Chapter 16 - The White RoomThey entered the Helix facility through an underground tunnel.
The White Room waited.
Exactly as Evan remembered.
White walls.
Cold lights.
A chair in the center.
Lucas stood at the doorway.
“That's it.”
Evan looked at him.
“You don't have to be brave.”
Lucas smiled weakly.
“I don't feel brave.”
“Good.”
“Why?”
“Because being scared means you're human.”
Lucas nodded.
Voss activated the system.
The machines turned on.
A monitor displayed:
MEMORY SYNCHRONIZATION
SUBJECT: LUCAS
SOURCE: EVAN
DURATION: 11:42:17
Mara stared.
“How do we stop it?”
Voss pointed toward a terminal.
“Someone must enter the original memory sequence.”
“Then delete it.”
“Exactly.”
Evan asked:
“What happens to me?”
Voss looked away.
“You may lose everything.”
“My memories?”
“Possibly your identity.”
Lucas stepped forward.
“Then I'll remember for him.”
Evan stared.
“You can't carry my whole life.”
Lucas smiled.
“Maybe I don't need to.”
He sat in the chair.
Cables attached to his temples.
The lights dimmed.
The screen flashed.
Suddenly Lucas gasped.
He saw the lake.
Evan's childhood.
His first day at school.
His mother.
His father.
Mara.
Everything.
Then he saw himself.
As a baby.
His tiny hand wrapped around Evan's finger.
A memory that could never have been his.
But it was.
Lucas cried.
“My dad…”
Evan stood behind the glass.
“I'm here.”
Lucas looked toward him.
Then the room changed.
He saw a second Evan.
Older.
Bloodied.
Locked inside a laboratory.
Subject Zero.
He was writing something on the wall.
A message.
THE FIRST MEMORY IS NOT MINE.
Lucas whispered:
“What does that mean?”
Voss stared at the monitor.
“Don't continue.”
But Lucas did.
He entered the next memory.
Two boys.
Identical.
One named Evan.
One named Subject Zero.
Their mother watching.
Their father arguing.
Then the truth.
The first boy was not human.
He was a constructed memory vessel.
The second boy was the biological child.
Evan.
Subject Zero had inherited Evan's memories.
Not the other way around.
Voss realized her mistake.
“We've been wrong for twenty years.”
Evan heard her.
“What?”
“Subject Zero wasn't the original.”
“Then who was?”
Voss looked at him.
“You.”
Evan stared.
“You were the first.”
Lucas suddenly screamed.
The system overloaded.
Alarms exploded.
The screen flashed:
MEMORY SOURCE CONFIRMED
EVAN REED
ORIGINAL
Evan's heart stopped.
He looked through the glass.
Lucas was crying.
“Dad!”
Evan rushed to the room.
The doors opened.
Lucas collapsed into his arms.
“I know now.”
“Know what?”
“You really are my father.”
Evan held him.
“I'm glad.”
Lucas whispered:
“But there's one thing you don't know.”
“What?”
“The person who created the memory system…”
Lucas looked behind him.
At the darkened monitor.
“…is still alive.”
Voss turned.
“Who?”
The screen activated.
A name appeared.
PROJECT DIRECTOR: MARA BENNETT
Evan slowly looked at Mara.
She stood frozen.
Not surprised.
Not confused.
Just defeated.
Evan whispered:
“Mara?”
May you like
She closed her eyes.
“I was going to tell you.”
