Chapter 15 - CROSSHAVEN
Crosshaven appeared on maps as an uninhabited strip of rock and forest.
Satellite images told a different story.
A restored mansion stood near the eastern shore.
Two underground structures extended beneath the property.
A private laboratory occupied the northern end.
A short runway crossed the center.
Sebastian had maintained the island for years without public ownership records.
Canadian tactical units assembled before sunset.
Hadrian remained on the mainland command vessel.
He hated every second.
Livia was on the island.
Naomi was on the island.
The unknown B-6 child was on the island.
Possibly Marcus.
Possibly Malcolm.
Definitely Sebastian.
Sorrel remained hundreds of miles away under guard.
Hadrian spoke to her by video.
She held the patchwork rabbit.
“Are you bringing Livia home?”
“We’re trying.”
Sorrel nodded.
“What about the other girl?”
Hadrian paused.
“We’re trying to help her too.”
“Does she have a mommy?”
“I don’t know.”
Sorrel frowned.
“Then she can borrow Naomi until we find hers.”
Hadrian smiled despite everything.
“That sounds fair.”
At 7:40 p.m., the operation began.
Boats approached from three sides.
A helicopter remained beyond the island’s radar line.
Electronic systems were jammed.
For twenty seconds, Crosshaven went dark.
Then gunfire erupted near the northern dock.
Hadrian stared at the tactical feed.
Sebastian had armed security.
More heavily than expected.
The teams changed approach.
One unit entered through the old laboratory tunnel.
Another reached the mansion.
Rooms cleared.
Empty.
No captives.
No Sebastian.
Then a hidden elevator was discovered.
Underground.
The feed descended.
Concrete hallway.
Medical rooms.
Storage.
Cells.
Hadrian’s stomach turned.
One room contained children’s medical equipment.
Blood collection kits.
Genetic sequencing equipment.
Project Orchard was not history.
Sebastian had rebuilt it.
An officer opened a secured room.
Naomi was inside.
Alive.
She immediately asked.
“Where is Livia?”
Hadrian’s heart tightened.
She did not know.
Another room contained Marcus.
This time he was genuinely restrained.
He had a gunshot wound in his shoulder.
He was conscious.
When officers freed him, his first words were.
“Sebastian has the girls.”
Hadrian leaned toward the command screen.
Marcus continued.
“Runway.”
Thermal cameras shifted.
A vehicle raced toward the western airstrip.
A small aircraft was already moving.
Three figures entered.
An old man.
Two children.
Sebastian had Livia and B-6.
The aircraft accelerated.
Tactical units were too far.
Hadrian shouted even though nobody on the island could hear him.
The plane lifted.
Then suddenly veered.
One engine lost power.
Smoke appeared.
The aircraft descended hard.
It struck the far end of the runway and spun into grass.
Emergency teams raced toward it.
Hadrian stopped breathing.
Fire did not appear.
The cockpit door opened.
Sebastian emerged.
Blood on his forehead.
He pulled one child after him.
Livia.
The second girl crawled from another door.
Both alive.
Hadrian nearly collapsed.
Sebastian dragged Livia toward the forest.
Officers shouted.
He held something against her neck.
A syringe.
The tactical team stopped.
Hadrian felt sick.
Sebastian backed toward an old utility building.
“Stay away!”
Audio from an officer’s microphone carried his voice.
Livia cried.
The blonde girl stood several yards away.
She did something unexpected.
She ran toward Sebastian.
He shouted at her.
“Stop!”
She did not.
She grabbed his arm.
The syringe fell.
Livia broke free.
Officers rushed forward.
Sebastian struck the blonde girl and ran.
Hadrian’s anger exploded.
But the child stood again.
She was alive.
Livia ran into an officer’s arms.
Sebastian disappeared into the forest.
The island locked down.
Search teams followed.
Naomi reached Livia twenty minutes later.
Hadrian watched mother and daughter embrace through a remote feed.
He cried without hiding it.
Livia was safe.
Hadrian did not need her to know him yet.
Seeing Naomi hold her was enough.
The blonde girl refused to speak.
She gave no name.
Doctors found multiple old injection marks.
Surgical scars.
Signs of years of medical procedures.
No obvious identity documents existed.
One bracelet around her wrist carried a number.
B6-ORCHARD.
Dr. Sethi began emergency genetic testing.
Hadrian watched from the mainland.
He felt responsible for a child he had never met.
Eleanor had died trying to protect her.
That was enough.
Marcus was transported under guard.
Hadrian was finally allowed to see him at the mainland hospital.
Marcus lay in bed with his shoulder bandaged.
Two officers stood outside.
Hadrian entered.
Marcus looked at him.
“You look terrible.”
Hadrian almost laughed.
“You kidnapped my daughter.”
“I saved her from Sebastian.”
“You helped steal her before she was born.”
Marcus looked away.
“That too.”
Hadrian stood beside the bed.
“Why did you help him?”
Marcus stared at the ceiling.
“Because Sebastian made people feel chosen.”
Hadrian said nothing.
“He found me at twenty-four.”
“I had debt.”
“Ambition.”
“No family.”
“He funded our first company through intermediaries.”
Hadrian froze.
“What?”
Marcus looked at him.
“You thought we built it from nothing.”
Hadrian remembered their first investors.
Anonymous fund.
Lucky break.
“Sebastian financed us.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To get close to Eleanor.”
Hadrian felt disgust.
