Chapter 18 - THE COUNTDOWN WASN’T TO A DEATH—IT WAS TO THE MOMENT THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE COULD BECOME SOMEONE’S PROPERTY
Sofia stared at the countdown until the numbers blurred.
Forty-seven hours.
Not until a bomb exploded.
Not until Marcus died.
Until a legal transfer occurred.
Daniel looked through the Eden charter again.
“We need lawyers.”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“We need an exorcist.”
Sofia almost smiled.
“Lawyers first.”
Within two hours, Hawthorne Villa’s dining room became a war room.
Four independent attorneys.
Two bioethics experts.
Federal investigators.
A patent specialist.
Daniel.
Sofia.
Victoria.
Isabella.
Elias.
Claire.
Margaret.
Arthur Bell.
Nobody trusted Arthur, so two agents remained beside him.
The patent attorney read the Eden documents.
Her expression worsened with every page.
“These claims shouldn't be enforceable.”
Sofia frowned.
“Shouldn't?”
“Human beings cannot be patented.”
“Good.”
“But modified cell lines can.”
Silence.
The attorney continued.
“Certain genetic therapies, processes, engineered sequences…”
Sofia understood.
“They don't own people.”
“No.”
“Then Catherine lied.”
“Not exactly.”
The attorney looked uncomfortable.
“If individuals require patented therapies to maintain a modified condition, the patent owner could theoretically control access.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Medical extortion.”
“Yes.”
Arthur whispered:
“That was Eden’s business model.”
Everyone looked at him.
“Treatment created dependence.”
Sofia stared.
“You made people need you.”
Arthur lowered his head.
“Yes.”
Isabella touched her chest unconsciously.
Sofia noticed.
“Mom?”
Isabella looked at Arthur.
“My medication.”
Arthur nodded.
“What about it?”
“You still take immunosuppressive therapy.”
“Yes.”
Arthur looked ashamed.
“Because Eden’s treatment altered your immune system.”
Sofia’s stomach dropped.
“If Catherine controls the patent…”
“She could restrict manufacturing.”
Daniel slammed his hand against the table.
“No.”
The attorney continued.
“Not legally without challenge.”
“How long would challenge take?”
“Months.”
Isabella might not have months without medication.
Neither might other Eden survivors.
Sofia understood the countdown.
Catherine was forcing them to choose an owner before the existing trust collapsed.
Daniel asked:
“How many people?”
Arthur answered.
“Approximately twelve thousand living descendants or treatment recipients.”
Silence.
Sofia stared.
Twelve thousand.
This was no longer a family mystery.
It was public health.
“Then we destroy the patents.”
The attorney shook her head.
“Not before succession.”
“Why?”
“The trust requires an owner to authorize abandonment.”
Victoria looked at Sofia.
“So one of us has to inherit it.”
“Yes.”
“Then destroy it.”
“Yes.”
Simple.
Except Catherine controlled the succession mechanism.
Sofia looked at Arthur.
“How does selection work?”
He hesitated.
“Candidate testing.”
“What kind?”
“Psychological.”
Daniel laughed.
“You're joking.”
“No.”
“Who evaluates?”
“The current director.”
“Catherine.”
“Yes.”
Sofia stood.
“Then she can choose anyone.”
“Not entirely.”
Arthur explained.
Eden’s charter used an old governance algorithm created by Charles Hawthorne.
Candidates were scored on independent decision-making, resistance to coercion, willingness to protect subjects, and rejection of hereditary entitlement.
Sofia stared.
“That sounds like Luis.”
Arthur nodded.
“He rewrote the criteria.”
Sofia almost smiled.
Luis had turned Eden’s own system against itself.
Daniel looked at the candidates.
Sofia.
Daniel.
Victoria.
“Who else?”
Arthur checked.
One more.
“Claire.”
Claire froze.
“Me?”
“Your Blackwood status made you legally adopted into a subsidiary Eden trust.”
Claire laughed nervously.
“I don't want it.”
Sofia looked at her.
“Good first qualification.”
Claire rolled her eyes.
The first test arrived that evening.
Four envelopes.
Each candidate received one.
Sofia opened hers.
TRANSFER OWNERSHIP TO YOURSELF AND RECEIVE COMPLETE AUTHORITY TO RELEASE ALL SUBJECTS.
Below:
REFUSE OWNERSHIP AND ISABELLA RAMIREZ’S MEDICATION PATENT REMAINS RESTRICTED.
Sofia stared.
Personal leverage.
Daniel’s envelope:
ACCEPT OWNERSHIP AND ALL HAWTHORNE LIABILITY WILL BE ERASED.
REFUSE AND THE FOUNDATION MAY FACE BANKRUPTCY.
Victoria’s:
ACCEPT OWNERSHIP AND RICHARD ASHFORD RECEIVES IMMUNITY FROM EDEN-RELATED CHARGES.
REFUSE AND HIS FULL RECORD IS RELEASED.
Claire’s:
ACCEPT OWNERSHIP AND BLACKWOOD SURVIVORS RECEIVE $500 MILLION.
REFUSE AND FUNDING REMAINS UNCERTAIN.
They looked at one another.
Catherine had designed each temptation.
Sofia tore hers in half.
Daniel did the same.
Claire followed.
Victoria stared at hers longer.
Sofia did not judge.
