Chapter 13 - Everything happened at once.Daniel pulled a gun.
Mason fired.
The bullet struck the wall.
Children screamed.
Emily dragged Noah behind a steel door.
Ryan grabbed Lily.
The man in the tank began pounding against the glass.
“LET ME OUT!”
Daniel shouted:
“Don't!”
Ryan stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because he's not human anymore.”
The man in the tank laughed.
“You said that about yourself.”
Daniel fired at the tank.
Ryan jumped in front of it.
The bullet hit the glass.
A crack appeared.
Then another.
Emily screamed.
“Ryan!”
The glass shattered.
Fluid flooded the floor.
The younger Daniel collapsed.
Ryan grabbed him.
The man's eyes opened.
He whispered:
“Ryan.”
The voice was identical.
“What happened to you?”
The original Daniel laughed weakly.
“He replaced me.”
Ryan looked toward the older Daniel.
“You killed your own body.”
“I preserved my consciousness.”
“You murdered everyone who came before you.”
Daniel's face twisted.
“They were all failures.”
The original Daniel grabbed Ryan's arm.
“Listen.”
Ryan leaned closer.
“The machine doesn't preserve memory.”
“What does it do?”
“It replaces it.”
Ryan frowned.
“It doesn't transfer consciousness.”
The old man's eyes moved toward Lily.
“It creates a convincing copy.”
Ryan's blood ran cold.
“So I'm a copy.”
“Yes.”
Daniel interrupted:
“You're much more than that.”
The original Daniel shook his head.
“You're not Ryan.”
Ryan stared at him.
“What am I?”
“A composite.”
“Of what?”
“Ryan. Mara. Lily.”
Ryan looked at the girl.
She nodded slowly.
“That's why we recognize each other.”
The truth was suddenly unbearable.
Ryan wasn't one person.
He was pieces.
Memories stitched together.
A life assembled from other lives.
No wonder he could remember things that never happened.
No wonder Lily called him Daddy.
No wonder he loved Noah.
Perhaps even that love had been programmed.
Ryan turned toward Emily.
“Was any of it real?”
Emily started crying.
“Every feeling was real.”
“But the memories weren't.”
“Some were.”
“Which ones?”
She whispered:
“That's what nobody knows.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“The beautiful part is that it doesn't matter.”
Ryan looked at him.
“What?”
“If you believe you are Ryan, then you are Ryan.”
Daniel smiled.
“Identity is belief.”
The original Daniel laughed.
“No.”
His voice weakened.
“Identity is choice.”
Ryan looked down.
On the floor lay the silver bracelet.
LILY CARTER.
He picked it up.
The girl looked at him.
“Daddy.”
Ryan asked quietly:
“Are you my daughter?”
She nodded.
“Do you remember me?”
“Yes.”
“Before all this?”
“Yes.”
“What do you remember?”
She smiled.
“You sang badly.”
Ryan laughed despite himself.
The first genuine laugh he'd had all night.
Then he cried.
He knew one thing.
Whatever the machines said...
whatever Daniel had created...
whatever memories belonged to whom...
the love he felt for that child was real now.
He turned toward Daniel.
“You wanted immortality.”
“Yes.”
“You got it.”
Daniel smiled.
Ryan continued:
“But you forgot something.”
“What?”
“You never learned how to be alive.”
Daniel's face hardened.
Ryan handed Mason the gun.
Then he walked toward the control panel.
Emily shouted:
“Ryan, don't!”
“What?”
“The machine has a failsafe.”
“Where?”
“Inside the memory core.”
Ryan found it.
A red switch.
WARNING: TOTAL PURGE.
Daniel rushed toward him.
“No.”
Ryan pulled the switch.
Every monitor went black.
The hidden chambers opened fully.
The machines died.
The children collapsed into one another's arms.
The house went silent.
Daniel stood frozen.
“No.”
Ryan looked at him.
“You can't rebuild yourself now.”
Daniel smiled.
“You think destroying the machine ends this?”
He pointed toward Lily.
“She already remembers everything.”
Ryan turned.
Lily was standing motionless.
Blood ran from her nose.
Her eyes were wide.
She whispered:
“Daddy.”
May you like
Then she said something nobody expected.
“I remember where the bodies are.”
