Chapter 14 - My knees nearly gave out.There were two Calebs.
One stood beside me.
The other stood behind Marlene on the screen.
Identical face.
Identical voice.
Identical scar above the eyebrow.
Tyler whispered:
"The replacement."
Caleb stared at the screen.
"No."
Vale's voice came through the speakers.
"For years, Northstar experimented with identity replication."
Agent Bennett looked horrified.
"That's impossible."
"Not impossible."
Vale appeared on another screen.
"Simply expensive."
He explained.
The organization didn't clone people.
It studied them.
Voice patterns.
Behavior.
Biometrics.
Fingerprints.
They created perfect doubles through surgery, conditioning and technology.
And Caleb had been replaced once before.
When he was seventeen.
The original Caleb disappeared for six months.
The person who returned wasn't him.
I looked at my husband.
"How do I know you're really Caleb?"
He looked at me.
"I remember our first apartment."
"Anyone could know that."
"Our wedding day."
"Anything else?"
He stepped closer.
"You hated the blue curtains."
My eyes filled with tears.
"You wanted the apartment because the kitchen window looked at the sunrise."
I froze.
He continued.
"You cried the night your mother disappeared because you thought she didn't love you."
Only the real Caleb knew that.
I touched his face.
He whispered:
"I've spent my whole life feeling like something was missing."
Tyler looked at the screen.
"The replacement is still alive."
Vale nodded.
"Of course."
Then the second Caleb stepped forward.
He looked at me.
"I can give you everything."
He pointed toward the ledger.
"Protection."
"Money."
"Your mother."
"You just have to hand over the key."
I shook my head.
"You kidnapped my mother."
"We preserved her."
"You lied."
"Everyone lies."
I looked at Agent Bennett.
She had been silently studying the control room.
Then she whispered:
"We can shut this system down."
"How?"
"The master terminal."
She pointed toward the center of the room.
"That's where the identity files are stored."
Tyler stepped forward.
"I know where it is."
We ran.
The facility erupted into chaos.
Alarms.
Footsteps.
Gunfire.
Tyler disabled a security door.
Agent Bennett secured the server room.
Caleb fought off one of the guards.
I found Marlene.
She was alive.
Barely.
I cut her restraints.
"Can you walk?"
She nodded.
"I'm sorry."
"I know."
We reached the server room.
The master terminal stood in the center.
A black screen.
One message appeared:
INSERT KEY.
I pulled the pendant from my neck.
Tyler shouted:
"Don't!"
I stopped.
"Why?"
"The pendant doesn't unlock the system."
"Then what does it do?"
"It activates it."
Vale appeared on the screen again.
"You finally understand."
The second Caleb entered the room.
He was holding a gun.
The real Caleb stepped in front of me.
The two men stared at each other.
Identical.
The second one smiled.
"The problem is, nobody will know which one is real."
He raised his gun.
Vale laughed.
"Choose."
Two Calebs.
One gun.
One woman holding the key.
And only one chance to survive.
I looked at my husband.
Then at the other man.
Then I remembered one tiny detail.
Something nobody else knew.
I smiled.
"You're not Caleb."
The impostor froze.
I whispered:
"Because Caleb never calls me by my full name."
The fake man's face changed.
The real Caleb moved.
A gunshot exploded.
The impostor dropped.
But before we could celebrate, the terminal activated.
A message appeared.
FINAL PROTOCOL INITIATED.
The screen displayed hundreds of names.
Then one final file opened.
PROJECT: FAMILY
And beneath it:
PRIMARY SUBJECT: [MY NAME]
My mother screamed.
"Turn it off!"
But it was too late.
The system began uploading everything.
Including one file we hadn't seen.
A video.
Recorded nineteen years ago.
May you like
My childhood.
And my father's final confession.
