Chapter 6 - The Price of Noah
I don’t remember deciding to run.
I just did.
Evelyn was dragging Noah’s carrier toward the delivery truck.
The baby was screaming now.
A thin, terrified cry echoing through the garage.
Eli fought against me.
“Noah!”
“Stay here!”
I shoved him behind the pillar.
Then sprinted.
Evelyn saw me.
She raised the gun.
I dove behind the wrecked SUV.
A bullet punched through the rear window.
Another struck the concrete beside my head.
The remaining agents returned fire.
Evelyn ducked behind the truck.
The garage filled with gunshots.
Water continued pouring from the broken sprinkler line.
Everything blurred.
Then I saw the carrier.
She had left it near the rear wheel.
I crawled beneath the SUV.
Glass cut my palms.
I reached the other side.
The baby screamed again.
I grabbed the handle.
Pulled.
The carrier moved six inches.
Evelyn saw me.
“You!”
She fired.
The bullet struck the metal frame beside my hand.
I yanked the carrier toward me.
Then rolled behind the SUV.
“Daniel!”
Eli.
He was out from behind the pillar.
Running toward us.
“Get back!”
Too late.
Evelyn grabbed him.
One arm around his throat.
Gun against his temple.
Everything stopped.
“Put the carrier down,” she said.
I stared at her.
Eli’s face was white.
“Don’t,” he whispered.
Evelyn tightened her arm.
“Quiet.”
I slowly lowered the carrier.
“Let him go.”
She laughed.
“You broke one window.”
“And now you think you’re a hero.”
“I’m not interested in being a hero.”
“Good.”
“Heroes die early.”
She moved backward with Eli.
“Push the baby toward me.”
“No.”
The gun pressed harder against his head.
“Then he dies.”
I looked at Eli.
He shook his head.
Tiny movement.
He was telling me not to do it.
A twelve-year-old boy who had nearly cooked alive protecting Noah was still trying to protect him.
I pushed the carrier halfway.
Evelyn smiled.
“Good.”
Then a voice came from behind her.
“Let my son go.”
Evelyn froze.
So did I.
A man stepped from the dark service tunnel.
Thin.
Bearded.
Face bruised.
Michael Hale.
Eli’s father.
“Dad?”
Eli’s voice cracked.
Michael looked at him.
That one glance carried everything.
Fear.
Love.
Guilt.
Three weeks of hell.
Evelyn recovered quickly.
“You should be dead.”
Michael held a pistol in both hands.
“So should Rebecca.”
For the first time, Evelyn’s confidence cracked.
“Where is she?”
Michael asked.
Evelyn said nothing.
“Where is my wife?”
“You still don’t understand.”
“I understand enough.”
“She found the babies.”
“She found the trial files.”
“She took Noah.”
“And you tried to kill her.”
Evelyn smiled again.
“Rebecca was always sentimental.”
Michael’s hands shook.
“Answer me.”
“Is she alive?”
Evelyn looked at Eli.
Then at Michael.
“You want the truth in front of your son?”
Michael stepped forward.
“Is she alive?”
Evelyn’s smile disappeared.
“Yes.”
Eli gasped.
Michael nearly lowered the gun.
“Where?”
“Grant has her.”
“Where?”
“At North Ridge.”
Michael went pale.
That name meant something far worse to him than it meant to me.
“You’re lying.”
“Why would I?”
“To buy time.”
“Then shoot me.”
Michael didn’t.
Evelyn knew he wouldn’t.
She shifted slightly.
That was the mistake.
Eli dropped his entire weight.
Evelyn lost her grip for half a second.
Michael fired.
The bullet struck her shoulder.
She screamed.
Eli broke free.
I grabbed him.
Agents rushed forward.
Evelyn fired wildly.
Then disappeared behind the delivery truck.
A vehicle engine roared somewhere beyond the garage door.
Michael ran toward us.
Eli hit him so hard they nearly both fell.
“Dad!”
Michael dropped the gun.
Wrapped both arms around his son.
For several seconds, neither could speak.
Then Eli started hitting his father’s chest.
“You left us!”
“I know.”
“You left Mom!”
“I know.”
“Why?”
Michael held him tighter.
“Because I thought it was the only way to keep you alive.”
