Chapter 14 - Lena’s Bargain
Caleb stopped ten feet from Lena.
The twins were awake but quiet, their faces tucked against her chest. Lena held them securely despite the tremor in her arms.
“What did they do to you?”
“Nothing yet.”
“Come with me.”
“I can’t.”
Rebecca appeared behind her.
She wore no mask now.
“Such a touching reunion,” she said.
Caleb ignored her.
“Lena, look at me.”
“I am looking at you.”
Her eyes were hard.
“You brought the sample.”
Caleb kept the waterproof case against his side.
“Yes.”
Lena’s jaw tightened.
“I told you not to.”
“I wasn’t leaving you here.”
“You already did that once.”
The words landed without anger.
That made them worse.
Rebecca smiled faintly.
“Mrs. Carter has always understood how to use the correct pressure.”
Margaret stepped forward.
“Release the children.”
Rebecca looked at her.
“You have no authority here.”
“I funded this facility.”
“You funded what you were told to fund.”
Caleb turned to Margaret.
“You said the clinic closed.”
“It did.”
Rebecca laughed softly.
“The public clinic closed. The lower laboratory expanded.”
Naomi moved beside Caleb.
The older woman—Naomi’s mother—stood behind a glass partition. Her hands were pressed against the window.
“Mom?”
The woman closed her eyes.
Naomi took one step forward.
Rebecca raised a hand.
Two armed men blocked her.
“Family reunions later,” Rebecca said. “The sample now.”
Caleb opened the waterproof case.
C-32 rested inside.
Rebecca’s eyes sharpened.
“Place it on the cart.”
“What do I get?”
“Lena and one child.”
Caleb stared at her.
“One?”
“The second child remains until we confirm the sample.”
“No.”
“Then both remain.”
Margaret moved toward Rebecca.
“You promised no children would ever be used.”
Rebecca’s expression turned cold.
“You accepted that promise thirty-two years ago. You know what it was worth.”
Caleb watched Margaret recoil.
Lena’s eyes shifted toward him.
A deliberate movement.
Then toward the ceiling.
Caleb understood.
Cole’s team was above them.
Waiting.
He needed time.
“What is in my blood?” Caleb asked.
Rebecca smiled.
“At last, a useful question.”
“You burned a hospital for it. You kidnapped newborns for it. Tell me why.”
“Your generation was created to test inherited cellular repair.”
Naomi stared at her.
“Regeneration?”
“Resistance. Recovery. Survival under oxygen deprivation.”
Caleb looked toward the twins.
“The fire.”
“A field test we did not authorize.”
“Who authorized it?”
Rebecca’s smile faded.
“That is why we need the sample.”
“You don’t know.”
“We know someone inside the program attempted to prove the genetic line remained viable.”
“By nearly killing twenty-seven people?”
“By measuring who survived longest after oxygen failure.”
Lena’s face tightened.
“You turned patients into an experiment.”
Rebecca looked at her.
“And you ruined the data by saving them.”
Caleb felt rage move through him, but he kept his voice level.
“Who changed the oxygen flow?”
Rebecca looked toward Margaret.
Margaret shook her head.
“No.”
Rebecca’s gaze shifted to Samuel’s empty place beside them, then to Cole’s unseen presence.
“Daniel Carter.”
Caleb went still.
“My father tried to kill people?”
“Daniel wanted proof the program still operated. He caused a controlled pressure drop to trigger federal monitoring. Someone else widened the failure into a fire.”
“Who?”
Rebecca glanced at Lena.
“She knows.”
Caleb looked at his wife.
Lena lowered her eyes.
“You know who started it?”
“I know whose badge opened the secondary oxygen valve.”
“Whose?”
Before Lena could answer, alarms sounded throughout the laboratory.
Cole’s voice came through Caleb’s earpiece.
“We’ve been detected. Move now.”
Lights switched from white to red.
The armed men raised their weapons.
Caleb shoved the cart forward and threw the waterproof case beneath it.
Lena dropped to one knee, covering both twins with her body.
The ceiling panels exploded downward as Cole’s team entered on ropes.
Gunfire struck metal walls.
Margaret dragged Naomi behind a laboratory counter.
Caleb crawled toward Lena.
Rebecca seized the waterproof case and ran through a side door.
The older woman behind the glass slammed her palm against an emergency switch.
Every security door began closing.
Caleb reached Lena just as a steel barrier descended between them.
He caught the bottom edge with both hands.
“Give me Ethan!”
Lena pushed the navy-wrapped baby beneath the narrowing gap.
Caleb pulled his son against his chest.
The steel door dropped completely.
Lena and Emma remained on the other side.
Through the small reinforced window, Lena stared at him.
Rebecca appeared behind her holding the case.
Then a man stepped from the shadows beside Rebecca.
May you like
Caleb recognized the face from the portrait on Margaret’s desk.
Daniel Carter was alive.
