Chapter 12 - The Date on the Wall

Ethan jammed a crowbar into the narrowing gate. Steel shrieked against steel.

“My mother's alive,” he told Ada. “Try again.”

“That's what Mia said.”

“She talks to me.”

Ada shook her head. “Ask her what she remembers about the lake.”

There was no time. Water surged through the tunnel as the gate dragged against the crowbar. Ethan punched in the date printed on the last hospital bracelet he'd seen on his mother's wrist, a date he'd never understood. The keypad flashed green. The gate lifted.

They stumbled into a service corridor behind the Archive. A wall of monitors displayed faces Ethan recognized from the news: politicians, executives, witnesses. Beside each portrait was another face, similar enough to fool a stranger.

Ada touched one screen. “That's where they taught me to smile.”

A door opened ahead. Mia stood inside wearing gray scrubs, her dark hair tied back. Ethan started toward her, then stopped.

“Tell me about the lake,” he said.

Her expression changed. “You dropped my ice cream.”

“No,” Ethan whispered. “I dropped my shoe. You threw your ice cream at me.”

The woman blinked, searching for a reply.

Ethan stepped back. “You're not Mia.”

She pressed a small alarm switch. Red lights flashed and steel shutters came down at both ends of the corridor. Ada grabbed her shoulder and pulled her into the wall.

“Where is the real one?” Ada demanded.

The double cried out. “I don't know. They told me what to say.”

Ethan felt sick. He'd spent eight months listening to voices, following photographs, begging strangers to tell him which version of his sister to believe.

He took a breath. “Then help us. You don't have to be her.”

The double looked at Ada, who nodded once. She led them through a supply hatch into a lower hall. At its far end stood a door labeled ORIGINALS.

From behind it came a voice singing off-key, the little tune Mia used when she was scared.

Ethan reached for the handle.

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The singing stopped.

A woman's voice said, “Don't open it. He wired the room to my heartbeat.”