Chapter 13 — The Father's Last Secret
Chapter 13 — The Father's Last Secret
The man on the screen opened his eyes.
Lydia forgot how to breathe.
Her grandfather had been dead for eighteen years.
She had attended his funeral.
She remembered the closed casket.
She remembered her mother's black dress.
She remembered standing beside the grave while rain soaked the flowers.
Yet the man on the monitor was unmistakably him.
Older.
Thinner.
But alive.
His eyes moved toward the camera.
Then he said one sentence.
“Lydia, if you are watching this, your mother failed to keep you away from them.”
Evelyn covered her mouth.
“No.”
Lydia turned toward her.
“You knew.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“I knew he might still be alive.”
“Might?”
“I never knew where they took him.”
The screen flickered.
Her grandfather continued.
“Charles will tell you Northstar was created to save humanity.”
He paused.
“He is lying.”
Lydia felt the room grow colder.
“Northstar was created to save one person.”
The screen went black.
The Original Subject
Benjamin immediately turned toward the technicians.
“Trace that transmission.”
They began typing.
“It's bouncing through multiple servers.”
“Keep going.”
Adrian stood beside Lydia.
“Who was the original subject?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“My father.”
“Why?”
“Because Northstar wasn't designed for children.”
Lydia stared at her.
“Then what was it designed for?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“To reverse cellular damage.”
Lydia frowned.
“What kind of damage?”
“The kind caused by aging.”
Silence.
Benjamin slowly understood.
“You weren't trying to create stronger children.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“We were trying to stop death.”
Her father had been seventy-two when the first experiment began.
His body was failing.
His heart was weak.
His kidneys were failing.
His memory had deteriorated.
Northstar was supposed to repair damaged cells.
Instead, it transformed them.
The treatment didn't merely restore damaged tissue.
It taught healthy cells how to adapt.
How to survive.
How to regenerate.
But there was a cost.
Every generation altered by Northstar became more dependent on the previous generation.
The first subject could survive.
The second could resist.
The third could activate the full sequence.
Lydia looked toward her stomach.
“My daughter.”
Evelyn nodded.
“She's the first complete generation.”
Adrian's face tightened.
“Then why does Charles need her?”
“Because he wants to control the process.”
“How?”
Evelyn looked at the floor.
“By using her cells to create a treatment for himself.”
Lydia went still.
“He wants to become immortal.”
“Yes.”
The transmission returned.
Her grandfather appeared again.
This time, he looked directly into the camera.
“Charles believes he can perfect what we created.”
He smiled sadly.
“He cannot.”
Lydia moved closer to the screen.
“Grandfather?”
His expression changed.
He seemed to hear her.
“Lydia.”
She froze.
“How?”
Evelyn whispered:
“The system is interactive.”
Her grandfather continued.
“You have your mother's courage.”
Lydia's eyes filled with tears.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I was supposed to be.”
“Who kept you alive?”
His expression hardened.
“Charles.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Why?”
“Because I knew how to destroy Northstar.”
Charles had kept him alive for eighteen years because he needed the one person who could reverse the research.
Lydia understood.
“He couldn't kill you.”
“No.”
“Because he needed you.”
“Yes.”
Her grandfather looked directly at Adrian.
“And because of you.”
Adrian froze.
“Me?”
“You were the missing sequence.”
Adrian stared.
“I don't understand.”
“You were never merely Charles's son.”
He paused.
“You were his control mechanism.”
The Truth About Adrian
Adrian stepped backward.
“No.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“I should have told you.”
“What?”
“Charles altered your DNA before you were born.”
Adrian's face went blank.
“He used the first generation.”
“Your blood.”
“He made you compatible with Northstar.”
Adrian looked at Lydia.
“And that's why he wanted us married.”
“Yes.”
“But why did he need me?”
Evelyn answered:
“Because only your body could regulate the final activation.”
Adrian looked sick.
“My entire life…”
“Was engineered.”
Lydia reached for his hand.
He didn't move.
“I was never his son.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“You were.”
“Then what am I?”
She looked at him.
“A human being he turned into a key.”
The grandfather's voice returned.
“Adrian.”
He stepped toward the screen.
“You have a choice.”
Adrian looked at him.
“What choice?”
“Become the key.”
The screen changed.
A diagram appeared.
Three genetic sequences.
One belonged to Elena.
One belonged to Adrian.
One belonged to Lydia's unborn daughter.
Her grandfather explained:
“Elena can survive the process.”
“Lydia's daughter can complete it.”
“But Adrian can control it.”
Adrian stared at the diagram.
“What happens if I refuse?”
The old man looked directly at him.
“Northstar dies with you.”
Silence.
Lydia understood.
Charles had spent decades building toward this moment.
If Adrian refused, the research would end.
If Adrian agreed, Charles could become immortal.
But there was another problem.
“What happens to my daughter?”
Her grandfather looked at Lydia.
“If the activation is attempted before birth, she will die.”
Lydia's hand immediately went to her stomach.
Adrian's face hardened.
“Then we don't activate it.”
