PART 4 — THE MEMORY THEY TOOK FROM HIM
“Oh God.”
General Graves gripped the tunnel wall with both hands.
His breathing turned shallow.
Major Bennett stepped toward him.
“Sir?”
He didn’t answer.
The photograph slipped from his fingers and landed on the wet concrete.
I stared at him.
A few minutes earlier, he had looked like the strongest person in the room.
Now he looked terrified of his own mind.
“Nathaniel,” Jonathan said quietly.
“Don’t.”
General Graves lifted his head.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t force it.”
“Force what?”
“The memory.”
General Graves stared at him.
“You said I helped create Haven.”
Jonathan nodded.
“I said you were part of it.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No.”
“Then tell me exactly what I did.”
Jonathan looked toward my mother.
Mom’s face was pale from blood loss, but she gave him a slight nod.
“You need to tell him.”
General Graves stepped closer.
“What did I do?”
Jonathan answered slowly.
“You designed the command structure.”
Silence.
General Graves didn’t blink.
“I designed what?”
“The compartment system.”
“The authorization levels.”
“The protocols that prevented any one officer from seeing the entire program.”
General Graves shook his head.
“No.”
“You did.”
“No.”
“You were a lieutenant colonel then.”
“I remember that.”
“You were assigned to Strategic Personnel Recovery.”
“I remember that too.”
Jonathan took another step toward him.
“Do you remember Operation Quiet Harbor?”
General Graves’s expression changed.
Barely.
But I saw it.
“That name…”
“Means something?”
He pressed a hand against his forehead.
“I don’t know.”
Jonathan’s voice softened.
“You proposed it.”
Major Bennett stared at General Graves.
“Sir?”
General Graves looked at her.
“I don’t remember.”
Jonathan nodded.
“That’s the point.”
I looked between them.
“So someone really erased his memory?”
Jonathan looked at me.
“Not like in movies.”
“Then how?”
“Drugs.”
“Isolation.”
“Sleep deprivation.”
“Suggestion.”
“Repeated false memories.”
“And classified treatments that never should’ve been used on anyone.”
Major Bennett’s jaw tightened.
“On soldiers?”
Jonathan looked at her.
“At first.”
My stomach twisted.
“What does ‘at first’ mean?”
He didn’t answer.
Mom did.
“It means they started using it on anyone they considered a threat.”
The tunnel seemed colder.
General Graves bent down and picked up the photograph again.
His thumb brushed across the seven men.
“I know Vane.”
“I know Daniel.”
“I know you.”
He looked at Jonathan.
“But I don’t know the others.”
“One of them was Dr. Samuel Kern.”
“The program’s lead neurologist.”
General Graves frowned.
“Kern died.”
Jonathan’s mouth tightened.
“Did he?”
Nobody said anything.
At that point, I had stopped trusting the word dead.
Daniel moved toward my mother.
“We need to get Evelyn out of here.”
Mom pushed his hand away.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding through your sleeve.”
“I said I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
“I’m not leaving until Ruby knows enough to survive.”
I looked at her.
“Survive what?”
Mom closed her eyes.
For one painful second, she looked as if she regretted every secret she’d ever kept from me.
Then she opened them.
“Project Haven wasn’t only about making people disappear.”
“What else did it do?”
She looked at Jonathan.
He answered.
“It created replacements.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel rubbed a hand across his face.
“It means if they needed someone gone, they didn’t always just erase them.”
“Sometimes they replaced them with someone else.”
My mind struggled to understand.
“You mean like pretending to be them?”
“Sometimes.”
Jonathan pointed toward the photograph.
“Other times they altered records.”
“Birth certificates.”
“Military files.”
“Medical histories.”
“Family connections.”
“Everything.”
Major Bennett whispered, “Identity reconstruction.”
Jonathan nodded.
“Exactly.”
I looked at Mom.
“Did they change my identity?”
Her silence told me everything.
“Mom?”
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
“Ruby Carter isn’t my real name?”
She reached for me.
I pulled away.
“What is my real name?”
“Ruby is real.”
“And Carter?”
Mom looked toward Jonathan.
“No.”
“What is it?”
Jonathan answered.
“Graves.”
I already knew that part.
But somehow hearing it from him made it feel heavier.
I looked at General Graves.
