Chapter 2 - The Underground Clinic
The private jet touched down at a secluded airstrip outside Seattle under a heavy shroud of midnight fog. Nathan had bypassed standard customs and security protocols entirely, utilizing emergency corporate clearance to transport Lily, her guardian, and his twins directly into a secure medical-grade motorcade.
Inside the back of the spacious armored Mercedes, the dim overhead lights cast long shadows across the leather interior. Lily sat sipping a warm cup of cocoa, while Emma and Ethan slept peacefully in custom travel bassinets beside her.
Nathan sat across from her, his hands clasped tightly together. "You mentioned bad men following her, Lily. Tell me everything. From the beginning."
Lily set her cup down, her small face solemn as she stared out the tinted window at the passing lights of the city.
"I didn't have a home before," Lily began, her voice steady. "I lived in a place with gray walls and cold floors, where people in white coats took blood and kept us locked in rooms. There were other children too. We weren't allowed to make noise. One night, the alarms started ringing. There was smoke, and people were shouting."
Nathan’s heart hammered against his ribs. A medical facility. A black-site laboratory. It matched the classified intelligence fragments his private security team had barely begun to uncover regarding Neurosoft's rogue subsidiary divisions.
"That's when Dr. Catherine found me," Lily continued, a faint, sad smile touching her lips. "She wasn't wearing a white coat like the others. She had a blue scarf and tears in her eyes. She picked me up, wrapped me in her coat, and ran through the snow until we reached a car. She told me her name was Catherine, and she promised that she would protect me, just like she protected her own babies."
"Did she tell you why she couldn't come home?" Nathan asked, his throat tight.
"She said if she came back to you right away, the men who ran the facility would find her—and they would use her research to hurt you and the twins," Lily said, turning her large eyes to look directly at Nathan. "She said she had to finish destroying their central server first. And she gave me something to give to you, when the time was right."
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Lily reached into her oversized backpack, fumbling through a collection of crayons and folded drawings, before pulling out a small, metallic data drive stamped with the Neurosoft corporate encryption seal.
Nathan took the drive. It was cold to the touch, inscribed with a private serial number only Catherine and he had used during the founding days of their company.
