Chapter 4 - The Child They Wanted
The explosion threw me to the floor.
I covered Logan with my body as glass shattered somewhere behind us.
Men shouted in the dark.
Emergency lights flickered red.
“Catherine!”
Marco grabbed my shoulder.
“Stay down.”
Gunfire erupted from the loading dock.
Alessandro shouted orders.
The weak man from the hospital disappeared.
In his place was someone terrifyingly calm.
“North entrance. Seal the lower corridor. Nobody reaches the office.”
Another explosion shook the warehouse.
Logan screamed into my chest.
“Mommy!”
“I’ve got you.”
I couldn’t even hear my own voice.
Marco shoved a handgun into the back of his waistband and pulled open a hidden panel behind a filing cabinet.
“Move.”
I stared at it.
Another secret passage.
“Do you people have normal doors anywhere?”
“Normal doors get you killed.”
Fair point.
I carried Logan through.
Alessandro followed despite barely being able to stand.
The doctor protested.
“Your blood pressure—”
“Come or stay.”
The doctor came.
The passage led to an underground vehicle bay.
Three armored SUVs waited.
Men opened doors.
I climbed into the middle one with Logan.
Alessandro entered behind us.
“What happened to Fort Henry being secure?”
“It was secure.”
“Apparently not.”
“That’s why I’m concerned.”
Engines roared.
We left through a tunnel beneath the warehouse as gunfire continued above.
I looked at my son.
At his brown eyes.
David’s eyes.
“What is in Logan’s blood?”
Alessandro didn’t answer.
I slammed my hand against the seat.
“Tell me.”
The doctor looked toward Alessandro.
He nodded.
The doctor took a breath.
“My name is Elias Chen.”
“I don’t care.”
“That’s understandable.”
“What is wrong with my son?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why does a private military company want him?”
Dr. Chen removed his glasses.
“Lazarus uses a family of synthetic proteins designed to protect cells during oxygen deprivation.”
I stared.
“English.”
“They help the brain survive when the heart stops.”
“Okay.”
“The earliest versions were dangerous. Blood clots. Seizures. Organ failure.”
I hugged Logan tighter.
“What does that have to do with him?”
“David brought us Logan’s newborn screening results about eighteen months ago.”
I froze.
“He stole our son’s medical records?”
“Apparently.”
Chen continued carefully.
“There was a marker in Logan’s blood that suggested his cells naturally produce a protein extremely similar to the one Lazarus researchers were trying to manufacture.”
My stomach turned.
“You’re saying my child naturally has something they want?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“We don’t know.”
“Then how do you know it matters?”
“Because we tested a sample.”
I stared at Alessandro.
“What sample?”
He said nothing.
“What sample?”
Dr. Chen answered.
“Cord blood.”
I remembered.
David had insisted we store Logan’s cord blood.
He said it was insurance.
I had thought he was being an anxious new father.
“He gave it to you?”
“Not to us,” Alessandro said.
“To Halcyon.”
I felt betrayed all over again.
“Before he disappeared?”
“Yes.”
“Did he know what they were doing?”
“Not initially.”
“And afterward?”
“He learned Halcyon wanted to reproduce Logan’s genetic variant.”
I looked at my son.
He was tired now, head against my chest.
He didn’t understand that adults with guns had set fire to his home because of something inside his body.
“What would they do to him?”
No one answered quickly enough.
My voice dropped.
“What would they do?”
Chen’s face was grim.
“Repeated blood draws. Bone marrow sampling. Tissue studies.”
My skin crawled.
“Over my dead body.”
Alessandro looked out the window.
“That may be what they’re counting on.”
The convoy turned onto an interstate.
“Where are we going now?”
“A house.”
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
“Absolutely not.”
“You preferred the burning apartment?”
“I prefer law enforcement.”
“I told you—”
“I don’t care what you told me. You are a criminal.”
“And tonight criminals are keeping your son alive.”
That shut me up.
I hated him for being right.
My phone still had David’s messages.
I called him.
Straight to voicemail.
Again.
Nothing.
“David!”
I shouted at the phone.
“You want to protect us? ANSWER!”
