Chapter 25 - THE ROOM OF FALSE MEMORIES
Elias led us through a decontamination corridor.
He moved without hesitation, but cameras followed every step.
“Teresa knows where we are,” I said.
“She knows where I am. She cannot see you while the internal network is partially isolated.”
“What did you change?”
“I redirected surveillance through archived footage.”
Evelyn glanced at him.
“You’ve been planning this.”
“For eight years.”
“Why wait?”
“I could not access the Architect’s encryption.”
Me.
He had needed me from the beginning too.
We entered a circular room lined with glass panels.
Each panel displayed a memory.
My memories.
Daniel teaching me to ride a bicycle.
Teresa leaving with a suitcase.
My first day at university.
Amy laughing beside the broken robotic arm.
“These were recorded?” I asked.
“Reconstructed,” Elias said. “From interviews, surveillance, medical scans, and behavioral data.”
One screen showed Amy and me exchanging wedding vows.
Another showed our argument the night before she disappeared.
Teresa’s voice filled the room.
“Memory is only a story the brain repeats until it becomes identity.”
She appeared behind the glass on the opposite side.
Amy stood beside her, restrained by two guards.
The syringe rested against her neck.
“Come in, Connor.”
A door unlocked between us.
Evelyn whispered, “It’s a trap.”
“I know.”
I entered alone.
Teresa smiled.
“You always were brave when Amy was watching.”
“Let her go.”
“When the sequence is complete.”
“You said I was taking over.”
“You are.”
“You need to kill her first?”
“Amy’s consciousness will be mapped into the Interface. Her biological body is temporary.”
Amy’s eyes found mine.
“Don’t let her connect us.”
Teresa gestured toward a chair fitted with a neural crown.
“Sit down.”
I approached slowly.
“You tested me my entire life.”
“I cultivated you.”
“You paid for my research.”
“I invested in you.”
“You manipulated my marriage.”
“I allowed an essential bond to form.”
“You murdered Daniel?”
Her face remained still.
But she did not deny it.
“He removed you from the program.”
“He saved me.”
“He made you ordinary.”
“That was the greatest gift anyone gave me.”
Anger finally broke through her control.
“You could redesign civilization.”
“No one should.”
She pressed the syringe into Amy’s skin.
I sat in the chair.
“Stop.”
Teresa withdrew the needle before depressing it.
Technicians secured the neural crown around my head.
Elias appeared behind the observation glass.
Teresa saw him.
“Return to the core,” she ordered.
He did not move.
The system activated.
Light flooded my vision.
Then Amy’s voice entered my mind.
Not through the room.
Inside my thoughts.
“Connor, she isn’t connecting you to me.”
“What is she doing?”
“She’s connecting you to everyone.”
May you like
Thousands of voices screamed inside my head at once.
📖 Connor has entered the network and discovered Teresa is using him as the gateway to every human subject inside the facility. 👇
