Chapter 4 - The Man Evelyn Buried
Evelyn couldn't move.
Thomas Carter looked twenty years older than the photograph she kept in her apartment.
Gray hair.
Deep lines.
Same eyes.
"Evelyn."
She backed away.
"No."
Her father stopped.
Cole reached toward his sidearm.
Thomas raised both hands.
"I'm unarmed."
Evelyn's voice shook.
"I buried you."
"I know."
"I stood beside Mom."
"I know."
"You let us believe you were dead."
His face tightened.
"Because if Voss knew I had survived, she would have come after both of you."
Evelyn laughed once.
It contained no humor.
"She came after me anyway."
Thomas looked at her.
"I know."
She slapped him.
Hard.
The room froze.
Thomas accepted it.
Evelyn's eyes filled.
"Twenty years."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't."
He nodded.
"Fair."
Cole lowered his weapon.
"Start talking."
Thomas did.
He had been a civilian biochemist attached to a Defense Department research project.
Warren had recruited him.
The original goal was treatment for traumatic memory.
PTSD.
Severe battlefield trauma.
Then funding changed.
So did objectives.
Voss saw operational potential.
"If you could weaken selected memories," Thomas said, "you could protect classified information."
Hale understood.
"Captured personnel."
"Initially."
"And later?"
Thomas looked at Evelyn.
"Witnesses."
Evelyn thought about her missing forty-eight hours.
"What did they do to me?"
Thomas's eyes filled with shame.
"I don't know everything."
"Try."
"You discovered medical files proving unauthorized testing."
"Then?"
"Warren ordered your memory altered."
Evelyn felt sick.
"My own father was involved in the program that did this?"
"Yes."
The answer hurt more because he didn't soften it.
"But I wasn't there when they took you."
"Convenient."
"I spent nine years trying to find proof."
"While letting me think you were dead."
"Yes."
"Why come back now?"
Thomas reached into his jacket slowly.
Cole tensed.
Thomas removed a small key.
"Because Voss restarted Meridian."
He placed it on the table.
"And you're the only person who can stop it."
The key opened a safety deposit box in Norfolk.
Inside, Thomas said, was the original Meridian research ledger.
Not digital.
Impossible to remotely erase.
Names.
Authorizations.
Experiments.
Everything.
"Why me?"
"Because the box is registered to you."
Evelyn stared.
"I didn't open it."
"You did."
"When?"
"Before they erased your memory."
The implications settled heavily.
Some version of Evelyn had anticipated what would happen.
She had protected evidence from herself.
Cole ordered a security escort.
Thomas shook his head.
"Too visible."
"She's already a target."
"Exactly."
They left through a service exit with a small team.
At the bank, Evelyn presented identification.
The manager disappeared.
Returned pale.
"Lieutenant Carter?"
"Yes."
"There's a special instruction attached to this box."
"What?"
"If you ever came asking for it, I'm supposed to give you this first."
He handed her a letter.
Her handwriting.
Evelyn opened it.
IF I DON'T REMEMBER WRITING THIS, MERIDIAN WORKED.
Her knees nearly buckled.
She continued.
DO NOT TRUST WARREN.
DO NOT TRUST VOSS.
TRUST THE PATIENTS.
THE SIXTH NAME MATTERS MOST.
Evelyn looked at Hale.
"Sixth name."
He pulled out the list.
The final patient:
SEAMAN FIRST CLASS LUCAS WARREN.
Evelyn stared.
"Warren."
Thomas nodded.
"Samuel's son."
Everything shifted.
The six sailors weren't random.
Lucas Warren had been among them.
"Where is he?"
"Missing," Hale said.
Evelyn opened the deposit box.
Inside was a thick notebook.
And another envelope.
She opened it.
A photograph fell out.
Samuel Warren.
Amelia Voss.
Thomas Carter.
And a fourth person.
Harrison Cole.
Evelyn slowly turned toward the Admiral.
