CHAPTER 6 THE WOMAN WHO HAD MY FACE
For several seconds, I couldn't move.
The woman stood thirty floors beneath us.
Bare feet against the cold metal floor.
Wires hung from her arms and neck.
Water dripped from her hair.
And she had my face.
Not similar.
Not close.
My face.
The same eyes.
The same jaw.
The same small scar above my eyebrow.
Even the tiny mole beneath my left ear.
I touched my own face.
She touched hers.
Then she smiled.
“Emma.”
My knees nearly gave out.
Luka caught me.
“Don't.”
I pushed his hand away.
“Who is she?”
He didn't answer.
“Luka!”
His eyes remained fixed on the woman.
“I don't know.”
The woman laughed softly.
“You always say that.”
Luka froze.
I stared at him.
“You know her.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“You promised you'd come back.”
Luka's face hardened.
“That was fifteen years ago.”
My heart stopped.
Fifteen years.
The same amount of time since my mother supposedly died.
I looked at the woman.
“Who are you?”
She smiled.
“My name is Elena.”
I swallowed.
“Elena what?”
She looked toward me.
“Elena Hale.”
My blood went cold.
Hale.
My surname.
The surname my mother carried before she married my father.
I looked at Luka.
“What is happening?”
He didn't answer.
Daniel stepped forward.
He stared at Elena as if he'd seen a ghost.
“No.”
Elena turned toward him.
“Hello, Daniel.”
Daniel backed away.
“You died.”
She smiled.
“You've said that before.”
I looked between them.
“You knew her too?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I thought she was dead.”
“Who is she?”
Daniel's voice trembled.
“She was your mother's sister.”
I couldn't breathe.
“My mother didn't have a sister.”
“She did.”
“Why have I never heard of her?”
“Because Gabriel erased her.”
Elena laughed bitterly.
“He erased everyone.”
I stared at her.
“Why?”
She looked at the rows of glass containers surrounding us.
“Because he didn't want anyone knowing what he had built.”
I stepped toward the railing.
Hundreds of chambers stretched beneath us.
“Are those people alive?”
Elena's expression changed.
“Some.”
“And the others?”
“Dead.”
My stomach turned.
“How many?”
“Four hundred and twelve.”
I covered my mouth.
Daniel looked away.
“How long?”
Elena answered.
“Twenty-three years.”
I stared at her.
Twenty-three years.
My father had been running this place before I was even born.
Then I noticed something.
The containers weren't numbered randomly.
They were arranged in rows.
17-A.
17-B.
17-C.
Then 17-D.
I looked at Elena.
“What does 17 mean?”
She walked toward the nearest glass chamber.
Inside was a sleeping woman.
She looked about forty.
Then Elena pointed to the label.
M-17 / HOST 006
She whispered,
“It's not a number.”
“What is it?”
“A name.”
I frowned.
“Whose name?”
Elena looked directly at me.
“Yours.”
A chill moved through my body.
“But my name is Emma.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“That is the name they gave you.”
“What was my real name?”
Elena hesitated.
Then whispered,
“Evelyn.”
The word struck something inside me.
A memory.
A woman singing.
A warm hand brushing my hair.
A voice saying:
“Evelyn, don't forget me.”
I grabbed my head.
Images exploded through my mind.
A white room.
My mother.
A little girl.
Elena.
And a man standing behind a glass wall.
My father.
I remembered him holding a syringe.
I remembered screaming.
I remembered my mother crying.
Then I remembered something else.
Luka.
He was there.
Standing beside my father.
I looked at him.
“You were there.”
Luka didn't move.
“When I was a child.”
He closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“You watched them do this to me.”
“I tried to stop them.”
“You stood there.”
“I was twenty-one.”
“You stood there!”
My voice echoed through the chamber.
Elena watched us silently.
Daniel lowered his head.
I turned toward him.
“And you?”
He nodded.
“I was there too.”
My chest tightened.
“Everyone was there.”
“No,” Luka said quietly.
I looked at him.
“Your mother fought them.”
“Then why didn't she save me?”
“She tried.”
“What happened?”
Luka's voice dropped.
“She made a deal.”
“With whom?”
“Your father.”
My blood ran cold.
“What deal?”
“She agreed to let them use her body for the first transfer.”
I stared at him.
“In exchange for what?”
“For you.”
I couldn't speak.
Elena stepped forward.
“Your mother wanted you to survive.”
“She sacrificed herself?”
“Yes.”
“And my father?”
“He promised to let you go.”
“Did he?”
Elena smiled without humor.
“No.”
I looked down at the woman sleeping inside the chamber.
“Then what are these people?”
Elena's eyes darkened.
“Versions.”
“Versions of what?”
“Memories.”
I didn't understand.
She placed her hand against the glass.
“Your father discovered that memories don't disappear when a body dies.”
Daniel whispered,
“They can be stored.”
Elena nodded.
“He learned how to extract neurological patterns.”
“And then?”
“He began creating hosts.”
My stomach twisted.
“Human hosts.”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
Elena looked at me.
“For him.”
Silence.
“What do you mean?”
“He was dying.”
I stared at her.
“He had a degenerative neurological disease.”
