Chapter 9 - The Memory I BuriedI couldn't speak.
The room seemed to tilt.
"You asked them to erase your memory?" Christine said.
Lucas shook his head.
"No."
He looked at me.
"He did."
Me.
The idea was impossible.
But the moment he said it, fragments surfaced.
A hospital room.
A needle.
My father's voice.
Walter shouting.
A woman crying.
A little boy.
Lucas.
And me.
Age twenty-three.
Holding a gun.
I grabbed the wall.
Mara's voice crackled through my radio.
"Ethan, answer me."
I couldn't.
Lucas stepped closer.
"You wanted to forget."
"Why?"
"Because you killed someone."
The words shattered the room.
"Who?"
Lucas looked away.
"Victor."
I stared at Christine.
She covered her mouth.
"No."
Lucas continued.
"You believed Victor betrayed us."
"What did he do?"
"He sold our location."
I remembered fire.
Screaming.
Smoke.
A woman carrying a child.
Me firing.
Then darkness.
I staggered backward.
Christine caught me.
I pushed her away.
"You knew."
"I knew pieces."
"You knew enough."
She cried.
"I thought you'd killed Victor."
"And he survived."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because the man you killed wasn't Victor."
I stopped.
"Who was it?"
Lucas looked at me.
"Your father."
Silence.
My knees almost buckled.
"No."
"It was a staged death."
"But why would I..."
"Because he wanted you to believe he betrayed you."
"Why?"
"To make you hate him."
I couldn't breathe.
Lucas stepped closer.
"Your father knew what Harrow was becoming."
"What was it?"
"Not a medical project."
He looked at Jake through the distant security monitor.
"A breeding program."
My stomach turned.
"They were tracking families."
"Families with the sequence."
"Yes."
"And my father?"
"He helped create the original database."
"Then he tried to destroy it."
Lucas nodded.
"That was when Walter turned against him."
A voice came over the speaker.
Walter.
"You've always been emotional, Ethan."
I turned toward the camera.
"Come out."
"Still giving orders."
"I'll kill you."
Walter laughed.
"No."
He sounded strangely calm.
"You won't."
The screen changed.
Jake appeared on camera.
My son's face.
He was still in the SUV.
Someone had taken him.
I froze.
Christine screamed.
"Where is he?"
Walter answered.
"Come home."
Mara's voice came through my radio.
"Ethan, don't move."
I ignored her.
Walter continued.
"Bring the ledger."
I stared at the monitor.
"What do you want?"
"Not the ledger."
"What then?"
"I want you."
"Why?"
"Because the project needs its original architect."
I felt cold.
"What are you talking about?"
Walter's voice softened.
"Your father wasn't the architect."
A pause.
"You were."
The screen went black.
And suddenly every memory I had buried for twelve years came back at once.
I remembered writing Harrow.
I remembered designing it.
May you like
And worst of all...
I remembered why.
