by J. W. Elliot
“How do you know it works?” Kaiden asked, suddenly suspicious.
Oakley stepped toward them. “Because we’ve used it before.”
“On Raven?” Kaiden wanted to throw something at him.
“Yes.” Oakley stopped by Willow’s side.
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Kaiden said.
Oakley stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “I’ll let you use it if you survive Willow’s little experiment with the switches.”
Kaiden studied him. Oakley was up to something. He wouldn’t offer to let them restore his memories unless he expected to gain something from it. But Kaiden was feeling reckless. “All right,” he said. “Let’s give it a whirl.”
“Ready?” Willow asked.
“Yep,” Kaiden said.
Willow studied him. He lay on his stomach with his shirt off. Black straps bound him securely to the operating table. His dark brown skin was taut and smooth. She had always liked the look of him. He was lean and well-muscled, with a few dark scars crossing his back. The blue wedged-shaped tattoos at the base of his neck showed where the nano-hairs reached out to encircle his spine and pierce his brain. The wires were attached to the tattoo in a way that meant they would have to cut the skin away to remove the wires.
A nervous flutter rippled through her stomach. If anything went wrong, Kaiden could die, and his death would be her fault. She had started him down this path. She was trusting Oakley and his surgical-bots with Kaiden’s life. She licked her lips with a dry tongue. She would never forgive herself if he died.
The medical equipment hovered over him with its blinking lights. They had to test the electromagnetic pulse before they could try to operate, but she was far from confident that it would work. She suppressed her doubts and touched the pad. The focused electromagnetic pulse discharged into Kaiden’s arm and neck. He jerked, cried out, and thrashed on the table for a moment with an expression of the utmost horror on his face. Then, he lay still—utterly still.
His heart rhythm ceased, and the monitor flat-lined with a steady tone. Willow and the other medical staff swooped down on him with drugs and monitors. They rolled him onto his back. No heartbeat. No brain activity. No breathing. He was dead.
“No,” Willow whispered.
“Oxygen!” the head doctor called. An assistant injected the oxygenated microparticle solution directly into the IV in Kaiden’s arm.
“Defibrillator,” the doctor called.
As the staff rushed to comply, Willow grabbed Kaiden’s hand.
“He’s been injected with INCR,” she said.
“That should help,” the doctor said. “Stand clear.”
Willow dropped Kaiden’s hand, and the doctor pressed the button. Kaiden jerked as the electricity entered his body from the defibrillator machine. He sucked in a deep breath and opened his eyes. He scowled and blinked at the pain in his head.
“Dang,” he said. “That hurt.”
Willow squeezed his hand, hoping he didn’t see the terror in her expression or the unshed tears that burned her eyes. She had almost lost him.
“Did it work?” he asked.
Willow pursed her lips. “We managed to disable the discipline temporarily, but when it shuts down, it kills you,” she said.
Kaiden blinked. “But you brought me back? How long was I out?”
“Only a few seconds.”
“Let’s get them out then,” Kaiden said.
“I don’t think we should risk it,” Willow said. “We have it disabled for now.”
Kaiden snorted. “Until TAP figures out we’re doing it and finds a way around it. No, I want this thing out of my head.”
“We might not be able to revive you again.” Willow’s face darkened, and she studied at him with an intensity that surprised him.
Kaiden gave her a wry smile. “I’m just a clone,” he said. “You said so yourself. I’ve already died several times.”
“That’s not funny,” Willow said. She stepped away from him. It was her fault he was acting this way. She was the one who had convinced him being cloned against their will was wrong. She had been the one to show him the casual, brutal way TAP treated them.
“Just do it,” Kaiden said. “We have to experiment on someone.”
Willow took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She glanced at the doctor.
“What do you think?” she asked.
The doctor rubbed his chin. “It might work, but—”
“Just do it,” Kaiden said again.
The doctor shrugged, but Willow noticed the curious excitement he couldn’t hide. He probably didn’t care whether Kaiden lived or died. He just wanted to see if they could do it. Willow wondered for a moment if the physician was under orders from Oakley to figure this out so he could capture clones and send them back to infiltrate TAP. Or worse, to kill Kaiden and make it look like an accident.
“This time,” the doctor said, “we’re going to sedate you.”
Willow hovered nearby as the team prepared Kaiden for the surgery. What if they had missed something? What if another defensive system existed? Kaiden glanced over at her and smiled before he closed his eyes. How could he trust her after everything she’d done? If he knew the secrets she was keeping from him, he would never forgive her. She longed to tell him, but it was too dangerous. She couldn’t risk losing him. Besides, she wasn’t certain yet. There was so much she still didn’t know.
The doctor positioned the surgical-bots and stepped back from the table.
“We’re only going to have about thirty seconds, I think,” Willow said.
The doctor checked Kaiden’s vital signs. “He’s good,” he said.
“One,” Willow counted, “two, three.” She touched the screen. Kaiden jerked on the table and thrashed against the constraints. An arm slipped free of the straps and knocked one of the surgical-bots aside. An aide scurried to reposition it. Kaiden fell limp.
