Chapter 9 - THE DOCTOR WHO MADE THEM
Laura screamed Sophie’s name.
The video shook.
Sophie dropped the phone.
Claire heard wood splintering.
Then the call ended.
Laura ran toward the exit.
“The roads are impossible.”
Daniel grabbed her.
“I have a snow vehicle.”
Laura pulled away.
“Then move.”
Claire looked at Ethan.
Then at Rebecca.
“I’m going too.”
Natalie objected.
“You just delivered a baby.”
“My daughter is in that house.”
No one argued again.
Marcus arranged for an armored snowcat stored at the resort.
Margaret’s security men cleared the route.
Within minutes, Claire, Rebecca, Ethan, Laura, Marcus, Natalie, and Daniel were inside.
Margaret remained behind.
Claire noticed her speaking urgently on the phone as they left.
The ride took forty minutes.
Every minute felt like an hour.
Rebecca sat beside Claire.
“Do you think Sophie knows?”
“About me?”
Claire nodded.
“Probably not.”
“Will she hate me?”
Claire looked at her.
“For what?”
“For getting her life.”
Claire’s chest tightened.
“No child caused what happened.”
Rebecca stared out at the storm.
“Dad did.”
Daniel heard it.
He lowered his eyes.
When they reached Laura’s home, the front door was open.
Snow had blown into the hallway.
Laura rushed inside.
“Sophie!”
No answer.
The basement door had been smashed.
A chair lay overturned.
Sophie’s phone was on the floor.
Laura picked it up.
“She's gone.”
Marcus checked outside.
“Vehicle tracks.”
Daniel looked toward the road.
“They’re heading east.”
Natalie went pale.
“The old hospital.”
Claire stared.
“The resort?”
“No.”
Natalie shook her head.
“Bennett Research Center.”
An abandoned surgical facility eight miles away.
Officially, it had been closed six years ago.
Unofficially, Natalie believed Pierce had continued genetic research there.
Daniel looked stunned.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
They returned to the snowcat.
This time Claire felt no exhaustion.
Only rage.
At the research center, the outer gate was open.
One light burned inside.
Marcus found fresh tire tracks.
They entered through the loading bay.
The hallway smelled of antiseptic.
Claire hated how familiar it felt.
A security monitor flickered on.
Dr. Pierce appeared.
He stood in a laboratory.
Sophie sat behind him.
She was unharmed.
For now.
Pierce smiled into the camera.
“Claire.”
Laura stepped forward.
“Let her go.”
“I will.”
Pierce looked toward Claire.
“After she sees the truth.”
The monitor changed.
Photographs appeared.
Rebecca as an infant.
Sophie after heart surgery.
Claire asleep during fertility procedures.
Ethan’s embryo development records.
Dozens of other children.
Claire whispered.
“How many?”
Natalie stared.
“Oh God.”
Pierce answered through the speaker.
“Twenty-three successful births.”
Marcus clenched his jaw.
“You experimented on twenty-three families?”
Pierce laughed softly.
“Charles Bennett financed medical progress.”
“Without consent.”
“History rarely asks permission.”
Claire felt sick.
“Why Sophie?”
“Because Sophie survived.”
Pierce sounded almost proud.
“She was born with a heart that should have failed within hours.”
“We used a gene-editing treatment that had never been approved.”
Laura stared.
“You experimented on a dying newborn?”
“I saved her.”
“You stole her.”
“Charles stole her.”
Pierce corrected.
“I saved her.”
Claire looked toward Sophie on the screen.
Her daughter was alive because of an illegal experiment.
That truth did not excuse what they had done.
But it complicated everything.
Pierce continued.
“Ethan represents the next generation.”
“He carries genetic material selected from two lines that demonstrated extraordinary treatment response.”
Marcus whispered.
“Miriam and me.”
“Yes.”
Pierce looked pleased.
“And Claire carried him successfully.”
Claire’s skin crawled.
“You put him inside me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Charles wanted one final proof before he died.”
Claire stared.
“Proof of what?”
Pierce leaned closer to the camera.
“That biology could be engineered.”
Then Sophie suddenly kicked him behind the knee.
Pierce fell.
Sophie ran.
Laura screamed.
“SOPHIE!”
The monitor showed her sprinting through the laboratory.
Pierce grabbed a syringe.
He chased her.
Claire shouted.
Marcus smashed the security door.
Daniel followed.
They ran toward the lab.
May you like
A child screamed.
Then a gunshot shook the building.
