Chapter 14 - WHAT SOPHIE REMEMBEREDSophie was shaking.
My father stared at her like she was a locked safe.
“What did you remember?”
Sophie didn't answer.
My mother moved closer.
“Sophie, don't be afraid.”
“Stay away from me.”
I stepped between them.
“You're not touching her.”
My father laughed.
“You still think you can protect them.”
“I can try.”
“You don't understand the scale of what you created.”
“I didn't create anything.”
“You were the foundation.”
Sophie suddenly spoke.
“The research isn't in a building.”
Everyone turned.
“It's in a person.”
My father's smile disappeared.
“Who?”
Sophie looked at me.
“You.”
Silence.
My mother closed her eyes.
“No.”
Sophie continued.
“They didn't erase your memories.”
“They buried them.”
I felt dizzy.
“What do you mean?”
“The information is stored in your neural pathways.”
My father stepped forward.
“How much do you remember?”
“Enough.”
“Tell me.”
“No.”
He raised the gun.
I grabbed Sophie.
My mother shouted,
“Don't!”
Then Daniel burst through the door.
He shot my father's weapon from his hand.
Chaos erupted.
Rebecca appeared behind him.
She tackled one of the guards.
Thomas arrived seconds later.
The room became a storm of gunfire, shouting, and breaking glass.
I grabbed Grace.
Sophie ran beside me.
We escaped through a side door.
Daniel followed.
We ran down the hill toward the lake.
Behind us, alarms screamed.
“Where are we going?” Sophie asked.
I stopped.
“I know where.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Where?”
“The place where I was born.”
He stared.
“That's impossible.”
“No.”
I could suddenly remember.
A white room.
Bright lights.
My mother's face.
My father.
A tank.
A baby.
Me.
And behind the tank, rows of files.
I turned toward an old building by the lake.
“This is it.”
Daniel looked at the structure.
The doors were sealed.
I placed my hand against a panel.
It opened.
Everyone stared.
We entered.
Inside was a massive underground archive.
Thousands of files.
Hard drives.
Medical records.
Videos.
DNA samples.
And in the center of the room was a glass chamber.
Empty.
A label sat beneath it.
SUBJECT G-01
Grace.
I stared.
“She was here.”
Daniel nodded.
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
I walked toward the chamber.
A monitor activated.
A video began.
My mother appeared.
She was younger.
She was crying.
“If you're seeing this, they've already found you.”
I listened.
“Grace is not the experiment.”
I froze.
“She is the witness.”
My mother's voice shook.
“The real experiment is memory itself.”
The screen changed.
Photographs of children.
Then adults.
Then me.
Then Sophie.
“Every subject was designed to remember.”
A final file appeared.
PROJECT ENDGAME
I clicked it.
A list of names appeared.
My father.
My mother.
Richard.
Daniel.
Rebecca.
Thomas.
And finally…
Karen Mercer.
Beside my name was a status.
DIRECTOR.
I stared.
“No.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Karen…”
I shook my head.
“I wasn't a subject.”
I looked at the screen.
“I ran it.”
Sophie whispered,
“Mom?”
I began remembering.
The meetings.
The laboratories.
The research.
The babies.
I had been there.
I had signed the papers.
I had approved the project.
I had erased my own memory afterward.
Because I couldn't live with what I'd done.
I fell to my knees.
Then Grace began crying.
I picked her up.
And suddenly I remembered one final thing.
The reason she had been created.
She wasn't designed to preserve information.
She was designed to unlock mine.
Someone had planned for me to remember everything one day.
A hidden message appeared on the screen.
ACTIVATION COMPLETE.
Then the lights went out.
A voice spoke behind us.
“Welcome back, Director.”
I turned.
Richard stood there.
But he wasn't alone.
Behind him was Emily.
Alive.
Holding a gun.
I froze.
“Emily?”
She smiled.
May you like
And said,
“You finally remembered.”