“Now!” Willow shouted.
The bots whirred into motion. The blue lasers sliced into Kaiden’s dark skin. Acrid smoke rose from the burning flesh. The synchronized bots ripped the flesh free, dragging the nano-wires with them at the same instant. Kaiden jerked again.
“Oxygen,” the doctor called. “Defibrillator.”
Kaiden’s body remained limp.
“More oxygen.”
Willow glanced at the monitor. No pulse. No breathing. No brain activity. Only the steady heartrending tone from the machines indicating a life had been snuffed out. She backed away in horror. She had killed Kaiden.
Chapter Twenty-One
Restoration
Kaiden’s mother glared at him. Her straight, black hair framed her smooth, chocolate-colored face and stood out against her white lab coat. Her lips were unnaturally red—the color of blood.
“Where have you been?” she demanded.
Kaiden rolled his eyes and smirked.
“Since when do you care?” He wanted to hurt her. “The only thing you love anymore is your new, classified operation.”
“That’s not true, and you know it,” she said. “If you don’t shape up, they’re going to throw you out of the academy.”
“I don’t care about the academy!” Kaiden yelled. “I want my sister back.” He knew what he said wasn’t entirely true. He did care about the academy. He had always wanted to be a scientist, but after Rose’s death, he couldn’t concentrate. It all seemed so useless when everyone you loved could disappear in one heartbeat, and all the science in the world couldn’t stop it. And his mother had failed him. She had let his sister die.
“You actually went to an anti-clone rally?” she demanded.
“All that money we waste on cloning could have been used to save Rose,” Kaiden snapped. “But you wouldn’t care about that.”
His mother pinched her lips tigh
t, and this time he saw the mist of tears in her eyes. He sneered in satisfaction. He had finally managed to make her feel something of what she had done.
She gripped the edge of the desk. “I’m withdrawing you from the academy myself,” she said.
“Fine.”
“You can waste your life chasing conspiracy theories,” his mother said, “and blaming me for things I couldn’t control. But it’s your life to waste.”
The memory faded, and Kaiden blinked at the blare of bright lights. A metallic taste filled his mouth, and the room smelled of sanitized metal and plastic. The lingering aroma of burnt flesh made him wrinkle his nose.
“Feeling better?” Oakley’s deep voice filled the room.
Kaiden rolled his head to the side to find Oakley lounging in a chair, studying him. His white hair fell into his eyes. Willow lingered behind him as if unwilling to approach Kaiden.
“A bit,” Kaiden said.
“You’re lucky to be alive,” Oakley said.
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Don’t thank me. Thank Willow. She wouldn’t let them give up.”
Kaiden looked past Oakley to Willow. She gave him a weary smile and folded her arms.
“I know who you are,” Oakley said.
“What?”
“I know who you are,” he repeated. “They haven’t erased my memories.”
Kaiden knit his brows together. Why was Oakley telling him this?
“Well, that gives you the advantage,” he said.
Oakley smirked. “I thought you would be interested.”
“I would be if I thought you would tell me the truth.”
“Suit yourself,” Oakley said. “But if you restore your memories, you might not like what you find.”
“So, you can manipulate memories just like TAP?” Kaiden asked.
“Not as well, but we can do it.”
“Sounds hypocritical to me,” Kaiden said. “If you hate TAP so much, why do what they do?
“Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire,” Oakley said. “Sometimes, you have to embrace evil to destroy it.”
Kaiden sneered at him. “What’s that supposed to mean? Sounds like a lame excuse to be just as evil as TAP.”
Oakley raised his bushy, white eyebrows. Kaiden knew what it meant. It meant that the terrorists had been stealing clones and messing with their memories. They had done this to Raven and turned her into a sleeping cell, just waiting for the opportunity to strike.
“How many others do you have inside TAP?” Kaiden asked.
“A few.”
The door burst open, and Flint, Jade, and Birch rushed in.
“What’s he doing here?” Jade snapped. She still had her rifle, and she raised it toward Oakley.
“Relax.” Oakley waved a hand at them. “If I wanted to hurt him, you couldn’t stop me.”
“Wanna bet?” Jade said.
Flint rushed past her. “Hey, man,” he said to Kaiden with a grin.
“You look wretched,” Birch said.
Jade slipped by Oakley with a glare and came around the other side of the bed. “How are you?”
Willow stayed back as the others approached.
“Well, that was easy,” Kaiden said. “Who’s next?”
They all glanced at each other.
“You do realize,” Flint said, “that you died, like three times?”
“I’ll be next,” Willow said.
Kaiden glanced at her. She still had a guilty expression on her face.
“I should have gone first, anyway,” she said.
“Actually,” Kaiden said, “before you do it, can we recover my memories?”
He didn’t want to say it, but if Willow didn’t survive the operation, he wouldn’t be able to recover his memories. He wasn’t about to let Oakley do it.
Willow scowled. “That’s all you want me for?”
Jade glared at her. “You’re the only one who knows how to do it.”
