CHAPTER TWENTY
The Final Archive
The metal door stood before them like the entrance to a vault.
No handle.
No keypad.
No visible mechanism.
Only the crown symbol.
Gila stared at it.
"The key is the box."
The professor shook his head.
"No."
He looked at her.
"You are."
Gila stepped closer.
"How?"
"Touch the symbol."
Her mother immediately grabbed her arm.
"Don't."
Gila looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because once you open it, there is no going back."
Gila thought about everything that had happened.
The lies.
The photographs.
The memories.
The river.
Rymus.
The Circle.
The people who had disappeared.
The people who had been waiting for someone to tell their stories.
She stepped forward.
"I've already gone too far."
She placed her hand against the crown.
Nothing happened.
Then the pendant around her neck began to glow faintly.
Gila gasped.
A memory surged through her.
Her mother was standing in this same room years ago.
Vale was there.
The professor was younger.
Rymus stood near the door.
A little girl sat at a table.
Gila.
Her mother was holding the wooden box.
Vale said:
"She remembers too much."
The professor answered:
"Then we remove the memories."
Gila's mother stepped between them.
"No."
Vale's voice became cold.
"Then she becomes a liability."
Rymus moved forward.
"I won't let you touch her."
Vale looked at him.
"Then you'll die with her."
The memory changed.
Her mother placed the pendant around young Gila's neck.
She whispered:
"The river will bring you back."
Then she pressed her hand against the crown.
The door opened.
Gila watched herself walk into the archive.
Her mother followed.
The memory ended.
Gila opened her eyes.
The door was open.
Nobody spoke.
She looked at the professor.
"You knew."
He nodded.
"You erased my memories."
"Yes."
"You made me forget this place."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because the information inside would have made you a target."
"You made me a target anyway."
His expression changed.
"I was trying to protect the archive."
Gila laughed bitterly.
"Not me."
He didn't answer.
Rymus stepped toward the open door.
"What is inside?"
The professor looked at him.
"Everything."
They entered.
The room beyond was enormous.
Files covered the walls.
Hard drives.
Ledgers.
Photographs.
Maps.
Names.
Dates.
Every operation the Dominion had conducted.
Every person involved.
Every payment.
Every route.
Every government official who had taken money.
Every company created to hide the movement of people and information.
Gila stared.
"This could destroy them."
"Yes," the professor said.
Rymus moved toward a shelf.
He picked up a file.
His expression changed.
"My name."
Gila looked at him.
He opened it.
Inside were records of his activities.
Some showed crimes he had committed.
Others showed operations he had stopped.
Then he found another page.
A payment record.
Signed by Vale.
Rymus stared.
"You paid me."
Vale looked at him.
"Yes."
"For what?"
"Protection."
"From the Dominion?"
Vale smiled.
"From the people who wanted you dead."
Rymus's expression hardened.
"You used me."
"We all used one another."
Gila stepped away from them.
Her attention had moved to another wall.
There were photographs.
Hundreds.
Then she saw one that made her stop.
A photograph of her mother.
But she wasn't alone.
Standing beside her was another woman.
Gila recognized her immediately.
The woman who had raised her after her mother disappeared.
The woman Gila had trusted.
The woman she had believed was simply a family friend.
Gila picked up the photograph.
"Who is she?"
Her mother looked at it.
Her face collapsed.
"Your aunt."
Gila stared.
"I don't have an aunt."
"You were told you didn't."
"Why?"
"Because she was the one who took you after I disappeared."
Gila's hands began shaking.
"She worked for the Dominion?"
Her mother nodded.
"Yes."
Gila looked at the photograph again.
The woman was smiling.
Young Gila stood beside her.
And on the back was a date.
The date Gila had been taken away.
The date her memories had been erased.
The date she had believed her mother died.
Gila turned the photograph over.
There was a message written beneath the date.
She read it aloud.
"Subject secured. Awaiting transfer."
The room became silent.
Gila looked at her mother.
"You said you saved me."
"I did."
"But someone else took me."
"I had no choice."
"You always had a choice."
Her mother began crying.
"I was trying to keep you alive."
Gila looked away.
Then she noticed another file.
It contained a list of names.
At the bottom was one name marked in red.
Her own.
Beside it was a note:
FINAL SUBJECT — MEMORY RESTORATION REQUIRED.
Gila stared.
"Final subject?"
The professor stepped closer.
"You're the last person alive who knows how the original archive was encoded."
Gila looked at him.
"I don't know how."
"You do."
"I don't."
"You will."
He pointed toward the wall.
Seven symbols appeared.
The same seven symbols connected to her seven memories.
Gila understood.
Each memory had unlocked one section.
Seven memories.
Seven keys.
Seven doors.
And now there was one final symbol.
The crown.
She looked at the box.
"What happens when I open the final archive?"
The professor answered:
"The Dominion falls."
A sudden explosion shook the building.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Everyone turned.
Another explosion.
Closer.
Rymus looked toward the entrance.
"They found us."
Vale smiled.
"Of course they did."
Gila stared at him.
"Who?"
Vale's expression changed.
"The people who created the Dominion."
Rymus's face went pale.
"You said they were gone."
"I said nothing of the sort."
The professor moved toward the archive controls.
"We have minutes."
Gila looked at the files.
"What do we do?"
Rymus answered:
"We get the evidence out."
"How?"
"Every way possible."
Thelma began gathering files.
Gila opened the wooden box.
Inside, beneath the pendant, was a tiny piece of metal.
She picked it up.
The professor saw it.
"That's the final key."
Gila looked toward the archive's central console.
She inserted it.
The system came alive.
A screen appeared.
Seven symbols.
Then the crown.
Then a final question.
WHO DO YOU REMEMBER?
Gila stared at the words.
Her memories rushed through her.
Her mother.
Rymus.
The river.
The Circle.
The professor.
Her childhood.
The Dominion.
And one final face.
A face she had not remembered until now.
The person who had stood beside her mother in the very first memory.
The person who had ordered her memories erased.
The person above Adrian Vale.
Gila whispered the name.
Everyone turned toward her.
"He's alive."
Her mother shook her head.
"No."
Gila looked at the screen.
"He is."
Rymus stepped closer.
"Who?"
Gila stared at the final photograph appearing on the screen.
Then she said:
"The founder."
The lights went out.
In the darkness, a voice came through the archive speakers.
"Gila."
She froze.
The voice was calm.
Familiar.
And impossibly close.
"I've been waiting for you to remember me."
The screen lit up again.
One photograph appeared.
A man.
Gila knew that face.
She had seen him before.
Not in a photograph.
Not in a memory.
In her childhood.
Standing beside her mother.
Holding her hand.
Gila whispered:
"My father."
And somewhere beyond the walls of the archive, someone began to applaud.