Chapter 16 - The Man Who Poisoned Them Asked to Help Save Them

Elena had a concussion and six stitches.

She woke angry.

“Why am I upstairs?”

“Because you were unconscious.”

“The transplant?”

“Still happening.”

She tried to sit.

I pushed the pillow behind her instead of stopping her.

“The graft is clean.”

Her eyes closed in relief.

“Blythe?”

“Conditioning started.”

“And Jonah?”

“Tomorrow if his counts hold.”

She looked at me.

“You should be downstairs.”

“I was.”

“Then why are you here?”

I did not have a good answer.

Maybe because Genevieve had trusted her after learning the worst thing about her.

Maybe because my children did.

Maybe because I was tired of letting everyone who mattered face fear alone.

A federal agent entered.

“Mr. Mercer. Dr. Yates is here.”

Every muscle in my body tightened.

“He’s in custody.”

“He requested transport after hearing about the sabotage. Prosecutors approved it because Dr. Chen wants him consulted.”

I looked at Elena.

She did not flinch.

“Let him help.”

“You’re sure?”

“No.”

That was honest enough.

Franklin entered the church basement in handcuffs and body armor, escorted by two agents.

He looked at Blythe through the glass.

For the first time, I saw something in him that was not calculation.

Shame.

I stood between him and the room.

“You touch her only if Chen asks.”

He nodded.

“You speak only about medicine.”

“Yes.”

“You lie once—”

“Lawson,” Chen said sharply.

I stopped.

Yates looked at me.

“I deserve whatever comes later.”

“Correct.”

“But later requires them to survive.”

Chen brought him to the protocol table.

For three hours, the people who had helped create the disaster worked together to undo it.

Sera challenged every dosage.

Chen refused two of Franklin’s suggestions.

He accepted both refusals.

At midnight, Blythe received the reserve cord cells Genevieve had hidden.

The infusion looked absurdly ordinary.

A small bag.

A clear line.

No thunder.

No miracle light.

Just cells entering a child who had been told she had ten days.

I held her hand.

“Does it hurt?” she asked.

“No.”

“You don’t know.”

I smiled.

“Fair.”

She looked toward Franklin through the glass.

“Who’s that?”

“A doctor.”

“Do you like him?”

“No.”

“Does he like me?”

Franklin could not hear her.

I looked at him.

“I think he wants you to get better.”

Blythe considered that.

“Then maybe he can be medium.”

I laughed.

“Medium?”

“Not good. Not bad. Medium.”

Children had moral systems adults spent lifetimes complicating.

At two in the morning, Franklin asked to speak with me privately.

Velez allowed it with an agent present.

“I did activate HLX-17,” he said.

“I know.”

“I believed I could create a crisis controlled enough to justify moving the twins under my direct care.”

“You nearly killed them.”

“Yes.”

“Why not warn me?”

“Because Adrian had surveillance around you, the estate, the hospital, your lawyers.”

“So you poisoned children instead.”

He closed his eyes.

“I made the same mistake Victor did. I believed my expertise made me entitled to choose for other people.”

That sounded rehearsed.

Then he said something less polished.

“My daughter died at three.”

I looked at him.

“Sera knows.”

She had never told me.

“Same inherited marrow disorder?”

“Yes. Before Halcyon. Before your twins. I joined Victor because I thought embryo repair could prevent what happened to her.”

Grief again.

My mother.

His daughter.

Genevieve’s miscarriages.

Different people building permission from pain.

“Did you sabotage Genevieve’s car?”

“No.”

“Did you know Adrian would?”

“I knew he might escalate. I did not stop him.”

“Did you block me from seeing her?”

His face tightened.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“She had evidence taped beneath her hospital gown. Victor wanted it found before you arrived.”

I stepped toward him.

The agent moved.

I stopped myself.

“What evidence?”

“A storage receipt.”

“For what?”

Franklin looked toward Blythe’s room.

“The original unedited cell lines.”

“You knew where they were.”

“I knew the facility.”

“Rockford.”

“Yes.”

“Adrian activated terminal protocol.”

“I know.”

“Can it be stopped?”

“Only from the facility’s local control room.”

Velez entered before I could answer.

“We sent a team.”

Franklin shook his head.

“They won’t know what to disable.”

“Then tell them.”

“I can’t. The system changed after I left.”

Sera approached.

“I can.”

Franklin looked at her.

“No. You know the old configuration.”

“So do you.”

They stared at each other.

Two scientists who had spent years on opposite sides of the same sin.

Velez understood.

“You want to go.”

Franklin nodded.

“In custody.”

“Obviously.”

I looked at the clock.

Blythe’s transplant was done.

Jonah’s would begin tomorrow.

The cells in Rockford might be their only long-term path out of Halcyon’s damage.

Velez pointed at me.

“You are not coming.”

This time I did not argue.

Elena, pale from her stitches, smiled from the doorway.

“You’re learning.”

I looked through the glass at my daughter.

“Yes.”

Then Franklin paused before leaving.

“There is something else in Rockford.”

“What?”

“A complete genomic record for every Halcyon child.”

“How many?”

He looked at the floor.

“Nine births.”

Sera went still.

“You told me four pregnancies survived.”

“Four that you knew about.”

My blood ran cold.

“Where are the other children?”

Franklin met my eyes.

“I don’t know.”

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The twins were no longer the only living evidence.

Somewhere beyond our walls, seven other children might be carrying the same hidden damage.