Chapter 12 - The Choice
Evelyn looked at Grant’s gun.
Then laughed.
Not nervously.
Not angrily.
She actually laughed.
“I wondered when you’d try.”
Grant kept the pistol steady.
“You’ve outlived your usefulness.”
Cole aimed at Michael.
The other men covered me and Eli.
Noah’s monitor continued beeping.
Fast.
Uneven.
Eli clung to my arm.
“Daniel.”
“I know.”
Grant looked at me.
“Keys.”
“No.”
He nodded toward Noah.
“The baby doesn’t have long.”
Evelyn said sharply.
“He has thirty-seven minutes.”
Grant glanced at her.
“Then we’ll be quick.”
Michael moved slightly.
Cole pressed the gun toward him.
“Don’t.”
Grant approached me.
“Your father died protecting Meridian.”
“Don’t make his mistake.”
I looked at him.
“You murdered him.”
“He chose a side.”
“So did you.”
“Yes.”
“And I’m still here.”
Evelyn spoke.
“For now.”
Grant turned.
She smiled.
“You think Cole works for you?”
Cole’s expression changed.
Grant saw it.
Too late.
Cole shot the man beside him.
Then the second.
Chaos exploded.
Michael tackled Eli to the floor.
I dove behind a steel workstation.
Grant fired at Evelyn.
Glass shattered.
Cole fired back.
Evelyn ran toward Noah’s chamber.
Grant chased her.
Michael grabbed Cole.
They crashed into a cart.
I pulled Eli behind me.
“Stay down!”
Noah screamed.
A warning appeared on the monitor.
SYSTEMIC RESPONSE CRITICAL.
Eli saw it.
“Noah!”
He ran before I could stop him.
Straight toward the chamber.
“Eli!”
Evelyn reached the door first.
Entered a code.
The chamber opened.
Eli rushed inside.
He put both hands on the bassinet.
“I’m here.”
Noah’s crying weakened.
That frightened me more than the screaming.
Evelyn moved to the medication cabinet.
Grant grabbed her hair and threw her against the wall.
“Tell me the Meridian sequence.”
“Go to hell.”
He hit her.
Michael broke free from Cole and fired.
Cole went down.
Grant spun.
Shot back.
Michael fell behind a table.
“Dad!”
Eli tried to run toward him.
I caught him.
“Stay with Noah.”
Michael shouted.
“I’m fine!”
Blood ran from his shoulder.
But he was alive.
Grant turned toward me.
“Daniel.”
“Enough.”
He aimed at Eli.
“Open Meridian.”
The world narrowed.
Grant.
The gun.
Eli.
Noah.
My father.
My mother.
Rebecca.
Everything that had happened since the parking lot.
I took out the watch.
Michael pulled off his ring.
Grant smiled.
“Good.”
Evelyn slowly stood behind him.
Blood ran from her lip.
She said nothing.
I moved toward the Meridian terminal.
The system waited.
KEY ONE.
I pressed the watch chip.
Accepted.
KEY TWO.
Michael slid the ring across the floor.
I inserted it.
Accepted.
KEY THREE.
Biometric verification.
The needle extended.
Grant pushed the gun closer to Eli.
“Do it.”
I placed my thumb against the reader.
Blood.
One drop.
The screen changed.
MERIDIAN ACCESS COMPLETE.
Grant smiled.
Then thousands of files appeared.
He stepped toward the terminal.
“Copy everything.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“What?”
“There’s one more step.”
His smile vanished.
“What step?”
I had seen it the first time Meridian opened.
Buried in the corner.
A tiny prompt.
ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION.
Thomas Carter.
My father had not simply built a vault.
He had built a weapon.
I selected it.
Three options appeared.
ARCHIVE.
TRANSFER.
PURGE AND RELEASE.
Grant’s face changed.
“What does release mean?”
I smiled for the first time all night.
“I think it means my father didn’t trust anyone.”
I pressed it.
Every screen turned red.
MERIDIAN PUBLIC RELEASE INITIATED.
Grant screamed.
“No!”
He fired at the terminal.
Too late.
Upload bars appeared.
Federal prosecutors.
State regulators.
International medical boards.
News organizations.
Dozens of destinations.
Everything.
Every payment.
Every illegal trial.
Every child.
Every death.
Every name.
Grant grabbed me.
“You idiot!”
I hit him.
Once.
Hard.
He stumbled.
Then Evelyn shot him.
