Chapter 8 — Room Seventeen
The door marked 17 opened by itself.
A thin line of darkness appeared beneath it.
Then came the sound.
A child's laughter.
Marcus stopped walking.
Daniel raised his gun.
Elena's hand went instinctively to her stomach.
“That's him,” she whispered.
Marcus looked at her.
“You're sure?”
She nodded.
“I've heard that laugh before.”
“Where?”
“In my dreams.”
Daniel stepped between them.
“Nobody moves.”
The laughter stopped.
Silence filled the underground corridor.
Then a speaker crackled overhead.
A woman's voice whispered:
“Welcome home, Elena.”
Victoria.
Marcus's jaw tightened.
“You want us here. Fine. Show yourself.”
A soft laugh echoed through the hallway.
“You still think this is about me.”
Marcus stared at the door.
“Where is my son?”
“Behind the door.”
Elena stepped forward.
Marcus grabbed her hand.
“Wait.”
Victoria's voice returned.
“Five years ago, you walked through this corridor carrying your newborn son.”
Elena's face went pale.
“I remember.”
“You don't remember everything.”
“What did you do to me?”
“I gave you a choice.”
“You threatened Marcus.”
“No.”
Victoria's voice became colder.
“I showed you what your father intended to do.”
Marcus froze.
“What?”
Victoria continued.
“He wanted the child transferred into Project V permanently.”
Elena's breathing became uneven.
“I refused.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“You signed the guardianship agreement.”
“I was forced.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you make everyone believe I abandoned him?”
Victoria didn't answer.
Marcus shouted:
“Victoria!”
The speaker went silent.
Daniel looked at him.
“She wants us to enter.”
Marcus stared at Room 17.
“Then we go in.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Not yet.”
Elena looked at him.
“My son is behind that door.”
“And someone wants you to believe that.”
Marcus turned.
“You think he's not there?”
“I think we don't know what's behind it.”
A sudden cry came from inside.
“Mommy?”
Elena froze.
Her entire body reacted before her mind could.
“That's him.”
Marcus's eyes filled.
“Alex?”
The crying stopped.
Then the child whispered:
“Mommy, don't come in.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Marcus stared at the door.
“Why?”
No answer.
Then another voice spoke.
A man's voice.
Calm.
Cold.
“Because the room isn't meant for mothers.”
Daniel's expression changed.
“Dr. Grant.”
Marcus turned.
“What?”
The voice came again.
“Hello, Marcus.”
Dr. Samuel Grant.
Victoria's physician.
The man who had disappeared.
Marcus stepped toward the door.
“You're alive.”
“Of course.”
“Where's my son?”
“Safe.”
“Let him go.”
A laugh.
“You still think you have the authority to give orders.”
Marcus slammed his palm against the door.
“You drugged my wife.”
“I monitored her.”
“You poisoned her.”
“I administered controlled compounds.”
“Why?”
“Because Elena was deteriorating.”
Marcus stared.
“You caused the deterioration.”
Grant replied calmly:
“No.”
“You did.”
“No, Marcus.”
A pause.
“Your father did.”
The door opened.
Marcus raised his gun.
Daniel moved beside him.
The room was empty.
A hospital bed stood in the center.
Medical equipment surrounded it.
A child's blanket lay folded neatly on a chair.
Elena entered first.
“Where is he?”
Daniel grabbed her shoulder.
“Wait.”
But Elena had already seen the wall.
Photographs covered it.
Her.
Marcus.
Their son.
Daniel.
Victoria.
Dr. Hayes.
And Marcus's father.
Elena stared.
“This is where they watched us.”
Marcus stepped closer.
A monitor suddenly switched on.
A live video appeared.
Their son was sitting in a small room.
He looked frightened.
“Mommy?”
Elena moved toward the screen.
“Baby.”
The boy smiled.
“You found me.”
Tears filled her eyes.
Marcus crouched before the screen.
“What's your name?”
The boy looked at him.
“You know.”
Marcus shook his head.
“I want to hear you say it.”
The child smiled faintly.
“Alexander.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
Alexander.
His son had a name.
A real name.
A life.
A heartbeat.
And he was alive.
Elena touched the screen.
“I love you.”
Alexander looked behind him.
Then whispered:
“Don't trust the doctor.”
The screen went black.
Marcus stood.
“Grant!”
Nothing.
Then the room's speakers activated.
Grant's voice returned.
“Your son is telling you the truth.”
Marcus froze.
“What?”
“He should never have been brought here.”
“Then why is he there?”
“Because someone wants to use him.”
“Who?”
Grant answered:
“Your father.”
Marcus's face hardened.
“My father is dead.”
“His body is.”
The lights flickered.
“But his work continues.”
Daniel began searching the room.
“There has to be a control panel.”
Marcus looked around.
“Find it.”
Elena noticed something on the floor.
A small red bracelet.
She picked it up.
Her breath caught.
“I remember this.”
Marcus turned.
“From when?”
“The hospital.”
