Chapter 13 - SUBJECT 79-A
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Daniel did not sleep.
At sunrise, he stood in Lily’s bedroom doorway watching her breathe. She lay diagonally across the bed with one arm wrapped around her rabbit and Blanket curled on the rug below.
Maria sat beside her.
“Someone took her blood,” she said.
“We don’t know that the vials are recent.”
“The label says four days ago.”
“The label could be false.”
“You don’t believe that.”
Daniel did not answer.
Maria looked at Lily’s arms. There were no visible needle marks, but a careful technician would have known where to hide one.
“She came home from preschool tired on Tuesday,” Maria whispered. “She said they played hospital.”
Daniel called Owen.
Within an hour, the preschool was closed while federal agents questioned teachers and reviewed security footage. The recordings showed nothing unusual until Owen examined the maintenance log. A fire inspector had entered Tuesday afternoon during nap time.
The inspector’s credentials were false.
His photograph matched Adrian Cole.
The dead geneticist had entered Lily’s classroom, remained inside for eleven minutes, and left carrying a refrigerated case.
Maria watched the footage once.
Then she walked into the bathroom and vomited.
Daniel stayed outside the door until she let him in. He held her hair while she knelt on the tile, and when she finished, she pressed both hands against the sink.
“I was supposed to protect her.”
“You did.”
“He walked into her school.”
“That is not your failure.”
“Tomas knew. He tried to warn me, and I spent a year believing he had died because of Northstar.”
“He may have hidden the truth to keep you alive.”
Maria looked at Daniel through the mirror. “Secrets do not protect children. Your mother said that.”
The words cut because they were true.
Sofia arrived with information from the Ashford files. Subject 79-A belonged to a research program called Continuance. Ashford doctors had collected genetic material from cancer patients who displayed unusual resistance to experimental drugs.
One of those patients was Daniel’s mother.
“Her genetic profile was labeled Subject 79,” Sofia explained. “The letter A usually indicates a descendant.”
Daniel stared at Lily’s name on the vial.
“That makes no sense. Lily is not my descendant.”
Maria’s face changed.
Daniel noticed. “What?”
She said nothing.
“Maria.”
“Tomas and I had trouble conceiving.”
The room went still.
“We used a fertility clinic,” she continued. “The clinic said an anonymous donor embryo had been matched with us after our third failed treatment.”
Daniel stepped back.
“Where was the clinic?”
“St. Catherine’s.”
Sofia immediately searched the clinic’s ownership records. It had been managed by a private reproductive medicine group that shared directors with Voss Biomedical.
Daniel felt the truth approaching before anyone said it aloud.
“My mother’s genetic material was used to create embryos.”
“Possibly,” Sofia said.
Maria looked sick. “Then Lily could be genetically connected to Daniel.”
“No,” Daniel said quickly. “A shared source would not automatically make her my—”
“Your sister?” Maria finished.
The word landed between them like broken glass.
Daniel looked toward Lily’s room.
The child who had called him her new daddy might be his biological half sister. Every emotional boundary they had carefully built suddenly seemed unstable.
Maria covered her mouth.
“Tomas knew,” she said. “That is why he fought with Cole.”
Sofia read deeper into the recovered files. “Continuance was trying to preserve rare genetic traits across generations. Your mother survived longer than expected during the Ashford treatment. Voss believed her DNA contained a resistance marker.”
“He turned her body into property,” Daniel said.
“And Lily?” Maria asked.
“If Lily inherited the marker, they may consider her the only successful subject.”
Daniel’s phone rang.
The caller ID displayed the foundation’s main number, although the call came from outside the building.
He answered.
A distorted male voice spoke.
“Bring Subject 79-A to the Baltimore facility.”
Daniel activated the recorder.
“If you come near her again, I will—”
“You will do what your father always did. You will calculate the cost.”
“What do you want?”
“A blood confirmation under controlled conditions.”
“You already took blood.”
“The preschool sample was contaminated.”
Maria reached for the phone, but Daniel stopped her.
“And if we refuse?” he asked.
“Then every hospital in the country will receive records identifying Lily Alvarez as the product of an illegal embryo trial. Imagine what reporters will call her. Imagine the custody cases, the religious protests, the laboratories offering millions for access.”
Daniel’s grip tightened.
“You’re threatening a child with publicity.”
“I’m offering privacy.”
The caller gave an address and ended the call.
Owen traced the signal to six locations simultaneously.
“It’s a trap,” he said.
“Of course it is,” Maria replied. “But we need to know what they did to Lily.”
Daniel shook his head. “We are not taking her.”
“No. We are taking the sample they already left.”
The plan was simple enough to sound possible. Sofia would remain with Lily at a protected location. Daniel and Maria would deliver one of the vials while federal agents surrounded the Baltimore facility.
That evening, before leaving, Daniel knelt beside Lily.
“We’re going to find out something about your hospital records.”
“Am I sick?”
“No.”
“Did I do something bad?”
“Never.”
She studied him. “Are you still my new daddy?”
Daniel’s throat tightened.
“No document could change how much I love you.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Maria turned away, fighting tears.
Daniel held Lily’s small hands.
“If you still want me,” he said, “I am still yours.”
She hugged him.
At midnight, Daniel and Maria entered the abandoned facility. Emergency lights guided them toward a laboratory beneath the main building.
Adrian Cole waited behind a glass partition.
The broken watch remained on his wrist.
“You took your time,” he said.
Maria held up the vial. “Why did Tomas die?”
Cole’s expression softened with something resembling regret.
“Because he discovered Lily was not the only child.”
Lights illuminated a chamber behind him.
Inside were medical beds, incubators, and a wall covered with photographs.
Dozens of children stared from the display.
At the center was a picture of Daniel taken at age nine.
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Beneath it were the words:
SUBJECT 79 - PRIMARY SOURCE.
