Her nostrils flare. “Do you think I’m stupid? I’ve seen how you really feel about me. Why would I want an assistant whom I can’t trust? When you come to me, for real, you’ll have to give me more than just words, Jessa. You’ll have to show me, with actions, that you’ve changed. Irrevocably. You’ll have to prove to me, once and for all, that you’re on my side. Until then, don’t bother negotiating.”
She spins on her heels, but Tanner grabs her sleeve.
“Don’t do this, Chairwoman,” he pleads. “Callie’s given you so much. Because of her brain, we were able to discover everything.”
“She also took everything from me.” Her voice rises, filling the hallway as thoroughly as the sirens. “I got back only what was originally mine.”
The room’s spinning; my forehead’s burning. I can barely process what they’re saying. But something Tanner says doesn’t seem right. Something makes me focus in on his words and replay them in my mind.
“What do you mean, she let you discover everything?” I look from Dresden to Tanner. “I thought you weren’t able to learn much by examining her brain.”
Dresden turns to me, her eyes wide open. I guess she’s no longer bored. “You mean he didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“A few days ago, Tanner accomplished what I was beginning to believe was impossible.” Triumph rings through her voice. “He discovered future memory and put our world back on track.”
No. He couldn’t have been the inventor. He was with me when Dresden made her announcement. He was just as surprised as I was. Wasn’t he? Or is Tanner a bigger actor—a bigger liar—than I ever suspected?
I won’t believe it—I won’t—until I hear the words from his lips. “Tanner? Is she telling the truth? Did you invent future memory?”
For the first time since Dresden appeared, he lifts his head and meets my eyes. “Yes. I did.”
The air tangles in my throat. Before I can figure out how to breathe again, Dresden steps forward. “Tell her how you discovered it,” she says, her voice too gleeful, her expression too smug. “Tell her what—or, should I say, whom—you used.”
It hits me then. The guards grab my elbows to keep me from pitching forward, but it doesn’t matter. I’m free-falling anyway. I’m detached from my body, spinning in space, unable to tell which way is up.
The memories. He used the memories I sent into Callie’s mind to keep her alive. I’m the Sender; she’s the Receiver. Together, we were the key to the invention of future memory. The scientists were supposed to study our genetically identical twin brains. By observing the way messages were passed between us, they were supposed to derive a key insight that would lead to the invention of future memory.
But Callie changed everything by stabbing a needle into her heart. By making it impossible for me to send memories into her mind…until a week ago. When I did exactly what she sacrificed her life to prevent.
Callie lies in a coma, the last ten years of her life a black hole. Three lives—mine, my mom’s, and Logan’s—have been irreparably harmed. For what? This?
We’ve come full circle. I left civilization and came back again. I followed a maze and walked straight into a trap I never saw coming. One that plops me back into the world we thought we’d left behind.
“You tricked me,” I whisper. “You told me to send my sister a memory. You said it would save her life.”
“It did save her life,” Tanner says miserably. “At the time I made the suggestion, that’s all I was thinking about, I swear. But the monitors were already set up to record her brain activity, and when you sent that memory, it captured the transmission. What was I supposed to do? Here was all this data, right in front of me. Data that was ripe for analysis. Data for which I’ve been searching my entire life.” He reaches a hand toward me, but one of the guards slaps a cuff on his wrist and pulls it down. Doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t let him touch me anyway.
“I couldn’t resist, Jessa. For the sake of science, I had to see. I’d already laid the foundation with my mice. The messages you sent to Callie provided me with the final missing piece of the puzzle. They gave me what I needed to invent future memory.”
“For the sake of science, you betrayed me,” I say, my voice hard, my heart harder.
“I told you. I didn’t know what the discovery of future memory meant.” His eyes beseech me. The cut in his forehead reminds me. “Please. You believed me. You forgave me.”
My soul cements until it is thick, solid concrete. “I don’t forgive you anymore.”
31
We are led to a small, square cell. Plain walls, no furniture. It can’t measure more than ten feet by ten feet.
One of the guards shoves me toward a wall. He has a five o’clock shadow tattooed onto his laser-smooth cheeks, and he stops in front of the complicated security panel by the door. “You’re in here for four hours and forty minutes. Let’s round it up to five hours, just to be safe.” He keys in the parameters, and a red digital clock appears in the air. “Once the timer counts down, the doors will open and you’ll be released. Until then, make yourself cozy.”
He laughs at his not-funny joke and leaves the room. The door closes behind him.
A second later, I’m attacking the metal surface, dropkicking the doorknob, punching the security system. Pain lances through my hands and feet, but I keep hammering. My sister’s out there, and I won’t be locked in here. I won’t.
Parts of the panel break off and dangle in the air. The hologram clock wavers and disappears. My hands are slick with something wet and slippery and red, and then a pair of arms wraps around my torso and pulls me away.
“Jessa, you’re bleeding,” Tanner says. “Why don’t you—”
I throw his hands off me. “Don’t you ever touch me again.”
“I’m sorry.” His eyes are like black holes in space, with their own gravitational pull. I could tumble into them so easily—but I’ve learned my lesson. I fell into them once, and I won’t make that mistake again.
“This isn’t the way I wanted things to work out,” he says in a low voice. “Believe me, I never wanted to hurt you or Callie.”
“Funny. I’ve heard you say that before.” I gasp at the air. The oxygen leaks out of my lungs the moment it arrives. “Too bad I can’t overlook the end result this time. Because of you, my sister is dead once again.”
“Jessa, I—”
I clap my hands over my ears, and liquid smears into my hair. More blood. “Don’t talk to me. Not now, not ever.” I crawl into the corner, making myself as small as possible. Getting as far away from him as possible.
I can’t do this. I can’t talk to Tanner. I can’t listen to his excuses. I can’t sit here and exist. Not when this is happening again. I barely survived the first time. If Callie is taken from me once more, I will shatter.
“She never came back to you.” Tanner’s voice floats above me. “Her body is here, but her mind continues to skip through time. Even if you could have maintained the bond, there’s no telling if she would’ve ever come back.”
“Are you trying to make me feel better—or yourself?”
I lift my head just in time to see his face crumple. He sags against the wall, sliding lower and lower until he joins me on the floor. “I’m sorry, Jessa. You have no idea how sorry I am. I didn’t know this would happen, but you’re right. I never should’ve betrayed you in the first place. This is my fault.”
I collapse into sobs. Because it doesn’t help me to hear his apology. Sure, it gives me someone to blame. It gives me a target for my anger. But hating him doesn’t bring back Callie.
I want to rip the security system from the walls. I want to wrap the past around Tanner’s and my necks, pulling and squeezing until one or both of us passes out. I want to stomp on Fate’s face and dare a thunderbolt to come into this cell. If it strikes me, so much the better, because then I won’t have to feel this pain anymore.