CHAPTER 29 : The Insider
Noah could not identify the person he had seen.
Price had shown him the footage only once.
The individual wore a hood and kept their face lowered.
Noah remembered one detail.
“The person had a bracelet.”
Rachel wore no bracelet.
Neither did Olivia, Mia, Marissa, or Emily.
But bracelets could be removed.
Suspicion changed the center.
Doors remained locked.
Staff members were questioned.
Personal devices were examined.
Everyone who had helped Sophie now found themselves wondering who had betrayed them.
Daniel reviewed the access records.
The chamber door had been opened using Mia’s stolen security card.
A second authorization had come from the center director’s account.
Rachel’s account.
“I didn’t authorize anything,” Rachel said.
“Your password was entered correctly.”
“Someone stole it.”
“Who knew it?”
“No one.”
Addison stood near the doorway.
“I knew it.”
Rachel turned toward her daughter.
“You never used my account.”
“I saw you type the password.”
Daniel crouched beside Addison.
“Did you tell anyone?”
“No.”
“Did anyone ask?”
Addison thought for a moment.
“The woman outside school.”
Rachel’s face tightened.
“What did she say?”
“She asked me to play a memory game. She said if I remembered the letters you typed, I could win a prize.”
The false Rachel had obtained the password before entering the courthouse.
But that did not explain the bracelet.
Sophie remembered something.
“The woman in the courthouse video touched her wrist.”
Daniel replayed the recording.
Beneath the false Rachel’s sleeve was a thin gold chain.
A small star charm hung from it.
Emily touched her own wrist.
Every Northstar subject had been given the same bracelet.
Hers had been removed after she escaped the program.
“The person helping Elias is a former child,” she said.
“Someone who grew up inside Northstar.”
Olivia searched the list of living subjects.
One name had been partially erased.
SUBJECT 01
FEMALE
PLACEMENT: GRAY FAMILY
Rachel stared at the screen.
“My parents adopted me.”
Everyone became silent.
“I was three,” Rachel continued. “They told me my birth parents died.”
Emily looked at her.
“Do you remember Northstar?”
“No.”
“Do you remember Wren?”
Rachel closed her eyes.
A memory surfaced.
A white hallway.
A man with silver hair.
A gold bracelet around her wrist.
Rachel opened her eyes in horror.
“He called me Rebecca.”
Addison took her mother’s hand.
“Your name is Rachel.”
Rachel held her tightly.
“I know.”
Daniel received a message from the federal team searching Judge Wren’s properties.
They had discovered an old photograph.
It showed Wren standing beside three children.
Emily.
Elias.
And a little girl wearing a gold star bracelet.
The child was Rachel.
A handwritten note identified her:
SUBJECT 01
PRIMARY CONDITIONING COMPLETE
RETURN IF REQUIRED
Rachel stepped away from everyone.
“I didn’t open the chamber.”
“No one is accusing you,” Ethan said.
“But what if I did something I don’t remember?”
Emily approached her.
“Northstar used commands. Sounds. Phrases. Sometimes a person could follow instructions without understanding why.”
“What phrase?”
“It was different for every subject.”
The center’s speakers activated.
A woman’s voice filled the building.
It sounded exactly like Laura.
“Rachel, the first family has arrived.”
Rachel’s face became empty.
Her arms lowered.
She turned toward the security panel.
Daniel grabbed her before she reached it.
She fought him with unexpected strength.
“Rachel!”
She did not respond.
The voice repeated the phrase.
“The first family has arrived.”
Rachel entered a code on the panel before Daniel pulled her away.
Every door inside the center unlocked.
The underground chamber activated.
A message appeared across the central screen.
SUBJECT 01 ACCEPTED.
NORTHSTAR RELEASE SEQUENCE INITIATED.
A countdown began.
Twenty-four hours.
Then Sophie’s phone rang.
May you like
The caller identification displayed her mother’s name.
LAURA BLACKWOOD.
