Page 9

For the first time since I met him, Noah looked genuinely frightened.

“Your father did this?”

“I thought he died twelve years ago.”

The hospital employee stepped away from the computer.

“I shouldn’t be showing you this.”

Noah looked at her.

“Where is the original file?”

She swallowed.

“Storage room seven.”

We went downstairs.

The room was locked.

Noah opened it in seconds.

Inside were hundreds of boxes.

He searched for nearly ten minutes.

Then he found one.

A faded label read:

L-17

My hands trembled.

Noah opened it.

Inside were medical reports.

Photographs.

DNA results.

And one handwritten letter.

Noah unfolded it.

His eyes moved across the page.

Then he handed it to me.

I read it.

If you’re reading this, the project has failed.

The child must never be given to Ryan.

He will tell her that Lily belongs to him.

He will lie.

Lily is not his biological daughter.

I looked up.

“What?”

Noah continued reading.

The next line made my world collapse.

The child carries genetic information that can unlock the original Sentinel identity system.

I didn’t understand.

Noah did.

“My father wasn’t building a security system.”

“He was building something else.”

“What?”

“A system that could predict and reproduce identities.”

I looked at Lily.

“She is a key?”

“No.”

Noah shook his head.

“She is proof that the system works.”

Suddenly, footsteps echoed outside the storage room.

Someone was coming.

Noah closed the box.

“Take Lily.”

“Where?”

“Anywhere but here.”

The door handle began moving.

Then a voice came from the hallway.

“Hello, Noah.”

Noah froze.

I recognized the voice immediately.

Ryan.

But this time, he wasn’t alone.