Chapter 6 - The Other Child
Adrian crossed the bunker in three strides and ripped open the medical-room door.
A little girl sat on a cot beneath a gray blanket.
She looked about six.
Dark hair. Pale face. Huge brown eyes.
And she stared at Adrian like she knew him.
Claire’s entire body went cold.
The girl whispered, “Dad?”
Silence.
Adrian took one step backward.
“No.”
The child’s face crumpled.
Claire looked at him. “Adrian.”
“I have never seen her before.”
Cross knelt beside the girl. “What’s your name?”
“Mia.”
“Mia what?”
She shook her head.
Adrian stared at the biometric console.
“Someone planted her here.”
Claire’s voice sharpened. “The machine called her your descendant.”
“Machines can be manipulated.”
“So can wives.”
That hurt him.
Good, she thought. She was tired of being the only one hurting.
Mia began to cry silently.
Claire’s anger cracked.
She moved closer and crouched with Noah in her arms.
“Hey. You’re okay.”
Mia looked at the baby. “Is that Noah?”
Claire froze.
“How do you know his name?”
Mia pointed toward the ceiling.
“The lady said if Noah came, I could go home.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened. “What lady?”
“Gray hair.”
Shaw.
Cross stood. “She staged this to force the system to open.”
Adrian examined the girl’s wrist. A tiny adhesive patch sat beneath her sleeve.
He peeled it off.
Microfilaments glistened under the light.
“Synthetic DNA interface,” he said. “It’s spoofing my markers.”
Claire exhaled slowly.
Then Mia looked at Adrian and whispered, “But you are my dad.”
He stared at her.
She reached beneath her blanket and pulled out a folded photograph.
Adrian took it.
Claire moved beside him.
The picture showed Adrian standing next to a young woman outside a hospital.
The date was seven years earlier.
The woman was pregnant.
Claire’s heartbeat stuttered.
“Who is she?”
Adrian looked genuinely shaken.
“Her name was Lena Hart.”
“Was?”
“She worked Lantern logistics. She died in Berlin.”
Mia whispered, “That was my mom.”
Claire closed her eyes for one second.
Adrian shook his head. “Lena was never pregnant when I knew her.”
Cross took the photo and studied it.
“This is real paper. Old print.”
Adrian looked at Mia. “Who gave you this?”
“The man with your face.”
Lucas.
A metallic bang echoed above them.
Someone had reached the hatch.
Cross checked the tunnel map.
“We have maybe two minutes.”
Claire stood.
“Then we take her with us.”
Adrian nodded immediately.
She noticed that too.
Whatever else he had become, he had not hesitated.
Cross opened the rear tunnel.
Before they entered, the console beeped again.
A third line appeared.
ARCHIVE ACCESS: 82%.
Adrian swore.
“Shaw doesn’t need Noah physically,” he said. “She only needed him close enough to wake the system.”
Cross looked at the progress bar.
“And when it reaches one hundred?”
May you like
Adrian’s face hardened.
“She gets the names of every undercover federal asset in North America.”
