Chapter 1 - The Lullaby in Row 34The humming sound of the Boeing 777 engine felt distant, drowned out entirely by the deafening realization pounding inside Nathan Wells’s ears.
She sang it to me too. When she saved me.
The words hung in the pressurized air of economy class like static electricity. Nathan stood frozen in the aisle, his six-foot-two frame awkwardly hunched beneath the low overhead bins. Around them, passengers in neighboring seats leaned in, their annoyance at the earlier screaming fit instantly replaced by ravenous curiosity.
"What did you just say?" Nathan’s voice dropped an octave, laced with a mix of raw desperation and terrifying hope. He stepped closer, ignoring the cramped space.
Lily did not flinch. Despite being only seven years old, her dark eyes held a gravity that belonged to someone who had lived ten lifetimes. She gently shifted Ethan in her arm, her small hands surprisingly steady as she patted his back. Emma had already fallen fast asleep against Lily’s chest, her tiny fingers clutching a frayed hem of the girl's faded woolen sweater.
"She’s alive, Mr. Wells," Lily whispered, her voice carrying an uncanny clarity that cut through the background hum of the aircraft. "And she told me that if I ever met you, I had to look into your eyes and tell you... the glass room is weeping."
Nathan’s breath caught violently in his throat.
The glass room.
No one on earth knew about the glass room except him and Catherine. It was the subterranean, soundproof containment laboratory beneath the Neurosoft headquarters in Seattle—a private, highly classified sanctuary where Catherine had spent her final months before vanishing. The authorities had searched it top-to-bottom and found nothing. The public thought it was just a high-tech boardroom. But Nathan knew. And now, this random little girl sitting in economy class was reciting its deepest secret.
"Melissa," Nathan said without turning around, his eyes locked on Lily. "Clear this section. Now."
The head flight attendant, who had been watching in stunned silence, instantly snapped into action. "Folks, please return to your seats. We need aisle clearance. Thank you for your cooperation."
As passengers grumbled and shifted back, Nathan dropped heavily onto the empty middle seat next to Lily. Close up, he could see the details he had missed in his shock: the scuffed sneakers, the oversized jacket that looked like it had been handed down five times, and a small, peculiar silver pendant shaped like a double helix tucked inside her collar.
A double helix. The exact insignia of Neurosoft's advanced neural-link division.
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"Where is she, Lily?" Nathan demanded, his voice cracking slightly as he leaned in. "Tell me everything. How do you know my wife?"
Lily looked down at the sleeping twins, a bittersweet smile touching her lips. "She didn't run away, Mr. Wells. They took her. Because of what she built inside the glass room. And if we don't land in Seattle and stop them before midnight... she won't just disappear. She'll cease to exist."
