Chapter 25
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The revelation hung heavily in the stale air of the hidden basement room. The silence was deafening, broken only by the sound of water dripping from the ceiling in the flooded corridor outside.
"Malcolm raised the third child," Laura repeated, struggling to process the magnitude of the discovery. "If that's true, then this entire war isn't just about corporate espionage or covering up a hospital fire. It's about a bloodline."
"But why these three children?" Vivienne asked, furiously flipping through the remaining pages of the ledger. "What made us so special that Malcolm would build an entire secret facility just to monitor us?"
Richard pulled a file from one of the metal cabinets. He opened it, his eyes scanning the dense medical jargon. "It's genetic. According to this, all three of you share a rare genetic anomaly. A specific mutation that Malcolm believed was the key to cellular regeneration. He was trying to cure his own terminal illness."
Samuel looked sick to his stomach. "He harvested DNA from children to save his own miserable life."
"And my mother tried to stop him," Vivienne realized, tears welling in her eyes. "Emily, Grace, and the third woman. They were the caretakers. They found out what Malcolm was doing, and they orchestrated the hospital fire to destroy his research and smuggle us out."
"Grace took the second boy," Laura pieced together. "Emily took you, Vivienne. But what happened to the third caretaker?"
"She failed," Richard said softly, looking at a heavily redacted page in the file. "The records indicate the third caretaker was eliminated during the extraction protocol. Malcolm recovered the third child before she could escape."
Suddenly, a loud, metallic clang echoed from the flooded corridor outside.
Laura instantly raised her weapon, aiming it at the open iron door. "Quiet."
Footsteps. Heavy, tactical boots splashing through the ankle-deep water. It sounded like an entire squad moving with lethal, disciplined precision.
"Police!" Laura shouted into the darkness. "Identify yourselves!"
The only response was the blinding glare of laser sights cutting through the dark, settling directly on Laura’s chest.
"Get down!" Samuel roared, tackling Laura to the ground just as a barrage of silenced gunfire erupted from the hallway. The bullets tore through the ancient oak desk, shredding the wood into splinters.
Richard grabbed Vivienne and threw her behind the heavy steel filing cabinets, shielding her body with his own.
"Malcolm's enforcers," Richard gritted his teeth, pulling his own handgun from his shoulder holster. "They must have tracked our vehicles."
"We are completely boxed in," Samuel said, firing three blind shots into the corridor to keep the attackers at bay. "That door is the only way out, and they have the high ground on the stairs."
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Vivienne clutched the Protocol Omega ledger tightly to her chest. "We can't let them destroy this book. It's the only proof we have."
"We won't," Laura promised, reloading her weapon. "But we have to survive the next five minutes first."