The bullet entered his side.
Grant stared at her.
“You…”
She shot him again.
He collapsed.
Eli screamed.
I pulled him behind me.
Evelyn turned the gun toward us.
“Cancel the release.”
“I can’t.”
“Then you’re useless.”
She raised the gun.
Michael fired first.
Evelyn spun.
Her weapon slid across the floor.
She collapsed against the glass chamber.
Still conscious.
Still smiling.
“You think you won?”
Michael struggled to stay standing.
“It’s over.”
“No.”
Evelyn looked toward Noah.
“The data is already elsewhere.”
My stomach dropped.
“What data?”
She laughed weakly.
“You think North Ridge was the only facility?”
Then alarms erupted.
Not laboratory alarms.
Security.
Arthur’s voice came over the speaker.
“Daniel!”
“We have incoming vehicles.”
“How many?”
“Too many.”
“Who?”
“Private security.”
“No.”
He paused.
“Military-grade.”
Grant coughed from the floor.
Blood covered his shirt.
He smiled.
“The buyers.”
Michael stared at him.
“What buyers?”
Grant looked at Meridian.
“You just released the names of some very powerful people.”
“And now they know where you are.”
The lights flickered.
Gunfire erupted somewhere in the upper levels.
Arthur shouted through the speaker.
“They breached the east entrance!”
I looked at Eli.
Then Noah.
Noah’s monitor was still failing.
I turned to Evelyn.
“What does he need?”
She said nothing.
I grabbed her coat.
“What does Noah need?”
She stared at me.
Then looked at the monitor.
“The blue vial.”
“Where?”
“Second cabinet.”
I ran.
Found it.
Three vials.
Blue.
Red.
Clear.
“Which one?”
“The blue.”
“How much?”
“All of it.”
Michael shouted.
“Daniel, we don’t know if she’s lying!”
I looked at Noah.
Heart rate dropping.
Oxygen falling.
No time.
Eli touched my arm.
“She wants him alive.”
He was right.
Whatever else Evelyn was, she wanted Noah alive.
I injected the vial into the line.
Ten seconds.
Nothing.
Twenty.
The monitor slowed.
Then stabilized.
Noah cried.
Strong.
Loud.
Eli broke down.
He kissed the baby’s forehead.
“He’s okay.”
For now.
Arthur’s voice returned.
“Move!”
“Maintenance tunnel!”
We started toward the ceiling route.
Michael grabbed Evelyn.
“No.”
I stared at him.
“We can’t leave her.”
“She knows the other facilities.”
He was right.
Grant moved on the floor.
Barely alive.
Evelyn looked at him.
“You’re leaving him?”
Michael stared at his brother.
For a long moment.
Everything passed between them.
Childhood.
Betrayal.
Their father.
Murder.
Then Michael walked over.
Grant whispered.
“Mike.”
Michael crouched.
Grant looked scared now.
Not powerful.
Not cruel.
Just scared.
“Don’t leave me.”
Michael stared at him.
“You left my wife to die.”
“Michael…”
“You tried to kill my son.”
“I…”
“You killed our father.”
Grant began crying.
“I was twenty-three.”
Michael’s face hardened.
“So was Thomas Carter.”
Then Michael stood.
He looked at me.
“Call the authorities with his location.”
“We’re taking the children.”
That was all.
No revenge.
No execution.
Just the truth.
Arthur opened the maintenance hatch remotely.
We climbed.
Eli first.
Noah strapped against my chest.
Rebecca’s rescued baby.
Subject 27.
A child who had somehow survived an entire system built to use him.
Michael came behind me.
Dragging Evelyn.
Gunfire echoed below.
We crawled faster.
Then the laboratory door exploded open.
Men in black tactical gear entered.
One shouted.
“STOP THE RELEASE!”
Another saw Grant.
“Recover Hale!”
We kept moving.
Bullets tore through the ceiling behind us.
The red pipe led forward.
Toward the drainage tunnel.
Toward daylight.
Toward whatever came next.
Then every phone in the facility began ringing at once.
Every monitor.
Every terminal.
Meridian had finished uploading.
Outside the tunnel, dawn was beginning to break.
And somewhere across the country, thousands of people were opening files Hale Biomedical had spent twenty years trying to bury.
The secret was out.
But the war wasn’t over.
Because Evelyn had been right about one thing.
May you like
North Ridge wasn’t the only facility.
And Noah wasn’t the only child they had taken.
