Chapter 5: The Burned File
Rafe tore off his shirt and pressed it against the nearest vent.
Maya searched the tunnel wall for a release mechanism.
The gas had a sweet chemical odor.
Her vision began to blur.
“Behind the speaker,” Rafe coughed.
Maya smashed the speaker grille with the metal key. Hidden behind it was a small lever.
She pulled it.
A floor panel dropped open beneath them.
Maya and Rafe fell into darkness.
They landed in a room filled with blackened filing cabinets.
The gas remained trapped above them.
Maya switched on her phone flashlight.
Hundreds of folders covered the floor. Most had been partially burned.
Rafe picked up one file.
“No names. Only numbers.”
Maya found a folder marked 1178.
Inside was a photograph of Elias taken twenty years earlier.
The man was younger and had no scar across his face.
Beneath the photograph was a different name:
ADRIAN CROSS
Maya stopped breathing.
Her father’s name.
She read the page again.
Subject 1178.
Former federal agent.
Status: deceased.
Reactivated under Lazarus Protocol.
“That’s impossible,” she whispered.
Rafe stood behind her.
“What does it say?”
Maya closed the folder.
Before she could answer, something moved inside the far corner.
A woman in a white medical coat stepped from behind a filing cabinet.
Dr. Evelyn Price, Blackridge’s chief psychiatrist.
She held a pistol.
“You were always too curious,” Price said.
Maya raised both hands.
“You know who Elias is.”
“I know who he used to be.”
“Is he my father?”
Price smiled faintly.
“That depends on what you believe makes someone your father. Blood? Memories? Loyalty?”
Rafe moved slightly toward her.
Price aimed the gun at his chest.
“Don’t.”
“What is the Lazarus Protocol?” Maya asked.
“A second life for useful people.”
“You erased their identities.”
“We corrected them.”
“Where is Lucas?”
Price’s smile disappeared.
“Your brother resisted correction longer than anyone expected.”
“Is he alive?”
“Parts of him are.”
Maya lunged.
Price fired.
Rafe shoved Maya aside and took the bullet through his shoulder.
Maya struck Price’s wrist, sending the weapon across the floor. The two women crashed against a filing cabinet.
Price grabbed Maya’s hair.
“You came here believing you were the rescuer,” she hissed. “You are the reason this place exists.”
Maya drove her forehead into Price’s nose.
Price stumbled backward.
Rafe retrieved the gun.
“Move and I’ll return the favor.”
Price laughed despite the blood running over her lips.
“You still don’t understand. The program was not built for Lucas.”
She looked at Maya.
“It was built from you.”
A security door opened behind her.
Captain Shaw entered with six armed officers.
Price raised her hands and immediately changed her expression.
“Thank God,” she said. “She attacked me.”
Shaw aimed his weapon at Maya.
Rafe tried to stand, but blood poured from his shoulder.
Maya held up the folder containing her father’s photograph.
“Ask her why a dead federal agent is imprisoned beneath Blackridge.”
Shaw looked at the folder.
For one second, fear crossed his face.
Then he fired at the overhead lights.
Darkness filled the room.
Someone grabbed Maya from behind.
A hood was pulled over her head.
The last thing she heard was Shaw’s voice.
“Take Rafe to medical.”
“And the woman?” an officer asked.
May you like
Shaw paused.
“Deliver her to her brother.”