“Then why didn’t anyone tell me?”
Mom’s voice broke.
“Because the name could’ve gotten you killed.”
“By who?”
“By anyone still loyal to Haven.”
Major Bennett looked toward the tunnel behind us.
“Which appears to be more people than we thought.”
General Graves turned toward Jonathan.
“How many?”
Jonathan hesitated.
“Still active?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know.”
“Estimate.”
“Dozens.”
General Graves’s expression hardened.
“Inside the Army?”
“Some.”
“Intelligence?”
“Some.”
“Government?”
“Some.”
“Private contractors?”
“Many.”
General Graves clenched his jaw.
“And Vane controls them?”
“No.”
That answer surprised everyone.
“Then who does?” Daniel asked.
Jonathan looked at him.
“Vane is trying to take control.”
General Graves stared.
“Trying?”
“Yes.”
“From whom?”
Jonathan looked at me.
Again.
Always me.
I hated it.
“Stop looking at me like that.”
His face softened.
“I’m sorry.”
“Who controls Haven?”
Jonathan said nothing.
I stepped closer.
“Tell me.”
Mom whispered, “Ruby…”
“No.”
I looked at all of them.
“You keep saying I’m in danger.”
“You keep telling me people died.”
“You keep saying my life is connected to this.”
“But every time I ask the important question, everyone gets quiet.”
Nobody interrupted me.
My eyes filled with angry tears.
“I’m eight years old, not stupid.”
That landed.
General Graves looked away.
Daniel swallowed hard.
Jonathan slowly nodded.
“You’re right.”
He reached into his coat again.
This time he removed a folded sheet of paper.
He handed it to me.
It looked like a family tree.
At the top was a name.
Brigadier General Elias Graves.
Below it were three sons.
Nathaniel Graves.
Jonathan Graves.
Michael Graves.
I looked up.
“Who’s Michael?”
General Graves froze.
Jonathan answered.
“Your father had three sons.”
General Graves’s face turned white.
“No.”
Jonathan stared at him.
“You don’t remember Michael.”
“No.”
“Exactly.”
Major Bennett whispered, “They erased an entire brother?”
General Graves looked furious.
“I had one brother.”
“You had two.”
“No.”
Jonathan pointed toward the family tree.
“Michael was the oldest.”
General Graves shook his head violently.
“My father had two sons.”
“Nathaniel.”
“Two!”
Jonathan stepped closer.
“Michael disappeared when you were seventeen.”
General Graves stopped breathing.
“You were told he drowned.”
“I would’ve remembered my own brother.”
“You did.”
Jonathan’s eyes filled.
“Until Haven took that memory too.”
General Graves backed away from him.
“Why?”
“Because Michael was one of the first test subjects.”
The tunnel went silent.
I looked at the family tree.
“Is Michael alive?”
Jonathan looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
Mom whispered, “Jonathan…”
He continued anyway.
“But Vane believes he is.”
General Graves stared at him.
“Why would Vane care?”
“Because Michael founded Haven.”
A long silence followed.
Then Daniel whispered, “Your brother created it?”
Jonathan nodded.
“Not for what it became.”
General Graves laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“Of course.”
He pressed both palms to his face.
“There’s always another Graves.”
Mom looked at him.
“Nathaniel…”
He dropped his hands.
“No.”
“Don’t comfort me.”
“My son was declared dead.”
“My brother was declared dead.”
“Now I’m learning there was another brother nobody let me remember.”
“And somehow this child—”
He pointed toward me, then stopped himself.
His face softened.
“Somehow Ruby is trapped in the center of all of it.”
I looked down at the family tree.
Then I noticed something.
A line came down from Michael’s name.
There was another name beneath his.
Dr. Amelia Graves.
“Who’s Amelia?”
Jonathan went still.
Mom closed her eyes.
Daniel swore under his breath.
I looked up.
“Who is she?”
General Graves stared at the page.
“I don’t know that name.”
Jonathan’s voice dropped.
“She was Michael’s daughter.”
“Was?”
I hated that word too.
Jonathan shook his head.
“Missing.”
“When?”
“Eight years ago.”
The same age as me.
I looked at Mom.
Her face was full of fear.
“Why does everyone look like that?”
No one answered.
I looked at the family tree again.
Amelia Graves.
Then a line beneath her.
