Chapter 9 - The Woman Who Started It

Ortiz rolled Elena's hospital bed toward a service lift while Marcus blocked the corridor. Clara stayed alongside the bed, listening.

Twenty-two years earlier, Elena had joined Asterion because she believed the company could help people injured in an industrial chemical spill. Instead she'd found human trials buried behind false names and charitable donations. Her unusual resistance to the experimental treatment had made her valuable. Her objection had made her dangerous.

“Evelyn said copying your cells could make the treatment safe,” Elena said. “At first she wanted my permission. When I refused, permission stopped mattering.”

“Why so many of us?” Clara asked.

“Some were made to survive. Others to provide access to machines built around my biology. Voss wanted a system that could treat entire communities without asking them.”

June clenched her fists. “And if it hurt people?”

“He called that acceptable loss.”

The lift stopped between floors. Somewhere above, metal slammed. Marcus pulled open the maintenance hatch and climbed out to inspect the motor.

Clara leaned close to Elena. “Did you ever ask to see me?”

“Every day I was conscious.” Tears shone in the older woman's eyes. “They showed me photographs. Sometimes only for a second. Evelyn said you were happy. I wanted that to be true.”

Clara remembered Evelyn sitting up with her through fevers, teaching her to drive, praising every report card. Those memories were real. So was the room under the oak. She hated that both could be true.

Marcus forced the lift doors apart. A narrow stairwell lay beyond. They carried Elena down one step at a time until an exit led into the trees.

A screen fixed above the gate flickered on. Jonah Voss appeared, handsome, smiling, and dressed for a television interview.

“Clara,” he said. “Evelyn was always too sentimental. Come home, and I will keep your friends alive.”

“Leave us alone.”

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“I would love to. Unfortunately, you've already begun the sequence.”

On the screen a map of Blackthorn turned bright blue, house by house.