No buildup.
Just—
A room.
Cold.
Bright.
Too bright.
White lights burned into his eyes as he lay flat on something hard. Metal, maybe. His arms felt heavy… restrained.
Voices hovered above him.
Not angry.
Not rushed.
Clinical.
“He’s waking up.”
“Not yet.”
Then—
Darkness again.
Carter shot upright in bed, gasping.
His hands were shaking.
“That’s not a memory,” he whispered to himself.
“It’s evidence.”
Avery Stops Playing Defense
By morning, Avery Pike had made a decision.
No more reacting.
No more waiting for the court to “allow” the truth to surface.
He was going after it.
Directly.
The hospital where the records originated had a closed wing.
Officially: under renovation.
Unofficially: untouched for years.
Avery didn’t go alone.
Kira insisted on coming.
“This started with me,” she said quietly.
“I’m finishing it.”
The security lock wasn’t hard to bypass.
The silence inside?
That was harder.
It felt wrong.
Like the walls remembered something they weren’t supposed to.
The File That Shouldn’t Exist
They found it in a storage cabinet.
No digital record.
No barcode.
Just a thin, physical file labeled:
H-17 / Neonatal Observation
Kira’s hands trembled as she opened it.
Inside—
Photos.
Notes.
Charts.
And one line, underlined twice:
“Subject shows hereditary marker consistency. Proceed with dual verification.”
Avery’s voice dropped.
“Hereditary… marker.”
Kira looked up slowly.
“The birthmark.”
The Experiment No One Authorized
The deeper they read, the worse it became.
This wasn’t just record manipulation.
This was intentional.
Systematic.
The documents described a private program—unregistered, unapproved.
Studying genetic markers passed from parent to child.
Rare identifiers.
Like Carter’s.
Like the baby’s.
“They weren’t just tracking it,” Avery said.
“They were testing it.”
Why Carter Was Chosen
Another page.
Another truth.
Carter Halston’s name.
Not as a suspect.
As a candidate.
“Subject selected based on genetic rarity and lack of immediate oversight,” Kira read aloud.
Her voice cracked.
“They picked him,” she whispered.
“They built this around him.”
continue to the next page.
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