CHAPTER 17 THE DEAD WOMAN’S MEMORY
Ethan stepped away from the bed.
“No.”
The woman reached for him.
He pulled back.
“You are not Ava.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“That is what they trained you to believe.”
Ava stood behind Ethan.
Her face had become completely still.
A-01 looked from the woman to the memory cylinders.
“The footage can be fabricated.”
Charles approached the central console.
“Not these recordings.”
Marcus looked at him.
“How can you know?”
“The cylinders store raw neural impressions.”
Charles examined the data.
“They cannot create memories.”
“They can only preserve what someone experienced.”
Ava looked toward the images.
Ethan sat beside the injured woman.
He wore the same black coat from the night of Ava’s accident.
His face was covered in tears.
On the recording, Ethan pressed his forehead against her hand.
“I will find a way to bring you back.”
The woman on the bed whispered his words with him.
“I remember.”
Ethan stared at the image of himself.
Then another memory appeared.
Dr. Harris standing beside Margaret.
Charles strapped to a chair.
Nathan watching through a screen.
Margaret pointed toward two unconscious women who looked like Ava.
“Choose the one he will accept.”
Harris examined their brain scans.
“They both carry partial memory maps.”
Margaret looked at Ethan through the observation glass.
“He will accept whichever one loves him enough.”
The recording ended.
Ava covered her mouth.
A-01’s eyes darkened.
The woman on the bed looked toward both of them.
“You were created from me.”
Ava shook her head.
“I remember my childhood.”
“So do I.”
“I remember my mother.”
“They built those memories from stolen fragments.”
Ava stepped closer.
“I remember pain.”
The woman’s expression softened.
“That part was yours.”
The countdown changed.
THREE MINUTES.
Marcus checked the exit tunnel.
“The door is sealed.”
Charles worked at the console.
“The vault requires a memory authorization.”
Ethan looked at him.
“What memory?”
“The original Ava must identify herself.”
The three women stared at the scanner.
A-01 walked toward it first.
She placed her hand on the glass.
IDENTITY REJECTED.
Ava stepped forward.
Her fingers trembled as she touched the scanner.
The system paused.
PARTIAL MATCH.
SECONDARY HOST.
Ava closed her eyes.
The rejection hurt more than any wound Margaret had given her.
The woman on the bed slowly stood.
Her legs nearly failed.
Ethan caught her before she fell.
For one second, his arms held her.
A familiar scent reached him.
Lavender soap.
Rain.
The lake house.
A memory flashed through his mind.
This woman laughing beneath a blue blanket.
This woman touching the scar above his eyebrow.
This woman whispering that she wanted a home without Caldwell secrets.
He released her.
She touched the scanner.
The system turned green.
PRIMARY IDENTITY CONFIRMED.
AVA CALDWELL.
The exit tunnel unlocked.
Ava stared at the message.
A-01 backed against the wall.
The woman looked at them both.
“I am sorry.”
Ava’s voice was barely audible.
“What are we?”
Charles looked at the data.
“You are not machines.”
“You are not empty copies.”
“You are living human beings.”
A-01 laughed bitterly.
“Built from someone else’s memories.”
“Raised inside a laboratory.”
“Programmed to love her husband.”
Ethan looked at Ava.
She was crying silently.
He moved toward her.
She stepped away.
“Do not.”
“Ava.”
“Which one?”
Her voice broke.
“Which Ava are you calling?”
The countdown changed.
TWO MINUTES.
Marcus opened the escape passage.
“We need to move.”
Charles removed a data core from the central console.
The original Ava grabbed his arm.
“You cannot take that.”
“It contains the Phoenix subject list.”
“It contains more than that.”
Charles looked at her.
“What?”
She stared at the cylinders.
“Nathan did not preserve memories to study them.”
“He preserved them to move himself.”
A hidden alarm sounded.
One cylinder at the rear of the room began glowing red.
Nathan’s face appeared inside the glass.
Not a recording.
A living neural scan.
Charles dropped the data core.
“He uploaded himself.”
The original Ava nodded.
“Years ago.”
Nathan’s voice came from every cylinder.
“My body was always temporary.”
The countdown stopped.
00:01.
The thermal purge did not activate.
Instead, the vault doors sealed again.
A new message appeared.
TRANSFER DESTINATION REQUIRED.
A diagram showed every person in the room.
Charles.
Marcus.
Ethan.
Ava.
A-01.
The original Ava.
One figure began flashing.
ETHAN VALE-CALDWELL.
Ethan looked up.
Nathan laughed through the speakers.
“Project Phoenix was never designed to save Ava.”
“It was designed to prepare you.”
Metal restraints burst from the floor.
They locked around Ethan’s wrists and ankles.
A neural crown descended from the ceiling.
Ava ran toward him.
A-01 reached him first.
Both women grabbed the crown.
Electricity exploded through the chamber.
The original Ava screamed.
Marcus fired at the mechanism.
Charles rushed toward the control panel.
Nathan’s voice became calm.
“Do not resist, son.”
Ethan looked toward the glowing cylinder.
“You are not my father.”
Nathan’s digital face smiled.
“No.”
May you like
“But in sixty seconds…”
“You will be me.”
