The Man Beyond The Map

CHAPTER 35 — THE DREAM

00:49

The number changed.

00:48.

Then—

00:47.

The room hummed around us.

I could hear the ventilation system kicking into a higher setting.

A faint chemical smell entered the air.

Marcus noticed it too.

“Cover your mouths.”

Everyone reacted at once.

Kane pulled his sleeve over his nose.

Daniel grabbed a piece of cloth from a medical cabinet.

I tore the bottom of my shirt and wrapped it across my face.

Aria looked at the ceiling.

“What are they releasing?”

Marcus examined one of the vents.

“Sedative.”

Daniel shook his head.

“Not just that.”

Marcus looked at him.

“What?”

“Something designed to lower resistance.”

My eyes went to the timer.

00:41.

The projector came alive.

A white screen appeared on the wall.

Then a video.

A young man sat in a chair.

Me.

Twenty-five years old.

Thinner.

Shorter hair.

Bruise beneath my left eye.

Blood on my lip.

I stared at myself.

I had seen recordings of this man before.

But this was different.

He was awake.

Alert.

And terrified.

A voice came from behind the camera.

“State your name.”

The younger me looked directly at the lens.

“Ethan Cross.”

“Age?”

“Twenty-five.”

“Occupation?”

“Military intelligence.”

“Do you understand where you are?”

A pause.

“No.”

“Do you understand why you're here?”

“Yes.”

The younger me swallowed.

“I'm here because people are dying.”

The recording paused.

The screen flickered.

Then another question.

“Who is Aria Vale?”

The younger Ethan looked away.

The change was immediate.

His breathing accelerated.

His hands tightened against the restraints.

“I don't know.”

The woman behind the camera spoke again.

“You met her three years ago.”

“I don't know her.”

“You lived with her.”

“I don't know her.”

“You loved her.”

The younger Ethan closed his eyes.

“Stop.”

The woman continued.

“You betrayed her.”

“Stop.”

“You abandoned her.”

“Stop.”

“You killed Daniel Reed.”

His eyes opened.

The fear disappeared.

Something harder replaced it.

“That's a lie.”

The recording stopped.

I stared at the screen.

Daniel stood beside me.

He looked exhausted.

“You remember now?”

“No.”

“But you know it's a lie.”

I looked at him.

“Do I?”

“You do.”

The timer continued.

00:31.

Aria suddenly stepped backward.

Her breathing changed.

I turned toward her.

“What is it?”

She wasn't looking at me.

She was looking at the screen.

“I know that room.”

“You said that earlier.”

“No.”

Her voice trembled.

“I know what happened after this recording.”

The video started again.

The younger Ethan was still strapped to the chair.

The silver-haired woman entered the room.

She wore a white laboratory coat.

Her hair was tied behind her.

Her eyes were pale.

She placed a file on the table.

“Ethan.”

The younger version of me looked up.

“You have one choice.”

“What choice?”

“You can walk away.”

“From what?”

“From Aria.”

His jaw tightened.

“And if I don't?”

“You will forget everything.”

“Will she?”

The woman paused.

“Yes.”

He stared at her.

“Then do it.”

My chest tightened.

The younger Ethan continued.

“Erase both of us.”

Aria covered her mouth.

“No.”

The woman leaned closer.

“You don't understand what you're asking.”

“Yes, I do.”

“You'll lose years of your life.”

“I know.”

“You'll lose everyone.”

“I know.”

“You may never find her again.”

The younger me looked directly at her.

“I'll find her.”

The video stopped.

The room went silent.

I stared at the frozen image.

My younger self.

The woman.

The chair.

The choice.

Then Aria spoke.

“He wasn't talking about me.”

I looked at her.

“What?”

She shook her head.

“He was talking about you.”

I didn't understand.

She pointed at the screen.

“He wanted to erase himself.”

Daniel nodded slowly.

“Yes.”

I looked at him.

“Why?”

“Because Meridian had changed him.”

“How?”

Daniel didn't answer.

The older Ethan did.

He stood near the wall, watching the recording.

“They taught you to stop feeling.”

I looked at him.

“And?”

“You became very good at it.”

The words landed harder than they should have.

My military training.

The discipline.

The ability to watch people die without reacting.

The way I could compartmentalize anything.

The affair with Elena.

The lies.

The escape.

Had all of it been connected?

Or was I simply trying to blame someone else for the choices I'd made?

I didn't know anymore.

The timer beeped.

00:20.

Marcus moved toward the control panel.

“We have to shut it down.”

Kane joined him.

“There are two systems.”

“Which one?”

“Power and gas.”

“Cut the gas.”

Kane opened the panel.

“Manual override.”

Marcus looked at Daniel.

“Where?”

Daniel pointed.

“Behind the wall.”

Marcus ripped the panel away.

Wires.

Valves.

Pipes.

Kane reached inside.

“Which one?”

Daniel shouted:

“Blue!”

Kane grabbed a valve.

Turned it.

Nothing.

“It's stuck.”

Marcus joined him.

Together they pulled.

The valve moved.

The chemical smell began to fade.

The countdown stopped.

00:17.

Then restarted.

00:16.

Kane stared at the screen.

“That's not connected to the gas.”

“Then what is it?”

Daniel answered.

“The projector.”

Marcus turned.

“What?”

“The timer is part of the psychological trigger.”

I stared at the screen.

The numbers weren't counting toward an explosion.

They were counting toward a memory.

00:12.

Aria looked at me.

“I don't want to remember.”

I took her hand.

“You don't have to.”

She looked at me.

“What if I already did?”

“Then we'll deal with it.”

“What if I remember hating you?”

I couldn't answer immediately.

She squeezed my hand.

“What if I remember loving you?”

I looked into her eyes.

“Then we'll deal with that too.”

