Chapter 10 - the agency without a name
The boy’s name was Jonah.
He was nine years old and had been taken from his home two weeks earlier.
When he saw the black vehicles, he threw himself beneath a bench.
“They wear those jackets at the white building,” he cried. “Don’t let them take us back!”
The lead federal agent stopped walking.
“My name is Special Agent Marcus Vale. We are operating under emergency authority.”
Noah kept his weapon lowered but ready.
“Which agency?”
“Biomedical Protection Division.”
“No federal database lists that division.”
“Our work is classified.”
“Your work involves taking injured children?”
Marcus’s expression did not change.
“We protect participants in sensitive medical programs.”
“They are kidnapping victims.”
“That has not been legally determined.”
Grace stepped beside Noah.
“Dr. Harrison attempted to flee with them.”
“Harrison is a contracted researcher.”
“He is also declared dead.”
Marcus looked toward Malcolm in the patrol vehicle.
“Identity inconsistencies are one reason federal control is required.”
Noah understood the trap.
If he surrendered the evidence, the entire case could disappear into classification.
If he refused, he risked arrest for interfering with federal officers.
Caroline moved Lily and Rachel toward the helicopter.
Marcus raised one hand.
“The child remains here.”
“No,” Caroline said.
“She requires evaluation by approved specialists.”
“I am a pediatric physician.”
“You are not cleared.”
Rachel stepped in front of Lily.
“You will not touch her.”
Marcus looked at her identification.
“Rachel Miller, you signed a medical guardianship agreement.”
“Through fraud.”
“That is for a court to decide.”
Noah’s phone rang again.
The police chief ordered immediate cooperation.
Grace whispered, “We’re outnumbered.”
Noah looked around the airfield.
Local officers were uncertain. Federal agents held superior weapons. The storm prevented quick reinforcement.
Then Rebecca’s voice came through the speaker of Noah’s radio.
“I can prove they’re not federal.”
She had been connected by an investigator monitoring the situation remotely.
“How?” Noah asked.
“Their jacket emblem.”
Marcus looked sharply at the radio.
Rebecca continued.
“The eagle has seven feathers on the left wing. The Biomedical Protection Division uses eight.”
Grace studied the nearest agent.
Seven feathers.
“They’re Harrison security,” Rebecca said. “The agency is real, but these people aren’t.”
Marcus drew his weapon.
Noah fired at the runway lights.
Darkness swallowed the airfield.
Police moved Lily and the children behind the ambulance.
Gunfire cracked through the rain.
Grace pulled Rachel toward the helicopter.
Caroline shielded Lily with her body.
Noah and the local officers returned fire from behind vehicles.
Marcus’s team attempted to reach Malcolm.
One agent opened the patrol car.
Malcolm struck him with his handcuffs and ran toward the private jet.
Vivian broke from another vehicle and followed.
They were not allies with the false federal team.
Everyone was using the chaos for a different escape.
Malcolm reached the jet stairs.
A shot struck the metal beside his head.
He turned.
Rebecca stood near the hangar entrance wearing a borrowed police vest.
She had escaped transport.
“Stop,” she said.
Malcolm smiled.
“You always return.”
“You made me what I became.”
“I repaired you.”
“You broke me first.”
Rebecca raised the weapon.
Noah shouted for her to lower it.
Malcolm slowly lifted his hands.
“You will not shoot me. You still need to know where Subject L-6 is.”
Rebecca froze.
Rachel heard him.
“My daughter.”
Malcolm nodded.
“The biological child you delivered.”
“Where is she?”
“In the white building.”
Jonah began crying again.
“There are tunnels under it.”
Marcus’s team started retreating toward their vehicles.
Grace disabled the first vehicle’s tires.
The others escaped through the rear gate.
Malcolm was taken back into custody.
Vivian vanished inside the hangar.
A search found a concealed floor hatch leading to an underground drainage tunnel.
She had planned a route no one else knew.
The rescued children were flown to the hospital under local police guard.
Noah refused to surrender them until the identity of any federal team could be independently verified.
At the hospital, Lily slept beside Rachel.
The child’s legs remained weak, but she could now move her feet slightly.
Captain Buttons rested against her shoulder.
Rachel sat awake, staring at the file proving she had given birth to another baby.
Caroline entered.
“We received preliminary DNA results.”
Rachel stood.
“Is Lily mine?”
Caroline chose her words carefully.
“The test confirms you are not her biological mother.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
Lily had been awake.
She heard everything.
“Then who is my real mommy?” she asked.
Caroline sat beside her.
“We don’t know yet.”
Lily looked at Rachel.
“Are you still my mommy?”
Rachel took her hand.
“Yes. Unless you decide you need another word someday. But I will never stop loving you.”
Lily considered this.
“Can I have two?”
Rachel began to cry.
“You can have as many people who truly love you as you need.”
Noah entered carrying a new file.
Investigators had decoded part of Harrison’s records.
Subject L-6 had been given a name.
Sophie.
She was six years old.
Her current guardian was Dr. Vivian Cross.
Rachel stared at the page.
“The woman who kidnapped Lily has been raising my biological daughter.”
A photograph showed Sophie standing in front of a white medical building.
Behind her, half hidden by the doorway, was Vivian.
And beside Vivian stood a man wearing the uniform of the real Biomedical Protection Division.
The federal program had not merely protected Harrison.
It had placed children inside selected homes.
A message appeared on Noah’s secure terminal.
TRANSFER SUBJECTS BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
AUTHORIZE PHASE RED.
May you like
The order carried genuine federal authentication.
👉 Rachel’s biological daughter had been raised by Vivian Cross, and a real government order now demanded that every child in the program be transferred before midnight.
