boat explosion.
One photograph showed a third unconscious man lying between them.
His damaged face was covered in surgical markings.
Beneath the photograph, someone had written:
MIRROR CANDIDATE ACCEPTED.
Emily looked at the two men.
One of them whispered, “I remember that room.”
The other stepped backward.
Grant raised his weapon.
“Which one of you was the third man?”
Neither answered.
Then the lights failed.
A single gunshot echoed through the laboratory.
When the emergency lights returned, one of the men with Nathan’s face had vanished.
The other lay on the floor.
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On the wall behind him, written in fresh black ink, were four words:
NATHAN BENNETT IS DEAD.
