Chapter 11 - Nobody spoke.Even Victor remained silent.
Julian stared at the duplicate.
“You were never a baby.”
The duplicate looked confused.
“I don't know.”
Mara approached slowly.
“What do they call you?”
“Julian.”
She shook her head.
“That isn't your name.”
He looked frightened.
“Then what is?”
Mara touched his face.
“You have the same scar as the baby.”
He stared at her.
“What baby?”
“Noah.”
The duplicate looked toward Noah.
Something in his eyes changed.
The baby's hand reached toward him.
Just as it had toward Mara.
The duplicate whispered:
“I remember.”
Julian's chest tightened.
“Remember what?”
“A lullaby.”
Mara froze.
She had used that lullaby in her dreams.
A simple melody her foster mother had never taught her.
The duplicate began humming it.
Mara started crying.
“That was mine.”
He looked at her.
“No.”
“It was.”
She sang the next line.
He finished it.
Perfectly.
Julian stared.
This was not genetic memory.
This was something else.
Something intimate.
Something impossible.
Victor's voice interrupted.
“How touching.”
Julian looked up.
“You did this.”
“Of course.”
“Why?”
“Because blood is unreliable.”
Julian's anger rose.
“My son is not a machine.”
Victor laughed.
“Every family is a machine.”
“You're sick.”
“No.”
A pause.
“I'm practical.”
Julian looked at Mara.
“Where are we going?”
Victor answered:
“Back to the beginning.”
The floor opened beneath them.
A hidden elevator descended.
Julian grabbed Mara.
“Noah stays with me.”
The duplicate followed.
The elevator stopped three levels below ground.
They stepped into a massive underground laboratory.
Hundreds of files lined the walls.
Photographs.
Birth certificates.
DNA charts.
Children.
Adults.
Families.
Julian walked slowly.
“This can't be real.”
Victor's voice came through speakers.
“It's been real for thirty years.”
Mara saw a photograph.
Her childhood.
She was six.
Standing beside Victor.
A note beneath it:
SUBJECT E-07: MEMORY RESISTANCE HIGH.
She stared.
“Subject?”
Another photograph.
Her at twelve.
SUBJECT E-07: EMOTIONAL BONDING SUCCESSFUL.
Another.
Her at eighteen.
MEMORY REPLACEMENT COMPLETE.
Mara backed away.
“They did this to me.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To make you forget me.”
Mara shook her head.
“Why would they want me to forget you?”
Evelyn's face hardened.
“Because I had started remembering everything.”
“What everything?”
“Our mother.”
Mara went still.
“Our real mother?”
Evelyn nodded.
“She knew about Victor's experiments.”
“She tried to expose him.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“She disappeared.”
Mara stared at her.
“How did she die?”
“She didn't.”
Again, the same pattern.
The same terrible pattern.
Everyone who had supposedly died was alive somewhere.
Victor's voice returned.
“Now you understand.”
Julian looked toward the ceiling.
“Show yourself.”
A door opened.
Victor Mercer walked into the laboratory.
Older.
But alive.
Julian stared at his father.
“You.”
Victor smiled.
“You finally came home.”
Julian raised his gun.
Victor didn't move.
“Do it.”
Julian's finger tightened.
Victor smiled.
“You won't.”
“Why?”
“Because you'll never know which child is yours.”
Julian froze.
Victor nodded toward Noah.
“The baby.”
Then toward the duplicate.
“The adult.”
Then toward Mara.
“The mother.”
He smiled.
“You've been searching for one family.”
He spread his arms.
“There are three versions.”
Julian whispered:
“Which one is real?”
Victor smiled.
“That's the question.”
Mara suddenly noticed something.
A file on Victor's desk.
Her name.
She opened it.
Inside was a birth certificate.
MARA ELLIS.
Then another.
EVELYN MERCER.
Then another.
ELISE BELL.
Three identities.
Same photograph.
Mara looked up.
Victor was watching her.
“You know what the best part is?”
“What?”
“You were never the first.”
He opened another file.
A photograph of a woman who looked exactly like Mara.
But older.
Much older.
Mara stared.
“Who is she?”
Victor smiled.
“Your mother.”
Julian looked at the photograph.
The woman's eyes were identical to Mara's.
Then Victor added:
“And she's standing in this building.”
A scream echoed from somewhere below.
Mara turned.
The duplicate went pale.
“That sound…”
They heard a second scream.
Then a woman's voice.
“Help me!”
Mara ran toward the sound.
Julian followed.
Victor didn't stop them.
At the end of the corridor, they found a locked glass room.
Inside stood an elderly woman.
She looked at Mara.
And whispered:
“Evelyn.”
Mara touched the glass.
“I know you.”
The woman began crying.
“Yes.”
She placed her hand against the glass.
“You're my daughter.”
Then she looked at Noah.
May you like
Her face changed.
“That's not your only child.”