A small handwritten notation.
Subject R-8.
My heart began pounding.
“What does R-8 mean?”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Ruby…”
“What does it mean?”
Jonathan looked at my mother.
“Evelyn, she has to know.”
Mom’s eyes filled with tears.
“No.”
“Know what?”
I shouted.
“Tell me!”
My mother finally looked at me.
“R-8 was a designation.”
“For what?”
“For the eighth child in a research group.”
My stomach dropped.
“What children?”
Mom turned away.
“Mom.”
Jonathan answered for her.
“Children connected to Haven families.”
General Graves stared at him.
“You experimented on children?”
Jonathan’s voice sharpened.
“I didn’t.”
“Someone did.”
“Yes.”
I touched my birthmark again.
“Was I one of them?”
Nobody moved.
That was enough.
My knees weakened.
Daniel caught me.
I shoved him away.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Ruby—”
“Was I?”
Mom nodded.
Once.
Tiny.
Almost invisible.
But I saw it.
I stared at her.
“You knew?”
“I knew enough.”
“Since when?”
“Since you were a baby.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you were a baby!”
“And then I was two.”
“And then four.”
“And then six.”
“And now I’m eight.”
My voice broke.
“When were you going to tell me?”
Mom started crying.
“When I knew you were safe.”
“Am I safe now?”
She couldn’t answer.
That hurt more than anything else.
I stepped away.
General Graves crouched in front of me.
“Ruby.”
I looked at him.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Did Daniel?”
Daniel answered from behind him.
“Not at first.”
I turned around.
“But later?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
He looked ashamed.
“Seven years.”
I stared at him.
“You knew almost my whole life?”
“Yes.”
“And you let Mom hide it?”
“I helped her.”
I shook my head.
Everyone in the tunnel suddenly felt like a stranger.
“You all lie.”
No one argued.
My mother tried to stand.
Her knees buckled.
Daniel caught her.
“Enough.”
“We need a hospital.”
Mom grabbed his shirt.
“No military hospital.”
Daniel nodded.
“Agreed.”
Major Bennett checked the tunnel.
“We can reach the old north access road in about ten minutes.”
Jonathan shook his head.
“Too exposed.”
“Then where?”
“I have a safehouse.”
General Graves looked at him.
“Another one?”
Jonathan almost smiled.
“I’ve been dead for twenty years.”
“I had time.”
We moved.
I walked alone.
Nobody tried to hold my hand.
The tunnel sloped downward, then opened into an old drainage passage beneath the road.
Jonathan led us through a rusted gate and into thick woods.
Night had fully fallen.
We reached an abandoned maintenance cabin about twenty minutes later.
Inside, Jonathan lit a battery lantern.
Daniel treated Mom’s wound with supplies from a metal cabinet.
The bullet had passed through her shoulder.
No major artery.
She would live.
That should’ve made me feel better.
It didn’t.
I sat alone in the corner.
The family tree rested in my lap.
Subject R-8.
I stared at those letters until they blurred.
General Graves eventually sat beside me.
He didn’t speak for a long time.
Then he said, “I owe you an apology.”
“For what?”
“For bringing you into this.”
“I brought myself.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
I looked at him.
“Did you really forget your brother?”
“If Jonathan is telling the truth.”
“Do you think he is?”
General Graves looked across the room.
Jonathan was speaking quietly with Major Bennett.
“I don’t know anymore.”
“Do you trust anyone?”
He looked at me.
“You.”
That surprised me.
“Why?”
“Because you returned nine hundred dollars when your family was about to lose its home.”
A tiny laugh escaped me.
“That was this morning.”
“It feels longer.”
“Yeah.”
He smiled faintly.
Then I asked, “Do you think I’m some kind of experiment?”
His smile vanished.
“No.”
“They called me Subject R-8.”
“That doesn’t make you an experiment.”
“It kind of does.”
“It makes you a child someone experimented on.”
“There’s a difference?”
“Yes.”
He looked directly at me.
“A very important one.”
Before I could ask what he meant, Jonathan called from across the cabin.
“Nathaniel.”
General Graves stood.
“What?”
“You need to see this.”
On the table sat an old laptop.
Jonathan had connected a small hard drive.
“What’s that?”
“A copy of an archive I stole before I disappeared.”
