CHAPTER 14 — THE MAN WHO HAD MY FACE
The lights went out.
Complete darkness swallowed Room 17.
Ryan immediately pulled Oliver against his chest.
“Stay behind me.”
Daniel raised his gun.
Evelyn grabbed the wall for balance.
Michael whispered:
“Don't move.”
Then the voice came again.
Ryan's voice.
Older.
Calmer.
Terrifyingly familiar.
“Ryan.”
A soft click echoed through the corridor.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Red.
One by one.
The figure appeared at the end of the hallway.
Tall.
Gray hair.
Dark suit.
A scar above his right eyebrow.
Ryan stared.
The man had his face.
Not similar.
Not resembling him.
His face.
Older by thirty years.
Ryan's throat went dry.
The older man smiled.
“You finally found me.”
Ryan stepped backward.
“Who are you?”
The man tilted his head.
“You already know.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
The man walked closer.
“You've seen me before.”
Ryan's mind raced.
The photograph.
The laboratory.
The childhood memories.
The man beside Maya.
Six months ago.
The older version of himself.
Ryan shook his head.
“You're lying.”
The man smiled.
“That's what they taught you to say.”
Daniel raised his gun.
“Stay back.”
The older man looked at him.
“Daniel.”
His voice became colder.
“You're still carrying that?”
Daniel's hands trembled.
“You're dead.”
The man laughed softly.
“So was I.”
Ryan looked at Daniel.
“What is he talking about?”
Daniel didn't answer.
Ryan shouted:
“DAD!”
Daniel lowered his gun.
“I thought I killed him.”
The older man smiled.
“You tried.”
Ryan's heart hammered.
“Who are you?”
The man looked directly at him.
“My name is Ryan Whitmore.”
Ryan felt dizzy.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You're not me.”
The older man pointed at Ryan.
“I'm what you become.”
Silence.
Michael stepped forward.
“That's impossible.”
The older Ryan looked at him.
“Michael.”
Michael froze.
“You know me?”
“I knew you before you knew yourself.”
Michael's face went pale.
The older Ryan continued:
“You were never Noah.”
Michael shook his head.
“Then who am I?”
The older Ryan smiled.
“That's the question you should have asked twenty years ago.”
Ryan looked between them.
“What is happening?”
The older Ryan turned toward Oliver.
“Your son is the key.”
Ryan immediately stepped in front of him.
“Don't touch him.”
“I don't intend to.”
“Then what do you want?”
The older Ryan looked at the child.
“I want him to remember.”
Oliver began crying.
Ryan held him tighter.
“Remember what?”
The older Ryan answered:
“Who created him.”
Maya's face appeared in Ryan's mind.
The hospital.
The photographs.
The strange genetic results.
He looked at the older Ryan.
“What did you do to my son?”
“Nothing.”
“You're lying.”
“I didn't create Oliver.”
“Then who did?”
The older Ryan looked at Daniel.
“Your father.”
Ryan turned.
“Dad?”
Daniel looked broken.
“I didn't create him.”
The older Ryan shook his head.
“You didn't create the body.”
He looked at Ryan.
“You created the identity.”
Ryan's stomach tightened.
“What does that mean?”
The older Ryan walked closer.
“Oliver was never supposed to be born.”
Ryan's voice trembled.
“Why?”
“Because he wasn't part of the original experiment.”
“Then why does he have the mutation?”
“Because you gave it to him.”
Ryan stared.
“I didn't.”
The older Ryan smiled.
“You did.”
“How?”
“Through your blood.”
Ryan looked at Oliver.
His son was still crying.
The older Ryan continued.
“The mutation isn't a disease.”
Ryan frowned.
“Then what is it?”
“It's an adaptation.”
“To what?”
“To memory.”
Ryan stared.
“What?”
The older man pointed toward his own head.
“The mutation allows memories to be transferred between generations.”
Daniel suddenly whispered:
“No.”
The older Ryan looked at him.
“Yes.”
Daniel shook his head.
“We destroyed the research.”
“You destroyed the laboratory.”
He smiled.
“Not the research.”
Ryan's mind raced.
The missing memories.
The erased childhood.
The strange dreams.
The photographs.
The genetic match.
Oliver remembering things he shouldn't know.
Ryan suddenly understood.
“That's why Oliver said he remembered the man.”
The older Ryan nodded.
“Exactly.”
Ryan stared at his son.
“But he's three.”
“He inherited your memories.”
Ryan's blood froze.
“Then what has he seen?”
The older Ryan's expression darkened.
“Everything you forgot.”
Ryan looked at Oliver.
His little boy was staring at him.
Then Oliver whispered:
“Daddy.”
Ryan knelt.
“Yes?”
“I remember the room.”
Ryan's heart stopped.
“What room?”
“The white room.”
Ryan felt a sharp pain behind his eyes.
Suddenly, images exploded through his mind.
A laboratory.
Noah.
Claire.
Maya.
Daniel.
Evelyn.
A machine.
A newborn.
Then another image.
A woman holding baby Ryan.
But the woman wasn't Evelyn.
It was Maya.
Young Maya.
The same Maya from the photograph.
