Chapter 8 - The Live Demonstration.
A screen lowered from the warehouse ceiling.
Numbers appeared beside masked buyer accounts.
The bids rose before Marcus spoke.
He placed one vial into a portable analyzer.
A genetic sequence filled the screen.
Dr. Shah’s warning returned to Elena.
Blood could prove the therapy worked.
It could not reveal how it had been done.
Marcus needed more than samples.
He needed Elena’s testimony.
“Tell them how your family died,” he said.
Elena remained silent.
One of the armed men raised his pistol.
Marcus shook his head.
“No visible damage.”
The man lowered the weapon.
Marcus stepped closer.
“Tell them about your father.”
Elena looked into the camera.
“My father lost his balance first.”
A bid doubled.
“Then his hands stopped obeying him.”
Another buyer entered.
“My brother forgot words.”
Marcus watched the numbers.
“He was thirty-four when he needed help swallowing.”
The bids climbed again.
Marcus smiled.
“And your daughter?”
“My daughter is not sick.”
The auction erupted.
Marcus lifted the analyzer report.
“Corrected before birth.”
Elena continued speaking.
“But the correction did not belong to him.”
His smile faded.
“It belonged to the women whose babies died.”
The screen flickered.
Buyer comments appeared.
Marcus moved toward her.
Elena spoke faster.
“Three infants died in the original trial.”
“Stop.”
“Their records were buried.”
Marcus grabbed her arm.
“The treatment was never stable.”
A gunshot broke a lamp above them.
Darkness covered half the warehouse.
Agent Ward’s team entered through the roof access.
The armed guards fired toward the catwalk.
Elena dropped behind the metal case.
Marcus seized the vials.
He ran toward a loading door.
Elena caught the case handle.
He pulled.
She held.
The latch broke.
Frozen vials scattered across the concrete.
Marcus stared at them.
His life’s work rolled through oil and rainwater.
He released Elena and crawled after the nearest vial.
Ward shouted for him to stop.
Marcus reached the loading door.
A bullet struck the frame beside his head.
He disappeared outside.
The bidders remained connected.
Elena saw the camera indicator still glowing.
She turned toward it.
“You were bidding on a child.”
The comments stopped.
“Every account on this auction is being recorded.”
That was not true.
Elena hoped fear would do what law could not.
Several buyers disconnected.
The server trace accelerated.
Ward’s agents secured the remaining guards.
Reyes entered through the side door despite medical orders.
He found Elena gathering vials with bare hands.
“Do not touch those.”
“He cannot get them back.”
“We have them.”
“Not all.”
One vial was missing.
Outside, a motorcycle engine started.
Reyes and Ward ran toward the loading yard.
Marcus sped through the gate.
Federal vehicles pursued.
Elena returned to the metal case.
A false bottom had opened when the latch broke.
Inside lay a thin folder.
The first page was Hope’s embryology record.
The second page carried Elena’s signature.
It was a convincing forgery.
The third page contained a photograph of Marcus holding a newborn boy.
The date was seven years earlier.
On the back, someone had written:
SUBJECT ONE SURVIVED.
Elena showed the photograph to Ward.
Hope was not the first living proof.
Somewhere, another child had survived the experiment.
Marcus had hidden him for seven years.
A phone inside the false compartment began to ring.
Elena answered.
May you like
A young boy whispered.
“Is this my mother?”