The timer reached:

00:08.

The silver-haired woman appeared on the screen.

She looked directly into the camera.

“This is the final stage.”

Her voice was calm.

“You were told that memories make you who you are.”

The screen changed.

Photographs.

Ethan.

Aria.

Daniel.

Marcus.

Different years.

Different places.

She continued.

“That was the first mistake.”

Another photograph appeared.

A young Aria.

Not twenty-seven.

Younger.

Maybe sixteen.

Standing beside an older woman.

The silver-haired woman.

Aria gasped.

“That isn't possible.”

The woman on the screen continued.

“Memory can be removed.”

Another image.

Aria at twenty.

Then twenty-three.

Then twenty-seven.

Same face.

Same scar.

Different locations.

My heart began pounding.

The final image appeared.

Aria sitting in the Meridian chair.

But she wasn't twenty-seven.

She looked exactly as she did now.

The date beneath the photograph read:

JUNE 14, 2009.

Aria stepped backward.

“No.”

I caught her.

She was shaking.

“I wasn't there.”

“You were.”

Daniel's voice was quiet.

“I saw you.”

She looked at him.

“Why don't I remember?”

“Because they didn't erase the memory.”

He looked at me.

“They replaced the context.”

“What does that mean?”

Daniel walked toward us.

“They didn't make you forget that day.”

He pointed at Aria.

“They made you believe it happened seventeen years later.”

Silence.

I stared at Aria.

“You're saying her memories were moved?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then explain.”

“Memory doesn't work like a recording.”

Daniel tapped his head.

“They couldn't literally move a memory through time.”

“Then what did they do?”

“They altered the associations.”

He pointed toward the photograph.

“They gave her false childhood memories.”

Another image appeared.

Aria as a child.

But the photograph looked wrong.

The girl was smiling.

The background had been digitally altered.

Daniel continued.

“They gave her a new identity.”

“Aria Vale.”

“Yes.”

“Who was she before?”

Daniel looked at her.

“That is what Meridian wanted to know.”

Aria stared at him.

“Who am I?”

Nobody answered.

The lights suddenly shut off.

The projector died.

Darkness.

Then—

A door slammed somewhere beneath us.

Marcus raised his weapon.

“Everybody stay together.”

A sound came from the corridor.

Footsteps.

One person.

Slow.

Coming closer.

Kane whispered:

“We aren't alone.”

Daniel moved toward the door.

Marcus stopped him.

“Don't.”

The footsteps stopped.

Then a voice came through the wall.

The same voice from the recording.

The silver-haired woman.

“Ethan.”

I froze.

“Come alone.”

Marcus shook his head.

The voice continued.

“Or Aria dies.”

I looked at Aria.

She was staring at me.

“No.”

The voice came again.

“Three minutes.”

Kane checked his watch.

“That's impossible.”

Marcus frowned.

“What?”

“The facility's communication system is disconnected.”

Daniel looked toward the ceiling.

“Not all of it.”

A tiny red light appeared above the door.

Camera.

Someone was watching us.

I stepped toward it.

“Who are you?”

Silence.

Then the speaker crackled.

“You've asked me that before.”

I stopped.

“I don't remember.”

“I know.”

“Show yourself.”

“You aren't ready.”

“I'm done hearing that.”

I reached for the door.

Marcus grabbed my arm.

“Wait.”

The speaker came alive again.

“Ethan.”

The woman's voice was softer now.

“You think the island brought you here.”

A pause.

“It didn't.”

My eyes narrowed.

“Then who did?”

“Yourself.”

The speaker went silent.

I looked at Daniel.

He didn't look surprised.

“What does that mean?”

Daniel answered.

“You came here willingly.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“Three years ago.”

I stared at him.

The words didn't make sense.

“You said I came here in 2009.”

“You did.”

“And three years ago?”

“You came again.”

My mind raced.

The hostess.

The airplane.

The island.

The three years.

The impossible photographs.

The missing memories.

Then I remembered something.

A tiny detail.

Something I had dismissed as a dream.

A runway.

Rain.

A woman standing beside an aircraft.

Aria.

She was crying.

And I was walking away from her.

I closed my eyes.

The memory sharpened.

She shouted my name.

I turned.

She said:

“Don't make me forget you.”

My eyes opened.

Aria was staring at me.

“You remembered something.”

I couldn't speak.

“What did you see?”

I looked at her.

“You were there.”

“Where?”

“On the runway.”

Her expression changed.

“What were you doing?”

I swallowed.

“Watching me leave.”

She stepped closer.

“Did I know you?”

“Yes.”

“Did you know me?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

I stared at her.

“I don't know.”

A tear rolled down her cheek.

Then another.

“Ethan.”

“What?”

“I remember.”

She touched her chest.

“I remember the runway.”

My blood ran cold.

“What else?”

She looked toward the dark corridor.

“You weren't leaving me.”

“What were you doing?”

She whispered:

“You were going to get help.”

“For what?”

She closed her eyes.

“For the people underneath the island.”

Daniel suddenly turned toward the corridor.

“That's it.”

Marcus looked at him.

“What?”

Daniel's face had changed.

Fear.

Real fear.

“They've activated the lower facility.”

Kane raised his weapon.

“How many people?”

Daniel shook his head.

“Not people.”

I looked at him.

“Then what?”

He stared at me.

“The Leviathan program.”

I felt a strange chill.

“What is Leviathan?”

Daniel answered:

“The weapon you came here to destroy.”

A deep mechanical vibration began beneath our feet.

The floor shook.

Dust fell from the ceiling.

Somewhere below us, machinery came alive.

Marcus looked at me.

“You said you wanted the truth.”

I nodded.

He chambered a round.

“Now you're going to get it.”

The floor trembled again.

Harder.

And beneath our boots

something enormous began moving.