Ryan gasped.
“Maya…”
The older Ryan nodded.
“She was there.”
“Why?”
“She was the Foundation's geneticist.”
Ryan shook his head.
“My wife isn't that old.”
“She isn't your wife.”
Ryan looked toward Daniel.
Daniel couldn't meet his eyes.
The older Ryan continued.
“She was designed to replace someone.”
“Who?”
“Claire.”
Ryan felt sick.
“Maya was created from Claire's DNA.”
Michael suddenly stepped forward.
“That's why they look identical.”
“Yes.”
Ryan's mind raced.
“Then the woman who took Oliver…”
The older Ryan nodded.
“Isn't Maya.”
“Who is she?”
“An earlier version.”
Ryan stared.
“Earlier version of what?”
“Of the identity program.”
Silence.
The older Ryan looked at Daniel.
“You created copies.”
Daniel's face hardened.
“Not copies.”
“Then what?”
“Continuations.”
Ryan looked at his father.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel finally spoke.
“The Foundation discovered that certain genetic memories could survive through artificially created bodies.”
Ryan's stomach turned.
“So Maya…”
“Is a continuation of Claire.”
“And me?”
Daniel looked at him.
“You are a continuation of Noah.”
Ryan felt numb.
“But Noah was my brother.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Noah was your previous identity.”
Ryan stared at him.
“Then who was the first?”
The older Ryan smiled.
“Subject Zero.”
Ryan remembered the file.
The newborn.
The older boy.
The man beside Maya.
He suddenly understood.
“That's you.”
The older Ryan nodded.
“Yes.”
“You were Subject Zero.”
“I was the first successful transfer.”
Ryan stared.
“Then how old are you?”
The older Ryan looked at him.
“Forty-three.”
Ryan's blood froze.
“You've been alive for forty-three years?”
“Yes.”
“Then why do you look like me?”
“Because I am you.”
Ryan shook his head.
“No.”
The older Ryan smiled.
“Think about it.”
He pointed toward the file.
“You were born in 2006.”
“Yes.”
“But Subject Zero was born in 1983.”
Ryan stared.
“That's impossible.”
“No.”
The older Ryan stepped closer.
“You're not my younger self.”
Ryan's heart stopped.
“You're my replacement.”
Silence.
The sentence hit harder than any weapon.
Ryan stared at him.
“What?”
The older Ryan looked toward Oliver.
“Your father created you to replace me.”
Daniel's face collapsed.
“I had no choice.”
The older Ryan laughed.
“You always say that.”
Ryan turned toward Daniel.
“You replaced him with me?”
Daniel nodded.
Ryan's voice shook.
“Why?”
“Because Subject Zero was dying.”
“And you copied him?”
“No.”
Daniel looked at Ryan.
“We transferred his memories.”
Ryan felt sick.
“Into me.”
“Yes.”
“Then why don't I remember?”
“Because the transfer was incomplete.”
The older Ryan stepped closer.
“And that's why I survived.”
Ryan looked at him.
“Where?”
The older Ryan smiled.
“Everywhere.”
Suddenly, a loud explosion shook the corridor.
The walls trembled.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Michael shouted:
“They're breaching the lower level!”
Daniel grabbed Ryan.
“We have to leave.”
Ryan looked at the older man.
“What about him?”
The older Ryan stepped aside.
“Go.”
Ryan didn't move.
“Why?”
“Because the Foundation isn't coming for Oliver.”
Ryan's blood froze.
“Then who?”
The older Ryan looked toward the corridor.
“The real enemy.”
A deep voice echoed through the darkness.
“Ryan.”
Everyone froze.
A man walked into the red emergency light.
Ryan recognized him immediately.
His father.
Daniel Whitmore.
But Daniel was already standing beside him.
Two Daniels.
One old.
One younger.
Ryan stared.
“No…”
The younger Daniel smiled.
“Hello, son.”
Ryan looked at the older Daniel.
Then the younger one.
His mind couldn't process it.
The younger Daniel stepped forward.
“You've been asking who created you.”
He pointed toward Ryan.
“I did.”
Then he pointed toward the older Ryan.
“And I created him too.”
Ryan's blood turned cold.
The younger Daniel smiled.
“But neither of you was my greatest success.”
He looked at Oliver.
“The third generation is.”
Oliver suddenly stopped crying.
He looked directly at the younger Daniel.
Then smiled.
“Grandpa.”
Ryan froze.
The younger Daniel's smile widened.
“Exactly.”
Ryan grabbed Oliver.
“What did you do to my son?”
The younger Daniel answered calmly:
“Nothing.”
He looked at the older Ryan.
“He did.”
Ryan turned.
The older Ryan's face had changed.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
The younger Daniel raised a small remote.
“One command.”
He pressed it.
Oliver suddenly screamed.
Ryan felt his son's body go rigid.
“OLIVER!”
The boy's eyes opened wide.
Then he whispered:
“Daddy…”
His voice changed.
It wasn't Oliver's voice anymore.
It was an adult man's voice.
A voice Ryan knew.
His own voice.
“...I remember.”
May you like
The lights exploded.
And the entire laboratory went dark.
