CHAPTER 17 : The Station Beneath the City
Claire ran toward the scream.
The corridor divided into two sections.
Celeste followed her while Noah remained close behind.
They passed empty examination rooms, classrooms, and bedrooms designed for children. Each room contained two identical sets of clothing.
Two beds.
Two desks.
Two photographs.
Everything had been duplicated.
At the end of the corridor, they found a boy locked inside a glass chamber.
He looked exactly like Noah.
Same dark hair.
Same hazel eyes.
Same small scar near his chin.
He stopped screaming when he saw Claire.
Then he pressed both hands against the glass.
“Mom?”
Claire froze.
Noah stood behind her.
“That’s not your mom,” he said.
The second boy looked toward him.
“Yes, she is.”
Claire felt as if the ground had disappeared beneath her.
Celeste searched for a release button.
“There should be a control panel.”
The boy inside pointed toward Daniel’s ring.
Claire placed it against the scanner beside the chamber.
A request appeared:
SELECT PRIMARY IDENTITY.
Two names followed.
NOAH ASHFORD
ELIAS ASHFORD
Claire stepped back.
“I’m not choosing.”
The intercom activated.
Margaret’s voice came through.
“You already chose seven years ago.”
Claire looked toward the ceiling.
“Where are you?”
“Closer than you think.”
“Release the child.”
“You cannot take both boys.”
“They are children, not company assets.”
“To Charles, they are insurance policies.”
“To you too?”
Margaret did not answer.
Celeste found an emergency access panel and tore away its cover.
While she worked, Claire studied the boy inside.
“What do you remember?”
He looked confused.
“You used to sing when it rained.”
Claire stopped breathing.
She had sung to Noah during thunderstorms since he was a baby.
The boy continued.
“You burned pancakes on my fifth birthday. Dad said we couldn’t tell you because you would cry.”
Claire remembered that morning.
Only Daniel and Noah had been in the kitchen.
“How do you know that?”
The child touched his head.
“I remember being there.”
Noah stepped forward angrily.
“That happened to me.”
The boys stared at each other.
Both appeared terrified.
Celeste forced the panel open.
The glass door unlocked.
The second boy ran directly into Claire’s arms.
Noah remained a few feet away.
Claire reached for him.
“Noah—”
He backed away.
“Which one do you think is me?”
“You are both coming with me.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
The lights suddenly changed from white to red.
A warning sounded.
CONTAINMENT FAILURE. IDENTITY BREACH DETECTED.
Steel doors began closing throughout the corridor.
Claire pulled both boys toward the exit.
Celeste remained at the control panel.
“What are you doing?”
“Someone activated the destruction system.”
“Come with us.”
“I need to keep the doors open.”
The ceiling vents released a sharp chemical odor.
Claire covered the boys’ mouths and dragged them toward the station.
A figure appeared behind the glass at the opposite end of the hallway.
Daniel.
He struck the glass with his bound hands.
Claire ran toward him, but a steel door dropped between them.
“Daniel!”
He pointed urgently toward Celeste.
Claire turned.
Celeste was no longer at the control panel.
She stood near a private elevator holding Daniel’s ring.
Claire checked her hand.
The ring was gone.
Celeste had taken it while releasing the second child.
“Give it back,” Claire demanded.
“I can’t let you open the final archive.”
“You brought us here.”
“I brought the boys here.”
The elevator doors opened.
Margaret stood inside.
Celeste joined her.
Claire rushed forward, but another security barrier descended.
Margaret placed a hand against the glass.
“You always believed Celeste was the daughter Charles kept,” she said.
Claire stared at her mother.
“He kept both of you.”
The elevator doors closed.
The station began shaking.
Claire looked toward Daniel, trapped on the other side of the corridor.
He shouted something she could not hear.
The second boy read his lips.
“He said the woman in the elevator isn’t Margaret.”
Claire turned toward him.
“How do you know?”
The boy’s face changed.
“Because Margaret is the woman who raised me.”
A section of the wall opened behind them.
An older woman stepped from the darkness.
May you like
She had Claire’s eyes.
And she was holding a gun.
