“I’m sorry I put you all through this, but you have to understand—I’m lost here. There’s just this gaping hole where the last ten years should be.”
“And we’re going to do everything in our power to help you recover those memories. To get you better. We’re firing up the MRI. We’re going to screen you for PTSD. Our psychiatrist, Amanda Lucas, will be speaking with you shortly. You have my word—no stone will be left unturned until we fix this. Until we have you fully back.”
“Thank you.”
“You’d do the same for me. Look, I have no idea what you’ve been through these last fourteen months, but the man I’ve known for eleven years, my colleague and friend who built this place with me? He’s locked away somewhere in that head of yours, and there is nothing I won’t do to find him.”
A terrifying thought—what if he’s right?
I think I know who I am.
But there’s a part of me that wonders…What if the recollection I have of my real life—husband, father, professor—isn’t real?
What if it’s a by-product of brain damage I received while working in this lab?
What if I’m actually the man who everyone in this world believes I am?
No.
I know who I am.
Leighton has been sitting on the edge of the mattress.
Now he props his feet up and leans back against the footboard.
“I have to ask,” he says. “What were you doing at that woman’s apartment?”
Lie.
“I’m not entirely sure.”
“How did you know her?”
I fight to hide the tears and rage.
“I dated her a long time ago.”
“Let’s go back to the beginning. After you escaped through the bathroom window three nights ago, how did you get to your home in Logan Square?”
“A cab.”
“Did you tell the driver anything about where you’d just come from?”
“Of course not.”
“Okay, and after you managed to elude us at your house, then where’d you go?”
Lie.
“I wandered around all night. I was disoriented, afraid. The next day I saw this poster for Daniela’s art show. That’s how I found her.”
“Did you talk to anyone else besides Daniela?”
Ryan.
“No.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“Yes. I went back to her apartment, and it was just the two of us until…”
“You have to understand—we’ve dedicated everything to this place. To your work. We’re all in. Any one of us would lay down our lives to protect it. Including you.”
The gunshot.
The black hole between her eyes.
“It breaks my heart to see you like this, Jason.”
He says this with genuine bitterness and regret.
I can see it in his eyes.
“We were friends?” I ask.
He nods, his jaw tight, as if he’s holding back a wave of emotion.
I say, “I’m just having a hard time understanding how murdering someone to protect this lab would be acceptable to you or any of these people.”
“The Jason Dessen I knew wouldn’t have given a second thought to what happened to Daniela Vargas. I’m not saying he would’ve been happy about it. None of us are. It makes me sick. But he would’ve been willing.”
I shake my head.
He says, “You’ve forgotten what we built together.”
“So show me.”
—
They clean me up, give me new clothes, and feed me.
After lunch, Leighton and I ride a service elevator down to sublevel four.
Last time I walked this corridor, it was lined with plastic, and I had no idea where I was.
I haven’t been threatened.
Haven’t been told specifically that I can’t leave.
But I’ve already noticed that Leighton and I are rarely alone. Two men who carry themselves like cops are always on the periphery. I remember these guards from my first night here.
“It’s basically four levels,” Leighton says. “Gym, rec room, mess hall, and a few dormitories on one. Labs, cleanrooms, conference rooms on two. Sublevel three is dedicated to fabrication. Four is the infirmary and mission control.”
We’re moving toward a pair of vaultlike doors that look formidable enough to secure national secrets.
Leighton stops at a touchscreen mounted to the wall beside them.
He pulls a keycard from his pocket and holds it under the scanner.
A computerized female voice says, Name, please.
He leans in close. “Leighton Vance.”
Passcode.
“One-one-eight-seven.”
Voice recognition confirmed. Welcome, Dr. Vance.
The sound of a buzzer startles me, its echo fading down the corridor behind us.
The doors open slowly.
I step into a hangar.
From the rafters high above, lights blaze down, illuminating a twelve-foot cube the color of gunmetal.
My pulse rate kicks up.
I can’t believe what I’m looking at.
Leighton must sense my awe, because he says, “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
It is exquisitely beautiful.
At first, I think the hum inside the hangar is coming from the lights, but it can’t be. It’s so deep I can feel it at the base of my spine, like the ultralow-frequency vibration of a massive engine.
I drift toward the box, mesmerized.