Chapter 6 - Into the Deep
The reality hit me with the force of a freight train. Aiden and Milo weren't just random runaways. They were Ethan and Liam. They had been kept in a lab, experimented on under the guise of medical treatment, and somehow, they had escaped.
"Where is the facility?" I demanded, wiping the rage and tears from my face, my grief transforming into pure, unadulterated fury.
"Eleanor, no," David warned, stepping toward me. "Northwest BioTech has private security forces. Sterling has political connections across the state. If they find out the boys escaped and that you know about them, they will eliminate everyone involved!"
"They took seven years of my children's lives!" I roared, grabbing the leather binder off the desk. "They made me mourn my living sons! I don't care about their security forces! I am getting my boys back!"
I flipped open the binder. Inside were medical records, developmental charts, and photos. Page after page showed two young boys growing up inside sterile, windowless rooms, surrounded by monitors and scientists in lab coats. The project was code-named Project Lazarus.
At the bottom of the last page was a handwritten address: Building 4, Port of Tacoma Industrial District.
"They were holding them at the docks," I muttered, memorizing the address.
"Eleanor, listen to me," David said, his tone shifting from despair to urgent panic. "If the boys are on the street, Sterling’s security team is already hunting for them. They won't just look in shelters. They'll monitor every street camera in downtown Seattle. We have to find them before Sterling does."
"We?" I looked at him coldly. "You lost the right to call them your sons seven years ago, David."
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"I made a terrible, cowardly mistake!" David cried out, grabbing my arms. "I lived with that guilt every single day! It ruined my life, it ruined our marriage! Please, Eleanor... let me help you bring our boys home. I know their security protocols. You can't do this alone."
I looked into David's broken eyes and saw the remnant of the man I used to love—a man manipulated by grief and powerful predators. I nodded once. "Fine. But if anything happens to them, I will kill you myself."
