“SHE WAS TRAPPED IN A GLASS TANK AT A LUXURY WEDDING—BUT THE MAN WHO CAME TO SAVE HER UNCOVERED A TERRIFYING SECRET!”

Ethan pressed his forehead against the door. “Mia, it's me.”

“Prove it.”

He almost laughed. He wanted to cry. Instead he said, “You used to hide your report cards in the freezer because you knew I'd never look there.”

A shaky breath came through the metal. “You found every one.”

“Only after the ice cream melted.”

“Ethan.” The way she said his name nearly broke him.

Ada knelt by the panel. A small screen showed a heart-rate line and a timer ready to start if the signal dropped. Mia had an electrode band locked around her chest, she explained. Any attempt to open the door without the right sequence would cut the signal and trigger an explosive charge.

“Can you disable it?” Ethan asked.

“Maybe,” Ada said. “But I need to see the circuit.”

The other double crawled into a narrow maintenance shaft and found the relay box. Her hands were shaking.

“My name is Claire,” she said. “I had a name before they made me forget it.”

“Then use it,” Ethan told her. “You're Claire.”

Through the door, Mia whispered instructions she had memorized while Victor's engineers installed the trap. Ada followed them, wire by wire, while Ethan kept Mia talking about birthdays, bad movies, and the time she'd stolen his truck to learn to drive.

“I hit the mailbox,” she said.

“You hit three.”

A click sounded in the relay box. Ada nodded. “Open it.”

Ethan turned the handle. Mia stood on the other side, pale and thinner than before, but real. She walked into his arms and held on with everything she had.

“I thought you forgot me,” she whispered.

“Never.”

They had only a second. The building shook. A warning blared over the speakers: FLOOD PROTOCOL ACTIVE.

Mia pulled away. “Victor's draining the harbor into the Archive. He'd rather drown the evidence than lose it.”

“Where's the key?”

Mia touched the band around her chest. “The last key is inside this.”