Chapter 15: The Girl in the Eighth Chair
The train arrived beneath Redwater at 3:17 a.m.
Maya stepped onto the platform carrying the photograph.
She had always believed Redwater was a town.
It was not.
It was an underground research center built beneath the ruins of a military installation.
The halls looked strangely familiar.
Maya knew which corridor led to the laboratory before she read the signs.
She knew one elevator required two access cards.
She knew the door at the end of the eastern hall had a broken lock.
The memories rose naturally, as though she had lived there yesterday.
“Have you been here?” Rafe asked.
“I don’t know.”
They reached a circular chamber containing eight metal chairs.
Seven were empty.
A young woman sat in the eighth.
Her face was hidden beneath long black hair.
Maya approached slowly.
The woman raised her head.
She looked identical to Maya, but appeared several years younger.
“You took your time,” she said.
“Who are you?”
“Maya Cross.”
The scarred Lucas raised his weapon.
The girl remained calm.
“I’m the original.”
Maya felt no surprise.
Perhaps some part of her had expected this.
“Prove it.”
The girl described Redwater.
Eight children had been created using Rebecca Cross’s genetic material. Each had received a different collection of memories and skills.
One was trained to fight.
One was trained to manipulate.
One was trained to detect lies.
One carried the memories of Rebecca herself.
“Which one am I?” Maya asked.
The girl smiled.
“The weapon.”
Maya remembered the way she had defeated Rafe’s group without hesitation.
The way her body knew how to move even when her mind did not.
“Why was I living outside?”
“Adrian rescued you. He believed you could become more than what Rebecca designed.”
“Where is Elias?”
The girl pointed toward a glass observation room.
Elias lay unconscious inside.
Beside him stood the woman from the video.
Rebecca Cross.
Maya’s biological mother had barely aged.
Rebecca pressed a button, activating the chamber speakers.
“Hello, Maya.”
“Which one?” Maya asked.
Rebecca smiled.
“All of you.”
The younger Maya rose from the eighth chair.
“She needs us together to complete the final transfer.”
“What transfer?”
Rebecca looked toward Elias.
“Adrian’s memories have degraded after moving through too many hosts. I intend to place them into a permanent body.”
Maya understood.
“Mine.”
“Your nervous system was always the strongest.”
Rafe aimed his weapon at the observation window.
“Release him.”
Rebecca touched another control.
Screens illuminated around the chamber.
Each displayed a different location.
Warden Mercer sat inside a room holding Anna’s hand.
Another Lucas stood in the Blackridge yard.
Dr. Price waited inside a helicopter.
More versions of Maya appeared in hospitals, courtrooms, military facilities, and ordinary suburban homes.
The Lazarus network was much larger than they imagined.
Rebecca looked at Maya.
“Break the glass and Elias dies. Walk away and every surviving copy of your family remains controlled by Helix.”
“What do you want?”
“The memory card.”
Maya reached into her pocket.
Rafe caught her wrist.
“Don’t.”
The scarred Lucas raised his weapon toward Rebecca.
The younger Maya stepped between them.
“You still don’t understand,” she said. “One of us has already given Rebecca the card.”
Maya checked her pocket.
The memory card remained there.
Then Rafe checked his jacket.
He found an identical card hidden inside.
Lucas searched his clothing.
He had one too.
Three cards.
Three different patient lists.
Rebecca laughed softly through the speakers.
“Only one is real.”
Every door in the chamber locked.
Gas began entering through the ceiling.
Maya looked at the younger version of herself.
“Which one of us works for her?”
The girl’s expression became almost sympathetic.
“You ask that every time.”
A memory struck Maya without warning.
She saw herself entering the chamber before.
She saw Rafe die beside the eighth chair.
She saw Lucas fire through the glass.
She saw Elias wake and call her by another name.
Not Maya.
Rebecca.
Maya staggered backward.
The gas thickened.
Rafe pounded against the locked door.
Lucas aimed his gun at the observation window.
Elias suddenly opened his eyes.
He looked directly at Maya.
Then he spoke through the glass, although no microphone was active.
“Don’t let your mother wake up inside you.”
The lights went out.
A gunshot echoed through the chamber.
When the emergency lights returned, the eighth chair was empty.
Rebecca had disappeared from the observation room.
Elias was no longer restrained.
Rafe lay on the floor, but Maya could not tell whether he was breathing.
Lucas’s weapon was pointed at her.
And in Maya’s hand was a smoking gun she did not remember firing.
The chamber speakers activated one final time.
A child’s voice whispered:
May you like
“Welcome back, Rebecca.”
Then the door behind Maya slowly opened.