“You had this the whole time?”
“Most of it is encrypted.”
“But not all.”
He opened a folder.
Files appeared.
R-1
R-2
R-3
All the way down to:
R-8
My stomach tightened.
“That’s me.”
Jonathan opened the folder.
Inside were medical records.
Photographs.
Scans.
And videos.
General Graves stepped closer.
“Play one.”
Mom shouted from across the room.
“No!”
Everyone turned.
She was standing despite Daniel trying to stop her.
“Evelyn,” Jonathan said, “we need to know.”
“No.”
General Graves looked at her.
“Why not?”
“Because she doesn’t need to see it.”
I stood.
“Yes, I do.”
“Ruby.”
“It’s about me.”
Mom’s face crumpled.
“Please.”
I walked to the table.
“Play it.”
Jonathan clicked the first video.
The screen flickered.
A hospital room appeared.
A newborn baby lay inside a clear bassinet.
A label on the side read:
R-8.
I stopped breathing.
Mom turned away.
A man in a white coat stepped into view.
His face was partly hidden.
Then a woman’s voice came from behind the camera.
“Subject R-8 shows no reaction to phase-one conditioning.”
The doctor leaned over the bassinet.
“Increase frequency.”
The woman hesitated.
“She’s only three days old.”
“Do it.”
General Graves’s face darkened.
“Who is that doctor?”
Jonathan paused the video.
“I don’t know.”
“Zoom in.”
He did.
The doctor’s face sharpened.
Major Bennett whispered, “I’ve seen him.”
“Where?”
She stared at the screen.
“Fort Aldridge medical command.”
General Graves looked at her.
“Name.”
“Dr. Evan Pike.”
Jonathan shook his head.
“Impossible.”
“Why?”
“Evan Pike died fifteen years ago.”
Major Bennett stared at him.
“I spoke to him three months ago.”
Silence.
Daniel said what everyone was thinking.
“Another dead man.”
Jonathan opened the next video.
The date showed three months later.
I was slightly bigger.
A sensor had been placed near my eyebrow.
A technician pointed toward my birthmark.
“Mark remains unchanged.”
The same woman’s voice asked, “Does it still match?”
The technician answered.
“Perfectly.”
“Then she’s the one.”
Jonathan froze the video.
General Graves looked at him.
“The one what?”
Jonathan whispered, “I don’t know.”
I stepped closer.
“Keep playing.”
The video resumed.
A man’s voice came from off camera.
“Does Michael know?”
Everyone in the cabin froze.
The technician answered.
“No.”
“And Nathaniel?”
“His memory remains suppressed.”
General Graves grabbed the edge of the table.
The off-camera voice continued.
“Good.”
“Neither brother can know the child survived.”
I stared at the screen.
The technician asked, “What about the mother?”
The answer came immediately.
“Dispose of her.”
Mom gasped behind me.
General Graves turned toward her.
“Evelyn?”
She was crying.
“I escaped that night.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You never told me they ordered your death.”
“I didn’t want you going after them.”
“You should’ve told me.”
“And gotten you killed too?”
Jonathan slammed the laptop shut.
“Enough.”
I shouted, “Open it!”
“Ruby—”
“OPEN IT!”
He hesitated.
Then reopened the laptop.
One file remained.
R-8 FINAL AUTHORIZATION.
Password protected.
Jonathan typed several codes.
Denied.
General Graves tried his old service number.
Denied.
Daniel entered Evelyn’s birthdate.
Denied.
Then I noticed a small prompt.
VOICEPRINT REQUIRED.
“What does that mean?”
Major Bennett answered.
“It needs someone’s voice.”
“Whose?”
The screen flashed:
AUTHORIZED: MICHAEL GRAVES
General Graves stared at it.
“So Michael is alive.”
Jonathan shook his head.
“Not necessarily.”
“Then why build a system around his voice?”
“Because whoever created this believed only Michael should open it.”
General Graves’s eyes narrowed.
“Or because Michael created it himself.”
The cabin fell silent.
Then the laptop suddenly made a sound.
Beep.
A new line appeared.
REMOTE ACCESS DETECTED.
Jonathan’s face changed.
“No.”
Major Bennett stepped forward.
“What?”
“Someone found the archive.”
The screen began scrolling.
Files opened on their own.
