Chapter 5 - The Real Meridian
"Drop it," Evelyn said.
Briggs didn't.
Cole remained still.
Voss stepped from behind the partition.
"Nobody needs to die."
Briggs laughed.
"That's what you said nine years ago."
Samuel Warren emerged.
For the first time, Evelyn saw every surviving architect of Meridian in one room.
And none trusted the others.
Evelyn held up the ledger.
"This ends tonight."
Samuel looked at it.
"That notebook doesn't end anything."
"It proves everything."
"It proves what we did years ago."
Voss said, "And what Samuel has been doing since."
Warren glared at her.
"Don't."
Evelyn looked between them.
"Tell me."
Lucas stepped forward.
"My father restarted the experiments."
Samuel closed his eyes.
"Lucas."
"No more."
Lucas looked at Evelyn.
"Voss wasn't responsible for what happened to us yesterday."
Evelyn stared at Samuel.
"You were."
Samuel nodded.
"Yes."
Ruiz cursed.
Evelyn wanted to hit him.
Instead she asked the only question that mattered.
"Why?"
"Because Meridian never truly ended."
"That's not an answer."
"I needed proof that the compound was still circulating."
"So you poisoned six sailors?"
"I administered a controlled dose."
"Two stopped breathing."
"I miscalculated."
Evelyn crossed the room before anyone could react.
She struck Warren.
He stumbled.
"Those were my patients."
"I know."
"You used them."
"Yes."
"To get me involved?"
"To wake you up."
Evelyn froze.
Warren continued.
"Your memory wasn't destroyed. It was suppressed."
Voss stepped forward.
"Samuel believed reproducing the neurological conditions might restore it."
Evelyn felt sick.
"You gambled with six lives to trigger my memory."
Warren nodded.
"And it worked."
Images flashed.
A laboratory.
Screaming.
A younger Voss.
Her father.
Cole strapped to a chair.
Evelyn grabbed the table.
Thomas's voice came from behind her.
"Easy."
She hadn't heard him enter.
Memory slammed into her.
She remembered Meridian.
Not everything.
Enough.
She remembered discovering subjects.
She remembered photographing records.
She remembered hiding the ledger.
She remembered Cole.
He had been a captain then.
He'd tried to stop the experiments.
They took him.
Altered him.
Used his credentials afterward because his gaps made him easy to manipulate.
Evelyn looked at Cole.
"You tried to help me."
Cole stared.
"What?"
"Twelve years ago."
More memory.
Cole shouting at guards.
Cole ordering them to release her.
Cole being dragged away.
Evelyn's eyes filled.
"You were there."
Cole looked shaken.
"I don't remember."
"I do."
Briggs lowered his weapon slightly.
"Then you remember me."
She did.
Briggs had been intelligence.
But not Meridian.
He had helped her hide evidence.
"You helped me."
"Yes."
"Why point a gun at Cole?"
"Because someone used his clearance again tonight."
Cole said, "Not me."
"I know."
Briggs lowered the weapon.
"It was bait."
A sound came from the hallway.
Boots.
Many.
Voss went pale.
"They found us."
"Who?" Evelyn asked.
Voss looked toward the door.
"The people Meridian was built for."
Armed federal agents entered.
Not Navy security.
A man in a dark suit led them.
Deputy Secretary Katherine Shaw appeared behind him.
Evelyn stared.
Shaw smiled.
"Thank you for gathering everyone."
Cole stepped forward.
"Deputy Secretary."
"Admiral."
Evelyn understood.
"You're the sixth name."
Shaw's smile disappeared.
"Excuse me?"
"The warning said the sixth name mattered most."
Lucas Warren had been listed sixth.
But that wasn't what her younger self meant.
She meant another list.
Evelyn flipped through the ledger.
Six authorization signatures.
The sixth:
KATHERINE SHAW.
Shaw looked at the notebook.
"Give me the ledger."
"No."
"Lieutenant, that's an order."
"You're civilian leadership. You don't give me medical orders."
Shaw's expression hardened.
"Take it."
Agents moved.
Cole stepped between them and Evelyn.
"No."
Shaw stared.
"Admiral, consider your career."
Cole almost smiled.
"My career ended when I struck one of my own officers in front of eight thousand witnesses."
Evelyn looked at him.
Cole continued.
"I'm considering something more important now."
Hale entered through another door with Navy security.
Weapons rose.
A standoff.
Shaw looked around.
"You have no idea what you're protecting."
Evelyn held up the ledger.
"I know exactly what I'm protecting."
"No. You don't."
Shaw looked toward Lucas.
"Ask him why his father needed Meridian."
Lucas stared.
Samuel said, "Don't listen."
Shaw smiled.
"Because there was another program."
Samuel went pale.
"Enough."
"Meridian wasn't the experiment."
Shaw looked at Evelyn.
"It was the antidote."
Silence.
Evelyn frowned.
"Antidote to what?"
Shaw opened her mouth.
A shot shattered the overhead light.
Everyone ducked.
Darkness.
More shots.
Security shouted.
Evelyn crawled behind a desk.
Someone grabbed her.
Ruiz.
"Move!"
They reached a side room.
Emergency lights came on.
Cole appeared.
Bleeding from his arm.
"Admiral."
"I'm fine."
Hale locked the door.
"Briggs is down."
"Alive?"
"Yes."
"Shaw?"
"Gone."
Evelyn looked for the ledger.
Her bag was empty.
"No."
Someone had taken it.
Her phone buzzed.
A message from Shaw.
THANK YOU FOR RETURNING WHAT BELONGS TO US.
Then another.
YOU STILL DON'T REMEMBER THE CHILDREN.
Evelyn stared.
"What children?"
Thomas saw the message.
His face collapsed.
Evelyn looked at her father.
"Dad?"
Thomas stepped backward.
"No."
"What children?"
He shook his head.
"You weren't supposed to remember that."
Evelyn moved toward him.
"Remember what?"
Thomas's eyes filled.
"The reason you really tried to destroy Meridian."
Evelyn's heart pounded.
"What did they do?"
Thomas whispered:
"They tested it on military families."
Evelyn stopped.
"Children?"
Thomas nodded.
"How many?"
He couldn't answer.
"How many?"
Before Thomas could speak, Lucas appeared in the doorway holding a recovered tablet.
"Evelyn."
She turned.
"I found the original subject list."
He placed the tablet in her hands.
Dozens of names appeared.
Evelyn scrolled.
Then froze.
One name was familiar.
EMILY CARTER.
She looked at her father.
"Who is Emily?"
Thomas started crying.
Evelyn had never seen him cry.
"Tell me."
Thomas whispered:
"Your daughter."
Everything inside Evelyn stopped.
"I don't have a daughter."
Thomas looked at her with unbearable grief.
"You did."
The tablet beeped.
A new file opened.
A photograph appeared.
Evelyn, twelve years younger, holding a little girl.
The child had Evelyn's eyes.
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On the back of the scanned photograph were four handwritten words:
MOMMY, PLEASE REMEMBER ME.
