CHAPTER 9 — THE MEMORY THEY COULDN'T ERASE
Every person behind the glass opened their eyes.
At exactly the same moment.
Hundreds of faces stared at me.
Some looked confused.
Some looked frightened.
Others smiled.
I couldn't breathe.
The memory I'd just seen was still burning inside my head.
A laboratory.
My mother screaming.
A newborn baby.
My father holding a syringe.
And those words:
“Daniel will never know he was born twice.”
I looked at the man standing in front of me.
He no longer looked like the elderly man from the laboratory.
He looked younger.
Stronger.
Almost identical to me.
“What did you do?”
He smiled.
“I gave you a life.”
“You stole one.”
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“I gave you memories.”
I backed away.
“Where is my real family?”
He laughed.
“You've been looking at them.”
I looked around.
The hundreds of people behind the glass.
“They aren't my family.”
“They are your descendants.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“Every subject here carries something from you.”
I shook my head.
“That isn't possible.”
“Your genetics were the foundation.”
He pointed toward Isabella.
“She is the final version.”
I pulled her behind me.
“You're not touching her.”
He smiled.
“You still don't understand.”
“I understand enough.”
“No.”
He leaned closer.
“You think I'm trying to take her.”
“Aren't you?”
“I'm trying to save you.”
I laughed.
“From what?”
“Yourself.”
Then the lights flickered.
A warning appeared on the nearest screen.
MEMORY INSTABILITY DETECTED.
My father's expression changed.
“It's happening too soon.”
“What?”
He looked at me.
“Your memories are returning.”
Lucas grabbed my arm.
“We need to leave.”
My father turned toward him.
“You're not going anywhere.”
Lucas fired.
The bullet struck my father in the chest.
He staggered backward.
I stared.
Blood spread across his shirt.
But he smiled.
Then he pulled the bullet out.
The wound closed.
My blood ran cold.
Elena whispered:
“That's not possible.”
My father smiled.
“Not anymore.”
He touched the wound.
The skin was already healing.
Lucas stepped backward.
“What did you become?”
My father answered:
“Everything you were supposed to become.”
Then the alarm sounded.
A red light flashed.
FACILITY BREACH.
My father looked toward the ceiling.
“Someone has entered.”
Lucas looked at me.
“Who?”
Before anyone could answer, an explosion shook the building.
The glass chambers rattled.
Several doors opened.
People began running.
The facility descended into chaos.
My father disappeared into the crowd.
I grabbed Isabella.
“Stay with me.”
Sofia grabbed my other hand.
We ran.
Elena followed.
Lucas stayed behind us.
We reached a corridor marked:
ARCHIVE.
Lucas stopped.
“This is where we need to go.”
“Why?”
“Because the original records are stored here.”
“Records of what?”
“Your real identity.”
I looked at the door.
“Then open it.”
Lucas entered a code.
Denied.
He tried again.
Denied.
Elena stepped forward.
“Move.”
She entered six numbers.
The door opened.
I looked at her.
“How did you know?”
“I was the one who locked it.”
We entered.
The archive contained thousands of files.
Paper.
Hard drives.
Photographs.
Medical records.
Lucas went straight toward a cabinet.
“Subject 002.”
He pulled out a file.
The cover was black.
My name was written across it.
DANIEL MORALES
Underneath:
ORIGINAL NAME: UNKNOWN
I opened it.
The first page contained a photograph.
A newborn baby.
Then another.
A second newborn.
Then a third.
Three identical infants.
I stared.
“What is this?”
Elena whispered:
“Triplets.”
My hands shook.
“Three?”
“Yes.”
“Where are the other two?”
She pointed at the photographs.
“Subject 001.”
Then:
“Subject 002.”
Then:
“Subject 003.”
I looked at Lucas.
“Which one am I?”
Elena didn't answer.
I turned the page.
There was a genetic analysis.
SUBJECT 001: ORIGINAL
SUBJECT 002: MEMORY RECONSTRUCTION
SUBJECT 003: EMOTIONAL RECONSTRUCTION
I stared at the last line.
“Lucas…”
He looked away.
“You were created from me.”
“No.”
He nodded.
“I was created from Subject 001.”
“And I?”
“You were created from Subject 001 too.”
I looked at Isabella.
“So what does that make us?”
Lucas swallowed.
“Copies.”
The word hurt more than it should have.
I looked down at my hands.
All my memories.
My childhood.
My wedding.
My first kiss.
My life with Isabella.
Everything suddenly felt uncertain.