General Graves grabbed the laptop.
“Can you stop it?”
“I’m trying.”
A live video window suddenly appeared.
At first, it showed only darkness.
Then a light switched on.
A man sat in a chair.
Older.
Thin.
Silver hair.
A scar above his left eye.
General Graves stared.
Jonathan stopped typing.
Daniel whispered, “Who is that?”
The man on the screen smiled.
“Hello, Nathaniel.”
General Graves stepped closer.
His face went completely blank.
The stranger looked at Jonathan.
“And hello, little brother.”
Jonathan’s mouth fell open.
“No.”
The man smiled wider.
“It has been a long time.”
General Graves whispered one word.
“Michael?”
My heart started pounding.
The forgotten brother.
The man who supposedly founded Haven.
The man everyone thought had vanished decades ago.
He was alive.
And he was looking straight at us.
Then his eyes found me.
The smile disappeared.
“Ruby.”
I stepped behind General Graves.
“How do you know me?”
Michael Graves leaned toward the camera.
“Because everything that happened to this family began with you.”
Mom shouted, “Don’t listen to him!”
Michael ignored her.
“You’ve been told Project Haven was created before you were born.”
“Yes.”
“That’s true.”
He paused.
“But the part no one told you is why it continued.”
I swallowed.
“Why?”
Michael looked directly into the camera.
“Because of what they found in your blood.”
Nobody moved.
General Graves whispered, “What are you talking about?”
Michael smiled sadly.
“Ask Evelyn.”
Every eye turned toward my mother.
She looked like she’d been hit.
Daniel stepped toward her.
“Evelyn?”
Mom said nothing.
“Mom?”
Her lips trembled.
“Ruby…”
I felt sick.
“What is in my blood?”
Before she could answer, the cabin lights died.
The laptop remained on.
Michael’s face glowed in the darkness.
Then he spoke one final sentence.
“Run.”
General Graves frowned.
“What?”
Michael looked terrified now.
“Vane didn’t track the archive.”
“He tracked me.”
A second later, gunfire exploded outside.
Major Bennett shouted, “CONTACT!”
Windows shattered.
Everyone dropped.
Daniel overturned the table.
General Graves pulled me behind it.
Jonathan grabbed the laptop.
Mom crawled toward us.
Then the front door blew inward.
Smoke flooded the room.
A figure stepped through.
Not Vane.
Colonel Harris.
He held an assault rifle.
General Graves stared at him.
“Harris.”
Colonel Harris smiled.
“Nathaniel.”
“You betrayed me.”
“No.”
Harris raised the rifle.
“I protected you.”
“By shooting at us?”
“By keeping you from remembering.”
General Graves froze.
Harris’s eyes moved toward me.
“But the child ruined that.”
I clenched General Graves’s sleeve.
Harris stepped farther into the cabin.
“Give me Ruby.”
General Graves stood.
“Come take her.”
Harris smiled.
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
Then another voice came from behind him.
“Enough, Colonel.”
Harris went still.
A man walked through the smoke.
Older.
Military posture.
Scar along his right jaw.
Vane.
Mom stopped breathing.
Daniel raised his weapon.
Vane looked at him.
“Put it down, Daniel.”
“Go to hell.”
Vane smiled.
“Still dramatic.”
Then Vane’s gaze landed on Michael’s face on the laptop screen.
For the first time, he looked frightened.
“Turn that off.”
Michael laughed softly through the speakers.
“Hello, Marcus.”
Vane’s face tightened.
“You should be dead.”
Michael leaned closer to the camera.
“So should half the people in this room.”
Then he looked at me.
“Ruby.”
Vane shouted, “Don’t listen to him!”
Michael continued.
“Your blood isn’t dangerous because of what was put into it.”
My heart hammered.
“It’s dangerous because of what you inherited.”
I looked at my mother.
“From who?”
Michael answered before she could.
“Not Jonathan.”
Everyone froze.
Jonathan stared at the screen.
“What?”
I felt the floor disappear beneath me.
Mom’s face collapsed.
“Michael, don’t.”
He ignored her.
“Ruby deserves the truth.”
Jonathan stepped toward the laptop.
“What are you saying?”
Michael looked at him.
“I’m saying Evelyn lied to you too.”
My chest tightened.
“Then who is my father?”
