Chapter 27: Silas Vale’s Daughter
Lucas raised his gun.
Subject 08 did not move.
“You’re supposed to be gone,” he said.
“I was.”
“You escaped with Warren.”
“I let him think I did.”
Maya stepped between her and Lucas.
“Are you Silas Vale’s daughter?”
The child looked at the frozen body inside the container.
“I was.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’ve had many fathers since then.”
The underground transport began moving.
Judging from the vibration beneath their feet, the chamber was connected to a high-speed rail system.
Rafe searched for an emergency control.
There was none.
Maya sat across from Subject 08.
“What is your real name?”
The girl studied her for a long time.
“Silas named me Evelyn.”
Anna’s shared body carried Evelyn’s consciousness.
The founder’s daughter had also been named Evelyn.
“Which Evelyn created Lazarus?” Maya asked.
“All of us.”
Subject 08 explained that Silas’s daughter had been born with an extraordinary ability to retain memories in precise detail.
She remembered voices after hearing them once.
She could recreate drawings she had seen years earlier.
Silas believed her brain could preserve knowledge beyond a normal lifetime.
When she became seriously ill, he built the first Lazarus machine to save her memories.
“But you survived,” Rafe said.
“My body survived.”
“What happened to your mind?”
Subject 08 touched her forehead.
“Silas divided it.”
One part remained in the child.
Another became the woman later known as Evelyn Vale.
Other fragments were placed inside Adrian, Warren, Rebecca, and dozens of children.
Every major figure in Lazarus carried some piece of Silas’s original daughter.
Maya felt sick.
“This entire family came from one child’s memories.”
“Not a family,” Subject 08 replied. “An argument.”
“About what?”
“Whether Lazarus should exist.”
Evelyn’s fragments had developed different beliefs.
One wanted the technology destroyed.
One wanted it exposed.
One wanted to use it to control dangerous people.
One believed identity was meaningless.
Rebecca had become the most ruthless fragment.
Adrian became the protector.
Warren became the loyal son Silas had always wanted.
“And me?” Maya asked.
Subject 08 smiled.
“You became the part that refused to choose.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It is why Silas needs you.”
The body inside the black container moved.
A finger twitched beneath the frost.
Lucas stepped back.
“It’s waking up.”
Subject 08 placed her hand on the glass.
“Not yet.”
Maya looked at the identification data.
The vessel carried her DNA and Adrian’s.
“What consciousness is supposed to enter it?”
Subject 08 turned toward her.
“All of them.”
Silas planned to gather every Evelyn fragment and combine them inside the new body.
Once complete, the vessel would contain decades of knowledge, political secrets, combat experience, scientific research, and psychological conditioning.
One person built from thousands.
“Why would Silas give that body my face?” Maya asked.
“He didn’t.”
Subject 08 pointed at the genetic display.
“The vessel was designed by Adrian.”
Elias had said Adrian fought Silas’s version of Lazarus.
Perhaps this body had originally served another purpose.
“Adrian wanted to save the hosts,” Maya said.
“By moving the transferred memories out of them.”
“And into this body.”
Subject 08 nodded.
“The vessel could free everyone.”
Rafe stopped searching the walls.
“Then why destroy it?”
“Because whoever controls the vessel controls every memory inside it.”
Lucas looked at Maya.
“Silas needs her to activate it.”
Subject 08’s expression turned serious.
“He needs more than that.”
The transport chamber slowed.
A screen showed their estimated arrival.
Forty minutes.
Maya sat closer to the girl.
“Tell me everything.”
Subject 08 looked toward the black container.
“The vessel does not have a complete nervous system yet.”
“It moved.”
“That was a reflex.”
“What is missing?”
“A living neural map.”
Maya understood before the child finished.
“Mine.”
“Your brain was conditioned from childhood to carry conflicting identities without collapsing. No other host survived as many memory partitions.”
Rafe stepped in front of Maya.
“They’re not taking her.”
Subject 08 tilted her head.
“I did not say they needed to kill her.”
“That usually means something worse.”
Silas planned to connect Maya’s living brain to the vessel, copying its structure and allowing the synthetic body to awaken.
Maya might survive.
But she could lose every memory that made her who she was.
Lucas paced the chamber.
“We stop the train.”
“There is no external brake,” Subject 08 said.
Rafe examined the floor.
“Every machine has a power source.”
The body inside the container suddenly opened its eyes.
They were the same hazel color as Maya’s.
A speaker on the container activated.
The voice that emerged was male but familiar.
“Maya.”
She approached despite Rafe’s warning.
“Who are you?”
The man behind the glass struggled to breathe.
“Adrian.”
Maya’s heart stopped.
Elias carried Adrian’s memories.
But the voice inside the vessel sounded younger.
Stronger.
“Dad?”
The man pressed his hand against the glass.
“Do not bring me to Ashbourne.”
Subject 08 stepped away from the container.
“That’s impossible.”
The man’s eyes focused on Maya.
“Silas is not gathering the hosts to enter this body.”
“What is he doing?”
Adrian’s expression filled with terror.
“He is gathering them to feed it.”
The chamber lights switched off.
Emergency lights activated.
On the floor beside Subject 08 lay a small medical device.
Rafe picked it up.
A green light blinked on its surface.
“A transmitter.”
Lucas aimed his gun at the child.
“You told them where we are.”
Subject 08 smiled again.
“No.”
She looked at Maya.
“I told him you were ready.”
The train accelerated.
A new destination appeared on the screen.
Not Ashbourne.
SITE ONE
May you like
Estimated depth:
2.7 miles below ground
