Chapter Twenty-Four: The Children of Genesis

The laboratory fell silent.

No one interrupted Dr. Nathaniel Dawson.

Not even Inspector Mara Voss.

The old scientist stood before the empty frame marked SUBJECT A-01, his shoulders bowed beneath the weight of twenty-four years.

"It began as an experiment," he repeated quietly.

"And became a family."

I looked at the rows of photographs.

Every child was smiling.

None of them looked frightened.

None of them looked like prisoners.

"Who were they?" I asked.

Dawson walked to the nearest frame.

His fingers brushed lightly over the glass.

"They were children whose futures had already been decided."

He pointed to a girl with braided black hair.

"Her family promised her to another pack before she turned ten."

Another photograph.

A blond boy grinning at the camera.

"His father intended to make him an Alpha through illegal hormone treatments."

Then another.

A quiet-looking teenager.

"His family abandoned him after discovering he was an Omega."

My throat tightened.

"Genesis took Omegas?"

"It took children."

His voice was firm.

"Alpha. Beta. Omega."

"We never cared."

Inspector Voss frowned.

"That doesn't sound like an experiment."

"It wasn't."

Daniel let out a bitter laugh.

"It became one."

Dawson lowered his head.

"Yes."

The room grew heavy.

Ronan finally spoke.

"What changed?"

The old scientist didn't answer immediately.

Instead, he walked to a cabinet beneath the photographs and removed an old leather binder.

Across the cover, faded silver letters read:

GENESIS CHARTER

He laid it on the table.

"This is all that's left."

I opened it carefully.

The first page contained only four signatures.

Sebastian Vale.

Victor Ashcroft.

Dr. Nathaniel Dawson.

Dr. Evelyn Mercer.

No one else.

Beneath them was a single sentence.

No child shall be valued by designation over humanity.

I read it twice.

Then looked at Dawson.

"This doesn't sound like something evil."

"It wasn't."

"So why hide it?"

"Because good intentions rarely survive power."

No one argued.

Some truths didn't require proof.

Ronan slowly turned another page.

Most of the documents had been removed.

Only one remained.

A handwritten list.

Twelve names.

Several had been crossed out in red ink.

"What happened to them?" Ronan asked.

"They left."

"The crossed-out names?"

"They died."

Silence.

I counted.

Seven names remained untouched.

Five were crossed out.

Daniel looked away.

"I knew two of them."

My eyes moved to the bottom of the page.

One line had no name.

Only a code.

A-01

Unlike the others, it hadn't been crossed out.

It hadn't been completed either.

Just...

Left unfinished.

I looked up.

"Why isn't there a name?"

Dawson smiled sadly.

"Because your father never allowed us to write one."

Every eye turned toward me.

"He believed that once your name entered Genesis records..."

The old man hesitated.

"...your future would no longer belong to you."

Something inside my chest tightened.

For the first time since this nightmare began, I wasn't hearing about the chairman of Silverfang.

Or Subject A-01.

I was hearing about my father.

The man behind the impossible expectations.

The man who had taught me to hide.

The man who had also fought for me in ways I'd never known.

Inspector Voss broke the silence.

"If Genesis protected children..."

She looked around the laboratory.

"...who attacked it?"

Dawson's expression darkened.

"No one attacked Genesis."

"What do you mean?"

"It was purchased."

The answer confused everyone.

"Purchased?" Marcus repeated.

"By whom?"

"I don't know."

"You signed the contracts."

"I refused."

He looked toward the empty frame.

"So they continued without me."

My heartbeat quickened.

"They?"

"The investors."

"What investors?"

Dawson met my eyes.

"The people who stopped seeing children..."

He glanced once more at the photographs.

"...and started seeing assets."

The word made my stomach turn.

Assets.

Not children.

Products.

Ronan slowly closed the binder.

"That's when Project Genesis changed."

Dawson nodded.

"It stopped asking how to protect the next generation."

He looked at me.

"It began asking how to control it."

A long silence followed.

Then Marcus noticed something.

"Dr. Dawson."

"Yes?"

"You said this is all that's left."

"It is."

Marcus pointed toward the binder.

"Then why are those pages numbered?"

I looked down.

He was right.

The charter jumped from Page 4...

To Page 19.

Fourteen pages were missing.

Dawson's face fell.

"I was afraid you'd notice."

"Who removed them?"

"I did."

"You destroyed them?"

"No."

"Then where are they?"

The old scientist looked directly at me.

"Your father took them."

Hope flickered inside me.

"So he has the complete charter."

Dawson slowly shook his head.

"No."

"He took only one page."

"Which one?"

"The page that named the person who bought Project Genesis."

My pulse quickened.

"The investor?"

"The buyer."

"And my father has that page?"

"He did."

The room became perfectly still.

"He carried it with him this morning."

The implication struck us all at once.

If Sebastian Vale had been kidnapped...

Then somewhere in this building—

Or somewhere in the city—

There was a single sheet of paper capable of exposing the person who had secretly taken control of Project Genesis twenty-four years ago.

A faint electronic tone suddenly echoed through the laboratory.

One of the old computer terminals powered itself on.

The black screen flickered.

Green letters slowly appeared.

EXTERNAL ACCESS DETECTED

Then another line.

FILE 19 ACCESSED REMOTELY

Dawson's face drained of color.

"No..."

Ronan stepped toward the monitor.

"What is File 19?"

The old scientist whispered the answer.

"The missing page."

Everyone stared at the glowing screen.

Someone...

Somewhere...

Had just opened the only document Sebastian Vale had risked everything to protect.

And they now knew exactly where we were.