Chapter 9 - Unit ThreeEvery screen flashed the same words.
UNIT THREE ACTIVATED.
Frank's face drained of color.
“No.”
Sarah looked around.
“What does that mean?”
Frank turned toward the corridor.
“We have minutes.”
Hank raised his weapon.
“Where is Unit Three?”
Frank answered:
“Already inside.”
Doors slammed shut throughout the facility.
Emergency alarms began screaming.
Elizabeth grabbed Sarah.
“Stay with me.”
Sarah looked at her father.
“You're Frank.”
“Yes.”
“Or one of them?”
Frank hesitated.
Sarah's heart sank.
“Which one?”
He looked at her.
“The one who loved you.”
“That doesn't answer my question.”
“The original.”
Vale groaned from the floor.
Sarah looked at him.
He was alive.
The bullet had struck his shoulder.
He laughed.
“You still don't understand.”
Frank stepped toward him.
“You knew this day would come.”
Vale nodded.
“I built it.”
“You built nothing.”
Vale smiled.
“I built Unit Three.”
The lights flickered.
A man appeared on the security monitors.
Same face as Frank.
Same height.
Same scar.
But younger.
Calm.
Expressionless.
Sarah stared.
“No.”
Frank whispered:
“He has everything.”
“What does that mean?”
“Every memory.”
“Yours?”
“Mine.”
Sarah felt sick.
“He's you.”
Frank nodded.
“He knows every safehouse. Every account. Every person I trusted.”
Hank looked at the screens.
“Then how do we stop him?”
Frank answered:
“We don't.”
“That's not an option.”
“It is tonight.”
A metal door bent inward.
The force came from the other side.
Once.
Twice.
On the third impact, the door flew open.
Unit Three walked in.
He looked at Sarah.
And smiled.
“Hello.”
Sarah couldn't move.
Unit Three turned to Frank.
“Brother.”
Frank raised his weapon.
Unit Three laughed.
“You still think I'm the copy.”
Frank's face changed.
“What?”
Unit Three looked at Sarah.
“Ask him.”
Sarah stared at Frank.
“What is he talking about?”
Frank said nothing.
Unit Three stepped closer.
“Your father died twenty-four years ago.”
Sarah's eyes widened.
“This man is not Frank Mitchell.”
Frank fired.
Unit Three moved.
The bullet struck the wall.
Hank fired next.
Unit Three disappeared behind a pillar.
Shots exploded through the corridor.
Sarah crawled behind a server rack.
Then silence.
She heard footsteps.
Someone grabbed her.
She screamed.
Frank.
“It’s me.”
Sarah shoved him away.
“You're lying!”
Frank stared at her.
“I know.”
“What does he mean?”
Frank's face was exhausted.
“Unit Three was created first.”
Sarah froze.
“What?”
“Project Saint didn't clone me.”
He swallowed.
“They cloned the person I was supposed to become.”
Sarah stared.
“I don't understand.”
Frank looked at the floor.
“When I was eighteen, they implanted a complete artificial identity into me.”
“And Unit Three?”
“He was the original experiment.”
“So who is my real father?”
Frank looked at her.
“I don't know.”
Sarah's heart cracked.
Elizabeth stepped forward.
“You know.”
Frank shook his head.
“I know who raised me.”
“That isn't what she asked.”
Frank's eyes closed.
Before he could answer, the building shook.
A second explosion.
Then another.
Vale smiled.
“He's destroying the foundation.”
Sarah looked at him.
“Why?”
Vale whispered:
“Because he isn't trying to kill us.”
“What is he trying to do?”
Vale looked directly into her eyes.
“Erase the archive.”
Sarah understood.
Her memories.
Her blood.
Everything.
Unit Three wanted to erase the evidence forever.
Frank grabbed Sarah's hand.
“We have one chance.”
“Where?”
“Your mother's house.”
Sarah frowned.
“Why?”
Frank looked at Elizabeth.
“Because the second archive isn't in your blood.”
Sarah stared.
Frank whispered:
“It is in something your mother has kept hidden for twenty-four years.”
A gunshot came from the hallway.
Elizabeth fell.
Sarah screamed.
And Unit Three stepped into view holding the smoking gun.
He smiled.
May you like
“Now we can finally talk.”
THE SECOND ARCHIVE
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