THE PARALLAX PROTOCOL

The Interrogation

James sat across from Evelyn at the kitchen table.

The children were asleep. David and Harper were outside on watch. Sarah was in her cabin. It was just the two of them, face to face, years of trust hanging in the balance.

"Sarah says you're the real leader of the Network," James said.

Evelyn didn't flinch. "And you believe her?"

"I don't know what to believe anymore."

"You believe me. You've always believed me."

"Until now."

Evelyn set down her tea. Her hands were steady.

"James, I've been by your side through everything. I betrayed my father for you. I killed for you. I nearly died for you. And now you're accusing me because a clone of your dead wife planted a seed of doubt?"

"She's not just any clone. She was programmed by Morrison."

"Exactly. She was programmed. To destroy us. To tear us apart. And it's working."

James leaned back. "Then prove it. Prove you're not working for the Network."

"How? I can't read my own mind."

"Let Steven scan your memories. The same way we scanned Cross's."

Evelyn's expression flickered. "You want to invade my mind?"

"I want the truth."

"The truth is I love you. I love our children. I would never do anything to hurt this family."

"Then prove it."

Evelyn was silent for a long moment.

Then she nodded. "Okay. Scan me."

---

Steven set up the equipment in the barn.

The memory scanner was a prototype, developed from Morrison's research. It could read neural patterns and detect hidden programming.

Evelyn sat in the chair, electrodes attached to her head.

"Ready," Steven said.

James stood beside her. "Last chance to back out."

"I'm not backing out."

Steven started the scan.

The screen lit up with neural activity.

Images flashed. Memories. Emotions.

Evelyn's childhood with Morrison. Her training. Her first meeting with James.

The moment she decided to betray her father.

The moment she fell in love.

Steven studied the data.

"There's no hidden programming. No kill switches. No loyalty commands."

"Then she's clean?"

"As far as I can tell. But there's something else."

"What?"

"Her memories of Morrison. They're fragmented. Like someone edited them."

Evelyn opened her eyes. "Morrison erased parts of my childhood. To make me more compliant."

"Can you restore them?"

"Maybe. With the antidote."

James looked at Steven. "Administer it."

"James—"

"Do it."

---

Steven injected the antidote into Evelyn's arm.

She gasped. Her body tensed.

Memories flooded back.

Morrison, screaming at her. Hitting her. Erasing her memories again and again.

A laboratory. A pod. A woman's face.

Her mother. The original Evelyn.

"She's alive," Evelyn whispered. "My mother is alive."

"What? Where?"

"In the compound. The one in Switzerland. The original Evelyn never died. Morrison kept her in a pod, using her genetic material to create clones."

James felt cold. "The woman we found in the hospital?"

"A fake. A decoy. The real one is still in Switzerland."

"We need to go back."

Evelyn grabbed his arm. "No. If my father hid her that well, there's a reason. He didn't want anyone to find her."

"Then we find her. Together."

---

Sarah met them at the barn door.

"I heard what you found. The original Evelyn."

"You knew?"

"I suspected. Morrison talked about her sometimes. When he was drunk. He said she was the key to everything."

"The key to what?"

"The key to controlling the clones. Her genetic code is the master template. Whoever controls her, controls the entire clone army."

James looked at Evelyn. "We need to get to her before the Network does."

"If the Network knows about her, they're already on their way."

"Then we leave now."

---

The flight to Switzerland was their sixth in a year.

James was tired. Evelyn was exhausted. But they couldn't stop.

The compound where the original Evelyn was hidden was not the same as the hospital. It was deeper, older, beneath a mountain that had been sealed for decades.

Steven had found references to it in Cross's files. A place called "The Vault."

"How do we get in?" David asked.

"The same way as always. Through the service entrance."

"There's always a service entrance."

"Morrison liked consistency."

---

The Vault was hidden beneath an abandoned ski resort.

The service entrance was a maintenance tunnel, blocked by a landslide. Steven's scans showed a way through.

They dug for hours.

Finally, a gap. James squeezed through.

Inside, the tunnel opened into a vast underground complex.

Older than the others. Built in the 1980s.

Pods lined the walls. Thousands of them.

But these pods were different. They contained not clones, but original humans. kidn*pped. Erased. Replaced.

"This is where Morrison built his army," Evelyn whispered.

"Where's your mother?"

"Deepest level. Follow me."

---

They descended through the complex.

Level one. Level two. Level three.

Guards patrolled. James and David took them down.

Level four. Level five.

A massive steel door.

"The code is my birthday," Evelyn said.

James typed.

The door opened.

Inside, a room. Sterile. White.

A single pod.

Inside the pod, a woman. Old. Gray hair. Eyes closed.

Evelyn's mother. The original.

"She's alive," Evelyn whispered.

"Can we wake her?"

"Maybe. But we need to be careful. She's been in that pod for decades."

Steven examined the controls.

"The system is old. Manual override. We need to drain the fluid slowly."

"Do it."

---

The pod drained.

The woman's eyes fluttered open.

She looked at Evelyn. At James.

"Where am I?"

"You're safe. You're free."

"Who are you?"

