CHAPTER 6 — THE ISLAND OF FORGOTTEN NAMES
A coded message hidden inside the hacked files revealed coordinates in the North Atlantic.
Satellite images showed a private island that officially did not exist.
No owner.
No airport.
No records.
Yet thermal scans detected more than two hundred people underground.
An international task force prepared for the raid.
Against every order, I insisted on going.
"I spent two years inside their prison," I told Agent Brooks.
"If anyone recognizes how they think... it's me."
Hours later, helicopters disappeared into thick ocean fog.
The island looked abandoned.
Old lighthouse.
Cracked concrete.
Dead trees.
Nothing else.
Until the ground opened.
Massive steel doors slowly rose from beneath the earth.
An underground city stretched below.
Hospital wards.
Research centers.
Dormitories.
Hundreds of patient files.
Names replaced with numbers.
Some people had forgotten their own identities completely.
Others had lived under false names for decades.
As rescue teams moved deeper underground, a calm female voice echoed through hidden speakers.
"I've been waiting for you, Rebecca."
Every monitor turned on simultaneously.
Director Zero appeared.
Older than the photograph.
Graceful.
Almost grandmotherly.
She smiled with unsettling warmth.
"I never wanted to destroy you."
"I wanted you to replace me."
She pressed a remote.
A hidden wall opened behind her.
Inside stood dozens of children quietly reading books.
Healthy.
Calm.
Smiling.
"They're the second generation," she said.
"They've never known fear."
"They've never known grief."
"They've never known lies."
"They only remember what I allowed them to remember."
My heart pounded.
Then one little boy stepped forward.
He looked directly at me.
Tilted his head.
And softly asked...
"Mom..."
The world around me seemed to stop.
Because I had never seen that child before.
May you like
Yet somehow...
He knew my face.
