Hospital security found Thomas Voss in the oncology wing.
He was not hiding.
He had checked in at the visitor desk using his real name.
That frightened Agent Bell more than if he had entered through a service tunnel.
“Where is he?” I asked.
“Conference room.”
“Arrest him.”
“We need grounds.”
“He sent armed men after me.”
“We have not established that.”
“NorthStar did.”
“We’re establishing who gave the order.”
I hated legal precision when my daughter was upstairs with a tumor in her brain.
Voss requested to speak with me.
Of course he did.
Daniel said no.
Sophie said, “Mom’s going anyway.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You are becoming a problem.”
“I learned from Mom.”
I kissed her.
“Correct.”
Thomas Voss looked nothing like Samuel.
Samuel carried authority like a weapon.
Voss carried it like furniture.
Comfortable.
Expensive.
Taken for granted.
He was perhaps sixty.
Silver tie.
Dark suit.
No visible fear despite two federal agents standing behind him.
He stood when I entered.
“Claire Bennett.”
“Morgan.”
“My apologies.”
“For what?”
“The surname.”
“Try the armed men.”
His expression did not change.
“I did not send anyone to Geneva.”
“Convenient.”
“It is also true.”
Agent Bell sat beside me.
Voss placed a folder on the table.
“I came because Samuel Hale has spent twenty years making NorthStar the villain in a story he wrote.”
“You ran Project Hearth.”
“Yes.”
The admission startled me.
“You experimented on children.”
“No.”
“You monitored them without consent.”
“Yes.”
Bell leaned forward.
Voss raised one hand.
“I am not claiming that was ethical.”
“Good.”
“I’m claiming it was not what Samuel says.”
“What does Samuel say?”
“That NorthStar stole his research.”
“Did you?”
“We took control after he became dangerous.”
I laughed.
“You’re expecting gratitude?”
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because Sophie is in danger from Samuel.”
“He saved her life yesterday.”
Voss nodded.
“I know.”
“How?”
“We still have access to some hospital data.”
Bell’s expression hardened.
“You just admitted unauthorized access.”
Voss looked at him.
“I assumed that was already obvious.”
He turned back to me.
“Samuel knows how to save Sophie from immediate complications because he engineered those complications.”
“He says he was trying to prevent disease.”
“He was.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“That Samuel never accepted failure.”
Voss opened the folder.
Photographs.
Laboratory records.
One image showed Samuel beside a child I did not recognize.
Another showed a hospital bed.
Another, a pathology slide.
“Who is she?”
“Patient S-M03.”
“What happened?”
“She died at twelve.”
I stopped.
“From the treatment?”
“From a tumor.”
Voss tapped the pathology image.
“After Samuel’s vector altered its behavior.”
Nathan had described selection pressure.
The disease adapting.
“How many children received it?”
“Eleven.”
My stomach turned.
“Sophie was number ten.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to the others?”
“Three died. Two developed serious complications. Four remain alive without detectable disease. One disappeared from follow-up.”
“And Sophie.”
“Yes.”
I looked at Bell.
“Did you know?”
“Not these numbers.”
Voss continued.
“NorthStar shut the intervention program down.”
“Then why keep monitoring families?”
“Because we had a responsibility to understand what had been done.”
“Without telling them?”
His jaw tightened.
“That decision was indefensible.”
“At least we agree.”
“But stopping observation would not have undone the interventions.”
“No. It just made children easier to watch.”
“Yes.”
His willingness to concede made him harder to fight.
“Why did armed men come for Laura’s archive?”
“They weren’t mine.”
“Whose?”
“Samuel’s.”
“He was in federal custody.”
“Samuel has followers.”
Nathan had said NorthStar controlled the program.
Samuel said Nathan was worse.
Voss blamed Samuel.
Every man pointed at another.
“Give me something I can verify.”
Voss slid a phone across the table.
A video appeared.
Timestamped three days earlier.
Samuel stood inside Facility 17.
He was speaking to two men.
One of them had been among the attackers in Geneva.
I recognized him.
My chest tightened.
Voss said, “Samuel ordered them to recover Laura’s archive.”
Bell took the phone.
“Where did you get this?”
“NorthStar retained surveillance access.”
“So you were watching Facility 17.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Samuel returned.”
I stared at the video.
Samuel had known about the archive.
Known about the keys.
Known about my mother.
He had come to the hospital claiming he wanted to save Sophie.
Maybe both things were true.
That was becoming the worst possibility.
People could save a child for reasons that had nothing to do with love.
“What does Samuel want from the archive?”
Voss answered immediately.
“The biological samples.”
“Why?”
“Laura’s tissue may contain the only surviving untreated reference material from her lineage.”
Dr. Shah had said samples existed.
“What would Samuel do with it?”
