Chapter 18 — SUBJECT 17D
Nobody spoke.
Daniel stared at the black screen as though he'd seen a ghost.
“Thomas is dead,” Sarah said.
Daniel shook his head.
“I saw the body.”
Evelyn's voice came through the speakers.
“You saw what they wanted you to see.”
Daniel's face went pale.
“No.”
I grabbed his arm.
“Who's Thomas?”
“My brother.”
“Rachel's father.”
I looked at Rachel.
She was crying.
“My father died when I was nine.”
Daniel looked at her.
“That's what they told you.”
Rachel whispered:
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“You let me believe he was dead?”
“I was trying to protect you.”
She slapped him.
The sound echoed through the room.
“You all use that excuse!”
Nobody answered.
Rachel's shoulders shook.
“My mother disappeared.”
“My father disappeared.”
“Then you told me I had no family left.”
Daniel lowered his head.
“I was wrong.”
“No.”
Rachel wiped her tears.
“You were afraid.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Yes.”
That admission silenced everyone.
I turned toward the monitor.
“Evelyn.”
Her face returned.
“Where is Thomas?”
“You're standing in front of his door.”
I looked around.
“What?”
She continued.
“The room beneath the library wasn't built by Charles.”
I looked at Daniel.
“Then who built it?”
“Thomas.”
Rachel's eyes widened.
“Why?”
“To hide the survivors.”
Evelyn's voice became softer.
“Thomas discovered the truth before Robert did.”
“What truth?”
“That the children weren't simply being studied.”
She paused.
“They were being prepared.”
“For what?”
Evelyn looked directly at me.
“For a future they could predict.”
I didn't understand.
Daniel did.
He whispered:
“Markets.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Elections.”
Daniel's face hardened.
“Wars.”
“Crises.”
“Financial collapses.”
“Political instability.”
I stared at the monitor.
“You're saying they used children to predict the future?”
“Not the future.”
Evelyn corrected.
“Human behavior.”
She explained that the foundation's researchers had built massive predictive models using the children's memory, recognition, emotional responses and pattern analysis.
The children weren't supernatural.
They were trained.
Conditioned.
Observed.
And exploited.
The program's most successful subjects were given numbers.
17A.
17B.
17C.
17D.
I looked at Daniel.
“And 17D is Thomas?”
“No.”
Evelyn smiled.
“Thomas was the scientist.”
“Then who is 17D?”
The screen flickered.
A door appeared.
A real door.
Behind it stood a man.
He was thin.
Pale.
His hair was almost completely white.
He looked directly into the camera.
Then he stepped closer.
My breath caught.
I knew him.
Not personally.
But from the photographs.
He had stood beside Robert.
Beside Daniel.
Beside Charles.
It was the man whose face had been scratched from the old photograph.
The seventh man.
The founder.
“Who is he?” I whispered.
Daniel stared at the screen.
“I don't know.”
The man smiled.
“My name is Victor Black.”
Evelyn stepped away from the camera.
Victor looked directly at me.
“Michael.”
I felt a chill.
“You've spent your entire life believing you were the victim.”
He smiled.
“You weren't.”
I said nothing.
“You were the experiment.”
My fists clenched.
“And my daughter?”
“The next generation.”
“No.”
“She was never supposed to exist.”
Sarah stepped toward the screen.
“You're lying.”
Victor laughed.
“Sarah.”
He looked almost amused.
“You stole her from us.”
“I saved her.”
“You delayed the inevitable.”
Daniel raised his weapon toward the screen.
Victor laughed again.
“You still don't understand.”
“What?”
“The archive isn't a database.”
Daniel froze.
“Then what is it?”
Victor leaned closer.
“It's a system.”
The lights in the basement suddenly switched on.
Every monitor came alive.
Maps.
Bank accounts.
Hospital records.
Political offices.
Corporate headquarters.
Names.
Thousands of them.
My name appeared.
Then Sarah's.
Daniel's.
Rachel's.
Emma's.
Lily's.
And beneath all five names was a single word:
ACTIVE.
I stared.
“What does that mean?”
Victor answered.
“It means the system has identified the five people capable of destroying it.”
Daniel whispered:
“Michael…”
I looked at him.
“What?”
He pointed at the screen.
A sixth name had appeared.
ROBERT BENNETT — ACTIVE.
I felt my heart stop.
Then a seventh.
EVELYN CROSS — ACTIVE.
An eighth.
THOMAS CROSS — ACTIVE.
Rachel stepped backward.
“My father…”
A ninth name appeared.
MARGARET HALE — ACTIVE.
Sarah covered her mouth.
“Margaret survived?”
Victor smiled.
“She survived everything.”
Then the final line appeared.
ELIMINATION PROTOCOL: INITIATED.
A countdown appeared.
Not 46 hours.
Not 47.
Not days.
00:29:59
Twenty-nine minutes.
Daniel stared at it.
“What happens when it reaches zero?”
Victor answered calmly.
“The people inside this house will die.”
I grabbed Emma's hand through the screen's image as though I could somehow reach her.
“Where is my daughter?”
Victor smiled.
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“Twenty-nine minutes away.”
“From what?”
He leaned closer.
“From you.”
May you like
The line went dead.
And then the house above us exploded.
