CHAPTER 9 MY FATHER LEFT A SECRET BEHIND
The gunshot echoed through the farmhouse.
“Miguel!”
He collapsed against the wall.
For one terrible second, I thought he was dead.
Then his hand moved.
“I’m okay.”
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Richard grabbed him and pulled him behind the kitchen counter.
“Bullet went through.”
Miguel clenched his teeth.
“It's fine.”
“It isn't fine,” I snapped.
He looked at me.
“You always say that.”
“And you always lie.”
For the first time, a faint smile crossed his face.
Then another gunshot shattered the window.
Glass exploded across the room.
Helena dropped to the floor.
“Everyone down!”
Richard moved toward the back door.
“How many?”
Helena shook her head.
“At least three.”
“Armed?”
“Yes.”
“Nightfall?”
“Yes.”
Richard looked at me.
“We need to move.”
I looked toward Helena.
“You said my father is alive.”
“Yes.”
“Then you're coming with us.”
She hesitated.
“I can't.”
“You can.”
“You don't understand what happens if Cole finds me.”
“He already knows where you are.”
Her face went pale.
I stepped closer.
“You told me my father was alive. Now you're going to tell me where.”
Helena looked at me.
“He left something for you.”
“What?”
“A message.”
“Where?”
“Inside Vitalis.”
Richard cursed.
“Of course.”
Helena shook her head.
“Not the building you know.”
She looked at me.
“The original Vitalis facility.”
We escaped through a hidden cellar beneath the farmhouse.
Helena knew the route.
That frightened me more than the gunfire.
She moved through the tunnels without hesitation.
Every turn.
Every locked gate.
Every concealed passage.
She had been here before.
Many times.
I followed behind her.
“You knew my father survived.”
“Yes.”
“For four years.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I promised him.”
“A promise?”
“He said you would be safer believing he was dead.”
I almost laughed.
“Safer?”
Helena stopped.
“You don't understand what happened after the accident.”
“I understand enough.”
“No.”
She turned toward me.
“You remember fragments.”
“Then tell me the whole story.”
She stared at me for several seconds.
Then she said:
“Your father wasn't the only person they wanted to silence.”
“Who else?”
“You.”
“Why?”
“Because Julian discovered that your brain was different.”
I frowned.
“Different how?”
“You don't forget normally.”
I said nothing.
“Most people who undergo the Nightfall procedure lose access to certain memories.”
She touched her temple.
“But you didn't.”
“What happened instead?”
“Your conscious mind lost access.”
“And the memories?”
“Stayed.”
“Where?”
“Everywhere.”
She looked at me.
“Your brain scattered them.”
I shivered.
“That's why I remember pieces.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because the procedure had a second effect.”
“What?”
“You became resistant.”
“To Nightfall?”
“To control.”
I stared at her.
Helena nodded.
“That's why Cole feared you.”
We emerged into an abandoned railway tunnel.
A black SUV waited nearby.
Richard looked at Helena.
“Whose?”
“My father's.”
I stopped.
“Your father's?”
“He left it here before he disappeared.”
Richard stared at the vehicle.
“You're saying Julian planned all this?”
“Yes.”
“Four years ago?”
“Yes.”
Miguel was helped into the passenger seat.
I sat beside Helena in the back.
Richard drove.
For several minutes, no one spoke.
Then I asked:
“Where is my father now?”
Helena looked out the window.
“Underground.”
“Under Vitalis?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because that's where they took him.”
I felt my stomach tighten.
“Cole?”
“Cole.”
“Is he imprisoned?”
Helena didn't answer.
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
“Then we go there.”
“We can't.”
I turned toward her.
“Why?”
“Because the original facility is still operational.”
Richard looked at her through the mirror.
“Who runs it?”
Helena whispered:
“Adrian Cole.”
The old Vitalis facility was beneath a building that no longer carried the Vitalis name.
From the outside, it looked abandoned.
Broken windows.
