Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Changed the Teeth

Doctor Celia Ward did not look surprised when Ava entered her office at Mercy General.

She looked furious.

“You have six seconds to leave.”

Ava closed the door behind Holloway.

“Ethan Cross sent me.”

Celia’s hand stopped above the panic button under her desk.

“He is dead.”

“So I was told.”

Celia looked at Holloway.

“You brought a general.”

“He brought himself.”

“I’m regretting it,” Holloway said.

Celia ignored him.

She was forty-two, which made her roughly eighteen when Ava was an infant. That did not fit.

Ava studied her face.

“You’re not one of the children.”

Celia’s expression changed.

“No.”

“Then why is your name in Ethan’s list?”

“Because Celia Ward died in 2005.”

Ava went still.

Holloway said, “Who are you?”

The doctor leaned back.

“My name was Clara Ward. Celia was my younger sister.”

Ava felt the coin heat.

A vision struck her.

A girl under fluorescent light.

Thirteen years old.

Blood running from one ear.

A young woman screaming at men in protective gear.

Ava gripped the desk.

Celia—Clara—stood immediately.

“What did you see?”

Ava looked up.

“Your sister.”

Clara’s face drained.

“What was she wearing?”

“A yellow sweatshirt.”

Clara sat down hard.

Holloway looked between them.

“What happened?”

Clara’s voice barely carried.

“The night Fort Danner burned, Celia was wearing yellow.”

Ava closed her hand around the coin.

“You took her identity.”

“Ethan arranged it.”

“Why?”

“Because ORISON believed Clara Ward died in the fire.”

Holloway’s eyes narrowed.

“You switched names.”

“Ethan said the dead were safer than the living.”

Ava thought of her father’s funeral.

“He liked that trick.”

Clara gave her a long look.

“He hated it.”

“Did he?”

“Yes.”

“You seem sure.”

“I watched him vomit after he signed the paperwork that made you an orphan.”

Ava’s anger faltered.

Clara opened a cabinet, removed a bottle of water, and set it in front of Ava.

“You look like him when you’re angry.”

“I’m not sure that’s possible.”

“It is when someone raises you.”

Ava sat.

Holloway remained standing by the door.

“Tell us about Fort Danner.”

Clara laughed bitterly.

“A general asking me for the truth. That’s new.”

“He’s practicing,” Ava said.

Holloway sighed.

Clara looked at Ava.

“What did Ethan tell you?”

“That Vale needs all seven children alive long enough to open LANTERN.”

Clara’s eyes sharpened.

“He used that phrase?”

“Exactly.”

“Then he believed the convergence protocol was still active.”

“What is that?”

Clara folded her arms.

“The coins are not independent keys. Each contains a partial resonance pattern. When two are close to each other, the carriers begin to experience overlap.”

“Shared memories?”

“Not literally. More like triggered associations. Your brain recognizes patterns encoded by the other key and reconstructs meaning from them.”

Ava remembered the girl saying sister.

“So I’m not seeing ghosts.”

“No.”

“That is disappointing,” Holloway said.

Both women looked at him.

“I’m trying humor under stress.”

“Stop,” Ava said.

“Yes.”

Clara continued.

“Vale discovered the children’s nervous systems became more sensitive when multiple keys were nearby. Reflexes improved. Sensory processing accelerated. But so did instability.”

“What kind?”

“Seizures. Dissociation. Memory confusion.”

Ava’s stomach tightened.

“Can this kill me?”

“Possibly.”

Holloway stepped forward.

“That was not in any report.”

Clara turned on him.

“Of course it wasn’t. The reports called children ‘interfaces.’”

He stopped.

Ava asked, “What happened to Celia?”

Clara looked at her hands.

“She was Asset Two.”

Ava absorbed that.

“Ethan’s list said Celia Ward.”

“He kept the identity because he knew I’d answer to it if the right person came.”

“Why did ORISON have her at Fort Danner three years after Kharif?”

“Because the program did not end when the valley site was destroyed.”

Holloway’s face went hard.

“It was moved.”

“Yes.”

“To Danner.”

“Part of it.”

Clara opened a drawer and removed an old photograph.

Seven children stood in a line before a blank wall.

Ava recognized herself only because she was the baby in a nurse’s arms.

Beside her stood a boy around two, a girl around three, two older children, and two teenagers.

Clara pointed.

“Celia.”

The girl in yellow from Ava’s vision.

Then another.

“Jonah Reed. Asset One.”

A boy of fifteen stared at the camera with open hatred.

“Leah Mercer, Four. Noah Bell, Five. Miriam Stone, Six. Elias Vale, Three.”

Ava looked at the baby.

“And me.”

“Seven.”

“What happened at Danner?”

Clara’s eyes filled.

“They tried to reactivate Celia and Jonah together.”

“Reactivate?”

“Expose them to paired key patterns and force LANTERN authentication.”

“Did it work?”

“For eleven seconds.”

“And then?”

“Jonah collapsed. Celia tried to pull him out of the chair. A technician locked the room.”

Clara’s voice shook.

