Chapter 2 - Three Heartbeats
"There are three?" I asked.
The man on the catwalk didn't answer. He ran down the stairs, moving with a limp I remembered from childhood videos. Even his voice was the same.
"Jonah Mercer," he said, as if introducing himself to a stranger. "I'm your father. And I owe you more than an apology."
"You owe me twenty-two birthdays."
His face twisted. He started toward me, but I stepped back.
"I brought drawings to your grave every birthday," I said. "I used to think if I left enough of them, you might come home."
"I wish I had," he said.
That hurt worse than if he'd denied it.
He opened a medical screen. Two entries appeared: 0A and 0B, both marked FEMALE, BORN MAY 17. Beneath them, a third number blinked in red: 0C, ACTIVE.
"Your mother carried two daughters," he said. "Victoria's program took one. Evelyn got the other out. I thought those were the only children they made."
"Which one am I?"
"You are Clara."
"That's not an answer!"
He swallowed. "They labeled you 0B. The baby in the forest was 0A."
Baby. The word struck me hard. That girl had my adult face.
"What about 0C?"
"I learned she existed four minutes ago. Her chamber just opened on the lower floor."
A metal clang came from below. My father checked the screen again and turned pale.
"Victoria has armed the purification system. In fifty-eight minutes, every tank in this room will be drained."
I looked at the women floating behind the glass. One pressed her palm against the inside of a cylinder.
"They're alive."
"Some of them," he said quietly.
The speaker clicked. A girl's voice filled the room, my voice with a flat, careful edge.
May you like
"Hello, Clara. I'm 0C. Victoria says one of us has to die before morning."
A door on the lower floor began to unlock.
