Chapter 12 - The Empty Car
General Cole sent coordinates to Caleb’s phone.
The escort vehicle had been found beneath an overpass three miles from the ceremony hall. Its doors were open. The driver and two military police officers were unconscious but alive.
Lena and the twins were gone.
Caleb looked at Margaret.
“You said Rebecca wanted the children.”
Margaret’s face tightened.
“She wants the blood samples.”
“Then why take babies?”
“Because Emma and Ethan carry your genetic line.”
The words made Naomi stop moving.
“Twins born from a research subject,” she whispered. “Rebecca would consider them proof the inherited markers continued.”
Caleb turned toward her.
“What markers?”
“I don’t know.”
The attacker on the floor began laughing again.
Samuel pushed himself against the examination table.
“He knows.”
Caleb knelt beside the man.
“What is special about my blood?”
The attacker stared at him.
“Nothing.”
“Then why burn a hospital?”
“Your blood isn’t special.”
He smiled.
“Your children’s blood might be.”
Margaret raised the pistol again.
Caleb took it from her this time.
He removed the magazine and placed both pieces on the counter.
“We’re done threatening people.”
“We are not done doing what is necessary.”
“That belief caused all of this.”
Margaret looked wounded.
Then angry.
Then exhausted.
Caleb called Cole.
“We need somewhere secure.”
“I’m sending a team.”
“How do I know I can trust them?”
“You don’t.”
“At least you’re honest.”
Cole’s team arrived within eight minutes. Four military investigators entered the clinic, secured the attacker, and began treating Samuel for transport.
Cole appeared through a secure video call.
He was no longer in ceremonial uniform. He wore a plain dark shirt, and without medals or flags behind him, he looked less like a national officer and more like a tired man carrying an old burden.
Caleb studied his face.
The shape of the eyes.
The line of the jaw.
Details he had never noticed in himself now felt obvious.
“Where would Rebecca take Lena?” Caleb asked.
Cole looked toward Naomi.
“Dr. Price may know.”
Naomi stiffened.
“I’ve never met Rebecca.”
“Your mother did.”
“My mother is dead.”
“She left you more than letters.”
Naomi stared at him.
“How do you know about the box?”
“Because Daniel helped her hide it.”
Caleb stepped closer to the screen.
“You knew Daniel was alive.”
“I knew he survived the boat. I did not know where he went after that.”
“The recording is fourteen months old.”
Cole’s expression shifted.
“Then he was alive fourteen months ago.”
“Why didn’t he contact me?”
“To keep you from becoming a target.”
“That worked well.”
Cole accepted the anger without defending himself.
Naomi opened a cabinet beneath the medicine supplies. She removed an old metal key attached to a faded hospital tag.
“My mother left this inside the box.”
The tag read B-19.
Cole leaned toward the camera.
“That belonged to the original fertility laboratory.”
“Where?” Caleb asked.
Naomi swallowed.
“Not at North River.”
She looked at Margaret.
“It was beneath the Carter Foundation’s first women’s clinic.”
Margaret stepped back.
“That building has been closed for twenty years.”
“Does Rebecca know about it?”
Margaret’s silence answered.
Caleb picked up the waterproof case and Samuel’s phone.
“We’re going.”
Cole’s expression hardened.
“Wait for my team.”
“Lena doesn’t have time.”
“You walking into that clinic is exactly what Rebecca wants.”
“Then she’ll be disappointed when I don’t come alone.”
Margaret shook her head.
“No. I’m going with you.”
Caleb looked at her.
“You are the reason she could reach Lena.”
“And I know the lower entrance.”
Naomi stared at Margaret.
“You said the building was closed.”
“It is.”
“How do you know there’s another entrance?”
Margaret’s face went still.
Before she could answer, one of Cole’s investigators entered carrying the attacker’s phone.
“We found a live video feed.”
He turned the screen toward them.
Lena sat strapped to a medical chair inside a dark laboratory. Emma and Ethan lay in clear bassinets beside her.
A figure in surgical clothing stood behind the twins.
The masked woman leaned toward the camera.
May you like
Then she removed her mask.
Naomi whispered, “That’s my mother.”
