Chapter 3 - Subject G-17
Elias's security chief raised the gun.
Frank moved first.
He slammed the car door into the man's wrist.
The gun clattered under the sedan.
Ruby screamed.
Elias shouted, "Get the kids to the elevator!"
Mateo ran.
Frank wrestled the security chief to the ground.
"Elias!" the man gasped. "You don't understand!"
"Then explain fast."
"They're dangerous."
"The baby?"
"All of them."
Caleb threw a plastic bottle at him.
"You're dangerous!"
Mateo hit the elevator button.
Nothing.
The panel was dead.
Frank cursed.
"Service stairs."
They moved.
Elias rolled himself hard toward the concrete door.
His right foot dragged against the chair.
They reached a private safe floor above the garage.
Then he faced the children.
"Now we stop running for five minutes."
Mateo sat on the floor with Grace.
Ruby stood between Elias and her brothers.
"Ask."
"What is Haven?"
Mateo looked at Ruby.
She shook her head.
Elias said, "People are pointing guns at you. Someone inside my company is helping them. Silence isn't protecting you anymore."
Ruby's eyes flashed.
"You think talking will?"
"No."
"Then why should we trust you?"
"Because I can call the police, hand you over, and be done with this."
Caleb whispered, "Please don't."
Elias's anger softened.
"I won't."
Ruby studied him.
Finally, she sat.
"Haven was a clinic."
"Where?"
"Outside Bellweather."
Elias knew the town. Rural. Wealthy enough to hide private land behind trees.
"What kind of clinic?"
Mateo answered.
"Children."
Ruby shot him a look.
He kept going.
"Kids who were sick. Kids whose parents signed papers. Kids without parents."
Elias's stomach tightened.
"And Grace?"
"Born there."
"To who?"
Mateo looked down.
"Our mother."
"Where is she?"
"Dead."
The word landed flat.
Too practiced.
Elias asked, "How?"
Ruby's eyes filled.
"She tried to take us out."
"From Haven?"
"Yes."
"Why were you there?"
"Our mother worked there."
Elias leaned forward.
"What did she do?"
"Lab technician."
Mateo removed the baby's ankle band.
Underneath was a small scar.
Elias's pulse changed.
"What is that?"
Ruby whispered, "They put things in her."
"What things?"
"We don't know."
Elias stared at Grace.
His phone buzzed again.
This time the message contained a photograph.
A woman in a lab coat.
Dark hair.
Tired eyes.
Holding newborn Grace.
Elias knew the woman.
His breath left him.
"No."
Mateo looked up.
"What?"
Elias enlarged the image.
The name badge read:
DR. ELENA VANCE.
May you like
His daughter.
The daughter Elias had buried three years earlier.
