Chapter 4 - The Program That Should Never Have Existed
Gabriel tackled Hale as the first shot shattered glass behind them.
Cole's team returned fire.
Margaret crawled behind a concrete pillar.
Within seconds the attackers withdrew.
They hadn't come to win.
They had come to silence Hale.
Gabriel dragged him into cover.
"Talk."
Hale looked toward the broken window.
"Project Guardian."
Gabriel had never heard the name.
Hale explained.
Decades earlier, a military-funded medical initiative had studied inherited cardiovascular weaknesses among service families.
Initially legitimate.
Then private contractors became involved.
They began manipulating prenatal treatments to test experimental therapies.
Gabriel felt sick.
"My father?"
"Colonel Anthony Moretti discovered what they were doing."
"Then exposed them?"
"He tried."
"What happened?"
"He disappeared."
Gabriel stared.
His father had supposedly died during an overseas training accident.
"Who runs Guardian now?"
Hale hesitated.
Gabriel grabbed his collar.
"Who?"
"Dr. Mercer is only one piece."
"Name."
"I don't know the current director."
Gabriel didn't believe him.
Hale looked exhausted.
"Isabel found Guardian because of Daniel's prenatal records. She discovered Mercer had altered her medication."
Gabriel remembered his wife's final months.
Her fear.
Her questions.
The night she had asked him whether he trusted the Army completely.
He had laughed.
He hadn't understood.
"Did Guardian kill her?"
"Yes."
The word destroyed something inside him.
"How?"
"Medication during delivery."
Gabriel looked away.
Six years of grief transformed into something sharper.
His wife hadn't simply died.
Someone had decided she was dangerous.
Hale continued.
"I helped her collect evidence."
"Why did she tell me not to trust you?"
"Because she discovered I'd worked for Guardian years earlier."
Gabriel raised his eyes.
Hale didn't deny it.
"I didn't understand what it had become."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"No."
Hale looked at him.
"I expect you to protect Daniel."
The brass key led them to a private bank box registered under Isabel's maiden name.
Inside was another encrypted drive.
And a photograph.
Gabriel's father.
Alive.
Taken only four years earlier.
Gabriel stared until his vision blurred.
On the back was an address.
No explanation.
Elena called.
"Gabriel."
Her voice was frightened.
"What happened?"
"Someone tried to move Daniel."
"Who?"
"A doctor I'd never seen."
Gabriel stood immediately.
"Where is he?"
"Security stopped him."
"Daniel?"
"Safe."
Gabriel closed his eyes.
"Stay with him."
"I am."
He returned to the hospital.
Daniel was sleeping again.
Elena sat beside him.
She looked exhausted.
Gabriel handed her coffee.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"Staying."
She shrugged.
"Daniel asked me to."
Gabriel looked at his son.
"He likes you."
"He's got questionable judgment."
Gabriel almost laughed.
It surprised both of them.
Then Elena became serious.
"The doctor dropped something."
She handed Gabriel a folded paper.
A printed transfer authorization.
Daniel Moretti.
Destination: St. Catherine's Research Center.
Authorizing physician:
Dr. Adrian Mercer.
But Mercer was missing.
Gabriel examined the signature.
Something had been handwritten beneath it.
GUARDIAN 17.
M-17.
The archive.
The medication cap.
It wasn't random.
M-17 meant Guardian subject seventeen.
Daniel.
Gabriel felt rage rising.
His son wasn't a patient to them.
He was a number.
Daniel woke.
"Dad?"
Gabriel sat beside him.
"I'm here."
"Can Elena come home with us?"
Elena looked startled.
Gabriel smiled faintly.
"We'll ask her."
Daniel closed his eyes.
Elena looked at Gabriel.
"He's brave."
"He shouldn't have to be."
"No child should."
Something in her tone caught him.
"You have children?"
Elena shook her head.
"A younger brother."
"Had?"
She nodded.
"He died when I was fourteen."
"Heart condition?"
Elena stared at him.
Gabriel already knew.
"Yes."
"What was his name?"
"Mateo."
Gabriel opened the Guardian patient list.
He searched.
Mateo Cruz.
Subject 08.
Elena saw it.
Her face collapsed.
"No."
Gabriel turned the tablet toward her.
Her brother had been part of Guardian.
His death wasn't random either.
Elena sat down.
For years she had believed Mateo's heart had simply failed.
Now she knew someone might have caused it.
Gabriel knelt in front of her.
"We're going to find out."
Tears filled Elena's eyes.
"Promise?"
Gabriel thought of Daniel.
Isabel.
His father.
"Yes."
Cole entered.
"We decrypted part of Isabel's second drive."
Gabriel stood.
"What did you find?"
"A list of Guardian personnel."
"Mercer?"
"Yes."
"Hale?"
"Former consultant."
"Director?"
Cole looked unsettled.
"There is one current name."
He handed Gabriel the tablet.
Gabriel read it.
His expression changed.
The director wasn't a stranger.
It was someone who had eaten at his table.
Someone Daniel called family.
Margaret Moretti.
Gabriel's younger sister.
May you like
And at that exact moment, the hospital-room door opened.
Margaret Moretti walked inside.
