The footsteps stopped.
Silence settled over the laboratory above us.
Then came the sound of the main door opening.
One hinge.
Then another.
Emily pulled the baby closer.
Jason moved beside her.
Michael stood between us and the passage.
The woman in the white coat remained beside the console.
“You said they were already inside,” I whispered.
“They are.”
“Who?”
“The people who have been monitoring this property since Edward died.”
The stranger looked at her.
“You said they lost the system.”
“They lost control of Eden.”
“Then who controls it now?”
She didn't answer.
A man's voice came from the laboratory.
“Dr. Vale?”
The woman closed her eyes briefly.
“That's what they call me now.”
Jason looked at her.
“Dr. Vale.”
She nodded.
“You knew my parents.”
“I knew them both.”
“Did you hurt them?”
Her expression changed.
“No.”
Michael laughed bitterly.
“You always say that.”
“I never hurt Evelyn.”
“You stood beside them.”
“I stood beside her when I could.”
Michael's voice hardened.
“And when you couldn't?”
“I watched.”
He looked away.
The footsteps moved closer.
The stranger whispered, “There are three.”
Dr. Vale said, “Four.”
A shadow crossed the doorway.
Then another.
A man in a dark jacket appeared.
He was followed by two women and another man carrying a case.
The first man looked directly at Dr. Vale.
“You were told to bring the child out.”
“No.”
His eyes shifted to me.
“Then we'll do this another way.”
Jason stepped forward.
“You're not touching her.”
The man smiled.
“You don't understand what she is.”
“I don't care.”
The answer came immediately.
The man looked amused.
“That is precisely why your father created you.”
Michael moved beside Jason.
The man's expression changed.
“Subject 14.”
Michael's jaw tightened.
“You still use that name.”
“It remains accurate.”
“Not to me.”
The man glanced at Dr. Vale.
“You failed.”
She said nothing.
He turned toward me.
“Your father left instructions.”
“I'm sure he did.”
“He knew this day would come.”
“So did the woman with the silver watch.”
The man's face hardened.
Dr. Vale spoke quietly.
“Edward wasn't wrong about everything.”
The man laughed.
“Edward was wrong about the only thing that mattered.”
“What?”
“He believed family could defeat inheritance.”
I looked down at my daughter.
The baby was staring toward the strangers.
Then she began to make a strange clicking sound with her tongue.
The monitor beside us activated.
A pattern appeared.
The man in the doorway stopped smiling.
“That shouldn't be possible.”
Dr. Vale moved toward the screen.
“What do you see?”
He didn't answer.
I looked.
The display showed four circles.
Three were connected.
The fourth was separate.
Then a line appeared between them.
SUBJECT RESPONSE: MEMORY RECONSTRUCTION.
Jason grabbed the edge of the console.
“I remember.”
“What?” I asked.
He stared at the screen.
“The bicycle.”
My heart stopped.
“What bicycle?”
“The red one.”
He looked at me.
“You had one.”
“I did.”
“No. You didn't.”
I frowned.
“You're confusing memories.”
He shook his head.
“You had it before I was born.”
The room went silent.
Michael stared at him.
Jason continued.
“You rode it in the garden. Mom was angry because you kept going past the stone wall.”
I could barely breathe.
“That happened.”
“I know.”
“You weren't there.”
“I was.”
He pressed a hand to his forehead.
“I was watching from the window.”
Michael whispered, “That memory was mine.”
Jason turned.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“But I remember it.”
Michael looked at Dr. Vale.
“That's the transfer.”
Dr. Vale nodded.
“The biological response is beginning to reconstruct memories that belonged to the original sequence.”
The man in the doorway raised his weapon.
Nobody moved.
I stared at him.
“You came here for a baby.”
“For the sequence.”
“You keep calling her a sequence.”
“Because that is what matters.”
“No,” I said. “She's a child.”
Dr. Vale looked at me.
Something in her expression changed.
It reminded me of my mother.
“She said that too,” Dr. Vale whispered.
The man snapped, “Enough.”
He lifted the weapon.
Michael moved.
The first shot struck the wall.
The second shattered a monitor.
Jason pulled Emily behind the console.
Dr. Vale hit a switch.
The chamber doors slammed shut.
We were sealed inside.
For several seconds, the only sound was the alarm.
Then Dr. Vale looked at me.
“There is another way out.”
Michael shook his head.
“Not that way.”
“It is the only way.”
“You know what happens if she goes through.”
“What happens?”
I asked.
Neither answered.
I stepped between them.
“What happens?”
Michael finally said, “The chamber will read her.”
“Read her how?”
“It may activate everything.”
“Everything?”
“The stored sequences.”
Jason looked at the sealed door.
“They'll come after us anyway.”
I looked at Emily.
She was holding the baby against her chest.
Emily's eyes were wet.
“She needs us to decide quickly.”
The words settled over all of us.
I looked at Dr. Vale.
“You know where the exit leads.”
“Yes.”
“And you know what it does.”
“Yes.”
“Then open it.”
Michael grabbed my arm.
“No.”
I pulled free.
“You've spent your whole life hiding this.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“You can't keep doing that by keeping me ignorant.”
Jason stepped beside me.
“She isn't doing this alone.”
Michael looked at him.
“You don't know what you'll remember.”
Jason answered quietly.
“Maybe I should.”
Dr. Vale placed her hand on the console.
The circular platform began to glow.
A door opened beneath it.
Cold air rose from below.
Dr. Vale said, “Once you enter, the chamber will activate.”
The man outside shouted through the sealed door.
“Vale!”
She ignored him.
Then she looked at me.
“Whatever you see down there, don't assume every memory belongs to you.”
I tightened my hold on my daughter.
The platform opened completely.
A staircase descended into darkness.
And from somewhere below came the sound of a child laughing.
Jason froze.
Michael whispered one word.
“Michael.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 16: The Memory Beneath the House
My Twin Brother Had Waited Years for This Child, Yet the First Thing He Saw After Her Birth Made Him Step Away
Part 15 of 20
