Chapter 68 The impossible choice
Flora
I could not sleep that night. I kept thinking about the seventeen embryos.
Rafael was beside me, also awake.
"What are you thinking?" He asked quietly.
"I am thinking this never ends," I said. "We saved six. But there are seventeen more. If we save those. There will be more after. How do we fight that?"
"One step at a time," Rafael said. "One child at a time."
"That is not enough," I said.
"It has to be," Rafael said.
I sat up. "What if we go after Kask directly? Cut off the head?"
"We tried that," Rafael reminded me. "We blew up his estate. He survived."
"Barely," I said. "Which means he is weak. Now is the time to strike."
"Or now is the time to protect what we saved," Rafael countered. "Those six embryos need us."
A knock on the door. Catherine entered, looking exhausted.
"We have a problem," she said. "One of the embryos is crashing. Subject E-19. Her vitals are dropping."
My heart stopped. "Which one?"
"The one with enhanced physical capabilities," Catherine said. "The modifications made her susceptible. She needs specialized care we cannot provide."
"Then we take her to a hospital," Rafael said.
"We cannot," Catherine said. "Questions will be asked. We will lose all six."
"So what do we do?" I demanded. "Let her die?"
I was already getting dressed. "Where is she?"
"Medical bay downstairs," Catherine said.
I ran. Down the stairs. The incubator containing E-19 was surrounded by beeping monitors. Her tiny form looked even more fragile.
"What is wrong?" I asked the doctor.
"Heart rate irregular," the doctor said. "Oxygen levels dropping. Without proper equipment, I cannot help her."
I stared at the tiny life fighting for survival. A life that existed because of my DNA.
"We cannot let her die," I said.
"Wait," a voice said. Marco stood in the doorway, phone in hand. "I might have a solution. A doctor who worked on Project Genesis early on. She left when she realized what they were doing."
"Can we trust her?" Rafael asked.
"She leaked information about the Moscow facility," Marco said. "Without her, we never would have known about the seventeen embryos."
"Call her," I said. "Now."
Marco made the call. "She will come. But she wants protection. Kask has been hunting her."
"Done," I said. "Whatever she needs."
The doctor arrived two hours later. Dr. Elena Rossi. She examined E-19 quickly. "The genetic modifications are rejecting. She needs immunosuppressants. Specific ones that will not harm fetal development."
"Do you have them?" Catherine asked.
"No," Dr. Rossi said. "But I know where to get them. A facility in Geneva. One of Kask's old research sites. Abandoned. The medical supplies should still be there."
"That is a trap," Rafael said immediately.
"Maybe," Dr. Rossi said. "But it is this child's only chance. Without those medications, she will be dead by morning."
I looked at Rafael. "We have to try."
We left within the hour. The facility was in an industrial district. Abandoned. Condemned.
"Definitely a trap," Rafael said.
"Probably," I agreed. "But what choice do we have?"
We found a side entrance. Inside, everything was covered in dust.
"The immunosuppressants should be on the second floor," I said, checking Dr. Rossi's map.
We climbed carefully. The pharmacy door was locked. Rafael picked it quickly.
Inside were rows of medications. Refrigerated units still running.
"Someone is maintaining this," Rafael observed.
"Or it is a trap," I said.
"Definitely a trap," a voice said behind us.
We spun around. Three armed men. Kask's security.
"Hello, Flora," one said. "Mr. Kask has been looking for you."
Rafael moved in front of me. "We are not going with you."
"That was not a request," the man said, raising his gun.
"Shoot us and you get nothing," I said. "Kask wants me alive. He needs my genetic material."
The man hesitated.
"Just let us take the medications," I said. "One child is dying."
"Our orders are to bring you in," the man said. "Alive, preferably."
I looked at the refrigerated units. Many medications were volatile. Dangerous if exposed to heat. I squeezed Rafael's hand twice. Our signal.
"You are right," I said. "We will come. But let me get the medication first. Two minutes."
The man considered. "One minute."
I walked to the unit. Opened it. Started searching. Rafael backed toward another unit marked highly flammable.
"Found it," I said, holding up a vial.
"Good," the man said. "Now…"
Rafael smashed the flammable unit. Grabbed a lighter. Threw it. The room erupted in flames.
"Run!" Rafael shouted.
We ran through fire, through smoke. Made it to the stairs. Out the side entrance. The building exploded behind us.
We did not stop until we reached the car.
"Did you get it?" Rafael asked.
I held up the vial. "Got it."
We drove back in record time. Dr. Rossi administered the medication immediately. Within an hour, E-19's vitals stabilized.
"She is going to make it," Dr. Rossi said.
I collapsed into a chair. Rafael sat beside me. "You saved her."
"We saved her," I corrected.
"But now Kask knows we are hunting his facilities," Catherine said. "He will increase security."
"Let him," I said. "We will find them anyway."
My phone buzzed. Unknown number. A message. A video. I pressed play.
Kask appeared. Face badly burned. Arm in a sling. But alive. Smiling.
"Hello, Flora," he said. "Clever. But not clever enough."
He turned the camera. Seventeen portable incubators. Each containing a tiny form.
"These are my insurance," Kask said. "Seventeen genetic matches. Hidden where you will never find them."
He turned the camera back. "Give me back my six subjects. And I will tell you where these seventeen are."
"Never," I said to the screen.
"I thought so," Kask continued. "So here is what happens. Every week you keep my property, I terminate one of these seventeen. Starting now."
He pressed a button. One incubator went dark.
"That is one," Kask said. "Sixteen to go. Next one dies in seven days. Unless you return what is mine."
The video ended. I stared at the blank screen, hands shaking.
"He killed one," I whispered. "To make a point."
"He is a monster," Rafael said.
"And he has sixteen more," I said. "Sixteen children he will murder unless we give him the six."
"We cannot," Catherine said. "If we give them back, he will use them to create more."
"But if we do not," I said, "sixteen children die."
Silence. Save six. Lose sixteen. Or sacrifice six to maybe save sixteen. Either way, children would die.
My phone buzzed. Six days remaining. Choose wisely.
I looked at everyone. "We find him. Six days to find Kask and those sixteen embryos. We do not stop. We do not sleep. We do not rest."
"And if we cannot?" Marco asked.
I looked at the six incubators. At the lives we had saved. "Then we make the hardest choice of our lives."
But I knew the truth. I could never give up these six children. Which meant in six days, sixteen more would die. And there was nothing I could do to stop it.