# CHAPTER 16 ## THE FLIGHT TO SAINT ORISON
The first agent through the laboratory door never fired.
Jonah shot the ceiling light above him.
Glass and darkness fell together.
Victor overturned a steel examination table.
Grant dragged Naomi behind the console.
My mother pulled Rose against the wall.
Adrian fired twice toward the doorway.
The room became a storm of muzzle flashes, alarms, and shattering equipment.
I crouched beside Rose.
“Stay close to me.”
She nodded.
No crying.
No panic.
That frightened me more than tears would have.
Children should not know how to become invisible during gunfire.
A bullet struck the console.
The family diagrams disappeared from the screen.
Naomi held up the memory card.
“I have the transfer files.”
“We need the bracelet signal,” I said.
Rose extended her wrist.
I examined the metal band.
No clasp.
A thin line of green light moved beneath the surface.
August called from behind the overturned table.
“Break the inner seal, not the outer casing.”
I looked at him.
“How?”
“There is a pressure point beneath the identification code.”
I pressed my thumbnail against R-12.
The band opened.
A sharp needle extended into Rose’s skin.
She did not react.
The bracelet flashed red.
TRANSFER DISTRESS SIGNAL ACTIVATED.
Every alarm stopped.
The agents outside ceased firing.
Silence filled the laboratory.
Then Conrad’s voice came through the speakers.
“Thank you.”
The far doors sealed.
Gas hissed through the ventilation system.
My mother covered Rose’s mouth with her coat.
Jonah fired at the vents.
“No effect.”
Grant tried the emergency door.
Locked.
Victor looked toward August.
“What gas?”
“Likely carfentanil derivative.”
“How long?”
“Seconds.”
My vision blurred.
Adrian stumbled toward the console.
My mother dropped to one knee.
Rose remained standing longer than any of us.
She looked at me.
“Will I wake up?”
I took her hand.
“Yes.”
It was the only answer I could give.
The floor rose toward my face.
Darkness followed.
When I woke, I was inside an aircraft.
My wrists were secured to the arms of a leather seat.
A low engine vibration ran through the cabin.
No windows.
No visible cockpit.
White lights illuminated two rows of seats.
Rose sat across from me, unconscious but breathing.
Grant was restrained beside her.
Victor sat several seats away.
My mother and Adrian were positioned on opposite sides of the cabin.
Jonah.
Naomi.
August.
All present.
Conrad wanted the full family collection.
A guard stood at the rear door.
Black uniform.
Silver Meridian symbol.
I tested the restraints.
“Don’t bother,” Grant said quietly.
“You’re awake.”
“Unfortunately.”
“Can you reach Rose?”
“No.”
He looked at the guard.
“The restraints unlock through his wrist control.”
My father opened his eyes.
“How long have we been airborne?”
The guard answered.
“Six hours.”
“Destination?”
The man smiled.
“You already know.”
Saint Orison.
My mother woke next.
She looked at me first.
Then Rose.
Then Adrian.
“You allowed Conrad to take us.”
Adrian tested his restraints.
“I was unconscious.”
“You created the distress protocol.”
“For extraction under hostile conditions.”
“Conrad changed the destination.”
August’s mechanical voice came from the rear.
“Conrad changes everything he touches.”
The guard turned toward him.
“You were instructed to remain silent.”
August smiled.
“You were instructed not to damage me. We both know which order matters more.”
The guard looked away.
My grandfather enjoyed fear even when physically helpless.
Naomi stirred.
Jonah remained unconscious.
Blood marked his temple.
“Is he breathing?” I asked.
Victor leaned as far as his restraints allowed.
“Yes.”
A screen lowered from the ceiling.
Conrad Holloway appeared.
Behind him was a bright room overlooking blue water.
“Good morning.”
Grant stared at him.
“Where is my mother?”
“Safe.”
“You mean useful.”
Conrad’s expression tightened.
“Your mother made difficult decisions to preserve your life.”
Grant laughed.
“You taught everyone the same sentence.”
Conrad ignored him.
His gaze shifted to me.
“Claire, I regret how violent the gala became.”
“You ordered it.”
“I ordered a controlled provocation.”
“You chose Grant because you knew he would go too far.”
“I chose my son because Victor’s system recognized him as a familiar social contact.”
“You expected me to call my father.”
“Yes.”
“You expected the lockdown.”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
“Now you will complete the succession process.”
“No.”
Conrad smiled.
“The aircraft is carrying enough sedative to keep Rose unconscious for several days. Cooperate, and she wakes after we land.”
I looked at the child.
“You’re threatening an eight-year-old.”
“I am explaining consequences.”
“No. You’re hiding cruelty behind vocabulary.”
August chuckled.
Conrad’s expression hardened.
The screen went black.
Grant leaned toward Rose.
“Her breathing is getting shallow.”
My mother watched the rise and fall of Rose’s chest.
“He gave her too much.”
The guard checked a monitor.
“She’s within range.”
“You’re not a doctor,” Helena said.
“I have instructions.”
“Children like Rose metabolize sedatives differently.”
The guard hesitated.
That was enough.
My mother continued.
“If her oxygen saturation drops below eighty-five, Conrad loses the genetic subject he needs.”
The guard moved toward Rose.
Grant watched his wrist control.
The man touched the monitor beside her seat.
Grant kicked him in the knee.
The guard collapsed.