“What about my mother?”
Elena pointed toward another file.
I opened it.
There was a photograph of a woman.
My mother.
But beneath her name was something I had never seen.
PROJECT DIRECTOR.
I froze.
“My mother ran the program?”
Elena nodded.
“She started it.”
I looked at Lucas.
“And my father?”
“He took it over.”
“Why?”
Elena answered:
“Because your mother wanted to stop.”
I turned toward her.
“What happened?”
“She discovered the children were developing something unexpected.”
“What?”
“Independent consciousness.”
I frowned.
“They were becoming themselves.”
“Yes.”
“And my father didn't like that.”
“No.”
“What did he do?”
Elena looked at Isabella.
“He began erasing them.”
I felt sick.
“Erasing?”
“Memories.”
“That's what happened to me.”
“Yes.”
“But why was I allowed to live?”
“Because your mother hid you.”
I stared.
“How?”
“She implanted a false identity.”
My voice shook.
“She made me believe I was Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“Then who am I?”
Elena looked at me.
“You are Subject 002.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“You are.”
“Who was I before?”
She hesitated.
“David.”
I froze.
“David?”
“Yes.”
“That's impossible.”
“Your mother gave you a new name.”
I looked at the file.
DAVID MORALES.
Then another document fell from the folder.
A handwritten note.
I picked it up.
It was from my mother.
The message was short.
If David remembers, tell him this:
You were never created to become your father.
You were created to destroy him.
I stared at the words.
Then a second sentence appeared beneath them.
But I failed to protect the person you love most.
I felt my heart tighten.
I looked at Isabella.
“What person?”
Elena's face turned pale.
“Daniel…”
“What?”
She pointed toward the bottom of the note.
There was one final line.
He will use Isabella to rebuild the first subject.
I stared.
“The first subject…”
Lucas whispered:
“001.”
I looked at him.
“Who is Subject 001?”
He didn't answer.
I turned toward Elena.
“Who is the original?”
She looked at me.
Then said:
“You.”
I felt dizzy.
“No.”
“You are the only one who survived the original procedure.”
“Then what are the others?”
“Copies.”
Lucas stared at the floor.
I looked at the file again.
The photographs of the three infants were identical.
But one detail caught my attention.
The first photograph had a tiny mark on the baby's wrist.
A crescent-shaped birthmark.
I looked at my own wrist.
I had the same mark.
Lucas didn't.
I looked at Isabella.
Then Sofia.
Then Elena.
“Where is Subject 001?”
Elena's face collapsed.
“He's here.”
“Where?”
She pointed behind me.
I turned.
There was a man standing in the archive doorway.
He looked exactly like me.
Same face.
Same eyes.
Same scar.
But unlike my father's duplicate...
This man looked terrified.
He stared at me.
Then whispered:
“David.”
I froze.
Nobody had called me that in years.
He stepped into the room.
“I've been looking for you.”
Lucas raised his gun.
“Stay back.”
The man ignored him.
He looked at Isabella.
Then Sofia.
Then back at me.
“I know what your father is planning.”
“What?”
He swallowed.
“He doesn't want Isabella.”
I stared.
“Then what does he want?”
The man answered:
“He wants you.”
My blood ran cold.
“Why?”
“Because you're the only body he can't control.”
“Why not?”
The man's eyes filled with fear.
“Because your mother built a failsafe into you.”
“What failsafe?”
He looked toward the cameras.
Then whispered:
“If your father tries to transfer into you…”
He paused.
“Your body will destroy his consciousness.”
I stared at him.
“Then why does he want me?”
The man smiled sadly.
“Because he doesn't know that.”
Suddenly, the archive door slammed shut.
The lights went out.
A woman's voice came from the darkness.
“That's not true.”
Elena gasped.
I knew that voice.
Beatriz.
She stepped into the emergency light.
Her face was bruised.
Her hands were tied behind her back.
And someone was holding a gun against her head.
My father's voice whispered behind her:
“Tell Daniel the real truth.”
Beatriz looked directly at me.
Then she said:
“Daniel…”
Her voice broke.
“Your father isn't trying to transfer into you.”
She swallowed.
“He's trying to make you transfer into him.”
And then she added:
“Because you are the original.”
The gun pressed harder against her head.
“Your father died twenty years ago.”
She looked at the man behind her.
“That thing isn't your father.”
I stared at him.
Then he smiled.
And his eyes changed.
For a split second, they became exactly like mine.
May you like
“That's right,” he whispered.
“I've been wearing your father's face.”
