Chapter 10 - Saint Orison
Elias heard Mateo scream before he heard himself.
"ELENA!"
The line stayed open.
Footsteps.
A door.
Then Elena's voice, faint but alive:
"Dad, don't--"
The call cut.
Mateo was shaking.
"She was alive."
"Yes."
"You heard her."
"Yes."
"Then go."
They drove to Saint Orison with federal agents less than ten minutes behind.
Russell had started evacuating.
Frank rammed the front gate.
Elias hated that he could do nothing but hold the chair arms while others ran.
Then his left foot moved.
Not the right.
The left.
He stared.
No time.
Mateo pushed the chair toward the lobby.
A guard raised a weapon.
Frank tackled him.
They entered a corridor lined with locked doors.
Children were inside.
Not dozens.
Seven.
Still seven too many.
Elias looked through one window.
A little girl wore a band labeled H-04.
His stomach turned.
"Open every door."
They found Elena in a treatment room.
Alive.
Weak.
Bruised.
But alive.
Elias stopped at the doorway.
She looked at him.
"Dad."
He tried to speak.
Nothing came.
Elena laughed through tears.
"Still terrible with feelings."
That did it.
He rolled forward and pulled her into his arms.
"I'm sorry."
She held him.
"I know."
"No. You don't."
"I do."
Mateo crashed into them.
Then Ruby.
Then Caleb.
Grace woke in Ruby's arms.
Elena kissed every child she could reach.
Then Frank shouted from the hall.
"Russell's leaving!"
Elena grabbed Elias's sleeve.
"He has the master archive."
"What is that?"
"Every formula. Every subject identity. Every buyer."
"Buyer?"
Her eyes hardened.
"Haven wasn't only testing."
"What were they doing?"
"Selling access."
Elias felt sick.
"To who?"
"Private clients. Governments. People who thought Grace's blood could buy time."
An explosion shook the building.
Smoke rolled under the door.
Russell was destroying evidence.
Elena looked at Elias.
"If that archive disappears, they can rebuild somewhere else."
Elias turned his chair.
"Then we get it."
At the end of the hall, Russell stepped into an elevator.
He held a silver case.
And beside him stood Frank.
Elias's driver.
His oldest employee.
The man who had supposedly saved them.
Frank raised a gun at Elias.
May you like
"Sorry, boss."
The elevator doors closed.
