Ch.24: The Secret Room

While Thorne droned on about "pioneering the future" at the podium, and Isabella stood beside him like a beautiful, unblinking statue, I slipped away.

The applause was deafening, the perfect cover for a thief. Or a spy.

I moved through the kitchen, dodging caterers with trays of lobster, and found the service elevator. It was a freight lift, designed for moving furniture, but I knew from the blueprints I'd seen in the study that it went deeper than the wine cellar.

I swiped the keycard I'd lifted from Thorne's jacket during the "poisoning" attempt.

The panel beeped. The button for *Sub-Level 2* lit up.

The elevator descended. The noise of the party faded, replaced by the humming of machinery. The air grew colder.

The doors opened onto a corridor of polished concrete.

It wasn't a basement. It was a mausoleum.

I walked down the hall, the sound of my heels echoing in the silence. There were no guards here. Thorne didn't need them. He believed the depth and the locks were enough.

I reached the end of the hall. A heavy steel door with a biohazard symbol.

I swiped the card again.

The door hissed open.

A blast of freezing air hit me, smelling of nitrogen and decay.

I stepped inside.

The room was lined with stainless steel tanks. Cryogenic pods. They were lit from within by a soft blue light, casting long shadows across the floor.

I walked to the nearest one. I wiped the condensation from the glass porthole.

I gasped, stumbling back.

It wasn't a specimen jar. It was a coffin.

Inside, suspended in clear liquid, was a baby. A newborn. Perfectly preserved. Its eyes were closed, its tiny hands curled into fists. It looked like it was sleeping.

But the monitor on the side of the tank told a different story.

*Subject: A-01. Status: Terminated. Harvest Complete.*

I moved to the next tank.

*Subject: A-02.*

Another baby. Another life stolen.

I moved down the row, my legs shaking so hard I could barely stand. There were dozens of them. A silent nursery of the dead.

I stopped at a tank near the back. The baby inside looked... familiar.

I leaned closer. The dark hair. The curve of the nose.

It looked like Leo.

I looked at the label.

*Subject: C-09. Donor: L.V. Status: Failed. Yield Insufficient.*

My hand flew to my mouth to stifle a scream.

Leo hadn't just donated once. He had been donating for years. And Thorne had been using his genetic material to create... this. A factory line of children, bred to be batteries, and discarded when they ran dry.

I wasn't looking at medical waste. I was looking at my daughter's future.

I fell to my knees, the cold seeping into my bones.

"Oh god," I wept. "Oh god."

I heard a sound behind me. The hiss of the door opening.

I spun around, scrambling to my feet.

Isabella stood in the doorway. She was still wearing her blue gown, her face pale and unreadable in the blue light of the tanks.

"You shouldn't have come down here, Elena," she said softly.

She walked toward me, her heels clicking on the concrete. She didn't look at the tanks. She looked only at me.

"He calls it the Archive," she whispered, gesturing to the rows of dead children. "He says it's for posterity. For science."

She stopped in front of me. Up close, I could see the cracks in her perfection. The fine tremors in her hands. The way her pupils were blown wide, despite the bright lights.

"But I know what it really is," she said. "It's a menu."

She reached out and touched the glass of the tank containing the baby that looked like Leo.

"Daisy wasn't the first," she said, her voice hollow. "She is just the first one to survive this long."