Chapter 8 - Reeves Comes Back for Lantern Federal agents moved Sophie
and Nora into a secured interior room.
Adrian refused to leave the archive terminal.
Victor stayed with him.
For the first time in eight years, father and son stood side by side.
Neither acknowledged it.
Harris inserted Emily’s brass disk into the optical reader.
Adrian removed Sophie’s pendant and fitted the second piece beside it.
A green light appeared.
ARCHIVE ACCESS PENDING.
Then the power died.
Emergency lights flashed red.
Adrian cursed.
“Backup generator.”
Victor looked toward the corridor.
“Can Reeves control it?”
“He designed it.”
A voice came through the building speakers.
“Adrian.”
Reeves.
Sophie grabbed Nora’s hand.
Nora squeezed back.
Reeves continued.
“You have spent eight years protecting a misunderstanding.”
Adrian shouted toward the ceiling.
“You stole children.”
“I preserved research.”
Nora felt Sophie tremble.
Reeves’s voice remained calm.
“Ethan’s death was an accident.”
Adrian’s face twisted.
“You kept him in a study after he got sick.”
“I tried to save him.”
“You tried to preserve data.”
Victor stared at his son.
The grief beneath Adrian’s anger was unmistakable.
Ethan had been his child.
Reeves continued.
“And Sophie survived because of what we learned.”
Nora looked at Harris.
“Is that possible?”
Harris answered carefully.
“Possibly. That doesn’t justify what happened.”
Exactly.
Useful knowledge did not legalize abuse.
Agents found Reeves entering through the lower service tunnel.
He was not alone.
Two former Kane Biomedical security contractors accompanied him.
They were arrested quickly.
Reeves retreated into the old laboratory wing.
Adrian knew the layout.
He guided agents remotely.
Within minutes, Reeves was trapped.
Victor went to the glass partition separating them.
Reeves laughed.
“Look at you.”
Victor said nothing.
“You built all of this.”
Victor’s face tightened.
“I funded research.”
“You funded ambition.”
“And I failed to control what it became.”
Reeves smiled.
“Now you want morality because a child opened a case?”
Victor looked toward Nora and Sophie.
“No.”
He turned back.
“I want evidence.”
Agents arrested Reeves.
No heroic fight.
No theatrical escape.
Just a man in handcuffs watching control leave his hands.
Power returned.
The archive opened.
Thousands of files appeared.
Patient records.
Financial agreements.
Consent forms.
Internal messages.
Adrian stared.
“We have it.”
Harris searched Ethan’s file first.
His face changed.
“What?”
Adrian looked over.
Harris swallowed.
“Ethan’s condition wasn’t caused by the Kane marker.”
Adrian went still.
“What?”
“The diagnosis was wrong.”
He read further.
Ethan had developed an infection.
Treatable.
But Project Lantern researchers delayed standard treatment while
investigating the genetic hypothesis.
Adrian sat down.
“They could have saved him.”
Harris did not soften the truth.
“Possibly, yes.”
Adrian covered his face.
Victor stood behind him.
He wanted to touch his son.
He did not.
Not without permission.
After a moment, Adrian reached backward blindly.
Victor took his hand.
Nora watched.
Then another file opened automatically.
SOPHIE BENNETT.
Nora stepped closer.
The file contained years of observation.
Photographs.
School records.
Medical notes.
Then a section titled MATERNAL CONTACT RISK.
Nora read it.
Reeves had repeatedly recommended preventing Sophie from meeting Nora
because reunion would expose the study.
But the final note was not written by Reeves.
It was signed:
A. KANE.
Adrian.
Nora looked at him.
He had not merely hidden Sophie because he feared Reeves.
May you like
He had formally recommended keeping mother and daughter apart.
And now he would have to explain why.
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