Chapter 11 - THE THIRD FLOORPain tore through Mara's head.
She collapsed.
Images flashed.
A hallway.
A blue door.
A red staircase.
Her father's hands.
Her mother's face.
Two identical men.
A locked elevator.
Then darkness.
Mara woke strapped to a metal chair.
Luca was beside her.
Bleeding.
Damian sat against the wall.
Rose was gone.
Helen was gone.
Evelyn was gone.
Only the three of them remained.
Mara struggled.
“Where are we?”
Luca looked around.
“Third floor.”
“There is no third floor.”
“There is now.”
The room looked like an abandoned hospital.
Old machines lined the walls.
A monitor displayed a single sentence:
MEMORY EXTRACTION FAILED.
Damian laughed.
“They couldn't get it.”
Mara looked at him.
“What?”
“Your memories.”
“Why?”
“You buried them too deeply.”
Luca stared at her.
“Your father knew they'd come.”
Mara remembered.
Gabriel's voice.
“When they come for the memories, give them nothing.”
She whispered:
“I remember.”
Luca leaned closer.
“What?”
“Where he hid it.”
Damian's eyes narrowed.
“Where?”
“Inside the hotel.”
Luca shook his head.
“That's too obvious.”
“No.”
Mara looked at the wall.
“The elevator.”
Damian frowned.
“The elevator?”
“He hid it where nobody would look.”
“Where?”
“Between floors.”
Mara turned to Luca.
“The elevator never went to B2.”
Luca understood.
“It went between B2 and three.”
Mara nodded.
The wall panel behind them suddenly opened.
Inside was a narrow passage.
Damian stared.
“Your father built a maze.”
Mara crawled through.
They emerged behind an old elevator shaft.
At the center hung a metal platform.
Suspended over darkness.
On the platform sat a steel box.
Mara stepped onto it.
A voice came through the intercom.
Gabriel.
“If you're hearing this, Mara, I'm dead.”
She froze.
“But if you're hearing this, then someone tried to erase you.”
Mara began crying.
“Dad.”
The recording continued.
“I could not protect you directly.”
“I had to make you forget.”
“Not because you were weak.”
“Because you were the only person capable of destroying this.”
Mara opened the box.
Inside was a hard drive.
A photograph.
And a sealed letter.
She opened the letter.
Mara,
You were not born into this family.
She stared.
The next line made her blood run cold.
You were created.
Mara dropped the letter.
Luca picked it up.
“Created?”
The voice continued.
“You are the first human born from two mirrored genomes.”
“Mine and Rose's.”
Mara shook her head.
“No.”
“You are biologically mine.”
Luca stared at her.
“So the paternity record…”
“Was true.”
Mara looked at him.
“But you…”
“I'm not your brother.”
The words hung in the air.
Damian whispered:
“That means…”
Mara looked at Luca.
“You're my father.”
Luca froze.
A metallic sound echoed through the shaft.
Someone was coming.
Damian turned.
“Move.”
They grabbed the hard drive and ran.
The elevator suddenly powered on beneath them.
Its doors opened.
Anthony stood inside.
His face was bleeding.
But he was smiling.
“You finally understand.”
Mara stepped back.
“Are you my father?”
Anthony laughed.
“No.”
He looked at Luca.
“He is.”
Then Anthony raised his gun at Mara.
“Which means the real question is…”
He smiled.
May you like
“…what did Gabriel create you to do?”
The gunshot exploded.