“You were wrong!”
“I know.”
He was crying.
So was Eli.
Noah screamed from the carrier.
Michael looked toward the baby.
His face changed.
“Is he okay?”
I nodded.
“Why is everyone trying to get him?” I asked.
Michael stared at Noah.
Then at me.
“Because he survived.”
“Survived what?”
Michael crouched beside the carrier.
“Noah wasn’t supposed to survive Protocol Seven.”
“What’s Protocol Seven?”
He looked sick just saying the words.
“A neonatal immune-conditioning experiment.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means Hale Biomedical was testing whether a newborn’s immune response could be artificially altered before certain diseases developed.”
“Without permission?”
“Without parents.”
I stared at him.
“What do you mean without parents?”
Michael looked at Briggs’s agents.
Then back at me.
“The babies were purchased.”
The words hit me like a physical blow.
“Purchased?”
“From illegal adoption networks.”
“Some from desperate mothers.”
“Some from traffickers.”
“Some…”
He stopped.
“Some what?”
“Some were taken from hospitals under falsified death records.”
My stomach turned.
Eli looked horrified.
“You knew?”
“No.”
Michael shook his head violently.
“I found out three months ago.”
“I tried to shut it down.”
“That’s why they came after me.”
“And Noah?”
“Subject 27 had a severe reaction.”
“They scheduled him for termination.”
“Rebecca found him first.”
Termination.
They were talking about a baby.
A human child.
Like defective inventory.
Michael continued.
“She took Noah and copied everything she could.”
“She was supposed to meet me.”
“She never arrived.”
“Then why were you hiding instead of looking for her?”
“Because they had people everywhere.”
“Police.”
“Private security.”
“Hospital administrators.”
“Corporate investigators.”
“I didn’t know who I could trust.”
I thought about Briggs.
“Can you trust the FBI?”
Michael’s expression darkened.
“Some of them.”
That answer scared me more than anything else.
“Someone inside the Bureau leaked my first meeting.”
“That’s how Grant knew I was talking.”
I looked around the garage.
Agents everywhere.
Suddenly every badge felt different.
“Does Briggs know?”
“Yes.”
“He’s been trying to identify the leak.”
A phone rang.
Michael pulled an old burner phone from his pocket.
He stared at the screen.
Unknown number.
He answered.
No one spoke for several seconds.
Then his face drained of color.
“Rebecca?”
Eli froze.
Michael put the call on speaker.
A woman’s weak voice came through.
“Michael?”
Eli covered his mouth.
“Mom!”
There was crying on the other end.
“Eli?”
“I’m here!”
“I’m okay!”
“Mom, where are you?”
Rebecca struggled to speak.
“Listen to me.”
“They’re moving me.”
“North Ridge?”
Michael asked.
“No.”
A pause.
“They’re leaving North Ridge.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Then another voice came through.
Grant Hale.
Calm.
Controlled.
“Hello, little brother.”
Michael’s face hardened.
“Grant.”
“You’ve made this unnecessarily difficult.”
“Let Rebecca go.”
“I will.”
“For Noah.”
“No.”
Grant laughed softly.
“You don’t get to negotiate.”
“You stole company property.”
Michael stared at the carrier.
“Noah is not property.”
“To you.”
Grant’s voice became colder.
“To the people above me, he is worth more than the entire Hale family.”
“Who?”
Grant ignored the question.
“Midnight.”
“Old Fairmont rail depot.”
“Bring Noah.”
“No police.”
“No FBI.”
“If I see one badge, Rebecca dies.”
The line crackled.
Then Grant added one more thing.
“Oh.”
“And Michael?”
“Yes?”
“Bring Daniel Carter too.”
I felt every person in the garage look at me.
My mouth went dry.
“Why me?”
Grant heard me.
He laughed.
“Because Daniel has something I need.”
“The flash drive?”
“No.”
A pause.
“Something he doesn’t even know he has.”
The call ended.
Michael looked at me.
Briggs’s agents looked at me.
Eli looked at me.
And I suddenly realized the worst part of this nightmare might not have started when I broke the minivan window.
It might have started long before that.
May you like
Because somehow, a man I had never met knew exactly who I was.
And believed I was carrying a secret worth killing for.
