Chapter 8 - The Man Who Was Born TwiceThe photograph changed everything.
Sarah stared at the face.
Frank.
Same eyes.
Same scar beneath the eyebrow.
Same crooked smile.
Yet the date was impossible.
Twenty-seven years before Sarah was born.
Elizabeth took the photograph.
“I've never seen this.”
Vale snatched it away.
“Where did you find it?”
“In your files.”
Vale studied the image.
Hank asked:
“What is it?”
Vale didn't answer.
Sarah stepped closer.
“You said my father was an accountant.”
“He was.”
“You said he discovered the Directorate.”
“He did.”
“Then explain this.”
Vale remained silent.
Elizabeth whispered:
“That's not Frank.”
Sarah looked at her.
“Then who is he?”
Vale finally spoke.
“His brother.”
Sarah froze.
“Frank had a brother?”
“No.”
Vale's face hardened.
“Frank had no brother.”
“Then who?”
“A copy.”
Silence.
Sarah thought about Emily.
About Project Saint.
About the laboratory.
“Another experiment.”
Vale nodded.
“Project Saint began long before you were born.”
“What were they trying to make?”
“People who could hold classified information without computers.”
Sarah understood.
“The human archive.”
“Yes.”
“And Frank?”
“He was the first successful subject.”
Sarah felt sick.
Elizabeth shook her head.
“That isn't possible.”
Vale looked at her.
“You weren't there when they created him.”
“I knew Frank.”
“You knew one version of him.”
Sarah stepped back.
“One version?”
Vale placed the photograph beside another.
Frank.
Same face.
Same fingerprints.
Same DNA.
But different memories.
“Your father was duplicated.”
Sarah whispered:
“How many?”
Vale looked at her.
“Three.”
Hank's eyes widened.
“Three?”
“Frank was Unit One.”
Sarah pointed at the photograph.
“Then he is Unit Two.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to Unit Three?”
Vale said nothing.
That silence answered the question.
Sarah suddenly remembered the red door again.
A child.
A man in a white coat.
Frank shouting.
Then another Frank entering the room.
Her memory had been fragmented.
She had seen two men because there had been two.
Sarah closed her eyes.
“I saw them.”
Elizabeth grabbed her hand.
“Don't force the memories.”
“Why?”
“Because some of them were implanted.”
Sarah looked at Vale.
“And some weren't.”
“No.”
“Then what happened to Unit Two?”
Vale's expression darkened.
“He became obsessed with the idea that the original should die.”
Sarah understood.
The second Frank wanted to replace the first.
“Where is he?”
Vale looked at the ceiling.
“Closer than you think.”
The lights went out.
Hank drew his weapon.
A red emergency light came on.
Someone started walking down the corridor.
Slow steps.
Calm.
Measured.
Sarah heard a familiar voice.
“No one ever asks the right question.”
Her heart stopped.
Frank.
The man emerged from the darkness.
Older.
Scarred.
Alive.
Sarah's knees nearly gave out.
“Dad?”
He looked at her.
His eyes filled with tears.
“Sarah.”
She ran toward him.
Hank grabbed her.
“WAIT!”
Too late.
Frank raised his gun.
Not toward Sarah.
Toward Robert Vale.
A shot rang out.
Vale fell.
Sarah screamed.
But Frank didn't lower the gun.
He looked at Sarah.
“You shouldn't have come here.”
She stared.
“Dad?”
He took one step backward.
“I've spent twenty-four years making sure you never opened the second archive.”
Sarah shook her head.
“Why?”
Frank's face broke.
“Because the second archive isn't in your memories.”
He looked at Vale.
Then at Elizabeth.
Then back at Sarah.
“It's in your blood.”
Behind them, every screen in the facility suddenly turned on.
A single message appeared.
May you like
UNIT THREE ACTIVATED.
THE SECOND ARCHIVE
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