Chapter 12 - The research facility stood in the middle of nowhere.Concrete walls.
No signs.
No windows.
Security cameras every twenty meters.
Ricardo entered alone.
Inspector Herrera followed covertly.
Inside, the silence was unbearable.
A man stood in the central hall.
The duplicate.
He looked at Ricardo.
“You came.”
“Where is Diego?”
“Safe.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because you keep refusing to understand.”
Ricardo stepped closer.
“What happened to my brother?”
The duplicate looked surprised.
“So you remember.”
“Enough.”
“You don't know the whole story.”
“Then tell me.”
The duplicate sighed.
“Your brother was born with the same neural signature as you.”
“His name?”
“Adrián.”
Ricardo's heart tightened.
He remembered the boy.
His brother.
His little brother.
A child erased from every official record.
“What did you do to him?”
“I didn't.”
“Then who?”
“Gabriel.”
“Where is he?”
The duplicate looked away.
“Dead.”
Ricardo froze.
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
“Then who's controlling everything?”
The duplicate looked at him.
“You are.”
Ricardo frowned.
“What?”
“You wrote the final protocol.”
“That makes no sense.”
“You wrote it after Adrián disappeared.”
Ricardo remembered.
The laboratory.
The child.
The fear.
The code.
Then the crash.
He had built a system capable of recognizing emotional patterns so precisely that it could distinguish authentic identity from an imitation.
Gabriel had stolen it.
Valeria had been blackmailed into helping.
And someone had continued the program after Gabriel's death.
“Who?”
The duplicate pointed toward the ceiling.
A camera lens rotated.
A voice came through the speakers.
Ricardo.
His own voice.
“Welcome home.”
The room went dark.
Then screens lit up.
Every screen showed Ricardo.
Different ages.
Different clothes.
Different identities.
Thousands of recordings.
The system had been learning him for years.
Then the screen changed.
It showed Diego.
Standing in a white room.
Beside him stood Ricardo's mother.
Alive.
“Mom.”
Her voice came through the speakers.
“You finally remembered.”
The door opened.
She walked in.
Older.
Tired.
But unmistakably his mother.
Ricardo stared.
“You're alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To stop what we started.”
“What did you start?”
She looked at the screens.
“Project Mirror.”
Ricardo's anger erupted.
“You let this happen?”
“I tried to stop it.”
“You let my son suffer!”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I didn't know.”
“That's not good enough.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
Then she looked toward Diego.
“I'm sorry.”
Diego ran to Ricardo.
“Daddy!”
Ricardo caught him.
The boy buried his face in his chest.
For the first time, Diego didn't flinch.
His mother said:
“That's the proof.”
Ricardo looked up.
“What proof?”
“He chose you.”
The duplicate stepped forward.
“There is one final test.”
Ricardo turned.
“No.”
The duplicate raised a tablet.
A video appeared.
Valeria.
She sat in a dark room.
A man stood behind her.
Ricardo knew him.
Gabriel's voice.
“Choose.”
Valeria looked toward the camera.
“What do you want?”
The man placed two photographs on a table.
One of Ricardo.
One of the duplicate.
“Tell us which one is real.”
Valeria stared.
She hesitated.
Then whispered:
“Neither.”
The video cut.
Ricardo looked at his mother.
“What does that mean?”
His mother answered:
“Because the real Ricardo died seven years ago.”
Ricardo felt numb.
She continued:
“And the man you think is Ricardo…”
May you like
She looked directly at him.
“…is the final prototype.”