Michael’s eyes filled with something I couldn’t understand.
Regret.
Fear.
Maybe shame.
He looked at me.
And said:
“I am.”
Nobody breathed.
Jonathan stumbled backward.
General Graves whispered, “No.”
Daniel stared at my mother.
“Evelyn?”
She began crying.
Vane lowered his weapon slightly.
Even he seemed stunned.
I looked from Michael’s face on the screen to my mother.
“Is he telling the truth?”
Mom couldn’t speak.
“Mom.”
She finally nodded.
Once.
My whole body went numb.
Jonathan wasn’t my father.
Michael was.
The forgotten brother.
The founder of Project Haven.
The man whose voice could unlock my file.
The man who had just claimed everything started because of my blood.
I stared at the screen.
“You knew about me?”
Michael closed his eyes.
“From the beginning.”
“And you left me?”
“I had no choice.”
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
My voice cracked.
“But everyone keeps leaving.”
Michael opened his eyes.
“Ruby—”
“No.”
I wiped my face.
“If you’re really my father, then tell me why they experimented on me.”
Michael said nothing.
“Tell me!”
Vane shouted, “Don’t!”
Michael looked at him.
Then smiled.
“That’s what you’re afraid of, isn’t it, Marcus?”
Vane raised his weapon toward the laptop.
Michael spoke fast.
“Ruby, your blood can identify every person altered by Haven.”
I froze.
“What?”
General Graves stepped closer.
“How?”
Michael continued.
“They used a hereditary protein marker in the Graves line as the baseline for their memory treatments.”
“Most subjects lost it after conditioning.”
“But Ruby inherited a rare variant.”
“A variant that reacts differently in anyone exposed to Haven.”
Major Bennett stared.
“You’re saying her blood is a biological test?”
Michael nodded.
“Exactly.”
Vane shouted, “Shut it down!”
Michael continued.
“One drop can expose every fake death.”
“Every altered identity.”
“Every hidden subject.”
“Every Haven operative who went through conditioning.”
General Graves stared at me.
My blood.
That was why they had watched me.
That was why I had been hidden.
That was why they wanted me alive.
Michael’s voice softened.
“And that’s why Vane can never let Ruby reach a public laboratory.”
Vane lifted his rifle.
“Enough.”
He fired.
The laptop screen exploded.
I screamed.
Darkness swallowed the cabin.
Then someone grabbed me.
A hand clamped over my mouth.
I kicked.
Bit.
Fought.
“Ruby!”
Mom screamed somewhere behind me.
I was dragged through smoke.
Outside.
Cold air hit my face.
I heard engines.
Men shouting.
General Graves yelling my name.
Then a cloth covered my head.
I was thrown into a vehicle.
The door slammed.
The engine roared.
I screamed into the hand covering my mouth.
“Quiet.”
The voice beside me was familiar.
Colonel Harris.
My blood turned cold.
The vehicle sped away.
I kicked blindly.
“Let me go!”
Harris pulled the cloth from my head.
I was inside a dark van.
He sat across from me.
No weapon in his hands now.
Just exhaustion.
“Ruby.”
I pressed myself against the door.
“Stay away from me.”
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You shot at us!”
“Yes.”
“You kidnapped me!”
“Yes.”
“You work for Vane!”
Harris stared at me.
“No.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“I work against him.”
“Then why did you take me?”
“Because Vane thinks I took you for him.”
I stared.
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
He looked through the rear window.
Two black SUVs followed us.
“Those men believe I’m delivering you.”
“To who?”
Harris looked back at me.
“To the only person Vane is more afraid of than Michael Graves.”
“Who?”
Harris leaned closer.
“The original Subject R-1.”
My heart started pounding.
“Who’s R-1?”
He reached into his coat and pulled out an old photograph.
A little boy stood inside the same hospital room I’d seen in my video.
On the back was written:
SUBJECT R-1 — NATHANIEL GRAVES.
I stared at the name.
“No.”
Harris nodded.
“General Graves wasn’t one of Haven’s creators, Ruby.”
“He was the first child they ever tested it on.”
I couldn’t breathe.
Then Harris added the sentence that made everything worse.
“And if Nathaniel remembers what they did to him…”
He looked toward the SUVs following us.
“…every person in this conspiracy is finished.”
TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 5…
