Chapter 7 - THE HAND THAT REMEMBEREDThe device was no larger than a coin.
Yet everyone in the room stared at it as though it were a bomb.
Ezra placed it on the table.
His mechanical arm continued twitching.
Rhea examined the device.
"Can you feel that?"
Ezra nodded.
"My arm feels cold."
"That's impossible."
"So was everything else tonight."
Gus stood near the window.
"We need to leave."
Ezra looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because they'll come."
"Who?"
"The people who built Lazarus."
Rhea turned.
"I thought Gregor built it."
Gus shook his head.
"No."
"Then who?"
Gus looked at Ezra.
"Your father and Gregor were working for someone else."
Ezra's face hardened.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"I'm not."
Gus rubbed his temples.
"They erased the name from my memory."
Rhea stepped closer.
"How do you know that?"
"Because sometimes I remember the hole where the memory should be."
Rhea swallowed.
"Can you recover it?"
"Maybe."
"How?"
Gus looked at her.
"You."
Rhea froze.
"Me?"
"You were in the room."
"Which room?"
"The first procedure."
Rhea's memories surged.
White lights.
Cold steel.
Her little brother crying.
Her mother screaming.
A monitor.
A needle.
And someone saying:
The girl is the carrier.
Rhea gasped.
Ezra caught her before she fell.
"Rhea."
She pressed her hands against her head.
"I remember."
"What?"
"My father."
Ezra waited.
"He put something in my brother."
"What?"
"I don't know."
She looked at Gus.
Then at Ezra.
"Before they erased his memories, my father told me to remember one thing."
"What?"
Rhea's eyes filled with tears.
"He said, 'If Ezra ever loses his right hand, give him the truth.'"
Ezra went completely still.
"The explosion."
Rhea nodded.
"It was never about the arm."
Gus whispered:
"It was the key."
Ezra looked at the mechanical hand.
"The prosthetic."
Rhea understood.
"They wanted you to wear it."
A voice came from the doorway.
"Correct."
Everyone spun around.
Ezra aimed his gun.
An unfamiliar woman stood there.
She wore a dark coat.
No weapon.
No expression.
She looked at Rhea.
"You're late."
Rhea stepped backward.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Helena Vale."
Ezra's gun remained raised.
"How did you get in?"
"I helped build the network protecting this house."
"With Gregor?"
"Against him."
Rhea frowned.
"Then why do you know about the hand?"
Helena looked at Ezra.
"Because your father designed it."
Ezra's face hardened.
"Why?"
"To store a biological encryption key."
Gus whispered:
"Project Lazarus."
Helena nodded.
"The project was never about repairing damaged bodies."
She looked at Rhea.
"It was about transferring information through the nervous system."
Rhea felt sick.
"Human minds."
"Yes."
"That machine inside Ezra..."
"It contains data."
"What data?"
"The identities of everyone who funded Lazarus."
Ezra looked down at his hand.
"So Gregor wanted the hand."
"Gregor wants the people behind it."
"Why?"
Helena's expression darkened.
"Because they killed his son."
Silence.
Rhea looked at her.
"Gregor's son?"
"He was one of the first Lazarus subjects."
Gus lowered his head.
"I remember him."
Helena stared.
"What?"
"He died in the room."
Rhea looked at Gus.
"Who killed him?"
Gus's face went pale.
"Your mother."
Rhea felt the world tilt.
"My mother?"
Gus nodded.
"She was trying to stop the procedure."
Ezra stepped forward.
"Then why did Gregor attack us?"
Helena answered.
"Because he believes your family destroyed his."
Rhea's eyes filled with tears.
"That's why my parents disappeared."
"Yes."
"Are they alive?"
Helena hesitated.
"Your father is."
Rhea's heart stopped.
"What about my mother?"
Helena looked away.
That was answer enough.
Rhea whispered:
"She died."
Helena nodded.
"Years ago."
Rhea closed her eyes.
Then Ezra's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
His father's voice came through.
"Rhea must never find the final memory."
Ezra's eyes narrowed.
"Why?"
"Because it will tell her who ordered your brother's kidnapping."
Rhea reached for the phone.
"Who?"
The line went silent.
Then another voice spoke.
Gregor.
"It was you."
Rhea froze.
"What?"
Gregor's voice was almost gentle.
"You ordered it, Rhea."
Her blood turned cold.
"No."
"You just don't remember."
The call ended.
Ezra stared at her.
Rhea stared back.
Neither spoke.
Then Gus whispered:
May you like
"Maybe he isn't lying."
Rhea's face went pale.