Victor lunged as far as his restraint allowed and struck the man’s head against the seat frame.
The wrist control slid across the floor.
I stretched my foot toward it.
Too far.
Rose opened her eyes.
She looked at the control.
Then at me.
Without moving her arms, she slipped one foot out of her shoe.
She hooked the device with her toes and pulled it toward herself.
Grant stared.
“You were awake?”
“Since the man said six hours.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I was listening.”
She pressed her foot against the screen.
The restraints unlocked.
Grant moved first.
He seized the guard.
Victor took the man’s weapon.
My mother checked Rose.
I freed Jonah and Naomi.
Adrian moved toward the front of the cabin.
The cockpit door required a code.
August called out six numbers.
Adrian entered them.
The door opened.
There was no pilot.
The aircraft was autonomous.
A digital map showed our position above the Atlantic.
Destination coordinates appeared only as encrypted symbols.
Naomi connected the memory card to the flight system.
“Can we change course?”
Adrian examined the controls.
“Conrad disabled manual routing.”
Grant searched the guard.
He found a satellite phone and two injection pens.
My mother examined them.
“Reversal agent.”
She administered a small dose to Rose.
The child’s breathing strengthened.
I looked at the navigation display.
“Can we land elsewhere?”
“The aircraft will reject any runway not authenticated by the destination beacon.”
“Can we transmit our location?”
“Communications are blocked until descent.”
Naomi pointed toward the bracelet.
“Rose’s signal may be connected to the navigation system.”
We placed her wrist near the console.
The encrypted destination resolved.
A tiny island appeared in the center of the Atlantic.
No name.
No public airfield.
Surrounded by an electronic defense zone.
Saint Orison.
Estimated arrival:
Thirty-eight minutes.
Victor looked at the cabin.
“We take control before landing.”
Adrian shook his head.
“If we interfere with the flight system, Saint Orison’s defenses will destroy the aircraft.”
Grant looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“I helped design them.”
“Of course you did.”
The satellite phone rang.
Grant answered.
His mother’s voice came through.
“Grant?”
He said nothing.
“Please answer me.”
“I’m here.”
She exhaled.
“Conrad knows you escaped the restraints.”
“How?”
“There are cameras.”
We looked toward the small black lenses in the ceiling.
Evelyn continued.
“He ordered the island to prepare containment.”
“How many guards?”
“More than two hundred.”
“What about the children?”
A pause.
“They arrived yesterday.”
“Eleven?”
“Ten.”
Rose looked toward us.
“Who died?”
Evelyn’s voice broke.
“R-4 attempted to escape during transport.”
Rose closed her eyes.
I took the phone.
“Evelyn, listen carefully. We need access to the island control center.”
“You cannot reach it.”
“Where is it?”
“Beneath the chapel.”
“Who can enter?”
“Conrad, August, Adrian, and the selected successor.”
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“What happens during selection?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“Each candidate connects to the archive core. The system measures memory stability, obedience, and resistance.”
“Obedience to whom?”
“To Custodian Zero’s protocols.”
I looked at August.
He seemed pleased.
“What happens to candidates who fail?” I asked.
Evelyn began crying.
“They are removed.”
“Killed?”
“Yes.”
Rose did not react outwardly.
Her fingers tightened around mine.
Grant spoke into the phone.
“Where are you?”
“On the island.”
“Can you help us?”
“I don’t know.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Conrad watches me.”
“He has watched you my entire life, and you keep choosing him.”
Silence.
Then Evelyn whispered, “The chapel bells control the perimeter gates. Three bells unlock the harbor. Five disable the runway defenses for ninety seconds.”
Naomi wrote it down.
A man shouted in the background.
Evelyn spoke quickly.
“There is a maintenance entrance beneath the western cliff. Rose knows the access sequence.”
The call ended.
Rose looked at us.
“I don’t know a sequence.”
August corrected her.
“You do. You were conditioned not to remember until you saw the cliff marker.”
I turned toward him.
“You put instructions inside her mind?”
“Associative memory prompts.”
My mother looked ready to shoot him again.
The aircraft began descending.
Clouds parted.
Saint Orison appeared below.
A green island surrounded by dark blue water.
A stone chapel stood at the highest point.
Below it stretched a white complex of laboratories, residences, and administrative buildings.
A runway cut across the eastern side.
The western cliffs dropped sharply into the ocean.
Armed vehicles waited beside the landing strip.
Hundreds of people stood in formation.
At the center was Conrad Holloway.
Beside him stood Evelyn.
Ten children in white clothing waited near the chapel steps.
Rose pressed her face close to the cockpit glass.
She identified them one by one.
“Maya. Thomas. Lena. Joseph. Anna. Eli. June. Peter. Lila. David.”
Not numbers.
Names.
The aircraft aligned with the runway.
Victor handed weapons to the adults.
My mother placed a small gun inside her coat.
Grant loaded the guard’s rifle.
Adrian studied the island layout.
Naomi copied the flight records.
Jonah checked every exit.
August watched me.
“What is your plan, Claire?”
I looked at the chapel.
The control center beneath it.
The gates.
The bells.
The powerful people waiting for us to step into a system they believed they controlled.
“The same plan I used at the gala.”
August smiled.
“Lock every exit.”
“No.”
The aircraft touched down.
Tires screamed against the runway.
Armed vehicles surrounded us.
I looked at Rose and the ten children waiting outside.
May you like
“This time, we open one.”
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