Chapter 24: Two Roads Out of Redwater
The false Subject 08 pulled Elias against her chest.
Her childlike face showed no fear.
“Lower your weapons.”
Maya studied her carefully.
The girl’s breathing was too controlled.
Her grip was professional.
Another adult mind occupied the child’s body.
“Who are you?” Maya asked.
The girl smiled.
“Dr. Evelyn Price.”
Maya looked across the vault.
Dr. Price’s original body lay among the unconscious hosts.
Her memories had been transferred before the lockdown.
“You copied yourself into a child.”
“I learned from the best.”
Elias coughed as the blade pressed deeper.
“Maya, let her go.”
Price laughed.
“Still protecting the experiment that replaced your daughter?”
Maya’s face hardened.
“I was never Adrian’s daughter.”
“No. You were his greatest failure.”
Price began moving toward the exit with Elias as her shield.
Warren Vale gestured toward his remaining soldiers.
“Stop her.”
Price tightened the blade against Elias’s neck.
“Your wife is leaving in Anna Mercer’s body, Warren. I’m the least of your problems.”
Mercer had already disappeared into the tunnel after Anna.
Rafe knelt beside the wounded Lucas.
“He’s still breathing.”
Maya looked between Lucas and Elias.
She could not save both by chasing Price.
Elias made the choice for her.
He seized Price’s wrist and pulled the blade into his own shoulder instead of his throat.
Maya lunged.
She knocked Price to the ground and pinned her.
The girl fought with astonishing strength.
“You can’t kill this body,” Price hissed. “She’s still inside.”
“The real Subject 08?”
“Watching.”
Maya hesitated.
That was enough.
Price slammed her forehead into Maya’s face and escaped through the vault doors.
Elias collapsed.
Maya reached for him.
He pushed her away.
“Go after Anna.”
“You’re wounded.”
“I was created to carry a dead man’s memories. Let me decide what to do with the time that remains.”
Maya looked at Rafe.
“Keep Lucas alive.”
Rafe nodded.
Maya ran into the tunnel.
Two vehicle routes appeared on the wall.
The eastern road followed Anna’s SUV.
The western road followed the second Subject 08.
Maya reached a garage containing a single motorcycle.
She activated the engine.
Evelyn’s voice whispered inside her mind again.
Faint.
Distant.
Choose the child.
Rebecca’s voice followed.
Choose Anna.
Maya did not know whether the voices were real or residual memories.
She chose the eastern tunnel.
Anna’s SUV was several miles ahead.
Maya accelerated through the underground roadway.
The tunnel opened onto a mountain highway just before sunrise.
She saw the black SUV turning toward the city.
Mercer followed in a stolen security vehicle.
Maya drew alongside him.
He lowered his window.
“Anna isn’t Anna anymore,” she shouted.
“She is still my daughter.”
“What if Evelyn controls her?”
“Then I bring her back.”
The SUV suddenly braked.
Mercer swerved.
Maya lost control of the motorcycle and slid across the highway.
The SUV stopped near the edge of a cliff.
Anna stepped out.
She wore the broken-wing necklace.
Mercer approached her slowly.
“Anna?”
She looked at him.
“Dad.”
Mercer began crying.
Anna opened her arms.
He moved toward her.
Maya rose from the road.
“Wait!”
Anna hugged Mercer.
For one second, father and daughter held each other.
Then Anna plunged a needle into his neck.
Mercer collapsed.
Maya drew her gun.
“Step away from him.”
Anna looked at her.
“He was never my father.”
“Who are you?”
“Evelyn.”
“Where is Anna?”
“She is safe.”
“Inside you?”
“Beside me.”
Maya kept the gun raised.
“You tried to order me to kill Warren.”
“I did.”
“You transferred into Anna without consent.”
“Anna volunteered three years ago.”
Maya hesitated.
Anna opened the necklace and removed another memory card.
“This contains Anna’s final message.”
She placed it on the road.
“Listen before you decide whether to shoot me.”
Maya picked it up without lowering her weapon.
The card activated automatically.
Anna appeared as a holographic image.
“Maya, Evelyn is not the enemy. Warren created the Rebecca identity to make Evelyn appear unstable.”
Maya looked at the woman standing before her.
The message continued.
“Rebecca Cross never existed as a separate person. She was a corrupted Evelyn partition.”
Evelyn had been divided into opposing identities.
One wanted to expose Helix.
The other wanted to control it.
Maya had carried pieces of both.
Anna’s recording ended with a warning.
“Warren needs everyone to believe Evelyn is the threat. That gives him legal authority to activate the final protocol.”
Maya lowered the card.
“What final protocol?”
Evelyn looked toward the city.
Every phone tower in the distance suddenly flashed red.
Thousands of people stopped their cars.
Pedestrians froze on sidewalks.
A synchronized emergency message appeared on digital billboards:
NATIONAL SECURITY ALERT
REMAIN CALM
Evelyn’s face went pale.
“He activated Lazarus nationwide.”
Maya’s phone rang.
Warren Vale appeared on the screen.
Behind him stood Rafe, Lucas, Elias, and Subject 08.
May you like
All were restrained.
“Return to Redwater,” Warren said, “or I wake every sleeping host in America.”
