Chapter 13 - David pulled Sarah behind the control desk.The attacker entered slowly.
Emma.
She held the gun low.
Her eyes were fixed on David.
The detective groaned on the floor.
Emma didn't fire again.
“I could have killed you.”
David stood.
“Then why didn't you?”
“Because I need you to remember.”
David laughed bitterly.
“I remember enough.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“You remember what they gave you.”
She pointed at his head.
“I need you to remember what you gave me.”
Sarah stared at her sister.
“Emma.”
Emma's expression softened.
“You finally remember my name.”
Sarah stepped forward.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I was.”
“For how long?”
“Twenty-one years.”
David frowned.
“How can you be alive?”
Emma looked at the cameras.
“Because they kept replacing me.”
David stared.
“What?”
“Every time my body failed, they transferred the memory.”
He understood.
“They cloned you.”
Emma shook her head.
“Not clones.”
Copies.
“Every Sarah you saw…”
Sarah whispered:
“There were others.”
“Yes.”
Emma had tears in her eyes.
“Your mother built dozens of us.”
David felt sick.
“Then who is Sarah?”
Emma looked at her.
“The one who survived.”
Sarah took a step back.
David looked at his wife.
“Are you human?”
Sarah laughed through tears.
“I don't know anymore.”
Emma lowered the gun.
“That's why Tank tried to pull Leo away.”
David understood.
“Because the signal in the crib wasn't human.”
Emma nodded.
“Your father was using Leo to activate the memory network.”
Sarah's eyes widened.
“And if it activates?”
“Every copied memory returns.”
“To who?”
“To everyone.”
David looked at the walls.
The cameras.
The wires.
The facility.
The entire system was connected.
Emma continued.
“They don't want Leo dead.”
“What do they want?”
“To wake him up.”
David looked at his son.
Leo was somewhere nearby.
“What happens if he wakes up?”
Emma whispered:
“He remembers everyone.”
David felt a chill.
“Everyone?”
“Every subject.”
The dead.
The missing.
The forgotten.
Every memory stored in the system.
Emma looked at Sarah.
“And your mother doesn't care what it does to him.”
Sarah cried.
“Then we stop it.”
Emma nodded.
“Yes.”
“Why did you come for David?”
“I needed the final memory.”
David stared.
“Mine.”
Emma nodded.
“Your memory is the key that links the original experiment to Leo.”
David took a step forward.
“So remove it.”
Emma's expression hardened.
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because your father already activated the transfer.”
A low hum began beneath the floor.
Lights flickered.
The screens turned on.
Thousands of faces appeared.
Men.
Women.
Children.
Some alive.
Some dead.
David recognized people from his life.
His childhood teacher.
His father's assistant.
A woman who had disappeared from their neighborhood twenty years earlier.
Then one face appeared that stopped Sarah cold.
A teenage girl.
Sarah stared.
“That's me.”
Emma whispered:
“Your original body.”
Sarah shook her head.
“No.”
On the screen, young Sarah looked terrified.
Beside her was another girl.
Emma.
Both holding the same newborn.
Leo.
David stepped backward.
The recording date appeared.
The day before Leo's birth.
Then the video played.
Sarah looked into the camera.
Older.
Tired.
She said:
“If you're watching this, I've forgotten everything.”
She paused.
“And if David is with you…”
She looked directly at the camera.
“Don't let him open the crib.”
David felt the blood drain from his face.
The video continued.
“Because the thing inside the crib isn't a baby.”
Static.
Then the screen displayed one final sentence.
SUBJECT A-18 IS NOT THE CHILD.
David whispered:
“Then who is?”
Behind him, Leo's voice answered.
“Me.”
Everyone turned.
Leo stood in the doorway.
His eyes looked different.
Older.
Calmer.
And he was holding the original Tank's collar.
He looked at David.
May you like
Then said:
“Daddy, I remember you.”