"Your daughter. Evelyn."

The woman's eyes filled with tears.

"I remember you. You were just a little girl when they took me."

"Morrison took you. My father."

"He was never your father. He was your creator. Like all of us."

Evelyn helped her mother out of the pod.

"We need to go. The Network knows we're here."

"The Network?"

"Morrison's people. They've been hunting us."

The woman nodded weakly. "Take me home."

---

They carried her through the complex.

Guards regrouped. Gunfire.

David provided cover. Harper threw grenades.

James pushed forward.

The exit. The tunnel. The van.

They piled inside.

Behind them, the complex shook. Explosions.

"Go! Go! Go!"

They drove away.

---

The flight home was crowded.

The original Evelyn—she asked to be called Eleanor, after her grandmother—slept most of the way.

Evelyn held her hand.

"I never thought I'd see her again."

"Neither did she."

"Thank you, James. For not giving up."

"I promised you. Together."

---

They arrived at the ranch.

The children were waiting.

Chloe ran to James. "Daddy! Who's the lady?"

"Your grandmother. Evelyn's mother."

Chloe looked at Eleanor. "You look like Mommy."

Eleanor smiled weakly. "So I've been told."

---

The next few weeks were a blur of medical exams and debriefings.

Eleanor's body was weak, but her mind was sharp.

She told them everything. About Morrison. About the protocol. About the clones.

"He wasn't trying to create a better world," she said. "He was trying to create himself. Immortal. Infinite copies. He wanted to live forever."

"But he died."

"His body died. But his mind? His memories? They're stored somewhere. In a digital archive. Waiting for a new body to inhabit."

James felt cold. "The archive we found?"

"A decoy. The real archive is hidden. Only Morrison knew where."

"Then we need to find it before someone else does."

"Someone already has."

"Who?"

"The woman you call Sarah. The clone of your first wife. She's been searching for the archive for years."

---

James walked to Sarah's cabin.

She was sitting on the porch, reading a book.

"James. What's wrong?"

"Eleanor told me about the archive. Morrison's digital backup. You've been looking for it."

Sarah set down her book.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I want to destroy it. To make sure Morrison never comes back."

"Or you want to use it to bring back Rebecca."

Sarah's expression flickered.

"Would that be so wrong? Bringing back the woman you loved?"

"She's dead, Sarah. You're not her."

"I could be. With Morrison's technology, I could have her memories. Her personality. Her love for you."

"That's not love. That's programming."

Sarah stood up.

"You're wrong. Love is just chemicals. Memories are just data. Everything we are can be recreated."

"Then you've learned nothing."

Sarah's eyes hardened.

"You're a fool, James. You had the chance to have everything. Your first wife. Your first daughter. Your first life. And you threw it away."

"Because it wasn't real."

"It was real enough."

Sarah walked into the cabin and closed the door.

James stood on the porch, staring at the wood.

---

He returned to the main house.

Evelyn was waiting.

"Sarah is dangerous," she said.

"I know."

"We need to send her away."

"Where?"

"Anywhere. As long as it's away from us."

James nodded. "Tomorrow. I'll talk to her."

---

The next morning, Sarah was gone.

Her cabin was empty. Her belongings were gone. No note. No message.

Steven tracked her phone. "She's heading east. Toward the coast."

"She's going to find the archive."

"Probably."

"We need to stop her."

"How? We don't know where the archive is."

"But Sarah does."

---

They chased her across the country.

Through Pennsylvania. Through New Jersey. To the coast.

A small town on the shore. An old lighthouse.

Sarah was there, standing at the base.

"James. You shouldn't have come."

"The archive is in there?"

"Yes. Morrison's digital soul. Waiting to be uploaded."

"Don't do this."

"I have to. Rebecca deserves to live."

"Rebecca is dead."

Sarah turned.

"She doesn't have to be."

She walked into the lighthouse.

James followed.

---

The interior was dark, dusty, abandoned.

But the basement was different. Modern. High-tech.

A server. Computers. A pod.

Morrison's digital archive.

Sarah sat at the console, typing.

"The upload will take ten minutes. Then Rebecca will be reborn."

James grabbed her arm.

"Stop."

"Let go of me."

"No."

They struggled.

Sarah was stronger than she looked.

She threw James across the room.

He hit the wall, collapsed.

Sarah returned to the console.

The upload bar climbed.

Fifty percent. Seventy. Ninety.

James crawled to his feet.

He lunged.

He smashed the console.

Sparks flew. The screen went dark.

Sarah screamed.

"No! You've destroyed her!"

"She was never there. Rebecca's memories were gone long ago. All that was left was a digital ghost."

Sarah fell to her knees.

"You don't know that."

"I do. Because I've been searching for the same thing. My father's memories. My wife's memories. They're gone. Irretrievable."

Sarah looked at him. Tears streamed down her face.

"What do I do now?"

"Live. Be your own person. Not a copy of someone else."

"I don't know how."

"Neither did I. But I learned."

James helped her up.

"Come back to the ranch. We'll figure it out together."

Sarah nodded.

They walked out of the lighthouse, into the sunlight.