Chapter 8 - The Child William Mercer Hid
Jonathan stared at Claire.
"Say that again."
She looked at the locked conference-room door.
"BM-17 became more than monitoring."
Lila's stomach tightened.
"What does that mean?"
Claire opened a second folder.
Exposure scores.
Genetic markers.
Family histories.
Medical outcomes.
People reduced to rows.
Jonathan read.
"They built a risk model."
Claire nodded.
"Insurance liability. Settlement forecasting."
"Who gets sick enough to sue," Lila said.
Claire looked at her.
"Yes."
Jonathan flipped pages faster.
"My father used patients as data."
"William said it would help treatment."
"Did it?"
"Sometimes."
"And the rest?"
"Reduced liability exposure."
Lila laughed bitterly.
"That's a nice way to say they priced people's diseases."
Claire closed her eyes.
Richard stood near the window.
He had stopped defending anyone.
That worried Jonathan more.
"Where is the complete database?"
Claire said, "Richard controls it."
Everyone looked at him.
He turned.
"Not anymore."
Jonathan stood.
"What does that mean?"
"Your father moved the archive before he died."
"Where?"
"Vale."
Claire went pale.
"Richard."
Lila caught it.
"Who is Vale?"
Jonathan frowned.
"Dr. Henry Vale. He was my father's physician."
"Company doctor?"
"Board member now."
Claire whispered, "He designed the medical side."
Jonathan's phone buzzed.
System alert.
Legacy archive login.
Someone had accessed BM-17.
User:
HVALE.
Jonathan looked at Claire.
"He's inside now."
She nodded.
"Deleting?"
"Maybe."
Jonathan called IT directly.
"Take the legacy servers offline. Physical disconnect."
The technician hesitated.
"Sir, Dr. Vale has board-authorized emergency access."
"Not anymore."
Richard snapped, "You cannot revoke him unilaterally."
Jonathan turned.
"Watch me."
IT began shutting systems down.
Lila searched Anna's microfilm again.
One line had a mark beside it.
A triangle.
She had seen that symbol in her mother's notebooks.
She opened Anna's work papers.
Triangle next to names of people who later died.
Then another code:
BM-01.
She frowned.
"What's BM-01?"
Claire went completely still.
Jonathan saw.
"Claire."
"I don't know."
"You just lied."
"I know the code. Not the program."
Richard moved toward the door.
Jonathan blocked him.
"Where are you going?"
"Home."
"No."
Richard's face hardened.
"You do not control me."
"Tonight I control the elevators."
Lila almost smiled.
Then the lights flickered.
Every monitor went black.
Emergency power kicked in.
Claire's phone rang.
She answered.
Her face drained.
"What?"
Jonathan stepped closer.
"What happened?"
Claire lowered the phone.
"The physical BM archive is being removed from the South Side plant."
"By who?"
She looked at Richard.
Then Jonathan.
"Dr. Vale."
Jonathan grabbed his coat.
Lila followed.
Richard said:
"If you go there, you will find things your father buried for a reason."
Jonathan stopped.
"Good."
Then Richard said one more thing.
May you like
"One of them is Lila."
CUT.