Richard had raised her.
Whatever he had done, he was still her father emotionally.
Victoria finally tore the paper.
“No immunity.”
Her eyes filled.
“He answers for what he did.”
Sofia nodded.
The computer beeped.
TEST ONE COMPLETE.
ALL CANDIDATES PASS.
Victoria laughed.
“She wanted us to refuse.”
Arthur nodded.
“Luis designed that test.”
Sofia smiled sadly.
Of course.
Test two began.
A live feed.
Marcus.
Alive.
Catherine stood behind him.
Four buttons appeared.
Each candidate could save Marcus by withdrawing from succession.
If all withdrew, Catherine retained control.
Daniel whispered:
“Manipulation.”
Marcus shouted through the screen:
“DON'T!”
Catherine smiled.
Sofia studied the interface.
Something felt wrong.
“Marcus.”
He looked at camera.
“Move your left hand.”
He did.
“Right.”
He did.
“Stand.”
Catherine’s expression changed.
Marcus stood.
He was not tied.
Sofia smiled.
“This is staged.”
Marcus suddenly attacked Catherine.
Security inside the room rushed forward.
The camera fell.
Chaos.
Daniel shouted:
“Marcus!”
Gunshots.
Then Marcus appeared close to the camera.
“She's gone!”
“What?”
“Decoy!”
Sofia froze.
The woman with Marcus was not Catherine.
A hired actress.
The real Catherine was elsewhere.
Marcus had realized the same thing.
He escaped.
Test two ended.
ALL CANDIDATES PASS.
Daniel exhaled.
“Two.”
Arthur looked at the countdown.
“There are three.”
Sofia frowned.
“Final test?”
Arthur’s face darkened.
“Usually the worst.”
At midnight, Hawthorne Villa lost power.
Again.
Sofia sighed.
“I’m buying generators.”
Daniel almost laughed.
Emergency lights came on.
Four doors locked.
Sofia found herself separated.
Alone in Charles’s study.
A screen activated.
Catherine appeared.
Real this time.
“Sofia.”
“What do you want?”
“To know what you value.”
“I value people not kidnapping my friends.”
Catherine smiled.
“You're angry.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Sofia stared.
“What's the test?”
Catherine showed two live feeds.
First:
Isabella in a locked room.
Second:
A group of twenty unknown children.
Sofia’s blood went cold.
“Choose.”
“No.”
“One door opens.”
“No.”
“If you choose your mother, the children remain locked.”
Sofia stared.
“If you choose the children, Isabella remains.”
Catherine waited.
Sofia’s heart pounded.
Every instinct screamed for her mother.
But the test itself was false.
Luis would never design a system requiring sacrifice of innocent people.
Sofia looked at the camera.
“No.”
Catherine frowned.
“Choose.”
“I reject the premise.”
“You don't have that option.”
“I always have that option.”
“Sofia—”
“If Eden requires me to decide which innocent person deserves rescue, Eden deserves to die.”
Silence.
Then Sofia picked up a chair and smashed the screen.
The door unlocked.
She ran.
Daniel emerged from another room.
Victoria.
Claire.
All had received variations of the same test.
All had refused to choose.
The central computer activated.
FINAL TEST COMPLETE.
SUCCESSION RESULT:
NO INDIVIDUAL CANDIDATE QUALIFIES.
Sofia stared.
“What?”
Then another line appeared.
COLLECTIVE GOVERNANCE CONDITION MET.
Luis.
Sofia began laughing.
“He did it.”
Daniel understood.
“The test wasn't looking for one winner.”
“No.”
“It was looking for everyone to refuse individual power.”
“Yes.”
The succession charter transformed.
Ownership transferred not to Sofia.
Not Daniel.
Not Victoria.
Not Claire.
To all living Eden subjects and descendants through an independent cooperative trust.
Twelve thousand people.
One vote each.
The patents immediately became collectively owned.
Catherine had lost.
Arthur stared.
“Luis actually did it.”
Sofia cried.
Her father had spent decades designing a trap for the people who believed power had to belong to one person.
Then the countdown disappeared.
For one moment, Hawthorne Villa became quiet.
Until the patent attorney looked at her laptop.
Her face changed.
“Sofia.”
“What?”
“We have a problem.”
“What?”
“One patent wasn't transferred.”
Sofia frowned.
“Which?”
The attorney turned the screen.
PROJECT EDEN: HUMAN GERMLINE VECTOR E-0.
OWNER:
PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL.
Sofia stared.
“Who?”
The name loaded.
MARCUS COLE.
Silence.
Daniel looked toward the doorway.
Marcus had just returned.
Wet from rain.
Exhausted.
Alive.
Everyone stared at him.
Marcus stopped.
“What?”
Sofia turned the laptop.
His face drained of color.
“I've never seen that.”
Arthur stood.
“Oh God.”
“What?”
Arthur stared at Marcus.
Then whispered:
“Now I know what Bell meant.”
Sofia looked at him.
“What?”
Arthur pointed at Marcus.
“He wasn't saying the first Eden subject was standing beside you.”
He swallowed.
“He meant the first Eden subject’s son.”
Marcus stared.
“My father died when I was six.”
Arthur shook his head.
“No.”
“Who was he?”
Arthur looked toward the old Hawthorne portrait.
Then at Marcus.
May you like
“Director Gray.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
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