## CHAPTER 10 — THE DOCTOR’S WARNING
Emergency lights flickered on.
Detective Hale ordered Logan and Elena against the wall while she cleared the corridor.
No one was there.
The rear exit stood open.
Someone had been inside the facility with them.
Dr. Keller was taken to a secure hospital.
He refused to speak until Hale promised federal protection.
Even then, he gave them only fragments.
Claire had survived the crash.
She had been transferred to Facility Seven with severe burns and a head injury.
Edmund’s private medical team controlled her treatment.
Officially, she was listed as an unidentified patient.
“Why didn’t you contact Logan?” Hale asked.
Keller looked ashamed.
“Edmund said Logan knew.”
Logan leaned across the table.
“You believed him?”
“I was paid to believe him.”
“What did you do to Claire?”
Keller’s eyes dropped.
“Memory suppression. Sedation. Isolation.”
Elena stood abruptly and left the room.
Logan wanted to follow her, but he needed the rest.
“Is Claire alive?”
Keller hesitated.
“She was when I last saw her.”
“When?”
“Eleven months ago.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. They moved her.”
“Who is they?”
Keller’s hands trembled.
“The Board.”
Mercer Medical Research had a board of directors, but Keller was not referring to the public organization.
This Board operated privately.
Its members used numbers instead of names.
Edmund was Number One.
Vanessa had been Number Six.
Graham Knox was Number Eight.
Keller had been Number Eleven.
“What was the purpose?” Hale asked.
Keller looked at Logan.
“To determine whether fear could alter inherited decision-making patterns.”
Logan stared at him.
“You abused my son for research?”
“No. I evaluated the results. Vanessa administered most of the conditioning.”
“Conditioning?”
Keller flinched.
“That’s what they called it.”
Logan grabbed the table.
Hale stepped between them.
Keller quickly added, “Vanessa changed the protocol.”
“What does that mean?”
“She became more aggressive. She wanted Noah declared permanently impaired before his eighth birthday.”
“Why his eighth birthday?”
Keller looked confused.
“You don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“Claire changed the Mercer trust before the crash.”
Logan’s phone rang.
It was the estate.
Noah was missing.
The security cameras showed him leaving his bedroom at 2:14 p.m.
He walked calmly toward the east wing.
May you like
Beside him was a woman wearing Claire’s old blue coat.
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