Chapter 9: The Other Maya
The woman was older by several years, with shorter hair and a thin scar beneath her left eye.
Everything else was nearly identical.
Her height.
Her posture.
Even the slight tilt of her head when she was suspicious.
Rafe instinctively stepped in front of Maya.
The other woman smiled.
“He always does that.”
“Who are you?” Maya asked.
“Which answer would make you feel better?”
“Try the truth.”
“My name was Anna Mercer.”
Warden Mercer stared at her.
“No.”
The woman’s smile disappeared.
“Dad.”
Mercer stumbled forward.
The woman raised both hands.
“I know what this looks like.”
“You are not my daughter.”
“I remember Mom singing while she washed dishes. I remember the blue bicycle you bought me when I was nine. I remember you sitting outside my hospital room after my appendix surgery because you were afraid to come inside.”
Mercer’s face collapsed.
Only Anna could have known those details.
Maya looked between them.
“Why do you look like me?”
Anna touched the scar beneath her eye.
“After the riot, Dr. Price transferred my memories into one of the early Maya replicas.”
“Replicas?”
“Biological copies created from tissue samples collected after Redwater.”
Rafe stared at Maya.
“How many?”
Anna looked toward the glass cells.
“At least seven.”
Maya felt the room tilt.
She remembered childhood photographs. School birthdays. Her mother brushing her hair.
Were those memories hers?
Or had they belonged to someone else?
“You said you were Anna,” Mercer whispered. “Prove it.”
The woman removed a necklace from beneath her shirt.
A black bird with one broken wing.
Mercer reached for it.
She stepped backward.
“I can’t give it to you.”
“The patient list is inside.”
“So is the access code to the Lazarus network.”
A door opened above the laboratory.
Dr. Price’s voice echoed down the stairs.
“Thank you for locating her.”
Armed Helix contractors surrounded the entrance.
Anna grabbed Maya’s hand and ran toward the rear wall.
She pressed her palm against a scanner.
A hidden passage opened.
Rafe helped Mercer through while Maya followed Anna.
Gunfire shattered the glass cells behind them.
The silent patients began screaming.
The passage led into a concrete tunnel.
Anna sealed the door.
Maya shoved her against the wall.
“Why did the recording contain my voice?”
“Because one of the replicas was conditioned to believe she was you.”
“Which one?”
Anna looked directly into Maya’s eyes.
“The one who helped Dr. Price capture Lucas.”
Maya released her.
“You think that was me?”
“I don’t know.”
“You just said it was a replica.”
“I said that was what Adrian believed.”
“Elias?”
Anna nodded.
“He tried to rescue all of you from Redwater.”
“All of us?”
Before Anna could answer, an explosion shook the tunnel.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Rafe checked the passage behind them.
“They’re coming through.”
Anna removed the necklace and twisted its wings apart.
Inside was a tiny memory card.
“The Lazarus patient list can prove everything.”
She handed the card to Mercer.
A gunshot echoed from the darkness ahead.
Anna jerked backward.
Blood spread across her shirt.
A figure emerged holding a suppressed pistol.
Lucas.
Maya stepped between him and Anna.
“Lucas, stop.”
His eyes fixed on her face.
Then he looked at the wounded woman.
“You’re not Maya,” he said.
Maya’s voice trembled.
“Who am I?”
May you like
Lucas raised the gun.
“I came here to find out.”
