Chapter 6 - The Gathering of Five
Over the next seventy-two hours, Victor’s private intelligence network worked with lethal efficiency. Racing against the rogue mercenaries sent by the Hale Biomedical board, Victor’s team secured the remaining three surrogates and their children.
In a secure, subterranean bunker beneath a private airfield in Northern France, the five children were finally brought together.
It was a haunting sight. Five toddlers—Sophie, Liam, Maya, Ethan, and Lucas—all sharing the exact same striking blue eyes, the same faint crease between their brows, and the same quiet, observational demeanor.
The five surrogate mothers stood together in a tight circle, bound by an unspoken, tragic sisterhood. Evelyn stepped forward as their de facto leader.
“They built these children to be weapons of influence,” Evelyn told the mothers, her voice commanding the room. “They thought we were weak because we were poor, because we were desperate, because we were hired help. But they underestimated what a mother will do to protect her child.”
Suddenly, the five children stopped playing with their toys. As if responding to an silent, invisible signal, they all walked toward the center of the room. They joined hands, standing in a small circle.
Sophie looked up at Evelyn, her eyes strangely luminous.
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“Mother is in the cage,” Sophie recited in a clear, eerily synchronized voice.
The four other children repeated the exact same phrase at the same second: “Mother is in the cage.”
