Chapter 20 - THE FIRST WAR WAS NEVER OVER
The abandoned railway station stood outside Chicago.
Rain fell heavily.
The tracks disappeared into darkness.
Claire arrived with Nicholas.
Eva appeared from the opposite side.
Neither woman spoke.
Then Eleanor stepped from the vehicle.
Claire turned.
“I told you to stay behind.”
Eleanor shook her head.
“I started this.”
“You didn't.”
“I did.”
She looked at Eva.
“I chose.”
Eva's eyes filled.
“Don't.”
Eleanor stepped closer.
“I was wrong.”
Eva looked away.
Then a voice echoed through the station.
“Beautiful.”
Daniel Vale emerged from the darkness.
Vincent stood beside him.
His hands were tied.
Lily was gone.
Claire's heart stopped.
“Where is my daughter?”
Vale smiled.
“Safe.”
“Give her back.”
“First, the key.”
Claire stepped forward.
“I don't have it.”
Vale laughed.
“You are the key.”
“No.”
He pointed toward her.
“Your blood.”
Claire froze.
Nicholas raised his weapon.
Vale's men surrounded them.
“Lower it.”
Nicholas did.
Vale looked at Eva.
“And you.”
Eva stared.
“What?”
“You are the failsafe.”
Eva's expression hardened.
“I know.”
Vale smiled.
“Then you know what happens next.”
Claire looked at her sister.
“What happens?”
Eva whispered:
“He needs both of us.”
Vale nodded.
“Exactly.”
Claire suddenly understood.
Eden could not activate the system through one sister.
It required both.
The key.
And the failsafe.
Claire looked at Eva.
“What happens if we refuse?”
Vale looked at Vincent.
“Then he dies.”
Vincent shook his head.
“No.”
Claire stared at him.
“Vincent…”
“Don't give them anything.”
Vale raised his weapon.
Vincent smiled sadly.
“For once, let me make the right decision.”
Claire's eyes filled.
Then a gunshot echoed.
But Vincent didn't fall.
Vale's gunman did.
Nicholas moved.
Chaos exploded.
Eleanor pulled Claire behind a pillar.
Eva attacked another guard.
Vincent grabbed a weapon.
Vale disappeared into the tunnel.
“Lily!” Claire screamed.
They ran after him.
The tunnel opened into a massive underground chamber.
Servers covered the walls.
Hundreds of screens.
Financial markets.
Banks.
Government databases.
Shipping routes.
Political maps.
Everything.
Claire stared.
“This is Eden.”
Eleanor nodded.
“No.”
She looked around.
“This is only one node.”
Claire froze.
“One?”
“Yes.”
Nicholas looked at the screens.
“There's another problem.”
“What?”
“The system is already activated.”
Claire turned.
“What?”
Nicholas pointed.
At the center of the chamber was a screen.
A child's biometric profile.
LILY BENNETT.
Status:
ACTIVE.
Claire's heart stopped.
Then a woman's voice echoed through the chamber.
Not Eleanor.
Not Eva.
Not Vale.
A voice Claire had never heard.
“Hello, Claire.”
Every screen changed.
A woman's photograph appeared.
Claire stared.
It was her grandmother.
But she was not old.
The photograph had been taken recently.
Claire's face went pale.
“That's impossible.”
Eleanor whispered:
“No.”
The woman on the screen smiled.
“I suppose introductions are necessary.”
Claire stared.
“Who are you?”
The woman answered:
“Your grandmother.”
Eleanor began crying.
“She died thirty years ago.”
The woman smiled.
“I did.”
Claire felt a chill.
“Then who are you?”
The woman looked directly into the camera.
“The woman who replaced her.”
Silence.
Claire couldn't breathe.
The screen changed again.
A map appeared.
Red points spread across the world.
Europe.
Asia.
America.
Africa.
South America.
Thousands of locations.
Then one final message appeared:
EDEN NETWORK: 100% ACTIVE.
Claire turned toward Eleanor.
“You told me Daniel Vale controlled Eden.”
Eleanor shook her head.
“I was wrong.”
“Then who does?”
Eleanor looked at the screen.
Her voice became barely audible.
“Your grandmother.”
Claire stared.
The woman smiled from every screen.
Then she spoke.
“And now, Claire…”
A pause.
“Bring me my granddaughter.”
Claire's blood ran cold.
“You have Lily?”
The woman smiled.
“No.”
The screen changed.
Lily was sitting peacefully in a room.
But she wasn't alone.
A woman sat beside her.
Claire recognized her immediately.
Eva.
Claire turned.
Eva was standing beside her.
Impossible.
She had never left.
Claire looked at the screen again.
The woman beside Lily wasn't Eva.
It was another woman.
Same face.
Same eyes.
Same hair.
Claire whispered:
“No.”
Eleanor collapsed into a chair.
“That's impossible.”
Nicholas stared.
“Twins.”
Claire's heart stopped.
Another child.
Another secret.
Another sister.
The woman on the screen smiled.
“You thought there were only two.”
Claire looked at Eva.
Eva was crying.
“I didn't know.”
The woman spoke again.
“Your mother had triplets.”
Claire stared at Eleanor.
Her mother covered her face.
The entire world seemed to stop.
Three daughters.
One key.
One failsafe.
And one child who had never been supposed to exist.
The screen went black.
A final message appeared:
WELCOME TO SEASON TWO.
Then:
THE THIRD DAUGHTER HAS AWAKENED.
Claire slowly reached for Nicholas's hand.
This time, she wasn't afraid.
She looked at Eva.
Then at Eleanor.
Then at Vincent.
“We find Lily.”
Nicholas nodded.
“And then?”
Claire looked toward the dark tunnel where Daniel Vale had disappeared.
“Then we find the third sister.”
She took a breath.
“And after that…”
Her expression hardened.
“We destroy Eden.”
Far away, in a hidden room beneath another city, a young woman opened her eyes.
She looked almost exactly like Claire.
Almost.
Except for the small scar beneath her left eye.
A man approached her.
“Are you ready?”
She smiled.
“I've been waiting twenty-five years.”
He handed her a photograph.
Claire.
Eva.
Lily.
The young woman looked at it.
Then whispered:
“My family finally found me.”
She stood.
May you like
“Now I'll find them.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
