Chapter 11 - The Voice BelowThe voice came again.
“Evan.”
It was impossible.
Yet unmistakable.
Lucas cried out.
“That's him.”
“Who?”
“My father.”
Evan stared at him.
“I am your father.”
Lucas shook his head.
“No.”
The floor split wider.
A hidden elevator rose from beneath the school.
Inside stood a man.
Same height.
Same face.
Same scars.
Same eyes.
Evan stopped breathing.
The other man smiled.
“Hello, original.”
Mara whispered:
“Subject Zero.”
The duplicate stepped out.
He looked at Lucas.
“You took long enough.”
Evan raised his gun.
“Don't move.”
The other Evan smiled.
“You still point guns when you're afraid.”
“You know me?”
“I know everything you forgot.”
He touched his temple.
“Every memory.”
Evan felt sick.
“What are you?”
“A version of you.”
“Why do you look older?”
“Because I wasn't allowed to stop aging.”
He looked at Lucas.
“But I was allowed to remember.”
Lucas stepped forward.
“Do you know my grandmother?”
“She made me.”
“Why?”
“To create you.”
Evan's mind raced.
“What happened twenty years ago?”
Subject Zero looked at Mara.
“She knows.”
Mara began crying.
Evan turned.
“Mara?”
She couldn't speak.
Subject Zero answered for her.
“She chose you.”
“Over you?”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“She chose the original.”
Evan stared.
“Why?”
“Because she loved you.”
“And you?”
“I loved her first.”
Mara looked devastated.
“You were never supposed to live.”
“I know.”
“Then why did you?”
Subject Zero smiled.
“Because he didn't.”
Evan's face changed.
“What?”
The duplicate stepped closer.
“You think you're the original.”
A pause.
“You're not.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Subject Zero continued.
“You were the second.”
Evan shook his head.
“No.”
“I remember the day your father chose.”
He described it.
Two infants.
One experiment.
A fatal complication.
The first child was declared dead.
The second was implanted with the memory structure.
Evan had been told his whole life that he was the original.
But the truth was worse.
The original had survived.
And had been hidden.
Subject Zero.
Mara covered her face.
“Why didn't you tell him?”
“Because Helix made me promise.”
“Why?”
“To keep him alive.”
Evan stared.
“Then who am I?”
Mara stepped toward him.
“My son.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“It is to me.”
Suddenly, alarms began sounding.
Subject Zero looked toward the ceiling.
“They're coming.”
“Who?”
“The people who built the second phase.”
Evan looked at him.
“What second phase?”
Subject Zero glanced at Lucas.
“His generation.”
The doors exploded.
Armed men poured into the room.
Chaos.
Gunfire.
Evan pulled Lucas behind a desk.
Subject Zero moved like a machine.
Three men fell.
Mara fired back.
Voss dragged Nina toward the exit.
They escaped into the corridor.
But before leaving, Evan looked back.
Subject Zero stood alone.
Surrounded by enemies.
He looked directly at Evan.
Then said:
“Take the boy to the lake.”
Evan shouted:
“Why?”
“Because that's where the first memory is buried.”
The door slammed shut.
A second later, an explosion rocked the school.
Evan ran.
But the worst realization had already taken root.
May you like
There were two Evans.
And he no longer knew which one had spent twenty years living his life.
