Chapter 9 - The Second EvanNobody spoke.
The tunnel hummed around them.
Mara stared at Lucas.
“That's impossible.”
Lucas shook his head.
“I don't know what it means.”
Evan couldn't move.
The words repeated in his mind.
You're not the first Evan.
He turned to Voss.
“Explain.”
Voss looked away.
“Mara…”
“Tell me.”
Voss exhaled.
“There was another subject.”
“Another me?”
“Yes.”
Evan laughed once.
Not because it was funny.
Because the alternative was screaming.
“How?”
“Cloning.”
Silence.
Evan stared at her.
Voss continued.
“Your parents created a genetic copy.”
Mara looked horrified.
“When?”
“Before you were born.”
Evan's hands trembled.
“Why?”
“To test memory transfer.”
Voss said the duplicate was never meant to live outside the facility.
But he did.
He grew.
Learned.
Remembered.
Then something unexpected happened.
“He developed the same memories you had.”
Evan whispered:
“So there were two of us.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to him?”
Voss looked at Lucas.
“He became Subject Zero.”
Evan's stomach dropped.
Lucas stared at him.
“Then who are you?”
Evan had no answer.
A loud metallic crash came from behind them.
Someone was approaching.
They ran.
The tunnel opened into an underground parking garage.
Voss found a vehicle.
They escaped.
Outside, dawn was breaking.
Evan stared at his reflection in the side mirror.
For the first time in his life, he questioned whether his own face belonged to him.
Mara sat beside him.
“You're real.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because I loved you.”
He looked at her.
“You could have loved the wrong one.”
Mara's eyes filled.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the other one never looked at me the way you did.”
Evan looked away.
Lucas leaned forward.
“Dad.”
Evan glanced at him.
“I remember something else.”
“What?”
“My grandmother had a room.”
“Where?”
“At the lake.”
Evan's heartbeat stopped.
The same lake where he had carved his initials into the ball.
Mara whispered:
“No.”
Evan turned.
“You know something.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“You do.”
Mara looked down.
“The lake cabin belonged to your parents.”
Evan stared.
“Then why did they erase it?”
“Because that's where Subject Zero was created.”
He suddenly remembered.
A summer storm.
A basement.
Two identical boys.
One crying.
One watching.
His father saying:
“Which one is Evan?”
A woman answering:
“The original.”
His mother.
And then another voice.
Richard Kane.
“Does it matter?”
The memory ended.
Evan slammed the brakes.
Lucas nearly fell forward.
“We're not going to the lake.”
Mara nodded.
“Correct.”
“Why?”
“Because that's where they expect us.”
Evan looked at Voss.
“Then where?”
Voss looked at Lucas.
“School.”
Lucas frowned.
“What?”
“Your school has something hidden underneath it.”
Mara stared at her.
“How do you know?”
“Because I designed it.”
Evan started driving.
Then Lucas suddenly screamed.
A vision had hit him.
He saw a long corridor.
A locked door.
A number.
17
He whispered:
“Room seventeen.”
Voss's face turned pale.
“That's impossible.”
“What?”
“Room seventeen was destroyed twenty years ago.”
Lucas looked at her.
“No.”
He pointed forward.
“I know where it is.”
“How?”
May you like
Lucas answered with a frightened whisper.
“Because I woke up there.”