“Finish his correction.”
My skin went cold.
“On Sophie?”
“If necessary.”
“No.”
“He believes Sophie is his last opportunity to prove the treatment can work.”
I stood.
Bell touched my arm.
“Claire.”
“I need to see Samuel.”
Voss said, “Don’t let him near her.”
I turned.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“But I have a daughter too.”
I stopped.
Nathan had a daughter.
Now Voss.
Every man in this story seemed to discover ethics only when science reached his own child.
“Is she part of Hearth?”
“No.”
“Then don’t compare us.”
I left.
Samuel was being held under guard in a secured hospital room.
He looked at my face.
“You spoke to Voss.”
“Yes.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That you sent the men to Geneva.”
Samuel said nothing.
“That’s not a denial.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“You nearly got federal agents killed.”
“I told them to recover the archive.”
“With guns.”
“I did not authorize shooting.”
“Did you think they were bringing flowers?”
Samuel looked away.
“Why do you need Laura’s samples?”
“To help Sophie.”
“Try again.”
“That is the answer.”
“Voss says you want to finish your experiment.”
Samuel’s expression hardened.
“Voss has spent two decades pretending cowardice is ethics.”
“Did you want Laura’s tissue to engineer another treatment?”
“Yes.”
There it was.
“You were going to experiment on Sophie again.”
“Only if conventional treatment failed.”
“Without asking me?”
“No.”
I laughed.
“You expect me to believe that?”
Samuel leaned forward.
“I came to the hospital openly.”
“After causing a blackout.”
“I did not cause the blackout.”
“Then who did?”
“Voss.”
I stared at him.
“He says you sent the attackers.”
“I did.”
“Then why would Voss cut the hospital power?”
“To force me into the open.”
“Everybody is blaming everybody.”
“Because everybody has blood on their hands.”
At least that sounded true.
“What is NorthStar still hiding?”
Samuel looked toward the guard.
“Ask Voss about S-M11.”
“What?”
“Sophie was S-M10.”
“I know.”
“There was an eleventh child.”
“Voss told me.”
“Did he tell you her name?”
“No.”
Samuel’s mouth tightened.
“Emily Vale.”
Nathan’s daughter.
I sat.
Nathan had used the vector on Emily.
Samuel had told me that.
But apparently Emily was not an independent experiment.
She was officially part of the same series.
“Who authorized it?”
“Voss.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“Nathan wanted access. Voss wanted another subject.”
“And you?”
“I refused.”
I stared at him.
“You refused.”
“Yes.”
“After ten children.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because S-M03 had died.”
Samuel’s voice cracked almost imperceptibly.
“I finally understood the model was wrong.”
A decade of catastrophe compressed into that sentence.
“What did Voss do?”
“He allowed Nathan to proceed.”
“Did Emily’s mother know?”
“No.”
Of course not.
“Does Emily know?”
“No.”
“Where is she?”
“NorthStar.”
I stood.
“What do you mean?”
“Private treatment facility.”
“Is she being held there?”
“She cannot leave.”
“Why?”
“Because her immune system is failing.”
Nathan had attacked Maria, stolen a key, surrendered, escaped, and chased Laura’s archive.
Not for money.
Not for Samuel.
For Emily.
That did not excuse him.
It did explain him.
“What happens if Nathan gets the reversal protocol?”
“He’ll use it on Emily.”
“Would it work?”
“I don’t know.”
“And if he gets Laura’s biological samples?”
Samuel looked at me.
“He may use them to build a treatment.”
“Like you planned.”
“Yes.”
The guard knocked.
Agent Bell entered.
His expression was urgent.
“Claire, we have a problem.”
I almost laughed.
“Only one?”
“Laura’s archive was transferred to the hospital research lab for emergency review.”
“I know.”
“One of the biological sample containers is missing.”
Samuel stood despite the cuffs.
“Which one?”
Bell looked at him.
“L-B01.”
Laura.
My mother’s sample.
“Who took it?”
“We’re checking cameras.”
Samuel said, “Nathan.”
Bell shook his head.
“Nathan is still missing.”
Samuel looked toward the door.
“No.”
“What?”
“He wouldn’t bring it here.”
“Why?”
“Because Emily isn’t here.”
I understood.
“If Nathan didn’t take it—”
Samuel looked at me.
“Then Voss did.”
My phone rang.
Daniel.
I answered.
His voice was barely controlled.
“Claire, come upstairs.”
“What happened?”
“Sophie’s gone.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 11: Sophie Vanished During a Hospital Lockdown, Leaving Behind One Purple Strand of Hair and a Message Addressed Only to Claire
The Test Result Made No Sense Until One Terrified Father Pointed at the Man His Daughter Called Dad
Part 10 of 28
