Chapter 9 - A BROTHER FOR A BABY
“Take me,” Danny said.
The man laughed.
“You’re not worth anything.”
Eli sobbed.
“Danny.”
Danny’s face broke.
“I’m here.”
The knife pressed closer.
A thin red line appeared on Eli’s neck.
Graham’s hand tightened around Cal’s pistol.
Too far.
Bad angle.
One mistake and Eli died.
Vale’s helicopter circled overhead.
Cal whispered, “I can’t make the shot.”
Graham said, “Neither can I.”
Claire looked at Rose.
Then at Eli.
“No.”
Graham followed her eyes.
“No.”
Danny understood.
“Rose can heal him if—”
“No!” Claire snapped. “Nobody is using that baby again.”
The man in black began dragging Eli toward the trees.
“Wait!” Danny shouted.
He looked at Rose.
Graham saw the war on his face.
Brother.
Sister.
Choose.
No child should ever have to make that choice.
Graham stepped forward.
The kidnapper shouted, “Stop.”
Graham kept moving.
“Graham,” Cal warned.
The man tightened his grip on Eli.
“I said stop.”
Graham looked at him.
“You know who I am?”
“Everybody knows who you are.”
“Then you know I’m worth more than the kid.”
The man hesitated.
Graham spread his arms.
“Take me.”
Danny whispered, “No.”
Graham ignored him.
“Marcus wants Rose. Fine. But he also wants me.”
The man laughed.
“Why?”
“Because I can destroy him.”
That got his attention.
Graham took another limping step.
“Let the boy go. Take me to Marcus.”
“Dad,” Claire said quietly.
Graham turned toward her.
The word hit him harder than it should have.
She hadn’t called him that in years.
He smiled once.
“Keep them safe.”
The man shoved Eli away.
“Walk over.”
Graham moved.
Slowly.
Painfully.
But walking.
The kidnapper looked surprised.
“Guess the video was real.”
Graham stopped ten feet away.
“Looks that way.”
The man approached.
That was his mistake.
Graham dropped.
Cal fired.
The bullet hit the kidnapper’s shoulder.
Danny grabbed Eli.
Claire screamed for everyone to run.
The man fired wildly.
Graham rolled behind a tree.
Cal fired again.
The gunman disappeared into the woods.
They reached the boathouse.
Cal started the engine.
The boat shot onto the lake as more gunfire cracked from shore.
Danny held Eli so tightly the little boy could barely breathe.
“I’m sorry,” Danny kept saying.
Eli cried into his chest.
Graham sat beside Claire.
She was staring at him.
“What?”
“You offered yourself.”
“It was practical.”
“No. It wasn’t.”
He looked away.
Claire said, “You would’ve died.”
Graham stared at the water.
“Wouldn’t be the first bad deal I made.”
She almost smiled.
Then Rose started crying.
A strange, weak cry.
Claire checked her.
“Fever.”
Danny panicked.
“How bad?”
“One hundred three.”
“Can you fix it?”
“I can treat a fever. I can’t treat whatever this is.”
Graham looked at the baby.
“We need information.”
Claire nodded.
“The flash drive.”
Danny had it around his neck now.
He held it.
Graham said, “Your mother died protecting that.”
Danny slowly handed it over.
They reached a marina town twenty miles away and rented a back room at a closed bait shop owned by an old friend of Cal’s.
No cameras.
No questions.
Claire opened her laptop.
The drive was encrypted.
Graham watched.
“Can you break it?”
“I’m a surgeon, not a hacker.”
Cal said, “I know someone.”
Two hours later, the first folder opened.
EDEN.
Claire clicked.
Hundreds of files.
Patient records.
Videos.
Emails.
Then Anna’s face appeared on screen.
A recorded message.
Danny stopped breathing.
“Mom.”
Anna looked exhausted.
Pregnant.
Afraid.
“If you’re watching this,” she said, “I probably didn’t make it.”
Maya began crying.
Anna continued.
“Marcus says Rose belongs to him because she carries his DNA.”
Danny closed his eyes.
“But that is not why he wants her.”
Graham leaned closer.
Anna looked straight into the camera.
“Rose is the only successful transfer subject.”
Claire whispered, “Transfer.”
Anna’s voice shook.
“She doesn’t heal people.”
“She moves death.”
Nobody breathed.
Then Anna said:
“And Marcus plans to use her on someone who has less than six months to live.”
The screen changed.
A medical file opened.
A photograph appeared.
A teenage girl with long black hair.
NAME: SOPHIA VALE.
Danny stared.
Graham whispered, “His daughter.”
Claire shook her head.
“No.”
Graham looked at the diagnosis.
Aggressive brain cancer.
Terminal.
And beneath it, one scheduled procedure.
TRANSFER TRIAL.
May you like
Date:
Tomorrow.
