Chapter 9 - They escaped through the server room before the doors fully opened.Daniel led them toward an old freight elevator.
The elevator groaned as it descended.
Marcus stood between Laura and Harris.
Or whoever Harris really was.
No one spoke.
Finally Marcus asked:
"Julian."
Laura looked at him.
"You remember your brother?"
"Not much."
"How did he die?"
Marcus closed his eyes.
"He fell through the ice."
A memory surfaced.
A frozen lake.
Snow.
A red scarf.
Julian shouting.
Then Marcus screaming.
Someone pulling him away.
He had spent years believing Julian was dead.
But now the photograph said otherwise.
The elevator stopped.
The doors opened.
A massive underground garage stretched before them.
Cars stood beneath sheets of dust.
Daniel walked toward a black SUV.
Marcus looked at him.
"Whose?"
"Mine."
They climbed inside.
Daniel started the engine.
As they drove toward the exit, Marcus noticed a row of surveillance screens.
Every screen showed the same image.
Julian.
He was sitting in a room somewhere.
Alive.
Older now.
Maybe thirty.
Marcus stepped on the brake mentally, though Daniel was driving.
"He knows we're here."
Daniel nodded.
"Yes."
"How?"
"Because he runs the network."
Marcus stared.
"Julian?"
Laura spoke quietly.
"The original architect."
Marcus felt numb.
"My brother built all this?"
"Not alone."
"Who helped him?"
Laura looked at Harris.
The man remained silent.
Marcus realized.
"You."
Harris finally spoke.
"Julian was the first person to understand how memory could be copied."
"But why would he do this?"
"Because he believed death was a technical problem."
Marcus laughed bitterly.
"And how did that turn into kidnapping people?"
"It didn't."
Harris looked at him.
"That's the part they changed."
"What part?"
"Julian created Project Mirror to preserve people."
Marcus stared.
"Preserve?"
"The terminally ill. Soldiers. Accident victims. People whose bodies were failing."
Laura added:
"The original purpose was medical."
Marcus looked at the screens.
"Then who weaponized it?"
Harris's answer was barely audible.
"Vaughn."
Marcus understood.
The CEO.
Richard Vaughn had taken the technology.
Used it to create identities.
To manipulate employees.
To erase witnesses.
To move money.
The Black Ledger wasn't simply financial.
It was a list of people.
Every person who had been copied.
Every person who had been erased.
Every person who could be controlled.
The garage doors opened.
Daylight was beginning.
Marcus shielded his eyes.
They drove into the city.
For the first time in hours, Marcus felt hope.
Then Daniel received a message.
He looked at his phone.
His expression collapsed.
"What?"
Marcus asked.
Daniel handed him the phone.
One sentence.
YOU LEFT SOMETHING BEHIND.
Below it was a photograph.
The laboratory.
Laura.
Daniel.
Marcus.
And Harris.
But there was another person in the photograph.
Standing behind Marcus.
Julian.
Marcus stared.
"How did he get inside?"
Laura whispered:
"He didn't."
Marcus looked at her.
"What?"
She pointed at the image.
Julian's reflection was visible in a glass wall.
But there was something wrong.
His reflection had no face.
Daniel stopped the car.
"That's not possible."
Marcus's phone rang again.
This time the number wasn't unknown.
It displayed:
JULIAN REED
Marcus answered.
For several seconds, there was silence.
Then:
"Marcus."
His voice sounded older than Marcus expected.
"Julian?"
"Yes."
Marcus's eyes filled with tears.
"You're alive."
"I know."
"I thought you died."
"I needed you to believe that."
Marcus tightened his grip on the phone.
"Why?"
A pause.
"Because they were watching you."
"Who?"
"Everyone."
Marcus looked at the others.
"What do you want?"
Julian's voice became serious.
"To save you."
"From what?"
Another pause.
"From the man sitting next to you."
Marcus looked toward Harris.
Harris stared back.
Julian continued:
"Marcus, listen carefully."
"You cannot trust Harris."
Harris suddenly lunged.
Marcus dropped the phone.
Daniel grabbed Harris.
Laura screamed.
The call remained connected.
Julian's voice came through the speakers.
"That's not Harris."
Marcus stared at the struggling man.
The silver watch fell to the floor.
Julian whispered:
"That's Subject 07."
Then the phone crackled.
"Your real brother is somewhere else."
Marcus looked at the street ahead.
"Then where are you?"
Julian answered:
"At home."
"Where?"
A pause.
Then:
"Where you buried me."
The call ended.
Marcus stared forward.
He suddenly remembered the lake.
The frozen lake.
May you like
And a house beside it.
A house he had never told anyone about.
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