Chapter 10 - Voss’s Interest
Voss surrendered voluntarily.
That made Daniel more suspicious.
He arrived with an attorney.
“I downloaded Sophia’s file because someone altered it.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“What was changed?”
“Her birth date.”
Daniel frowned.
“By how much?”
“Three minutes.”
Absurd.
Then Voss explained.
Lantern identifiers were generated chronologically.
Three minutes moved Sophia from one cohort to another.
Why would that matter?
Because the cohort wasn’t based on age.
It was based on which observer had responsibility.
Sophia had originally been assigned to Voss.
Someone changed her record and reassigned her.
“To whom?”
Voss slid over the original.
Observer:
C. CARTER.
Claire.
Daniel stared at his wife.
Claire went pale.
“I’ve never seen that.”
Voss nodded.
“I believe you.”
“Then why is her name there?”
“Because someone created Lantern credentials under Claire’s identity before Sophia was born.”
Again.
Stolen identity.
But this time, the credentials had been used for years.
Reports submitted.
Payments approved.
Observations logged.
Someone had been impersonating Claire inside the program.
Who had enough access?
Evelyn?
Richard?
Sarah?
Maya?
Then Ethan found a linguistic clue.
The reports repeatedly called Daniel “Danny.”
Claire never called him Danny.
Only one person did.
His mother.
Evelyn.
Daniel confronted her.
She denied it.
Then he showed the reports.
Her expression collapsed.
“Yes.”
“Why use Claire’s identity?”
“To keep Sophia away from Voss.”
“You monitored her yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Voss wanted direct access.”
“For what?”
Evelyn looked toward him.
“He thought Sophia remembered you.”
Daniel frowned.
“She sees me every day.”
“Not you now.”
“What?”
“You at seventeen.”
Silence.
Evelyn explained.
When Sophia was three, she drew a picture.
A teenage boy beside a lake.
She told her preschool teacher:
“That’s Daddy before Daddy knew me.”
Coincidence.
Children invent things.
Except the lake matched a Glass Harbor location Daniel had forgotten.
Sophia had never been there.
“Did someone show her photographs?”
“I thought so.”
“Who?”
“We never found out.”
Then Lucas’s statement became important.
Sophia had described “Grandma” before meeting Evelyn.
Maybe someone had been showing her family images.
Conditioning her.
Not inherited memory.
Not supernatural genetics.
Someone had been teaching Sophia information and making it feel familiar.
Daniel’s anger sharpened.
“Who had access to her?”
Family.
School.
Babysitters.
Sarah.
Claire.
Richard.
Then Sophia’s pediatric records showed one recurring volunteer at her preschool.
Storytime program.
An elderly woman named Helen Ross.
Photograph unavailable.
Address false.
Daniel showed the name to Evelyn.
She looked terrified.
“Mom?”
“No.”
“Who is Helen Ross?”
Evelyn whispered:
“That was Voss’s mother.”
Arthur Voss’s mother should have been dead for twenty years.
Voss stared at the name.
“My mother never used Ross.”
“Then who did?”
Voss went silent.
Finally:
“My sister.”
Daniel had never known Voss had a sister.
“Name?”
Voss looked at Sophia’s file.
“Dr. Helen Voss Ross.”
A developmental psychologist.
One of Lantern’s original designers.
Officially retired.
May you like
Still alive.
And she had spent two years volunteering inside Sophia’s preschool.