Daniel nodded.
“His brain was failing.”
“So he created M-17 to transfer himself into another body.”
Elena smiled.
“Exactly.”
My blood froze.
“Then why me?”
“Because you were the first successful host.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“You survived the procedure.”
“I was a child.”
“That's why you were perfect.”
I backed away.
“No.”
Elena continued.
“Your father discovered that your brain could accept another person's memories without rejecting them.”
“Whose memories?”
She looked at the chambers.
“His.”
The room seemed to spin.
“You're saying my father put his memories inside me?”
“Yes.”
“But I'm not him.”
“No.”
“Then why do I remember things I've never lived?”
Elena's eyes filled with tears.
“Because you aren't carrying only his memories.”
I stared at her.
“What else?”
She whispered,
“His consciousness.”
A mechanical alarm suddenly sounded.
Luka turned toward the elevator shaft.
“They found us.”
Daniel looked up.
“Who?”
Luka's face hardened.
“Security.”
Gunfire erupted from the upper level.
Elena looked terrified.
“Where is the baby?”
I pulled Amelia closer.
“She's here.”
Elena stared at her.
Her expression changed.
She walked toward us.
Slowly.
Then she looked behind Amelia's ear.
The mark was glowing again.
17.
Elena's eyes widened.
“No.”
“What?”
“That's not possible.”
“What isn't?”
She touched her own neck.
There was a scar in exactly the same place.
I stared at it.
“What happened to you?”
“They removed mine.”
“Why?”
“Because I was the first host.”
I looked at Amelia.
“Then what is she?”
Elena whispered,
“The final one.”
A loud explosion shook the chamber.
Glass shattered somewhere below.
One of the sleeping bodies inside a container suddenly opened its eyes.
Then another.
Then another.
Hundreds of eyes opened at once.
I stepped backward.
“What did you do?”
Elena shook her head.
“I didn't do anything.”
Luka looked at the control panel.
Someone had activated the system remotely.
A message appeared on every screen.
HOST NETWORK ONLINE.
Then another.
PRIMARY CONSCIOUSNESS DETECTED.
Then:
WELCOME BACK, EVELYN.
I stared at the screen.
“That isn't my name.”
Elena looked at me.
“It is.”
“No.”
She pointed at Amelia.
“Because your daughter isn't activating the system.”
I felt my blood freeze.
“Then who is?”
Elena's voice dropped to a whisper.
“You are.”
My head suddenly exploded with pain.
I screamed.
Images flooded my mind.
Hundreds of faces.
Hundreds of memories.
A man dying in a hospital.
A woman giving birth.
A child screaming.
A scientist writing equations.
A gunshot.
A burning laboratory.
My father.
My mother.
Luka.
Daniel.
All of them.
Then one final memory.
I was standing in this underground chamber.
But I wasn't a child.
I was an adult.
Pregnant.
Holding my stomach.
And someone was standing behind me.
A man.
I turned in the memory.
My breath stopped.
It was Daniel.
But he looked older.
Much older.
He placed his hand on my stomach.
And whispered:
“I'm sorry, Evelyn.”
I opened my eyes.
Daniel was standing directly in front of me.
I stared at him.
“You've done this before.”
His face went white.
“What?”
“You've seen me pregnant before.”
He shook his head.
“No.”
“I remember you.”
“Emma…”
“You were here.”
“I wasn't.”
“You were.”
Luka looked at Daniel.
“What is she talking about?”
Daniel's breathing became rapid.
“I don't know.”
I stepped toward him.
“You were standing behind me.”
“No.”
“You said you were sorry.”
Daniel backed away.
“I've never seen this place.”
Elena suddenly laughed.
“That's because he doesn't remember.”
I looked at her.
“What does that mean?”
She pointed at Daniel.
“His memories were erased.”
Luka's expression changed.
“By whom?”
Elena answered:
“By Emma.”
I froze.
“What?”
Elena looked directly into my eyes.
“You erased Daniel's memories.”
“That’s impossible.”
“You did it to protect yourself.”
“From what?”
Elena's smile disappeared.
“From remembering who you really are.”
The alarm grew louder.
The elevator began descending.
Someone was coming.
Luka raised his weapon.
“Everyone move.”
The elevator doors opened.
No soldiers emerged.
No guards.
Only one man.
He stepped out slowly.
Wearing a dark suit.
Gray hair.
A scar across his face.
My father.
Alive.
He looked at me.
Then at Amelia.
And smiled.
“Evelyn.”
I froze.
He raised both hands.
“I've been waiting seventeen years for you to remember.”
Luka pointed his gun at him.
“Stay where you are.”
My father ignored him.
He looked at Amelia.
“Bring me my granddaughter.”
I stepped backward.
“No.”
His expression hardened.
“You don't understand what she's carrying.”
“She is my daughter.”
“No.”
He took one step forward.
“She is carrying me.”
The chamber fell silent.
Then Amelia opened her eyes.
She looked at my father.
And smiled.
My father smiled back.
“Hello, little one.”
Then Amelia spoke.
Not in a baby's voice.
In my father's voice.
“Hello, Father.”
May you like
I screamed.
And every single glass chamber in the underground facility opened at once.