“Our friendship was part of his plan?”
“At first.”
Hadrian stared.
Marcus’s eyes filled.
“Then it became real.”
“Do not insult me.”
“I am not.”
Marcus looked directly at him.
“You were my best friend.”
“And I betrayed you anyway.”
Hadrian’s jaw tightened.
“At least you understand that.”
Marcus nodded.
“I knew about North Cedar.”
“I moved money.”
“I recruited Celeste.”
“I helped build the guardianship plan.”
“Did you order Sorrel abused?”
Marcus looked ashamed.
“I told Celeste to make Sorrel dependent.”
“That is not my question.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
“I told her to use fear.”
Hadrian’s hands curled.
“The chain?”
“No.”
“Did you stop it?”
“No.”
“That is enough.”
Marcus nodded.
Hadrian continued.
“Did you kill Eleanor?”
Marcus’s eyes opened.
“No.”
“Did you know Sebastian ordered it?”
“Not before.”
“After?”
“Yes.”
“And you covered it up.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he had evidence that would put me in prison for financial crimes.”
Hadrian laughed bitterly.
“So you protected yourself.”
“Yes.”
“While I buried my wife.”
Marcus looked away.
“I stood beside you at the funeral.”
“I know.”
“I hated myself.”
“Not enough.”
“No.”
Hadrian turned to leave.
Marcus called.
“Hadrian.”
He stopped.
“Sebastian is not trying to escape the island.”
Hadrian looked back.
“What?”
“He has another bunker.”
“Where?”
“I do not know.”
“Then why say it?”
“Because he told Malcolm the island has a contingency vault.”
“What is inside?”
Marcus’s face changed.
“The original Project Orchard archive.”
Hadrian frowned.
“Evidence?”
“More than evidence.”
“What?”
“Embryos.”
Hadrian froze.
“How many?”
Marcus swallowed.
“Hundreds.”
Hadrian stared.
Project Orchard had never ended.
Sebastian had preserved material from families for decades.
The island search intensified.
At midnight, teams found Malcolm Price dead near the forest road.
Single gunshot.
Sebastian was eliminating allies again.
At 1:20 a.m., a concealed steel door was located beneath an old chapel.
The tactical team breached it.
The tunnel descended thirty feet.
Cold vapor drifted through.
Cryogenic storage.
Rows of containers.
Hundreds.
Hadrian felt sick.
Then an officer found a living area.
Recently used.
An open laptop.
A half-finished cup of tea.
Sebastian had been there minutes earlier.
A second exit led toward cliffs on the western shore.
Searchlights swept the water.
Nothing.
Then radar detected a small submarine craft leaving the island.
Hadrian stared.
Sebastian had prepared everything.
The craft disappeared into deep water before interception.
He had escaped.
But Livia was safe.
Naomi was safe.
B-6 was safe.
Crosshaven and the archive were in government hands.
For the first time, Sebastian had lost something enormous.
At 3:00 a.m., Dr. Sethi called.
“We finished the first genetic comparison on B-6.”
Hadrian looked toward the room where the blonde child slept.
“And?”
Dr. Sethi hesitated.
“She is not genetically related to you.”
Hadrian expected that after Celeste’s information.
“Eleanor?”
“No.”
“Then who are her parents?”
“We found one match.”
Hadrian waited.
Dr. Sethi looked shaken.
“Her biological father is Sebastian Cross.”
Hadrian stared.
Sebastian had experimented on his own child.
“Mother?”
“Unknown.”
Hadrian felt disgust deepen.
Then Dr. Sethi continued.
“There is something else.”
“What?”
“B-6 is not seven years old.”
Hadrian frowned.
“She looks seven.”
“Her records show she was born eleven years ago.”
Hadrian stared.
“That is impossible.”
Dr. Sethi turned the laboratory report.
“Her cellular aging markers are abnormal.”
The editing had apparently altered development.
Hadrian remembered Celeste calling B-6 a treatment.
The implications were terrifying.
Dr. Sethi spoke carefully.
“We need extensive independent confirmation.”
“But if these results are correct…”
Hadrian looked toward the sleeping child.
“What?”
“She may be the first living evidence that Sebastian’s experiment affected the biological aging process.”
The scientific significance was enormous.
The danger to the girl was even larger.
If pharmaceutical companies or governments learned what she might represent, she could become a target for the rest of her life.
Hadrian finally understood Eleanor’s desperation.
She had not only been hiding a crime.
She had been hiding a human being from everyone who would turn her body into property.
Hadrian looked at Gideon.
“No public identity.”
Gideon nodded.
“Agreed.”
“She gets a lawyer.”
“Yes.”
“Independent guardian.”
“Yes.”
“No company touches her.”
“Yes.”
“No patent.”
“Absolutely.”
Hadrian looked through the glass.
The blonde girl opened her eyes.
For the first time, she looked directly at him.
Then she spoke.
Her voice was hoarse.
“Hadrian?”
He froze.
No one had told her his name.
He entered slowly.
“How do you know who I am?”
The girl reached beneath her blanket.
She pulled out a folded photograph.
Eleanor.
Hadrian.
Baby Sorrel.
Hadrian stared.
“Where did you get that?”
The girl’s eyes filled with tears.
“A woman gave it to me.”
“What woman?”
She pointed to Eleanor.
“Her.”
Hadrian stopped breathing.
“When?”
The girl whispered.
May you like
“Yesterday.”
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