Logan stirred.
“Mommy?”
“I’m sorry.”
I kissed him.
Alessandro watched me with an unreadable expression.
“What?”
“You still love him.”
The question offended me.
“I hate him.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
I looked away.
Love wasn’t a switch.
That was the cruelty of it.
Part of me wanted David dead again.
Another part wanted to run into his arms.
Both feelings made me furious.
The convoy left the highway.
Trees replaced warehouses.
Large homes appeared behind stone walls.
We eventually entered an estate outside the city.
Iron gates.
Cameras.
Armed guards.
“This is your house?”
“One of them.”
“Of course.”
Inside, the mansion was quieter than I expected.
No gold statues.
No nightclub atmosphere.
Just dark wood, expensive furniture, and family photographs.
I stopped at one.
A younger Alessandro stood beside an older woman and a teenage boy.
The boy resembled him.
“Your family?”
“My mother and brother.”
“Where are they?”
“Dead.”
I regretted asking.
Alessandro continued walking.
“Halcyon.”
I looked at him.
“They killed them?”
“My brother was an accountant. He discovered money moving through our shipping companies that wasn’t ours.”
“And your mother?”
“She was home when they came for him.”
That explained something in Alessandro’s eyes.
Not everything.
But something.
Marco gave me a bedroom upstairs.
I refused.
“I’m staying with Logan.”
“It’s a suite.”
The room had two beds.
A bathroom.
A fireplace.
More space than my entire apartment.
On the smaller bed sat brand-new children’s pajamas.
I stared at them.
“How did those get here?”
“Housekeeper keeps supplies for guests.”
“What kind of guests arrive with three-year-olds?”
Marco shrugged.
“Rich ones.”
Logan was asleep before his head touched the pillow.
I sat beside him.
For the first time since the hospital, everything became quiet.
And the quiet was unbearable.
I stroked his hair.
“Daddy came to see you?”
He opened one sleepy eye.
“Sometimes.”
“Did he ever tell you not to tell Mommy?”
Logan nodded.
Pain sliced through me.
“What did he say?”
“That you would be sad.”
I laughed bitterly.
“He got that right.”
Logan reached for my hand.
“Daddy cries.”
My anger stalled.
“What?”
“When he hugs me.”
I stared at my son.
“He cries?”
“Yes.”
“Does he say why?”
Logan thought.
“He says sorry.”
I closed my eyes.
A knock came at the door.
Alessandro.
He had changed into black sweatpants and a white shirt, bandages visible beneath.
“You should be in a hospital.”
“So should you.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’ve been awake for twenty-three hours.”
“How do you know?”
“I asked.”
That annoyed me.
“What do you want?”
“To show you something.”
“I’m not leaving Logan.”
“Bring him.”
We went downstairs to a secure office.
Marco had recovered the files from Captain Bear’s memory card before the attack.
One document was open.
A list of names.
Most meant nothing.
Then I saw one.
DAVID WINTERS — STATUS: DEFECTOR
Below it:
CATHERINE WINTERS — STATUS: CONTROL VARIABLE
And:
LOGAN WINTERS — STATUS: PRIMARY ASSET
I gripped the desk.
“Asset.”
Alessandro nodded.
“Keep reading.”
Beneath Logan’s name was another line.
BIOLOGICAL FATHER: CLASSIFIED
I stopped.
My blood turned cold.
I looked at Alessandro.
“What does that mean?”
His expression was as stunned as mine.
“I don’t know.”
My voice barely worked.
“David is Logan’s father.”
“I didn’t say he wasn’t.”
“Then why would it say classified?”
Marco zoomed in.
A code appeared beside the entry.
PATERNITY PROJECT: A-17
I stepped backward.
“No.”
Alessandro suddenly looked pale for a reason that had nothing to do with being shot.
Marco noticed.
“Boss?”
I stared at Alessandro.
“What?”
He didn’t answer.
“What does A-17 mean?”
Alessandro looked at Logan sleeping against my shoulder.
Then at me.
May you like
His voice was almost inaudible.
“A-17 was my brother’s Halcyon designation.”