She closed her eyes.
“I put it on him.”
“What happened?”
“I was holding him.”
Her voice became distant.
“I remember Victoria standing beside me.”
Then another memory.
A man entering.
Dr. Grant.
He carried a syringe.
Elena gasped.
“He was going to inject him.”
Marcus's face hardened.
“What did you do?”
“I fought him.”
She grabbed her head.
“I screamed.”
“What happened next?”
“I don't know.”
Then she looked at Daniel.
“You were there.”
Daniel froze.
“What?”
“You.”
Elena pointed at him.
“You were there.”
Daniel stepped back.
“I wasn't.”
“Yes.”
She shook her head.
“You were younger.”
Daniel's face went pale.
“I couldn't have been.”
“You were standing beside the door.”
Elena's memory sharpened.
“You were holding a camera.”
Daniel stared at her.
“That's impossible.”
“No.”
She walked toward him.
“You were recording.”
Daniel's expression changed.
Marcus noticed.
“You remember something.”
Daniel didn't answer.
“Daniel.”
He looked away.
“I remember the room.”
Silence.
“You were there?”
“Yes.”
Marcus's voice hardened.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I was a child.”
Marcus froze.
“What?”
Daniel looked at him.
“I wasn't thirty-seven when this started.”
Marcus frowned.
“I was.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
He pulled a document from his coat.
His birth certificate.
Marcus stared at it.
The date was wrong.
Daniel wasn't thirty-seven.
He was thirty-four.
The same age as Marcus.
Marcus's eyes narrowed.
“That means…”
Daniel looked at him.
“Someone altered my age.”
A door opened at the back of the room.
A man stepped through.
Dr. Grant.
Marcus raised his gun.
Grant didn't flinch.
“Put it down.”
“Where is my son?”
“Alive.”
“Bring him here.”
Grant looked at Elena.
“She's remembering too quickly.”
Marcus's jaw tightened.
“What did you do to her?”
“Nothing she wasn't already exposed to.”
“What does that mean?”
Grant pointed toward the medical equipment.
“Your father developed V-17.”
Marcus stared.
“And Victoria used it?”
“Yes.”
“On Elena.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To suppress specific memories.”
Elena whispered:
“Which memories?”
Grant looked at her.
“Your first pregnancy.”
She shook her head.
“I remember.”
“You remember fragments.”
“What else?”
Grant hesitated.
“You remember giving birth.”
“Yes.”
“You remember your son.”
“Yes.”
“But you don't remember what happened afterward.”
Elena's face tightened.
“What happened?”
Grant looked toward the monitor.
“Your son wasn't the only child born that night.”
Silence.
Marcus stared.
“What?”
Grant continued:
“There was another baby.”
Elena's eyes widened.
“Whose?”
“Yours.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“You're lying.”
“No.”
Grant looked at Elena.
“You gave birth to twins.”
Elena staggered backward.
“No.”
Marcus caught her.
“Twins?”
Grant nodded.
“One boy.”
He paused.
“One girl.”
Elena began shaking.
“What happened to her?”
Grant didn't answer.
Marcus shouted:
“What happened to the other baby?”
Grant's face became expressionless.
“Victoria took her.”
Elena collapsed against Marcus.
“No.”
Her mind exploded with fragments.
Two newborn cries.
Two blankets.
Two tiny hands.
Victoria standing between two cribs.
A nurse whispering:
“Which one?”
Victoria answering:
“The girl.”
Elena screamed.
“I had twins!”
Marcus held her.
“You did.”
“Where is she?”
Grant looked at them.
“That's the secret Victoria has killed people to protect.”
Daniel stared at Grant.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you stay silent?”
Grant looked at him.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Of Victoria?”
“No.”
Grant's eyes shifted toward Marcus.
“Of your father.”
A gunshot exploded.
The window behind Grant shattered.
Grant dropped.
Marcus pulled Elena to the floor.
Daniel fired toward the hallway.
“Sniper!”
Security alarms erupted.
Red lights flashed.
Marcus crawled toward Grant.
“Who shot you?”
Grant was bleeding from the shoulder.
“Not Victoria.”
“Who?”
Grant looked at the camera.
“The people who built Project V.”
Marcus's eyes widened.
“I thought my father built it.”
Grant laughed weakly.
“He inherited it.”
Then another gunshot.
The monitor exploded.
Elena screamed.
Daniel grabbed her.
“Move!”
They ran through the back corridor.
Marcus supported Grant.
“Why are you helping him?” Elena asked.
“Because he knows where our daughter is.”
Grant looked at her.
“She isn't with Victoria.”
Elena froze.
“Then where?”
Grant swallowed.
“She was transferred.”
“To whom?”
Grant looked at Marcus.
“To your mother.”
Marcus stopped.
“My mother is dead.”
Grant nodded.
“Yes.”
“But she had already taken the baby before she died.”
Elena stared.
“Then where did she take her?”
Grant's eyes closed.
“I don't know.”
Marcus tightened his grip.
