Chapter 14 — The Last Experiment
Chapter 14 — The Last Experiment
A recorded voice filled the house.
Alexander Cole.
“If Protocol Seven has been activated, the Mnemosyne project has been compromised.”
Shaw rushed toward the control panel.
It rejected her fingerprint.
Grace understood.
Her biological key controlled more than the archive.
It controlled every remaining Mnemosyne facility.
Alexander’s voice continued.
“All active recordings will now be transmitted to federal authorities.”
Hidden cameras emerged from the walls.
Everything happening inside the lake house was being recorded.
Nicholas aimed at the cameras and fired.
Nathan tackled him.
Noah pulled Margaret toward cover.
Shaw grabbed Grace and pressed a gun beneath her jaw.
“Disable the protocol.”
“I don’t know how.”
“You activated it.”
“Alexander designed it so only the truth could end this.”
Shaw’s voice trembled with rage.
“I created your memories.”
“No. You damaged them.”
Grace looked into the nearest camera.
“My name is Grace Miller Cole. Dr. Evelyn Shaw altered my memories, imprisoned Nathan Cole and used Nicholas and Noah Cole in illegal human experiments.”
Shaw tightened her grip.
“Stop talking.”
Margaret stepped out from behind the sofa.
“And I helped her.”
Grace stared at her mother.
Margaret faced the camera.
“I authorized the first treatment on my daughter. I helped conceal Alexander Cole’s death. I have spent thirteen years trying to undo what cowardice made me do.”
Shaw fired.
Noah pulled Margaret aside.
The bullet struck the wall.
Grace twisted free.
Nathan and Nicholas crashed through a glass table.
Nicholas grabbed a broken shard and drove it toward Nathan.
Noah intervened.
The shard cut across Noah’s arm.
Nathan disarmed Nicholas and pinned him against the floor.
“Do it,” Nicholas whispered. “Kill me. Prove we are the same.”
Nathan’s fist hovered above his brother’s face.
Then he lowered it.
“No.”
Nicholas smiled.
“You always were weak.”
“No,” Nathan said. “I’m the brother who stopped becoming you.”
Federal agents surrounded the house.
Shaw ran toward the rear exit.
Grace followed her into the hallway.
Shaw reached the room where Alexander had died thirteen years earlier.
The recreated lock clicked shut behind her.
Smoke began entering through the vents.
Shaw pounded on the door.
“Grace! Open it!”
Grace stood outside holding the emergency key.
For one terrible second, she remembered Alexander screaming.
Shaw had recreated the same moment deliberately, expecting Grace to choose revenge.
Grace unlocked the door.
Shaw stumbled out coughing.
Grace looked at her coldly.
“You don’t get to turn me into you.”
Agents seized Shaw.
Nicholas was handcuffed.
Margaret was placed on a stretcher.
Nathan and Noah stood beside Grace.
For the first time, all surviving victims of Mnemosyne faced the cameras together.
But as Nicholas was led away, he whispered to Grace:
“You still haven’t asked which brother lived with you during the first three years of your marriage.”
May you like
Grace stared after him.
The final secret remained.
