Chapter 13 - The Last ExperimentDr. Everett's gun pressed against Micah's temple.
Nobody moved.
My mother raised her hands.
"Everett, don't."
He smiled.
"You've all spent years pretending you're victims."
He looked at me.
"But you, Alexander, are the experiment."
I stepped forward.
"What do you want?"
"Your memory."
"I don't have it."
"Exactly."
He gestured toward the chamber.
"The Echo system can unlock it."
"What happens when it does?"
"You become complete."
Mara shook her head.
"That's not what it does."
Everett looked at her.
"She knows."
I asked:
"Complete means what?"
"Everything they erased comes back."
"And then?"
"You remember where the system is."
My father looked terrified.
"What system?"
Everett laughed.
"The one beneath this building."
A monitor illuminated.
A massive circular machine appeared beneath the floor.
It looked like a medical scanner.
But the walls around it were covered in neural diagrams.
"Echo doesn't create clones."
Everett said.
"It creates memory continuity."
I stared.
"You can copy memories."
"Yes."
"Into another person?"
"Yes."
Mara whispered:
"That's how they replaced people."
Everett smiled.
Politicians.
Executives.
Heirs.
Judges.
Anyone could be copied.
Anyone could be replaced.
The Cartwrights didn't need money.
They needed control.
The Whitakers had built the machine.
The Cartwrights had built the network.
And I had been designed to become the perfect carrier.
Everett raised the gun.
"Your memories are the master sequence."
I looked at Micah.
"Let him go."
"No."
"You want me."
"Yes."
"Then take me."
Mara grabbed my arm.
"Alexander."
I whispered:
"Trust me."
I walked toward the machine.
Everett lowered the gun slightly.
"Very good."
The chamber opened.
I stepped inside.
The machine activated.
White light flooded the room.
Pain exploded through my skull.
Then memories came.
Not one.
Thousands.
I was five.
I was in the laboratory.
Zero was behind glass.
Milo.
Mason.
Max.
Micah.
Infants.
Doctors.
My mother crying.
My father begging.
My grandfather shouting.
Then another memory.
I was twenty.
Standing before Mara.
Telling her I loved her.
Then another.
My mother putting a syringe into my neck.
Another.
My father wiping blood from my face.
Another.
Brielle screaming.
Another.
The laboratory burning.
Then the final memory.
My grandfather speaking to me.
"You will forget."
I was crying.
He held my face.
"You must forget."
"Why?"
"Because one day your brother will come back."
"Which brother?"
He smiled.
"All of them."
My eyes opened.
The machine exploded.
Emergency lights flashed.
Everett screamed.
Micah fell to the ground.
I caught him.
Mara ran toward us.
My father tackled Everett.
Security erupted.
Then the entire facility began collapsing.
Alarms screamed.
Concrete cracked.
Brielle grabbed my arm.
"We have three minutes."
"Until what?"
"The building seals."
We ran.
The boys were evacuated.
Mara carried Micah.
My father followed.
My mother stayed behind.
I turned.
"Mom!"
She looked at me.
"You have to go."
"What are you doing?"
She smiled through tears.
"Finishing what I should have finished six years ago."
She pushed a button.
The laboratory doors sealed.
"Go."
The last thing I saw was my mother standing alone beneath the conservatory.
Then the explosion swallowed the room.
We made it outside.
The conservatory collapsed behind us.
Fire rose into the night.
I stood in the snow.
Mara beside me.
The boys around us.
For the first time, I thought it was over.
Then Brielle said:
"Alexander."
"What?"
She pointed at the road.
A black convoy was approaching.
Three SUVs.
Police cars behind them.
And at the center was a vehicle I recognized.
The Whitaker family limousine.
My grandfather stepped out.
Alive.
He looked directly at me.
Then at the boys.
He smiled.
Because the explosion hadn't destroyed the project.
May you like
It had only destroyed the laboratory.
The network was still alive.
