Chapter 47
The List of the Transferred
The patient list covered the wall from floor to ceiling.
Claire recognized names from the children's slips, the county file, and the sealed boxes beneath the courthouse. Some belonged to adults. Some belonged to children. Some were only initials.
The status beside each name had changed.
TRANSFERRED TO PUBLIC.
“What does that mean?” Tess asked.
Ada answered, “It means the system is no longer hiding them.”
The facility broadcast every file at once.
Phones rang above the water. Screens lit in the guard corridor. Somewhere in the school, reporters began shouting as names appeared on their feeds.
Owen Bell's voice broke through the speakers.
“You do not understand what you are releasing.”
Claire faced the ceiling. “Then explain it.”
“These people consented to treatment.”
“Children consented?”
“Their guardians did.”
“Daniel signed for Rowan?”
“Daniel signed to protect Rowan from a world that would have called her a failed experiment.”
Daniel stepped toward the speaker. “You told me she was dead.”
“I told you what you needed to keep functioning.”
The sentence made him go still.
Claire understood the cruelty of the system. It did not force people to believe lies. It gave them a version they could survive.
Lucy moved to the patient list. “My name is here.”
Noah took her hand.
“So is mine.”
Eli stared at the bottom of the wall.
His name was not listed.
“Why am I missing?” he asked.
Ada looked at him. “Because you were never transferred.”
“Then what am I?”
“The person who remembers the room.”
Eli's face collapsed. He had been carrying the role like a shield. Now it looked like another cage.
The guards broke through the corridor door.
Claire picked up the blue pencil. “We need to get the archive outside.”
“It is already outside,” Ada said.
Claire's phone displayed a new message from an unknown number.
THE RECORD IS LIVE. THE WITNESS IS NOW EVERYONE.
The final guard raised his weapon.
The artificial lake rose to the ceiling.