Cole stared.
"I've never seen that photograph."
Thomas looked at him.
"Yes, you have."
Cole's face hardened.
"No."
"Because they altered you too."
Silence.
Cole looked at Evelyn.
Suddenly his unexplained connection to Meridian made sense.
His credentials.
His name.
His confusion.
Thomas said, "You weren't their shield because you were powerful."
Cole looked at him.
"You were their shield because they knew you wouldn't remember."
For the first time, Evelyn saw fear in Harrison Cole.
Real fear.
The Admiral who had humiliated her had been another damaged piece of the same machine.
It didn't excuse what he'd done.
But it changed the battlefield.
Evelyn opened the ledger.
Pages of names.
Dates.
Dosages.
She found Cole.
SUBJECT C-14.
She found herself.
OBSERVER E.C. — CONVERTED TO SUBJECT.
Then she found Lucas Warren.
CURRENT SUBJECT — RESISTANT.
"He remembers," Evelyn whispered.
Thomas nodded.
"That's why they need him."
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
Samuel Warren.
"Evelyn."
"Where's Lucas?"
Silence.
"You found the ledger."
"Where is your son?"
"Voss has him."
"Ruiz?"
"With Lucas."
"Prove they're alive."
A video arrived.
Ruiz and Lucas.
Both conscious.
Lucas looked directly at the camera.
He held up three fingers.
Then two.
Then one.
Evelyn stared.
"What's he doing?"
Thomas recognized it.
"Countdown."
The video ended.
Another message arrived.
NAVAL MEDICAL RESEARCH ANNEX. MIDNIGHT.
COME WITH THE LEDGER.
NO SECURITY.
Evelyn checked the time.
11:07 p.m.
Thomas grabbed her arm.
"You can't."
"Two sailors are there."
"They want the ledger."
"I know."
Cole said, "Then we give them one."
Evelyn looked at him.
"A copy?"
"No."
He picked up the notebook.
"We give them exactly what they're expecting."
For the next thirty minutes, they prepared.
Evelyn photographed every page.
Hale transmitted encrypted copies directly to Deputy Secretary Shaw and three separate inspectors general.
Insurance.
If anything happened, Meridian would still be exposed.
At 11:51, Evelyn approached the research annex.
Alone.
At least visibly.
The ledger was inside her bag.
The building looked abandoned.
One light burned upstairs.
Her phone buzzed.
ENTER.
She opened the door.
Dark hallway.
"Ruiz?"
No answer.
"Lucas?"
A sound above.
She climbed.
At the top, she found a laboratory.
Ruiz sat inside.
Untied.
"Evelyn."
She ran to him.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
"Where's Lucas?"
Ruiz pointed toward another room.
"He said you'd come."
"Who?"
Before Ruiz could answer, the laboratory doors locked.
A speaker activated.
Dr. Amelia Voss's voice filled the room.
"Hello, Evelyn."
Evelyn stood.
"Show yourself."
A glass partition brightened.
Voss stood behind it.
Elegant.
Calm.
Unchanged except for gray in her hair.
"Evelyn."
"You destroyed my memory."
"I saved your life."
"From whom?"
Voss smiled sadly.
"Samuel Warren."
Evelyn tightened her grip on the ledger.
"Everyone keeps telling me someone else is the monster."
"Because monsters rarely work alone."
"Where's Lucas?"
Voss pressed a button.
Another glass wall cleared.
Lucas Warren stood behind it.
Beside him was Samuel Warren.
Evelyn stared.
Father and son.
Samuel smiled.
Then Evelyn noticed something.
Lucas wasn't restrained.
Neither was Ruiz.
Voss wasn't guarding them.
They were all looking toward someone behind Evelyn.
She turned.
The laboratory door opened.
Vice Admiral Cole entered.
But he wasn't alone.
Commander Briggs walked beside him.
May you like
Briggs raised a pistol.
And pointed it directly at Cole's back.
