Maya's Seeker went dark again. No fragments for a week. Julian used the time to rest. His knees hurt less. His hands stopped shaking.
Then the calls started coming from a hospital in Dallas. Patients forgot their names. Doctors forgot how to do surgery. Nurses forgot which medication went to which patient.
“Not a memory fragment,” Dr. Ellis said. “Something worse. The Merger. It makes people lose their own identity. They adopt the identity of whoever they touch.”
“How many affected?” Julian asked.
“The whole hospital. Three hundred people.”
The Hospital
They landed on the roof at noon. The building looked normal. But inside, chaos.
A doctor walked up to Julian. “Can you help me? I forgot my name.”
“What's the last thing you remember?”
“I touched a patient. A woman in room 217. The