“You're lying.”
“No.”
Grant's voice became faint.
“I only know one thing.”
“What?”
“The girl was given a different name.”
“What name?”
Grant whispered:
“Isabella.”
They escaped through an underground tunnel.
Daniel led them.
Marcus carried Elena's medical bag.
Grant followed, wounded.
The tunnel opened into an abandoned service building.
They stopped.
Daniel looked at Grant.
“Talk.”
Grant leaned against the wall.
“You want to know everything?”
“Yes.”
“Then you need to understand why Elena was targeted.”
Marcus stared.
Grant continued.
“Project V wasn't simply about genetics.”
“What was it?”
“Memory.”
Elena frowned.
“Memory?”
Grant nodded.
“Your father believed memories could be inherited.”
Marcus stared.
“That makes no scientific sense.”
“Not in the way he understood it.”
Grant looked at Elena.
“But Elena's family had something unusual.”
“What?”
“She could experience memories through emotional triggers.”
Elena went still.
“My hallucinations.”
“Some aren't hallucinations.”
Marcus looked at her.
“What?”
Grant continued.
“Some are recovered memories.”
Elena's face went pale.
“So when I saw Victoria…”
“You were remembering.”
“And when I saw the baby…”
“You were remembering.”
Marcus whispered:
“What about the unborn child?”
Grant looked at Elena's stomach.
“That's why they're afraid.”
“Why?”
“Because the second pregnancy appears to be activating memories from the first.”
Elena touched her belly.
“The baby is making me remember?”
“Possibly.”
Grant's expression darkened.
“And that's why they want this pregnancy stopped.”
Suddenly Daniel's phone rang.
He answered.
“Hello?”
A voice spoke.
Daniel's expression changed.
He handed the phone to Marcus.
A child's voice whispered:
“Daddy?”
Marcus froze.
“Alex?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“I'm with her.”
“Who?”
Silence.
Then the boy whispered:
“Your daughter.”
Marcus's heart stopped.
“What?”
Alexander continued:
“She found me.”
“Who?”
The boy whispered:
“Isabella.”
The line went dead.
Marcus stared at the phone.
Elena grabbed his arm.
“Did he say Isabella?”
Marcus nodded.
She began crying.
“Our daughter is alive.”
Grant looked terrified.
“No.”
“What?”
He stepped forward.
“If Alexander found Isabella…”
He swallowed.
“…then Victoria will know too.”
Daniel looked toward the dark road.
“How long?”
Grant answered:
“Not long.”
Marcus looked at Elena.
“We have to find them.”
Daniel nodded.
“Where?”
Marcus looked at the key from Room 17.
Then remembered the photograph.
The boarding school.
The old Moretti property.
He understood.
“They're at the old school.”
Grant shook his head.
“No.”
Marcus looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because that place isn't empty.”
“What is there?”
Grant whispered:
“The final laboratory.”
They reached the old school just before midnight.
Snow covered the grounds.
Every window was dark.
The building looked abandoned.
Marcus approached the front entrance.
Locked.
Daniel used the key.
The door opened.
Inside was silence.
Then a child's laughter echoed upstairs.
Elena grabbed Marcus's hand.
“That's him.”
They climbed.
At the end of the hallway stood a red door.
Number 17.
Marcus opened it.
Inside were two children.
Alexander stood beside a little girl.
She had dark hair.
Brown eyes.
And the same crescent-shaped birthmark behind her ear.
Elena stopped breathing.
The girl looked at her.
For one second, neither moved.
Then the child whispered:
“Mommy?”
Elena broke.
She ran forward.
The little girl ran into her arms.
Elena fell to her knees, holding her daughter against her chest.
“My baby.”
Marcus stood frozen.
Alexander approached him.
Marcus crouched.
“Alex.”
The boy looked at him.
“Daddy.”
Marcus pulled him into his arms.
For the first time in five years, he held his son.
But the reunion lasted only seconds.
Because the lights suddenly turned on.
Every wall screen activated.
Victoria appeared.
She smiled.
“You found them.”
Marcus looked around.
“You planned this.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Victoria's smile disappeared.
“Because now Elena will finally remember everything.”
Elena looked at her.
“What did you do to my children?”
Victoria stared at her.
“I didn't take them.”
“Then who did?”
Victoria looked at the two children.
Then at Elena's pregnant stomach.
And whispered:
“Your father-in-law.”
Marcus froze.
“My father?”
Victoria shook her head.
“Not the man you buried.”
The screens changed.
A live video appeared.
An elderly man sat in a dark room.
Marcus stared.
He knew the face.
He had seen it in photographs his entire life.
His father's eyes.
His father's mouth.
His father's scar.
Marcus whispered:
“No.”
The man looked directly into the camera.
Then smiled.
“Hello, son.”
Elena tightened her arms around Isabella.
Marcus couldn't move.
His dead father was alive.
And watching them.
Then the man said:
May you like
“Bring me the pregnant woman.”
The screen went black.
