Chapter 5 - The Other Six
Hailey woke in intensive care.
She was weak, frightened, and in pain.
But she was alive.
Dr. Adler explained that the capsule had caused severe inflammation and early damage to her liver.
The doctors believed the damage could be treated.
They could not yet predict whether it would be permanent.
Hailey listened quietly.
Then she asked the question none of the adults had considered.
“If I’m Subject Seven, where are the first six?”
Detective Brooks searched Acheron’s archived trial records.
The official study listed six adult participants.
Three withdrew.
Two died from unrelated causes.
One disappeared from medical follow-up.
But the capsule removed from Hailey had a different serial code.
It belonged to an unregistered study.
A pediatric study.
Acheron denied it existed.
Mark’s attorney insisted he had acted as part of an approved compassionate-treatment program.
The hospital laboratory finished analyzing the fluid.
It contained a synthetic hormone, an immune suppressant, and microscopic particles designed to carry genetic information into cells.
Hailey had not been receiving medication.
Her body had been used to grow something.
Dr. Adler showed me the latest scan.
The inflammation around the capsule contained abnormal tissue.
The tissue did not match Hailey’s DNA.
I felt the room tilt.
“Whose DNA is it?”
“We are still testing.”
Hailey turned her head toward the window.
“Mark said Dad’s project could bring people back.”
I stared at her.
“When did he say that?”
“After the clinic.”
“I woke up in the car.”
“He thought I was asleep.”
“He was talking to the doctor.”
“What exactly did he say?”
Hailey closed her eyes.
“He said, ‘If her body accepts it, David’s cells will survive.’”
The tissue growing inside my daughter had been created using genetic material from her dead father.
Someone had implanted David Monroe’s cells inside Hailey.
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Mark had not been protecting an inheritance.
He had been continuing an experiment.
