Chapter 12 - The Original SinRobert Vale stepped into the basement.
No security.
No guards.
Just him.
Sarah stared.
“You arranged all of this.”
Vale nodded.
“Yes.”
“You created Saint Twelve.”
“No.”
He looked at Michael.
“They did.”
Michael raised his gun.
Vale smiled.
“Put it down.”
Michael didn't.
Vale looked at Sarah.
“The Directorate wanted control.”
“They created the experiments.”
“They created children.”
“But they didn't understand what they were building.”
Sarah looked at Michael.
“You did.”
Michael's expression hardened.
“I understood enough.”
Vale nodded.
“You built the archive.”
“I did.”
“And then Frank betrayed you.”
Sarah turned toward her father.
“What did you do?”
Frank looked at Michael.
“I tried to destroy it.”
“You tried to destroy me,” Michael said.
“I was trying to save Sarah.”
“You chose her.”
Frank's voice shook.
“You were already gone.”
Michael's face twisted.
“You left me inside that facility.”
Sarah looked between them.
“You're brothers.”
“Yes.”
“And you fought over me.”
Michael answered.
“You were the only thing neither of us could agree about.”
Sarah looked at Vale.
“What did you want?”
Vale smiled.
“Information.”
“And now?”
“Ownership.”
He pointed to Sarah.
“You carry names no database contains.”
“What names?”
“Every person who joined the Directorate.”
Sarah's heart pounded.
“I don't remember them.”
“You don't need to.”
Vale walked closer.
“They are already in your subconscious.”
“Then why have I been forgetting?”
“Because your father split your memory.”
Sarah looked at Frank.
Frank nodded.
“He used a conditioning process.”
Vale continued.
“You remember only what you need to survive.”
Sarah whispered:
“Then why is it all coming back now?”
Vale smiled.
“Because Unit Three activated the failsafe.”
Sarah turned.
“Unit Three.”
Michael laughed.
“You still don't understand.”
Everyone looked at him.
Michael's voice softened.
“Unit Three isn't standing here.”
Sarah's blood froze.
“Then who is?”
Michael pointed at Frank.
Sarah turned.
Frank was staring at his own hands.
His face looked terrified.
“I can hear him.”
Sarah stepped back.
“Hear who?”
Frank whispered:
“My memories.”
The basement lights flickered.
Frank's expression changed.
His posture straightened.
His voice became colder.
“You should never have come back here.”
Sarah froze.
It was no longer Frank's voice.
It was Unit Three.
He smiled.
“I wondered when you would remember.”
Michael raised his gun.
“You.”
Unit Three looked at him.
“Brother.”
“You've been hiding inside him.”
“Of course.”
Sarah realized the truth.
Unit Three wasn't a separate body.
He was a second personality.
A hidden identity implanted into Frank years ago.
Vale had activated it.
Frank's body was shaking.
Sarah shouted:
“Dad!”
For a moment, Frank returned.
“Sarah…”
Then Unit Three smiled again.
He pulled a gun.
He shot Michael.
Michael fell.
Sarah screamed.
Elizabeth lunged at Frank.
Unit Three shoved her aside.
Hank fired.
Frank disappeared behind the wall.
Sarah ran toward Michael.
Blood spread beneath him.
He grabbed her wrist.
“Listen…”
Sarah leaned closer.
Michael whispered:
“There's one thing you don't remember.”
“What?”
“Who ordered Sarah created.”
Sarah stared.
“Who?”
Michael coughed.
“Not Vale.”
“Then who?”
Michael looked toward the doorway.
Vale.
Sarah turned.
Vale had gone pale.
Michael whispered:
“Your grandmother.”
Silence.
Sarah's mind went blank.
Her grandmother.
A woman who had died when Sarah was young.
The last person Sarah expected.
Michael smiled weakly.
“She wasn't protecting the family.”
“She built it.”
Then he closed his eyes.
May you like
And somewhere above them, every alarm in the building began screaming.
THE SECOND ARCHIVE
