CHAPTER 7 — THE BOY WHO CALLED ME MOM
"Mom..."
The little boy's voice echoed through the underground facility.
Every armed agent froze.
So did I.
He couldn't have been older than seven. Dark hair. Gray eyes. A small scar above his left eyebrow.
He smiled as though he'd been waiting for me all his life.
"I knew you'd come."
My chest tightened.
"I... don't know you."
His smile faded.
"She said your memory would come back."
Director Zero watched us from the giant screen, almost amused.
"You still don't understand, Rebecca."
She tapped a key.
A video filled every monitor.
I was on the screen.
Not unconscious.
Not drugged.
Wide awake.
Holding the same little boy in my arms.
Laughing.
Reading him a bedtime story.
The timestamp was from three years earlier.
"Impossible..." I whispered.
"I've never seen him before."
"Oh, but you have," Director Zero replied softly. "You spent eight months here before Adrian ever erased your memory."
The room fell silent.
My mother staggered backward.
"No... she escaped before then."
Director Zero smiled.
"No, Evelyn."
"She escaped twice."
A second video appeared.
It showed me trying to lead dozens of children through an underground tunnel while alarms blared.
I remembered flashes.
Running.
Fire.
Holding tiny hands.
Someone shouting my name.
Then a deafening explosion.
My knees nearly gave out.
Agent Brooks caught me before I collapsed.
The boy stepped closer.
"They told us you died."
"I never stopped waiting."
Suddenly, every emergency light turned crimson.
An alarm echoed through the entire complex.
One of the agents shouted into his radio.
"Explosives!"
"They've rigged the entire facility!"
Director Zero's final words echoed through the speakers.
May you like
"If I can't protect my work..."
"...no one leaves alive."
