Chapter 15 - The ListMom survived.
Barely.
We found shelter in an abandoned church outside the city.
Jake and Maya barricaded the doors.
Dad sat beside Mom.
I had never seen him look so broken.
She opened her eyes.
"Peter has the list."
"What list?"
"The original."
"The names of everyone Halcyon erased."
"Then we need it."
Dad shook his head.
"If Peter releases it, hundreds of people will be hunted."
I understood.
"Then we get there first."
Jake nodded.
"I know where he keeps it."
"Where?"
"The house."
"Which house?"
"Our house."
The old family home.
The place I hadn't seen in ten years.
We returned before sunrise.
The house looked smaller.
Almost harmless.
That somehow made it worse.
Dad opened the basement.
Behind an old furnace was a steel safe.
He entered a code.
Inside was a folder.
Empty.
Peter had already taken it.
But there was one envelope.
My name.
I opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Me at sixteen.
Holding my makeup kit.
On the back:
THE BOY WHO SEES EVERYONE.
Then another photograph.
Jake and me.
Then a final one.
Mom.
Dad.
Peter.
All together.
Years before we knew what Halcyon was.
Behind them stood a blackboard.
On it were hundreds of names.
I looked at the pattern.
Something clicked.
The names weren't random.
They were arranged by facial features.
Eyes.
Noses.
Scars.
Birthmarks.
Faces.
I suddenly understood what Halcyon had really wanted.
They didn't use me to remember people.
They used me to organize people.
To identify them.
To track them.
I had been their human database.
Maya looked at the photographs.
"Evan."
I was already writing.
I built the pattern into a code.
It revealed coordinates.
"What's there?"
Dad stared at the numbers.
"The original Halcyon archive."
"Where?"
He whispered:
"Under the Bellwether."
We returned to the hotel.
The hidden tunnel opened beneath Room 314.
This time the passage went deeper.
Far deeper.
At the end stood a vault.
The door required a face scan.
I stepped forward.
The scanner flashed.
ACCESS GRANTED.
Inside were thousands of boxes.
Photographs.
Files.
Medical records.
Everything.
Then I saw one box.
Marked:
TWIN PROTOCOL.
I opened it.
Inside were two folders.
Jake.
Evan.
The first page contained a sentence.
ONE TWIN WAS DESIGNED TO REMEMBER.
I looked at Jake.
He opened his folder.
His face changed.
"What?"
He handed me the page.
May you like
It read:
THE OTHER WAS DESIGNED TO FORGET.
