Chapter 5 - The Price of a Memory

Clara shoved a cabinet against the door. The lock kept clicking.

“Then tell me the rest,” she yelled.

Evelyn's shadow stopped beneath the door. “Elena made a discovery. Her blood resisted a compound we'd been using to treat nerve damage after the spill. The company wanted to own the discovery. She wanted the research made public.”

“So you made copies of her?”

“I convinced myself I was saving lives.”

June laughed without humor. “You told the guards I was equipment.”

Silence.

Clara pressed the recorder against her chest. “Why give me the vial?”

“Because Voss was going to connect you himself. I thought if you activated the system first, you might control it.”

“You thought?”

The door began to move. Marcus grabbed a broken chair leg and wedged it beneath the handle.

“There's a drainage exit,” he said. “Clara, go.”

“No more secrets.”

Marcus met her eyes. “I signed an agreement four years ago. I was told the children had legal guardians, that Elena volunteered tissue samples. I didn't believe it. I signed anyway because they promised access to her records. That's why Evelyn let me near you.”

Clara felt sick. “You traded our safety for answers.”

“Yes.”

For a long moment he didn't defend himself. Then he took the chair leg and smashed the low window at the back of the room. Cool air rushed in.

“Whatever you think of me, get June out.”

They crawled through a narrow concrete drain and emerged on a hillside below Blackthorn. Sirens rose from the sleeping town. Beyond the houses, emergency lights blinked at the water treatment plant.

Victoria called Marcus's phone.

“Don't go to the police station,” she said. “Asterion has already sent orders to detain you. The company calls this a contamination incident.”

“What company?” Clara demanded.

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“The one that paid for your childhood,” Victoria answered. “I delayed the purge order down there, but I cannot cancel it. And tonight the company plans to test something on the entire town.”

Across the valley, every streetlight went dark at once.