Chapter 19 - THE ELEVEN WOMENHarrington’s operation collapsed in forty-eight hours.
Eleven women were recovered from three private residences.
All had been recruited through legitimate fertility programs.
Most believed they were participating in monitored medical studies.
None understood the full extent of what had been done with their genetic information.
Clara flew to Chicago.
She left Grace with Tommy and Marisol.
Liam met her outside the hospital.
For several seconds they simply held each other.
Then Clara pulled back.
“You look terrible.”
“I’ve slept forty minutes.”
“That’s not sleep.”
“I closed my eyes.”
“That’s blinking for ambitious people.”
He smiled.
She touched his face.
“Did you hurt anyone?”
“No.”
“Want to?”
“Yes.”
“Progress.”
Inside, Miriam sat beside the pregnant woman they had found.
Her name was Hannah Cole.
Twenty-nine.
Elementary school teacher.
Hannah explained Harrington’s people had offered free fertility treatment after she and her husband struggled to conceive.
Her husband had died in a car accident during the trial.
Clara immediately looked at Miriam.
Miriam understood.
“You think Harrington caused it?”
“I think we stop calling things accidents until we verify them.”
Hannah gripped Clara’s hand.
“There was another doctor.”
“Who?”
“A woman.”
“Name?”
Hannah shook her head.
“Everyone called her Doctor K.”
Liam and Leo exchanged looks.
No record mentioned another physician.
Harrington was dangerous.
A second leader changed everything.
Then Tommy called.
Clara answered.
“Everything okay?”
Silence.
“Tommy?”
His voice sounded strange.
“Clare, don’t freak out.”
She closed her eyes.
“Any sentence starting with that guarantees I will.”
“Grace is fine.”
Her eyes opened.
“Then what?”
“I found something in her elephant.”
Clara frowned.
“What?”
Grace’s stuffed elephant had been a gift.
At her first birthday.
From Dr. Harrington.
Tommy had noticed a seam was loose.
Inside was a small device.
Not a tracker.
A data storage drive.
Leo examined it remotely.
“It’s encrypted.”
Tommy said:
“There’s something written on the casing.”
“What?”
He read it.
“K-17.”
Hannah heard him through the speaker.
Her face drained.
“That’s her.”
Clara looked over.
“Doctor K?”
Hannah nodded.
“She wore that on her badge.”
Liam whispered:
“K.”
Then Adrian entered.
He had been reviewing his mother’s old records.
His face looked wrong.
“What?”
Liam asked.
Adrian placed a photograph on the table.
Elizabeth Vale stood beside another young researcher.
The woman’s name was written below.
Dr. Katherine Mercer.
Liam stared.
“That’s impossible.”
Clara looked at him.
“Who is she?”
May you like
Liam whispered:
“My mother.”
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