“Ciro? Why have you left me here?”The voice came from beyond the far wall, weak and frightened, but there was something familiar about it that made Ciro turn before anyone else could react.He knew that voice.He had heard it in Natasha’s childhood memories, in the recordings Evelyn had refused to explain, and in the fragments of conversations recovered from Blackwood’s old files.It was the woman who had sung to Natasha in the white room.“Who is that?” Daniel asked.Ciro didn’t answer. He moved towards the open doorway, but Alexander immediately caught his arm.“Don’t go in there.”Ciro looked down at his hand.“Take your hand off me.”“You don’t understand what you’ve just released.”“I understand that there’s someone in there.”“Someone who was never supposed to leave the archive.”Ciro pulled his arm free. “You said the body was the only thing we needed to worry about. Then you told me the lower archive contained another pattern. Now there’s a woman calling my name. How many peo

The console continued to display the warning while the audio file played its final seconds.There was a faint sound after my father’s voice, something like a door closing. Then the recording ended.I looked at Alexander. “You said the system preserves patterns. Can it preserve a memory that was never entered into its records?”“It can preserve information gathered from a subject’s responses.”“That wasn’t my question.”He rubbed his thumb against the edge of his sleeve. “A memory can be extracted without being stored as a separate file. The system may retain fragments during a transfer.”“Then how did it label this one unrecorded?”“Because it has no matching record in the archive.”Elias stepped closer to the console. “Could someone have placed it there recently?”Alexander studied the screen. “The file carries an old timestamp. Seventeen years ago.”Isabel gripped her husband’s arm. “That was the year they brought Natasha here.”I returned my attention to the medical-room feed. The

The recording continued playing.My seven-year-old self stood beside my grandfather, holding two of his fingers while Natasha slept in his other arm. I could see the fear on the little boy’s face. He kept looking towards the operating theatre, where several people in white coats were moving behind the glass.My grandfather bent towards me.“Your father is inside, Ciro. We need to wait until the doctors finish.”“But you said he was coming home.”“He will.”I watched the recording without blinking.A woman entered the frame. She wore a white coat and carried a folder against her chest. I recognised her immediately.Evelyn.She looked younger, with her hair tied behind her head. She approached my grandfather and spoke quietly.“Mr Vale, we have a problem.”My grandfather glanced at me before answering. “What happened?”“The separation is incomplete. Daniel’s original pattern is still responding to the other subject.”“Can you stabilise it?”“We can try, but the boy’s presence is affecti