CHAPTER 23 : SUBJECT ZERO
Ethan stared at Claire.
“What do you remember?”
She stepped toward the terminal as if she had walked through the chamber hundreds of times.
“The walls were white then.”
Her fingers touched a damaged medical console.
“There were twelve cradles. Helen stood near the operating table. Thomas was behind the glass.”
Claire suddenly pulled her hand away.
Confusion replaced the coldness in her eyes.
“I’ve never been here.”
Helen watched her carefully.
“But Evelyn has.”
Claire turned on her.
“Stop saying her name like she lives inside me.”
“She does.”
The words struck harder than a physical blow.
Vanessa moved beside Claire.
“What did you do to her?”
Helen looked toward Daniel.
He answered for her.
“Evelyn Carter created the neural preservation process. Before she died, the program copied sections of her memory.”
“And placed them in Claire?” Ethan asked.
“Not immediately.”
Daniel’s expression darkened.
“Claire was too young.”
Claire’s breathing became shallow.
“How young?”
Helen finally spoke.
“Eight.”
Silence filled the chamber.
Claire looked down at the newborn in her arms.
“I remember being eight.”
“You remember what we gave you,” Helen replied.
Claire stepped backward.
“No.”
“You became ill. Your heart stopped for eleven minutes. The doctors could not bring you back.”
“No.”
“I preserved your cells.”
Claire’s eyes filled with disbelief.
“You said I survived.”
“I raised the child who came after you.”
Ethan understood before Claire did.
“You created another Claire.”
Helen’s voice broke for the first time.
“I brought my daughter home.”
Claire shook her head.
“I’m not your daughter.”
“You have her face. Her DNA. Her childhood memories.”
“And Evelyn’s memories.”
“Yes.”
Claire looked physically ill.
Vanessa placed one arm around her.
Ethan turned back toward the terminal.
“What does any of this have to do with me?”
Daniel entered a second command.
A projection appeared above the console.
It showed a delivery room.
The recording was dated thirty years earlier.
A woman lay on the operating table. Her face was partly hidden by an oxygen mask, but when she turned toward the camera, Ethan stopped breathing.
She looked exactly like Claire.
Thomas Reed stood beside the bed.
Margaret held a newborn near the incubator.
Helen appeared younger, but unmistakable.
The woman on the table reached toward the child.
“Let me hold him.”
Margaret turned away.
“The transfer has already been authorized.”
The woman struggled against the restraints.
“He is my son.”
Thomas leaned over her.
“He belongs to the program.”
The image flickered.
Ethan stared at Helen.
“Is that Evelyn?”
“Yes.”
“Why does she have Claire’s face?”
“This isn’t ordinary video,” Daniel explained. “The archive reconstructed the event from Evelyn’s neural record. It uses the face Claire’s mind associates with her.”
Claire looked toward Ethan.
Her fear changed into something deeper.
Recognition.
Ethan faced Helen.
“The child in that recording was me.”
Helen closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Thomas was my father.”
“Yes.”
“And Evelyn?”
Helen could no longer look at him.
Daniel answered.
“Evelyn Carter was your biological mother.”
Ethan turned toward Claire.
The woman standing across from him carried his mother’s memories.
Claire looked down at her newborn.
Then Evelyn’s voice emerged again.
“I tried to save you.”
Before Ethan could respond, the preserved infant opened his eyes.
His gaze moved directly toward Claire.
A monitor activated beside him without being touched.
Two heart rhythms appeared on the screen.
One belonged to the preserved child.
The second belonged to Claire’s newborn.
They beat in perfect synchronization.
Adrian watched the readings.
Then his face changed.
“Their hearts are linked.”
Claire tightened her grip on her son.
“Linked how?”
“If one of them stops—”
The preserved infant’s heart rhythm weakened.
Claire’s newborn immediately stopped breathing.
May you like
Adrian reached for him.
“If one child dies, the other one dies with him.”
