Chapter 15 - THE TRUTH ABOUT OLIVEROliver recovered.
But the mark remained.
Doctors monitored him constantly.
James and Anna refused to let anyone take him away.
The investigation continued.
Dr. Vell conducted new tests.
The results were extraordinary.
Oliver's neurological activity was unusual.
But not dangerous.
The mark was not a disease.
It was a visible sign of an inherited biological trait.
The trait did not give Oliver supernatural abilities.
It did something far more subtle.
It affected how his brain processed patterns.
Sounds.
Faces.
Movement.
Memory.
That was why the mark had been missed.
It was not the cause of the illness.
It was a warning sign.
The illness had been caused by the device Cross had secretly implanted during Oliver's prenatal procedure.
Anna remembered now.
The “routine prenatal study.”
It had not been routine.
Cross had inserted a microscopic device.
The device had remained dormant.
Until Oliver was six months old.
The day it activated—
Oliver became sick.
The doctors had thought he was dying from a mysterious illness.
But Eli saw the mark.
The device had been hidden beneath the fold of his neck.
And the moment Cross realized Oliver was being treated—
he had come to retrieve him.
James could barely breathe.
He had almost lost his son.
Not to disease.
To a man his family had trusted.
Dr. Vell found the device.
It contained data.
Patient numbers.
Research results.
And one final message.
SUBJECT 47: SUCCESSFUL.
James stared at the words.
“Successful?”
Dr. Vell looked at him.
“The device was designed to test whether Oliver could receive an external memory pattern.”
Anna felt sick.
“Did it work?”
Dr. Vell hesitated.
“There is evidence that it did.”
James looked at Oliver.
“What did he receive?”
Dr. Vell showed them the data.
A pattern.
A sequence.
A series of sounds.
Then a name.
LILY MOORE.
Eli froze.
Oliver had received a memory pattern from Lily.
But Lily had died years earlier.
The device had stored her neural activity.
Cross had tried to transfer her memories into Oliver.
James looked at Eli.
“Can Oliver remember Lily?”
Eli shook his head.
“No.”
But Oliver suddenly began crying.
A melody played from a nearby phone.
Eli froze.
The melody was familiar.
Lily used to sing it.
Oliver stopped crying.
Then smiled.
Eli began to cry.
The baby did not know Lily.
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But somehow—
he recognized her song.
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