Her grandfather smiled.
“That is why I called you.”
The Last Secret
Evelyn suddenly began crying.
Lydia looked at her.
“What?”
“There is one final part.”
“What?”
“Your grandfather didn't create Northstar.”
Lydia stared.
“What?”
“He discovered it.”
“Where?”
Evelyn looked toward the screen.
“Inside himself.”
Lydia's heart stopped.
Her grandfather spoke.
“Northstar existed naturally in my blood.”
He explained that his family had carried a dormant mutation for generations.
The research had merely awakened it.
Charles hadn't created the miracle.
He had found it.
And then tried to own it.
Lydia looked toward Elena.
“You were born with it.”
“Yes.”
“And Adrian.”
“Yes.”
“And my daughter.”
“Yes.”
“But why me?”
Her grandfather smiled.
“Because your mother made the choice Charles never expected.”
“What choice?”
“She removed the activation sequence from you.”
Lydia stared.
“My mother changed me.”
“Yes.”
“She made me incomplete.”
“She made you free.”
Evelyn began crying.
“I didn't want Charles to control you.”
Lydia finally understood.
Her entire life had been protected by a lie.
Her mother had deliberately broken the bloodline.
And Charles had spent six years trying to repair it through her marriage to Adrian.
The Collapse
Suddenly, the lights went out.
Benjamin drew his weapon.
“Everyone stay together.”
A warning appeared on the monitor.
REMOTE FACILITY BREACH
Then another message.
CHARLES CALDWELL HAS ESCAPED CUSTODY.
Adrian looked at Lydia.
“How?”
Benjamin's phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Then looked at Lydia.
“The transport vehicle was intercepted.”
“By whom?”
Benjamin hesitated.
“Margaret.”
Lydia felt a chill.
“She's alive.”
“Yes.”
“And Charles is with her.”
“Yes.”
The monitor changed again.
A live video appeared.
Charles sat inside a vehicle.
Margaret beside him.
She looked directly into the camera.
“Lydia.”
Lydia stepped closer.
“What do you want?”
Margaret smiled.
“Your daughter.”
“No.”
“You misunderstood.”
Margaret's smile widened.
“I don't need her after all.”
Lydia froze.
“Then what do you need?”
Margaret looked toward Adrian.
“Him.”
Adrian stiffened.
Charles leaned into the frame.
“Bring Adrian to us.”
Lydia shook her head.
“No.”
Charles smiled.
“Then your daughter will be born without the only person who can save her.”
The screen went black.
Adrian looked at Lydia.
She looked terrified.
He stepped toward her.
“I'll go.”
“No.”
“If I can save our daughter—”
“No.”
“Lydia.”
“You're not sacrificing yourself for us.”
“I'm not sacrificing myself.”
He took her hands.
“I'm choosing you.”
She shook her head.
“You don't know what they'll do.”
“I know exactly what they'll do.”
He looked toward the screen.
“And this time, I won't go alone.”
Benjamin nodded.
Clara stepped forward.
Elena stood beside her.
Evelyn wiped her tears.
Five people.
One enemy.
One final confrontation.
Then Lydia felt another movement inside her stomach.
She gasped.
Everyone turned.
The baby kicked again.
Hard.
Twice.
Then three times.
Elena's face changed.
“What?”
Lydia looked at her.
“What is it?”
Elena whispered:
“She can hear us.”
Adrian placed his hand against Lydia's stomach.
The baby kicked beneath his palm.
He smiled through tears.
“She's fighting already.”
Lydia looked at him.
“No.”
She smiled faintly.
“She isn't fighting.”
She placed her hand over his.
“She is waiting.”
Hours later, the team prepared to leave.
Benjamin handed Lydia a small encrypted drive.
“Your grandfather sent one final file.”
She looked at him.
“What is it?”
“I don't know.”
Lydia opened it.
A video appeared.
Her grandfather sat alone.
His voice was barely above a whisper.
“If Charles has found this message, then there is only one way to end Northstar.”
Lydia leaned closer.
“You must destroy the original.”
The screen shifted.
A laboratory appeared.
A glass chamber stood in the center.
Inside was a human body.
Lydia stared.
Her grandfather continued:
“The original subject is not me.”
Lydia froze.
The camera moved closer.
The body inside the chamber opened its eyes.
Lydia screamed.
Because the face inside the chamber belonged to someone she recognized.
Someone who had been declared dead years ago.
Her father.
Her grandfather's voice continued:
“Your father was the first successful subject.”
The video ended.
Lydia couldn't speak.
Evelyn collapsed into a chair.
Adrian stared at the screen.
Benjamin whispered:
“Your father is alive.”
Lydia's eyes remained fixed on the empty screen.
Then her phone vibrated.
One message.
From an unknown number.
YOU HAVE UNTIL DAWN.
A second message appeared.
COME TO THE ORIGINAL LABORATORY.
Then the final one.
BRING ADRIAN.
Lydia looked at her husband.
May you like
For the first time, neither of them knew whether they were walking toward the end of the nightmare—
or directly into the heart of it.
