Chapter 5 - Marcus woke up on the floor.His head hurt.

The room was cold.

A fluorescent light buzzed above him.

He sat up.

Laura was unconscious beside him.

Daniel was gone.

The door was locked.

Marcus rushed toward it.

"Laura!"

She stirred.

"Marcus?"

"Wake up."

She opened her eyes.

"What happened?"

"I don't know."

She looked around.

"Where's Daniel?"

Marcus didn't answer.

A monitor on the wall turned on.

A timer appeared.

12:00:00

Twelve hours.

Beneath it:

SUBJECT EVALUATION BEGINS AT ZERO.

Laura stood.

"What is this?"

Marcus examined the room.

No windows.

One metal door.

Camera in the corner.

A small speaker.

Then he noticed something etched into the wall.

Names.

Hundreds of names.

Some crossed out.

Some circled.

Marcus read them.

DAVID KLINE.

MELISSA ROSS.

JONATHAN PRICE.

HARRIS, THOMAS.

Below those names:

MARCUS REED.

Laura grabbed his arm.

"We have to get out."

Marcus looked at the timer.

"Before what?"

The speaker clicked.

A voice answered.

"Before the first question."

Marcus stared upward.

"Who are you?"

Silence.

Then:

"I am the part of Mr. Harris that survived."

Laura looked at Marcus.

"That doesn't make sense."

The speaker continued.

"You believe there is one Thomas Harris."

A pause.

"There were seven."

Marcus felt sick.

"Copies?"

"Experiments."

The room went quiet.

Then the wall monitor displayed photographs.

Different men.

Same face.

Harris.

Seven versions.

Numbers appeared beneath them.

Number seven was alive.

"Where is the real one?" Marcus asked.

The answer came immediately.

"There is no real one."

Marcus felt the room tilt.

"What?"

"Harris was the first successful transfer."

Laura stared at him.

Marcus shook his head.

"Transfer of what?"

"Memory."

A video appeared.

A younger Thomas Harris sat in a medical chair.

Scientists surrounded him.

One pressed electrodes against his head.

Another monitored a screen filled with brain activity.

A doctor spoke:

"Identity retention at eighty-seven percent."

The younger Harris opened his eyes.

"Who am I?"

The doctor smiled.

"Thomas Harris."

The screen flashed.

SUCCESS.

Marcus whispered:

"They copied his memories."

"Not only his memories."

The speaker crackled.

"They copied his personality."

Laura looked terrified.

"So the man we saw..."

"Could be Harris."

Marcus stepped toward the camera.

"Then who killed him?"

Silence.

Finally:

"You did."

Marcus recoiled.

"I never touched him."

"You didn't need to."

A file appeared on the monitor.

Security footage.

Marcus walked into a parking garage.

Harris stood beside a car.

They argued.

Marcus watched himself raise a metal object.

The screen cut.

Harris collapsed.

Marcus stared in horror.

"That's fake."

Laura looked at him.

"It looks real."

"I didn't do that."

The speaker responded:

"Memory can be manipulated."

Marcus's stomach tightened.

Suddenly he remembered something.

The night before.

A blank period.

He had left the office at 11:40 p.m.

Then nothing.

He couldn't remember the drive home.

He couldn't remember sleeping.

He couldn't remember waking up.

Laura watched him.

"You don't remember, do you?"

Marcus shook his head.

"What?"

"Your missing time."

Her voice trembled.

"Everyone who works on the Black Ledger loses time eventually."

The timer dropped.

08:42:17

A metal slot opened in the wall.

Inside was a photograph.

Marcus pulled it out.

He nearly dropped it.

It showed him sitting in a laboratory.

His eyes were closed.

Doctors stood behind him.

And beside his head was a machine.

The date was six months earlier.

Laura stared.

"You've been here before."

Marcus looked at her.

"I've never seen this place."

A second photograph slid from the slot.

It showed Laura.

Also connected to the machine.

Then a third.

Daniel.

Then a fourth.

Harris.

All of them.

Same room.

Same machine.

Same experiment.

Marcus whispered:

"We're not employees."

Laura looked at him.

"What are we?"

The lights suddenly went red.

The timer stopped.

08:00:00

The speaker said:

"Welcome back, Subject 08."

The metal door unlocked.

It opened slowly.

Beyond it stood Daniel.

Blood covered his shirt.

Marcus ran toward him.

"Daniel!"

Daniel raised one hand.

"Don't."

Marcus stopped.

Daniel looked at Laura.

Then at Marcus.

And whispered:

"I found out who is controlling the copies."

"Who?"

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Daniel swallowed.

"Yourself."