Chapter 12 - The Subjects Awaken
The first figure stepped from the darkness barefoot.
He was a middle-aged man wearing a gray medical uniform. A number had been tattooed on his wrist.
Then another door opened.
A woman emerged.
Then another.
Within seconds, more than twenty people stood between the archive shelves.
Some looked confused.
Others looked directly at Margaret with hatred.
Adrian smiled through his damaged disguise.
“You kept them here.”
Margaret struggled against the ropes.
“They were too dangerous to release.”
“You made them dangerous.”
“I contained what remained.”
Evelyn turned toward the awakened subjects.
“Where are we?”
A woman with short white hair answered.
“Ormond Primary.”
“How long have you been here?”
“We were awakened and returned many times. Time is difficult.”
A man moved toward Margaret.
“You promised the final sleep.”
Ortiz raised her weapon.
“Stay back.”
The man ignored her.
Evelyn stepped between him and Margaret.
“Her answers come first.”
He stared at Evelyn.
“E-2.”
“You know me?”
“You opened the doors before.”
“At Saint Ormond?”
“At all of them.”
More memories struck Evelyn.
Her fingers entering codes.
A younger Adrian whispering instructions.
Daniel trying to pull her away.
Beatrice screaming.
She grabbed a shelf to remain standing.
Adrian watched with satisfaction.
“You remember helping me.”
“I remember you manipulating me.”
“We freed them together.”
“And people died.”
“Freedom has a cost.”
Sophie reached for Evelyn’s hand.
The computer voice spoke again.
PRIMARY DIRECTIVE REQUIRES E-2 AUTHORIZATION.
A panel illuminated.
Two options appeared.
RELEASE ALL SUBJECT RECORDS.
TRANSFER CONTROL TO E-2.
Marcus read the screen.
“If you release the records, every file may be sent outside.”
“To whom?” Ortiz asked.
A network map appeared.
Government offices.
News agencies.
Foreign servers.
Private individuals.
Adrian moved toward the panel.
Evelyn blocked him.
“You wanted access to the archive.”
“I need the transfer option.”
“You want control over the subjects.”
“I want control over their conditioning codes.”
Margaret shouted, “Destroy the system.”
“How?”
“The central core is beneath the lower level.”
Adrian laughed.
“She won’t destroy it. The system contains Daniel’s restoration sequence.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
“Daniel’s memory has been fragmented. Without the archive, he may never remember you or Sophie.”
Sophie tightened her hand around Evelyn’s.
Marcus examined the options.
“There may be another way to preserve Daniel’s file while destroying the control system.”
“No,” Margaret said. “Every sequence is connected.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“You know that very quickly.”
Margaret stopped speaking.
“You don’t want the archive destroyed,” Evelyn said.
“I built it.”
“You want me to transfer control to myself because you believe you can control me.”
Margaret’s silence confirmed it.
The awakened subjects surrounded them.
Some demanded release.
Others begged Evelyn not to send their records into the world.
One woman cried that her children believed she was dead.
A man said the police were still looking for him for a crime committed during conditioning.
There was no simple choice.
Evelyn approached the panel.
Adrian moved beside her.
“Choose control. You can correct everything.”
“No one person should have that power.”
“Then release the files and watch innocent families collapse.”
“Truth is not the same as justice.”
“No. But secrets are power.”
Evelyn pressed neither option.
Instead, she searched the side of the console.
Beatrice’s voice returned in her memory.
When they give you two doors, look for the window.
Evelyn removed the maintenance cover.
Behind it was a manual connection port.
“Marcus, can you copy the data?”
“Not all of it.”
“Only the evidence of crimes and the subject identities. Exclude conditioning sequences.”
Adrian seized her wrist.
“You cannot separate them.”
Evelyn struck his damaged cheek.
He fell against the console.
Ortiz restrained him.
Marcus connected the recovered memory card.
The archive began copying selected records.
Margaret watched the progress bar.
“You don’t know what you’re releasing.”
“I know what I’m ending.”
At forty percent, the power failed.
Darkness swallowed the archive.
Gunfire erupted.
Someone screamed.
Emergency lights returned.
Adrian was gone.
So was Margaret.
The replacement Amelia lay unconscious near the console.
One of the awakened subjects had been shot.
The archive doors began closing.
Marcus shouted, “The data transfer stopped.”
“How much copied?”
“Forty-three percent.”
“Where did it go?”
“Multiple destinations. We may not be able to recall it.”
A voice came through Evelyn’s phone.
“Mommy?”
She turned.
Sophie was no longer beside her.
Her voice came from deeper inside the archive.
Evelyn ran between the shelves.
She found Sophie standing outside a glass room.
Inside lay Daniel.
He opened his eyes.
Evelyn touched the glass.
“Daniel.”
He slowly sat up.
Sophie smiled through tears.
“Daddy.”
Daniel looked at them.
There was no recognition in his face.
Then he turned toward someone standing behind Evelyn.
His expression softened.
“Mother.”
Evelyn looked back.
Margaret stood at the end of the corridor.
May you like
She held the archive control device in one hand.
And in the other, she held a gun pointed at Sophie.
