CHAPTER 8 THE MAN WHO CALLED HIMSELF HER GRANDFATHER
Nobody moved.
The old man smiled as if we were attending a family reunion instead of standing in a hidden laboratory.
"My name," he said calmly, "is Victor Hale."
Alexander instantly raised the pistol an FBI agent had reluctantly allowed him to carry.
"You're dead."
Victor chuckled.
"So was Senator Whitmore."
"So was Camila."
"So were half the people connected to Project Phoenix."
He spread his arms.
"Death is a useful illusion."
I stepped in front of Sophie.
"What do you want?"
"You."
His answer came without hesitation.
"And the child."
Victor slowly removed a leather folder from his coat.
Inside were birth records, DNA reports, photographs, and medical files spanning decades.
He slid one paper toward me.
DNA Analysis.
My name.
Sophie's name.
Victor Hale.
Probability of biological relationship:
99.998%.
My vision blurred.
"No..."
He nodded.
"You aren't just Sophie's mother."
"You're my daughter."
My knees nearly gave out.
"You kidnapped me?"
"I rescued you."
His voice remained calm.
"You were dying after birth. Project Phoenix saved your life."
Alexander shouted,
"You experimented on children!"
Victor didn't even deny it.
"We perfected memory reconstruction."
"We eliminated trauma."
"We created new identities."
"And sometimes..."
"...we created extraordinary minds."
He looked at Sophie with unmistakable pride.
"Your daughter remembers what no adult can."
"Her brain resisted every attempt to erase it."
"She is the only successful survivor."
Suddenly alarms blared throughout the underground facility.
Red emergency lights flashed.
A computerized voice echoed through the corridors.
Unauthorized FBI entry detected.
Victor sighed.
"They're early."
He pressed a hidden button inside his ring.
Metal doors slammed shut around us.
The laboratory began to shake violently.
Alexander grabbed my hand.
"He's collapsing the entire bunker!"
Victor smiled one last time.
"If I can't rebuild Project Phoenix..."
"...no one will ever uncover what lies beneath it."
The ceiling cracked.
Concrete crashed around us.
Sophie suddenly pointed toward a faded mural on the wall.
"There."
"A secret door."
None of us had noticed it.
But somehow...
May you like
She already knew exactly where it was.
And behind that hidden door waited a room that would reveal the darkest secret of Project Phoenix—and the real reason Sophie had survived when every other child had disappeared.
