Chapter 12 - The Server Room
Vale stopped walking.
The officer holding his arm looked at him.
"Doctor?"
Jonathan said, "BM-01."
Vale's face changed.
There it was.
Fear.
Lila stepped closer.
"I was in it."
Vale looked at her.
"Who told you?"
"My mother."
"Anna did not know enough."
Lila laughed.
"She knew enough to hide your patient list in a bracelet for twelve years."
Vale's mouth tightened.
Jonathan told the officer, "He stays."
The detective arrived.
Vale's counsel was called.
Nobody left.
Claire recovered partial server indexes.
BM-01 existed.
Creation date:
Two years before the Plant Seven leak.
Jonathan stared.
"Before the accident."
Claire nodded.
"Then BM-01 wasn't created because of exposure."
Lila's stomach tightened.
"What was it?"
Vale said nothing.
Jonathan opened the index.
Pediatric partnerships.
Chicago clinics.
Blood samples.
Family genetic histories.
Lila felt sick.
"Children."
Claire whispered, "Yes."
"Why?"
Vale finally spoke.
"Research."
Jonathan turned.
"On what?"
"Susceptibility."
"To chemicals?"
"To inflammatory damage."
Lila stared.
"You tested children before the leak."
Vale's jaw tightened.
"The program was observational."
"Without parents knowing?"
"Consent was embedded in clinic intake."
Lila laughed bitterly.
"That is not consent."
Vale looked at Jonathan.
"Your father believed identifying vulnerable populations would improve workplace safety."
"Then why hide it?"
"Because investors misunderstand research."
Claire almost shouted.
"Children are not investors."
Vale went silent.
Jonathan searched Lila's record.
File unavailable.
Physical backup only.
Location:
ARCHIVE B.
The old plant map showed Archive B beneath the clinic wing.
They moved with police.
A locked basement.
Vale refused the code.
Jonathan used a cutting tool from maintenance.
Inside were paper records.
Hundreds.
Small boxes.
Clinic cards.
Blood spots.
Lila's throat closed.
She found HART, LILA.
Age two.
She opened it.
Pediatric exam.
No illness.
No exposure.
Then a notation:
HIGH-VULNERABILITY GENETIC PROFILE.
FOLLOW AFTER INDUSTRIAL EVENT IF AVAILABLE.
Lila stopped breathing.
"They were waiting."
Jonathan's face hardened.
"For what?"
"For an accident."
Vale said quietly, "No."
Everyone turned.
He swallowed.
"For data."
Lila stared.
Then her file slipped.
A photograph fell out.
Two-year-old Lila in a pediatric exam room.
Beside her stood Anna.
And William Mercer.
Jonathan's father.
Lila looked at Vale.
"Why was he there?"
Vale whispered:
May you like
"Because your mother had already threatened the program before Plant Seven ever leaked."
CUT.