“I was there as a civilian medical resident under a fake research partnership. I saw my sister beating on the glass.”

Ava said nothing.

“Ethan arrived with Samuel Lorne. They cut power. Someone started a fire in the server wing.”

“Ethan?”

“No.”

“Who?”

“Adrian Vale.”

Holloway frowned.

“Why destroy his own facility?”

“To erase evidence after the test failed.”

“And Celia?” Ava asked.

Clara swallowed.

“She died before Ethan got the door open.”

The office became silent.

Ava looked at the photograph.

“Jonah?”

“Survived that night. Died six years later.”

“Ethan wrote ‘Jonah lost.’”

“Vale found him.”

“How do you know?”

“Because Jonah mailed me his key the day before he died.”

Ava’s head lifted.

“You have it?”

Clara’s expression hardened.

“I will not give it to you.”

“I didn’t ask.”

“You were about to.”

“I was about to ask if Vale knows.”

Clara paused.

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“As sure as anyone can be after twenty years of being hunted by a man with defense contracts.”

Holloway said, “Where is the key?”

Clara looked at him coldly.

“Not with me.”

Ava leaned back.

“My father told me not to gather them.”

Clara’s shoulders lowered slightly.

“Good.”

“He also told me to ask you about the night at Fort Danner.”

“You did.”

“And who died in his car.”

Clara closed her eyes.

There it was.

The secret she had expected.

“Samuel Lorne,” she said.

Holloway swore.

Ava’s voice went flat.

“Who was he?”

“ORISON’s chief physiologist after Nadia died. He helped Ethan move the children. Years later he contacted me and said he had proof Vale was rebuilding LANTERN through Asterion.”

“What happened?”

“He was poisoned.”

Ava’s jaw tightened.

“By Vale?”

“We never proved it.”

“How did his body get into my father’s car?”

“Samuel came to Ethan already dying. Ethan realized he was being watched and made a terrible choice.”

“He used Samuel’s body to fake his own death.”

“Yes.”

Ava stood.

“Terrible is one word.”

“He had Samuel’s permission.”

She stopped.

“What?”

Clara opened another drawer.

“He recorded it.”

She placed a small digital voice recorder on the desk.

A man’s weak voice emerged.

“Cross, stop looking at me like that. I’m dying whether you use this or not.”

Ethan answered, “I’m not putting you in my car.”

“You need a death. I have one available.”

“That is not funny.”

“It was a little funny.”

Ava closed her eyes.

Samuel coughed.

“Vale follows living men. Let him follow a grave. Get to the kids.”

The recording ended.

Ava sat again.

“He agreed.”

“Yes.”

Clara’s voice softened.

“Ethan did not steal a dead man’s identity. Samuel gave him a way out.”

Ava rubbed both hands over her face.

“I don’t know whether to be relieved or furious.”

“Try both,” Clara said. “It’s sustainable.”

Holloway almost smiled.

Then Clara’s office phone rang.

Nobody moved.

It rang again.

Clara looked at the display.

“No caller ID.”

Ava said, “Don’t answer.”

The ringing stopped.

A message appeared on Clara’s computer screen.

HELLO, CLARA.

Her face went pale.

A second line appeared.

YOU KEPT JONAH’S GIFT TOO LONG.

Holloway moved toward the network cable.

“Disconnect it.”

Ava grabbed his arm.

“Wait.”

Another line typed itself.

BRING SEVEN TO ME AND I WILL LEAVE YOU ALIVE.

Clara whispered, “Vale.”

Ava stared at the screen.

Then she reached for the keyboard.

Holloway said, “What are you doing?”

“Answering.”

“That is a bad idea.”

“Probably.”

She typed.

YOU HAD TWENTY-FOUR YEARS. COME ASK ME YOURSELF.

The cursor blinked.

A reply came almost instantly.

ETHAN TAUGHT YOU DEFIANCE.

Ava’s hands froze.

Then the next line appeared.

I TAUGHT YOU EVERYTHING ELSE.

The lights in the office shut off.

Emergency alarms began ringing throughout Mercy General.

Clara stood.

“He’s inside the hospital.”

Ava heard elevator doors opening at the end of the corridor.

Four sets of footsteps.

Then six more from the stairs.

Holloway drew his weapon.

“We have company.”

Ava looked at Clara.

“Where’s Jonah’s key?”

Clara stared back.

“You said you wouldn’t ask.”

“I’m not asking for it. I’m asking whether Vale can reach it if he takes you.”

Clara understood.

“No.”

“Good.”

Ava picked up the photograph of the seven children.

“Then we make sure he doesn’t take either of us.”

Clara reached into a cabinet and pulled out a plain gray trauma bag.

“You know the service corridors?” Ava asked.

“I have worked here fourteen years.”

“Then you lead.”

Holloway checked the hall through the narrow window.

“And if they block the corridors?”

Clara lifted a ring of old mechanical keys.

“Then we use the part of the hospital administrators forgot existed.”

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Ava smiled despite the alarm bells.

“Finally. Someone with a plan I like.”