Rusting signs.
Overgrown weeds.
But underground—
everything was different.
Power still ran through the building.
Security cameras moved.
Elevators operated.
People walked through sealed corridors.
A hidden hospital existed beneath the ruins.
We entered through a maintenance shaft.
Richard went first.
Miguel followed despite his injury.
I stayed beside Helena.
She stopped before a steel door.
“This is it.”
I looked at the keypad.
“What is the code?”
Helena shook her head.
“Your father didn't leave a code.”
“Then how do we open it?”
She looked at me.
“You do.”
I frowned.
“How?”
“Put your hand on the panel.”
I hesitated.
Then placed my palm against the metal.
Nothing happened.
Helena whispered:
“Remember.”
I closed my eyes.
A red door.
My father.
A small room.
A machine.
His hand covering mine.
“Don't be afraid.”
I remembered the words.
Then another.
“Your body knows the way.”
The panel suddenly lit up.
A blue line appeared beneath my palm.
IDENTITY CONFIRMED.
Richard stared.
“How?”
Helena answered:
“Julian built the system around her.”
The door opened.
Inside was a room unlike anything I'd ever seen.
No hospital beds.
No surgical equipment.
Just a massive circular chamber surrounded by computers.
At the center stood a glass cylinder.
Inside it—
a chair.
The same kind of chair I remembered.
My breathing stopped.
“I sat there.”
“Yes.”
Helena walked toward it.
“You spent seventeen hours inside this room.”
“Seventeen?”
“They kept you awake.”
My stomach twisted.
“Why?”
“To map your memory response.”
I stared at the chair.
Images suddenly flashed across the monitors.
My face.
My brain scans.
Words.
SUBJECT: MAYA TORRES
MEMORY RETENTION: 94%
SUPPRESSION FAILURE
NEURAL RESISTANCE: EXTREME
Then:
PROJECT NIGHTFALL — PRIMARY SUBJECT
I looked at Helena.
“Primary?”
She nodded.
“You were the first successful human trial.”
My voice was barely audible.
“And my father allowed it?”
“He volunteered you.”
I turned sharply.
“What?”
“He believed the technology could save people.”
“You let him?”
“I was the one who objected.”
“But you still treated me.”
“I had no choice.”
“You always have a choice.”
She looked devastated.
“No.”
Her voice broke.
“Not when the people holding your daughter have guns.”
Silence.
I stared at her.
“Daughter?”
Helena froze.
Then she realized what she'd said.
Richard looked at her.
“What daughter?”
Helena closed her eyes.
“I shouldn't have said that.”
I stepped toward her.
“What daughter?”
“Maya…”
“Whose daughter?”
She looked at me.
“Mine.”
I couldn't move.
“What?”
Helena's eyes filled with tears.
“I had a daughter.”
“Where is she?”
“She died.”
“How?”
“Nightfall.”
My anger disappeared.
“How old?”
“Eight.”
I stared at her.
“She was one of the first children exposed to the technology.”
My voice softened.
“I'm sorry.”
Helena wiped her eyes.
“That's why I helped Julian.”
“Because you wanted revenge?”
“Because I wanted it to stop.”
A monitor suddenly activated.
A live feed appeared.
A man sat in a dark room.
Older.
Thinner.
Gray hair.
I recognized him immediately.
My knees weakened.
“Dad.”
Julian Torres looked into the camera.
He smiled.
“Maya.”
I covered my mouth.
Richard stared at the screen.
Miguel whispered:
“Oh my God.”
Julian continued.
“If you're watching this, Helena has finally brought you here.”
I couldn't speak.
“Dad…”
His expression softened.
“I know you will be angry.”
“You're alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you come home?”
“Because I couldn't.”
“Why?”
“Because they were watching you.”
I shook my head.
“You let me believe you were dead.”
“I had to.”
“You let me mourn you.”
“I know.”
My voice broke.
“I was alone.”
“I know.”
