CHAPTER 27 : THE CHILD WHO GREW UP
The stolen infant’s signal moved rapidly toward the lake tunnel.
Adrian followed it on the terminal.
“Grant is heading for the boathouse.”
Ethan faced Evelyn.
“You created Grant?”
“He was the first viable continuity subject.”
“He looks older than you.”
“His records are older than my current body.”
Claire’s voice briefly broke through.
“Don’t listen…”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
When they opened again, Claire was gone.
Daniel stepped toward her.
“How many bodies did you use?”
Helen struck him.
The sound echoed through the damaged nursery.
“Do not speak to her like that.”
Daniel touched his bleeding lip.
“You still worship her.”
“She gave Claire back to me.”
“No,” Evelyn said. “She gave herself a daughter who could never leave.”
Helen’s expression collapsed.
The building shook.
Water rushed through the outer corridor.
Ethan lifted Claire’s newborn from the cradle.
The child’s heartbeat weakened immediately.
“Grant is taking the preserved infant out of range,” Adrian said. “If he gets another mile away, both children may die.”
Noah removed his hand from the third platform.
“I’m coming with you.”
Thomas grabbed him.
“You are staying here.”
Noah turned on him.
“You used me for nineteen years.”
“I protected you for nineteen years.”
“You just aimed a gun at people trying to save a baby.”
Thomas lowered his voice.
“There are no babies in this family. Only keys.”
Noah pulled free.
“That’s why I’m leaving with the people who still know the difference.”
Ethan, Noah, Vanessa and Daniel entered the flooded passage.
Adrian remained with Margaret and Claire’s newborn.
Helen stayed beside Evelyn.
Before Ethan left, he looked at Claire.
“Fight her.”
Evelyn watched him without emotion.
“The Claire you love is a collection of memories.”
“So are you.”
For the first time, she appeared wounded.
Then the door closed between them.
The lake tunnel was already waist-deep in freezing water.
Daniel moved slowly because of his damaged leg.
Noah supported him.
“You’re really Daniel?”
The scarred man looked ahead.
“Today.”
“That sounds like something Thomas would say.”
“It is something Thomas taught all of us.”
They reached a steel ladder beneath the boathouse.
Ethan climbed first.
Grant stood above them with the preserved infant inside a portable cardiac carrier.
“You’re too late,” Grant said.
The infant’s eyes were open.
He was watching Grant.
Not with the unfocused expression of a newborn.
With understanding.
Grant lifted the carrier.
“This child remembers every voice spoken near his preservation chamber. He heard Helen, Evelyn, Thomas and both Blackwood brothers for thirty years.”
Daniel climbed onto the platform.
“He was unconscious.”
“His body was.”
Grant looked toward the baby.
“His mind was being trained.”
Ethan raised his weapon.
“Put him down.”
“If you fire, Claire’s child dies with him.”
Noah moved slowly around the edge of the boathouse.
Grant noticed.
“Stop.”
The infant lifted one tiny hand.
His fingers closed around Grant’s collar.
Grant froze.
A voice emerged from the speaker inside the carrier.
It sounded like Claire’s newborn.
But the newborn was nearly a mile away.
“Grant.”
Grant looked down.
The preserved child’s eyes remained fixed on him.
The voice continued.
“You were not the first.”
Grant’s face lost all color.
A second signal appeared on Adrian’s tracking device.
It came from beneath the Blackwood estate.
Another preserved heartbeat.
Older.
May you like
Stronger.
And moving.
