Chapter 12 - SUBJECT ZEROThe words made no sense.
Original subject: deceased.
I stared at the photograph.
It was me.
But the date was twenty-four years ago.
David stood behind me.
“You weren't born naturally.”
I turned.
“What?”
“Not the way you think.”
He pointed at the file.
“Subject Zero.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“The first successful neural transfer.”
“What was transferred?”
“A consciousness.”
Mine.
I stared at him.
“You're saying I was copied before I was an adult?”
“Yes.”
“That means I've been a copy my whole life.”
“No.”
Ethan shook his head.
“You're the original consciousness.”
“But the file says deceased.”
“The body died.”
I couldn't breathe.
“What body?”
Ethan looked at Lily.
“Your first body.”
Silence.
Lily squeezed my hand.
I realized she was shaking.
“Daddy?”
“I’m here.”
“No matter what, you're my Daddy.”
I hugged her.
Behind us, Sarah whispered:
“Daniel, there's something else.”
I turned.
She held another file.
Inside was a medical photograph.
A newborn.
Me.
Next to another infant.
Lily.
The file date was eight years ago.
I stared.
“She was born eight years ago.”
Sarah shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“She was born before that.”
My heart stopped.
“How much before?”
“Four years.”
“What?”
“Lily is actually eleven.”
I stared at my daughter.
She looked seven.
But suddenly memories began surfacing.
Her first birthday.
A hospital room.
Sarah crying.
A woman in a white coat.
Then the memory changed.
Lily was older.
Six.
Then younger.
One.
The memories were collapsing into each other.
Ethan grabbed my shoulder.
“Don't fight it.”
“What's happening?”
“Your memory is coming back.”
I dropped to my knees.
I remembered Lily at eight months.
I remembered her first steps.
I remembered a birthday that had never happened.
I remembered holding her in a room on the fourth floor.
Then I remembered the fire.
My father.
David.
Sarah.
And someone else.
Victoria Vale.
She had been there.
She had ordered the procedure.
But there was one thing I could not understand.
Why had she created Lily?
I looked at Ethan.
“What is Lily?”
His face went pale.
“She isn't the final subject.”
“Then what is she?”
“She is the key.”
“To what?”
“The network.”
David stepped forward.
“The genetic sequence in Lily's brain can connect human memories.”
I stared.
“She can share memories?”
“Yes.”
“Across people?”
“Yes.”
“Then why would they need her alive?”
Ethan answered:
“Because once connected, the network can overwrite them.”
The room went silent.
“You mean control?”
“Not exactly.”
“What, then?”
“Consensus.”
I frowned.
“They can change what millions of people remember.”
I looked at the screens.
Politicians.
Doctors.
Executives.
All connected.
History could be rewritten.
Evidence could disappear.
Crimes could become memories of something else.
A government could create a war and make people remember another nation started it.
A murder could vanish.
A betrayal could be erased.
My life could be rewritten.
Then I understood.
The acquisition was never about money.
Vespera was the front.
Chicago was the activation site.
And Lily was the biological key.
A siren suddenly blared.
The countdown disappeared.
A message appeared.
ACTIVATION MOVED FORWARD.
T-MINUS 30 MINUTES.
David looked at me.
“We have thirty minutes.”
“To stop it?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
He stared at Lily.
“We take her to Chicago.”
I thought he had lost his mind.
“That's exactly what they want.”
David shook his head.
“That's why they'll never expect you to do it.”
Then the lights went black.
May you like
When they returned, Sarah was gone.
And so was the baby.