“Where were you?”
He looked away.
“Inside Nightfall.”
The screen flickered.
“I spent four years destroying what I helped create.”
Richard stepped closer.
“What did you create?”
Julian looked at him.
“The original neurological architecture.”
He paused.
“Nightfall was built from my research.”
Richard's expression hardened.
“Then you created it.”
“No.”
Julian shook his head.
“I created a way to reconnect damaged neural pathways.”
He looked at me.
“Cole discovered it could also disconnect them.”
I stared.
“And then he weaponized it.”
“Yes.”
The screen flickered again.
Julian continued:
“I couldn't destroy Nightfall from outside.”
“So you stayed inside.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To find the master archive.”
“What is it?”
“The complete record.”
“Of what?”
“Every patient.”
“Every experiment.”
“Every person who funded it.”
He looked directly at me.
“And every person who ordered the killings.”
I felt my pulse rise.
“Who?”
Julian's expression became serious.
“That's why you need to find the final key.”
“Where is it?”
He smiled sadly.
“You already have it.”
I touched my pendant.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“But the pendant only contains part of the data.”
“Correct.”
“Then what is the final key?”
Julian leaned toward the camera.
“Your memory.”
The screen went black.
A door opened behind us.
We spun around.
A man stepped into the room.
Adrian Cole.
He held no weapon.
He didn't need one.
Several armed guards stood behind him.
He looked at me.
Then smiled.
“Julian was always sentimental.”
Richard raised his gun.
Cole shook his head.
“Don't.”
He pointed toward the ceiling.
A red light began flashing.
“Every weapon in this room is connected to an automated security system.”
Richard lowered his gun.
Cole looked at me.
“You finally came back.”
I stepped forward.
“Where is my father?”
“Very close.”
“Take me to him.”
Cole laughed softly.
“You still think you're in control.”
“No.”
I looked directly into his eyes.
“But you're afraid.”
His smile disappeared.
“You know why?”
He said nothing.
“Because my memories are coming back.”
Cole's jaw tightened.
“And when they do…”
I stepped closer.
“You're finished.”
For the first time, fear appeared in his eyes.
Just for a second.
But I saw it.
Then the lights went out.
Gunfire erupted.
Richard shouted:
“GET DOWN!”
Chaos exploded.
Miguel tackled me to the floor.
Helena screamed.
Guards fired blindly.
Emergency lights turned on.
Cole was gone.
So was the monitor showing my father.
I pushed myself up.
“Dad!”
No answer.
Then I noticed something on the floor.
A small metal key.
My father had left it for me.
I picked it up.
Three letters were engraved on the surface.
J.T.
Richard looked at it.
“What's it open?”
I turned it over.
There was a number.
07.
My blood ran cold.
Level 7.
Then I heard footsteps behind me.
Slow.
Measured.
I turned.
Miguel stood there.
His face was pale.
“Maya…”
“What?”
He looked at the key.
Then at me.
“I know where that key goes.”
“Where?”
He swallowed.
“To the room where your father has been kept for four years.”
I stared at him.
“Then let's go.”
Miguel shook his head.
“You don't understand.”
“What?”
He looked toward the darkness.
“That room isn't a prison.”
“Then what is it?”
His voice dropped.
“It's the control room.”
My heart stopped.
“For Nightfall.”
He nodded.
“And your father isn't being held there.”
“Then where is he?”
Miguel looked at me.
“He's the one controlling it.”
The room went silent.
I stared at him.
“No.”
Miguel's expression broke.
“That's what Cole wants you to believe.”
Then a gunshot rang out.
Miguel collapsed.
I screamed.
And from the darkness came the voice of my father.
“Maya…”
A pause.
“Don't trust Miguel.”
I froze.
Because the voice wasn't coming from a speaker.
It was coming from the corridor behind me.
My father was there.
Alive.
May you like
Standing only twenty feet away.
And pointing a gun directly at Miguel.