“All right,” Willow said. “But I already warned you. You may not like what you remember.”
“Oh, he won’t,” Oakley said and gave Kaiden a big grin of satisfaction.
Willow peeked over a counter full of computers and medical equipment to where Kaiden lay with his head inside the scanner. She had already sedated him so he wouldn’t be awake to feel the memories upload. She knew from experience how awful it could be. The others hadn’t arrived yet. She was alone with Kaiden in the room. Willow touched the holographic screen and then checked the monitors. Kaiden’s brain activity was normal. She could do it now before anyone knew.
Kaiden had made her promise not to let Oakley or any of the terrorist staff work on him. But she wasn’t naïve enough to believe that Oakley’s staff couldn’t manipulate the equipment without her knowledge. They might even try to make Kaiden a weapon like they had Raven. And she wouldn’t let them do it.
She had had time to examine the files she downloaded before they escaped TAP and discussed the matter with Oakley. He had been cagey about exactly what he knew, but Willow now understood why Kaiden was so important. When Kaiden found out what Willow knew, he might want to restore his memories to what they were now. He might not want to remember. She didn’t know if these older memories would completely overwrite the others or not. It was best to be prepared just in case.
Willow touched the screen again, and the scanner hummed. The upload initiated, and Kaiden’s memories were copied to the hard drive of her mobile computer. The procedure only took about five minutes, and it had barely completed when the door opened, and Birch came in.
Willow touched the screen, and it blinked out. She didn’t want anyone knowing she had made a copy of the Kaiden they all knew. They wouldn’t understand why she might want to overwrite the memories he was about to receive.
“Is he ready?” Birch asked.
Willow glanced at Kaiden. He was fully sedated.
“Yeah,” Willow said. “Just waiting for everyone to arrive.”
“What’s wrong?” Birch asked. “You’ve been moping around since you took out Kaiden’s switches.”
Willow scowled. “We could permanently damage his brain or even kill him.”
“He knows that.”
“What if the memories change him?” Willow asked.
Birch grimaced. “How would they change him?”
“What if he becomes a really different person?”
“He’s a clone,” Birch said. “How different can he be?”
“Very,” Willow said. “No two clones are alike. “They have differences in attitude and temperament, likes and dislikes. They don’t always look exactly alike, either.”
Birch chuckled. “It’s not going to change how he looks.”
“No, but it will probably change how he sees us.”
“He’s dead-set on getting his memories back,” Birch said. “I don’t get it. But that’s a risk we have to take.”
The others arrived, and Willow turned away from Birch. None of them understood what it was like to have the memories of multiple lives inside your head. Sure, they each had a few things they remembered, but not the entire experience. Each time she had been uploaded into a new body, she had wanted to die. Only the hope that she might be able to strike back at TAP and make the horror stop for good had given her the courage to survive.
Jade and Flint dropped into chairs beside her. Flint fiddled with the computers, setting up the firewalls that they hoped would keep the terrorists from corrupting Kaiden’s memories.
When Flint nodded to her, Willow reached to initiate the download. Jade grabbed her hand.
“If anything goes wrong,” Jade said. “I’m holding you responsible.”
Willow jerked her hand away. “Blame Kaiden,” she said. “He’s the jerk who made me do this.” She initiated the d
ownload.
“Will it hurt?” Birch asked as Kaiden twitched on the table. Birch lifted Kaiden’s hand into hers.
“Not at first,” Willow said. “His brain is about the same age it was when he was first downloaded, so it might not be as painful for him.”
The scanner continued to hum as the files downloaded. Kaiden groaned. He shuddered.
“Doesn’t look pleasant,” Flint said.
“Almost done,” Willow said.
The scanner clicked and fell silent.
Willow glanced at the others. “I don’t know what’s going to happen when I reset him.”
“Can you reverse it?” Flint asked.
Willow hesitated, then nodded. “But if he resists, it could be difficult.”
Birch dropped Kaiden’s hand and backed up.
“Here goes,” Willow said. The scanner withdrew from Kaiden’s head.
His eyes snapped open. His head swiveled from side to side as he took in his surroundings. He raised a hand to his head and grimaced. “My head.” He struggled to a sitting position and swung his legs over the side of the table.
“You should rest,” Willow said.
“Where am I?” he demanded. He studied Birch and then Jade and then Flint. When his gaze fell on Willow, his brow furrowed.
“I know you,” he said. He leaped to his feet and strode to her. Willow rose and backed away. Terror gripped her throat and twisted her insides. She had been afraid of this.
“You were there. In her office.”
Willow shook her head. “Don’t,” she pleaded.
Kaiden glanced around again. “Is this her lab? Do you work for her? What have you done to me?” His eyes widened. “You’re one of them. You’re a clone!”
He lunged over the table. His hands closed on Willow’s throat.
“Filthy clone!” he growled through clenched teeth.
Willow struggled and kicked, but Kaiden was incredibly strong. Sweat beaded on his brow. His face twisted in rage and hatred. Willow’s lungs spasmed. The pressure in her head became unbearable.
