Chapter 4 - The Doctor Who Came Back for Lily
Dr. Adrian Vale did not look like a monster.
That was the first thing Anna hated about him.
He entered the service room through the ordinary hallway fifteen minutes later.
Sixty-two.
Silver hair.
Thin black glasses.
Dark overcoat.
Calm expression.
A leather medical case in one hand.
He looked like someone who should be explaining test results in a quiet office.
Not someone whose name made a creature hide inside a wall.
Eleanor stepped backward.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
Vale smiled.
“Neither should she.”
He looked at Anna.
Then at Lily.
His smile disappeared.
“Where did you find the child?”
Anna tightened her arms around Lily.
“In your cage.”
“It isn’t a cage.”
“What is it?”
“A containment corridor.”
“You tied a four-year-old inside it.”
Vale looked genuinely irritated.
“I did not put her beside Subject One.”
Subject One.
Anna felt rage climb through her chest.
“Her name is Mara.”
Vale studied her.
Then noticed the crescent pendant.
Understanding arrived.
“Anna Bell.”
He knew her full name.
“Stay away from me.”
“You look remarkably like her.”
Anna moved toward the counter where a heavy silver serving tray lay.
Vale noticed.
He did not advance.
“Your sister is dangerous.”
“She protected Lily.”
“For now.”
Lily whispered into Anna’s shoulder:
“She gave me water.”
Vale’s expression changed.
Not fear.
Interest.
“You communicated with her?”
Lily hid her face.
Anna hated the way he looked at the child.
Like information.
“Why did you put Lily in the tunnel?”
“I didn’t.”
“She saw you.”
“I brought her to the service room. Someone else moved her.”
Eleanor snapped:
“Liar.”
Vale looked at Eleanor.
“You’re still doing that?”
“Doing what?”
“Choosing whichever version makes you least responsible.”
Anna looked between them.
There was history here.
Vale placed his medical case on the floor.
“Lily opened a door she was never supposed to find.”
“What door?”
“The lower laboratory.”
Anna glanced at Eleanor.
“You said it was sealed.”
“It was.”
Vale smiled faintly.
“Apparently not very well.”
Earlier that afternoon Lily had been playing hide-and-seek with a housekeeper.
She entered Daniel Harrow’s old study.
Behind a bookcase, she found a narrow stairway.
At the bottom she saw Vale.
And someone else.
A person strapped to a medical table.
Anna’s blood went cold.
“Another subject?”
Vale’s face gave nothing.
Lily began trembling.
Anna asked softly:
“What did you see, sweetheart?”
Lily whispered:
“A sleeping boy.”
Vale immediately said:
“She misunderstood.”
Anna turned.
“What boy?”
“No boy.”
Lily looked at him.
“You put the needle in him.”
Silence.
Vale’s calm finally cracked.
Just slightly.
Eleanor stared at him.
“You restarted it.”
Vale ignored her.
“Give me Lily.”
Anna almost laughed.
“No.”
“Then you are placing her in danger.”
“The only person who has touched her is you.”
Vale removed his glasses.
Cleaned them.
Put them back on.
A deliberate ritual.
“I developed Erebos to repair tissue that medicine abandons. Spinal trauma. Burns. degenerative nerve damage. Your sister was not supposed to become what she became.”
“Then what was she supposed to become?”
“Alive.”
Anna stopped.
Vale continued.
“Mara came to us injured.”
“From where?”
He looked toward Eleanor.
“That is the question she should answer.”
Anna turned.
Eleanor’s face emptied.
“What happened to Mara?”
Eleanor said nothing.
Vale did.
“She did not come here as a kidnapped test subject.”
Anna stared.
“She volunteered.”
“No.”
“She signed the consent.”
“No.”
“She begged us to give her Erebos.”
Anna’s voice shook.
“My sister was eighteen.”
“Nineteen.”
“You expect me to believe she volunteered to become that?”
“No. She volunteered not to die.”
Anna could hear her own heartbeat.
“What happened?”
Vale picked up his medical case.
“Ask Eleanor why Mara needed saving.”
Eleanor whispered:
“Don’t.”
Vale smiled without warmth.
“Tell her about the car.”
Anna looked at Eleanor.
“What car?”
Eleanor began shaking.
Eight years earlier.
The night Mara supposedly walked into the river.
There had been another event.
A car crash.
Never reported.
Mara had been inside.
May you like
And according to Vale—
Eleanor had been driving.
