Chapter 16: The Shot Maya Couldn’t Remember
Smoke curled from the barrel of the gun in Maya’s hand.
She stared at it as though it belonged to someone else.
Across the chamber, Lucas kept his weapon trained on her chest.
“Drop it,” he said.
Maya looked down.
Rafe lay motionless beside the eighth chair. Blood spread beneath his shoulder, darkening the concrete.
“I didn’t shoot him.”
Lucas’s face remained cold.
“You’re holding the gun.”
“I don’t remember pulling the trigger.”
“That’s exactly what Rebecca wants you to say.”
The gas continued pouring through the ceiling vents. Maya’s lungs burned. The younger version of herself had vanished, and the observation room beyond the glass was now completely empty.
Elias stood inside it.
He was no longer restrained.
He pressed his palm against the glass and pointed toward the open door behind Maya.
A narrow corridor waited beyond it.
“Go,” Elias mouthed.
Maya looked back at Lucas.
“Help me carry Rafe.”
Lucas did not lower his gun.
“He may already be dead.”
Maya dropped to her knees and pressed two fingers against Rafe’s neck.
A pulse.
Weak, but present.
“He’s alive.”
Lucas glanced toward the thickening gas.
For one moment, the brother Maya remembered appeared behind his suspicious eyes.
He holstered his weapon and lifted Rafe beneath the arms.
Maya took his legs.
Together, they carried him through the open doorway.
The corridor sealed behind them.
Immediately, the gas stopped.
Maya leaned against the wall, coughing.
“Why did that door open?” Lucas asked.
“I don’t know.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have.”
They moved deeper into the Redwater facility.
The hallway contained no cameras, but speakers had been mounted above every door. A faint humming sound vibrated through the walls.
Rafe regained consciousness near the end of the corridor.
He grabbed Lucas’s wrist.
“She shot me.”
Maya froze.
Rafe looked directly at her.
“You raised the gun and fired.”
“I don’t remember.”
“You looked at me before you did it.”
“What did I say?”
Rafe swallowed against the pain.
“You called me Daniel.”
Maya turned toward Lucas.
Neither of them understood.
“Who is Daniel?” Rafe asked.
Before Maya could answer, Elias’s voice came through the speakers.
“Daniel was Maya’s first assigned target.”
The lights switched on inside a nearby room.
Through a glass window, they saw Elias standing beside an operating table.
The same Elias they had just left inside the observation chamber.
Maya looked back down the corridor.
There had been no other exit.
“How did you get here?” she asked.
Elias ignored the question.
“Bring Rafe inside. The bullet damaged an artery.”
Lucas remained in the doorway.
“Which version are you?”
Elias looked tired.
“The one trying to save him.”
Maya helped Rafe onto the operating table.
Elias cut open his shirt and examined the wound.
“The bullet went through,” he said. “But there is something else beneath his skin.”
He used a surgical blade to make a small incision near Rafe’s collarbone.
Rafe gritted his teeth.
Elias removed a thin metal capsule.
A blue light flashed inside it.
Maya recognized the engraved number immediately.
DANIEL MERCER — HOST 02
Everyone looked at Rafe.
Rafe stared at the capsule in disbelief.
“My name is Rafe Calder.”
Elias shook his head.
“That is the identity Helix gave you.”
Lucas moved closer.
“You carry Warden Mercer’s memories?”
“Fragments,” Elias said. “Possibly more.”
Rafe tried to sit up.
“I don’t remember being Mercer.”
“You may not be meant to remember.”
Maya thought of the moment she had fired the gun.
Perhaps she had not been aiming at Rafe.
Perhaps something inside her had recognized Daniel Mercer.
“Was Mercer my target?” she asked.
Elias stopped working.
His silence gave her the answer.
“Why?” Maya demanded.
“Because Daniel Mercer helped Rebecca create the first stable host.”
Rafe’s breathing quickened.
“No. Mercer fought Helix.”
“Both things can be true.”
Lucas grabbed Elias by the front of his shirt.
“Where is the real Rebecca?”
Elias looked toward the ceiling.
“Listening.”
A woman’s voice immediately came through the speakers.
“Adrian always was dramatic.”
Rebecca Cross appeared on a monitor above the operating table.
Her face was calm and almost affectionate.
“Maya,” she said, “you did not shoot Rafe.”
Maya stared at the screen.
“Then who did?”
Rebecca smiled.
“I did.”
“You weren’t in the room.”
“I no longer need to be.”
The screen changed.
Security footage showed the chamber from above.
Maya stood with the gun in her hand.
But just before she fired, her posture changed.
Her shoulders relaxed.
Her head tilted slightly.
She smiled exactly like Rebecca.
Then she shot Rafe.
Maya stepped backward from the monitor.
Rebecca continued.
“The final transfer began before you entered Redwater.”
“No.”
“You have been carrying pieces of me for years.”
Maya pressed both hands against her temples.
“That doesn’t make me you.”
“Not yet.”
Every door in the medical room locked.
Elias looked at Maya with sudden fear.
Rebecca’s voice softened.
“Do you remember the song I used to sing while you slept?”
Maya’s mouth opened.
Without intending to, she began humming.
It was the same melody Mercer said Anna’s mother used to sing while washing dishes.
Rafe looked at her.
Lucas raised his weapon again.
Maya stopped humming.
Then she heard a voice inside her mind.
Not through the speakers.
Not from the hallway.
From somewhere behind her own thoughts.
Let me finish what we started.
May you like
The medical room lights turned red.
And Maya smiled with Rebecca’s expression.
