Chapter 17 - THE SISTERS’ BLOOD
The damaged ship tilted toward the water.
Claire dragged Naomi toward the upper rail.
Sloane escaped from the bridge before the lower deck flooded.
He carried the Helix control drive and a pistol.
“Leave her,” he said.
Claire stood between him and Naomi.
“You worked for Victor.”
“I worked with Victor.”
“You helped him experiment on children.”
“I helped preserve a medical breakthrough.”
“Thirty-one children died.”
“Millions could have lived.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“Every monster in this story says the same thing.”
Sloane aimed at her chest.
“You are both biological resources.”
“Not people.”
“Not to you.”
“History remembers results.”
Naomi lifted her gun from the deck.
Her hand shook badly.
She fired.
The bullet struck Sloane’s shoulder.
He returned fire.
Claire pulled Naomi behind a steel panel.
Sloane moved toward the emergency boat.
The ship rolled farther.
The cable from the Ashford vessel swung above the water.
Ethan attached himself to the rescue harness.
Reed attempted to stop him.
Ethan crossed anyway.
He landed on the sinking deck.
Claire shouted his name.
Sloane fired toward him.
Ethan took cover behind the bridge.
The emergency boat released.
Sloane climbed inside.
Adrian appeared on the Ashford vessel with a rifle.
His hands trembled from his condition.
He aimed carefully.
The first shot struck the boat’s motor.
Sloane fired back.
The bullet hit Adrian’s side.
He fell against the rail.
Evelyn screamed and caught him before he went overboard.
Sloane’s boat drifted without power.
Reed’s officers moved to intercept him.
Ethan reached Claire and Naomi.
“We have sixty seconds before this deck goes under.”
“Naomi cannot move.”
“I will carry her.”
The three reached the rescue cable.
The harness could support only two people.
Ethan attached Naomi first.
Claire clipped herself beside her sister.
“What about you?” she asked.
“I will jump.”
“The current will pull you beneath the hull.”
“I will manage.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
She looked at him.
Not Caroline.
Claire.
The name he had always known.
The life she had built.
“I came back because I still loved you,” she said.
Ethan stared at her.
The ship rolled again.
“Tell me after we survive.”
He activated the cable.
Claire and Naomi moved above the waves.
Ethan jumped as the deck disappeared beneath him.
The sinking vessel pulled water downward.
He fought toward the surface.
Claire reached the Ashford ship.
Crew members lifted Naomi onto a stretcher.
Claire looked back.
Ethan had not surfaced.
Adrian attempted to stand despite the bullet wound.
“Where is he?”
Claire grabbed a rescue line.
Reed stopped her.
“You cannot jump into the suction.”
“He is down there.”
A hand broke the surface.
Ethan appeared fifty yards behind the sinking stern.
The current carried him away.
Eleanor threw a flotation ring.
It fell short.
Adrian entered the water.
His body was weak.
His wound bled into the waves.
He swam toward the brother he had been taught to hate.
Ethan disappeared once.
Adrian reached the location and dove.
Seconds passed.
Then both men surfaced.
Adrian held Ethan beneath the arms.
The crew pulled them toward the ship.
Evelyn pressed both hands against Adrian’s wound.
Eleanor performed rescue breathing on Ethan.
He coughed seawater and opened his eyes.
Claire dropped beside him.
“You managed.”
“Barely.”
She kissed him before anyone could turn away.
The kiss was brief.
It carried eight years of absence.
Then she moved back toward Naomi.
Her sister’s pulse weakened.
Vivian opened the Helix protocol.
“We need blood from both of them now.”
“Will the procedure save Naomi?”
“It may stabilize her.”
“And Adrian?”
“The protocol can treat both, but we need a complete immune sample from Claire and Naomi.”
Claire offered her arm.
Naomi remained conscious.
She looked at Vivian.
“You knew I survived.”
“I suspected after Valerie told me.”
“You never looked for me.”
“I did not remember enough.”
“You remembered her.”
Vivian began crying.
“I remembered losing both of you.”
Naomi looked away.
Medical staff connected the sisters’ blood through separate filtration systems.
Their antibody profiles combined inside a clear chamber.
The mixture changed color.
Vivian added a measured amount to Naomi’s infusion.
Then to Adrian’s.
Both monitors stabilized.
The treatment did not cure them.
It gave them time.
Sloane was captured from the disabled boat.
Reed discovered Victor’s control drive inside his coat.
It contained communications with judges, executives, and government officials.
The true network had finally been exposed.
By morning, federal arrest teams moved across four states.
Ashford board members were detained.
Private clinics were searched.
Medical records were seized.
The cover-up began collapsing faster than Victor could contain it.
The ship returned to New York.
Naomi underwent emergency spinal surgery.
Doctors could not promise she would walk again.
Adrian’s bullet wound was treated.
The combined Helix therapy reduced his tremors.
Ethan remained under observation for water inhalation.
Claire sat between their rooms.
Vivian approached.
“You saved her.”
“We saved each other.”
“I should have found a way to protect both of you.”
“You should have stopped the trial before using either of us.”
“Yes.”
“You do not get forgiveness because you finally admitted it.”
“I know.”
Claire looked at her.
“Will the combined treatment help every survivor?”
“Possibly.”
“Then no private patents.”
“No Ashford ownership.”
“No Bennett ownership.”
Vivian nodded.
“Independent researchers.”
“Public records.”
“Yes.”
“For Caroline.”
Vivian looked through the window toward Naomi.
“For both of you.”
Victor’s trial began under emergency federal proceedings.
He faced charges for murder, attempted murder, medical experimentation, fraud, kidnapping, and conspiracy.
Sloane agreed to cooperate in exchange for avoiding the harshest sentence.
Eleanor rejected an immunity offer.
She chose to provide a full confession.
Evelyn attempted to negotiate.
Adrian asked prosecutors to show no special mercy.
Graham remained unconscious.
Daniel slowly recovered.
For three days, Claire believed the worst was ending.
Then Naomi disappeared from the surgical recovery unit.
Her bed was empty.
The intravenous lines had been cut.
Security footage showed her leaving in a wheelchair beside a nurse.
The nurse was Valerie Bennett.
Vivian’s twin had escaped custody.
They left behind a message.
Victor was not the final authority behind Helix.
The original investor was still free.
May you like
Beneath the message, Valerie had written one name.
Eleanor Ashford.
