Undiscovered (Unremembered #1.5)(18)

“And you created her?”

He almost looked proud at the question. It made me want to punch the smirk right off his stupid smug face. “I did. After many failed attempts.”

“So, what?” I asked. “You’re going to tell me the truth about all of this and then wipe it from my memory? Just like you did with her countless times? That’s why I’m in here, isn’t it?”

“You’re in here because it’s protocol. You saw something you weren’t supposed to see. But I’ve already dismissed the Memory Coder on staff tonight.”

“Why?”

“Because I thought I would try to talk to you, Lyzender,” Rio said, growing impatient. “You’re a scientist, like me.”

“I’m nothing like you.”

His lips pursed as though he were about to argue, but instead he continued where he left off. “I’ve seen what you can do. Your little inventions are extraordinary. You have your mother’s brain. I’d rather not tamper with it by coding in a new set of memories. I’d rather we try to come to an agreement.”

I scoffed at this. “An agreement that involves me never speaking to her again?”

“Naturally.”

“Forget it,” I spat.

“You love her.” Rio’s voice had dropped to a near whisper. It took me aback. Not only the tone, but the words themselves. And how easily they flowed from his lips. It wasn’t a question. It was a fact. A universal truth.

He was right. I did love her. But I remained stoically silent.

“It’s an illusion,” he remarked. “You only think you love her. She’s designed that way. To make people fall in love with her. It’s like these wall screens. We can program them to look beautiful and serene. We can make you feel something when you look at them. But it’s not real.”

“It’s real,” I grumbled, and immediately regretted it. There was no use arguing with Dr. Rio. He would never understand what Seraphina and I had. And he wasn’t worth the effort of trying to explain it.

But I was too emotional to keep quiet.

“I don’t love her because she’s beautiful.”

Rio looked interested. He tilted his head to the side, as if encouraging me to continue.

“I love her because she’s her.”

“Strong and intelligent and flawless?” he ventured with a smirk.

I shook my head. “No. I mean, yes, she’s all those things. But she’s also vulnerable and na?ve and tragically flawed. She’s the ultimate contradiction. You think you made someone perfect, but in doing that, you made someone so, so imperfect.”

The smirk instantly vanished from Dr. Rio’s face. I’d insulted him. His creation. His life’s work.

I felt a small surge of victory in my chest.

He stood up, clearly irritated. “Look, Lyzender. One transmission and I can get the Memory Coder back in here. Is that what you want?”

I glared up at him, my eyes challenging his. “What does it matter what I want? You’re just going to do what you want anyway.”

“I want you to stop.” Rio’s voice was back to its stern, even tone. “Stop seeing her. Stop filling her mind with thoughts and ideas. You’d be better off forgetting about her.”

“Not gonna happen,” I vowed. “Unless you or Dr. Alixter get in there and scrape the memories out of my mind, I won’t be able to forget her. And even then, I’m not sure it would work.”

Suddenly the chair Rio was sitting in went flying across the room, startling me. I hadn’t even realized he’d kicked it until it was smashing against the wall screen. “Don’t you get it?” he bellowed. “This goes beyond me! Beyond Alixter! You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, Lyzender. She’s not one of your little freedom missions! She’s a trillion-dollar investment. I should erase your memories just to protect you from the consequences of getting in the way.”

“Then do it!” I yelled back at him, my eyes and throat and chest on fire. “Do it already. Take everything! Stop threatening me and just glitching take it all.”

Rio lowered his head, defeated. “I can’t.”

“You can’t?” I repeated in disbelief. I’d never heard a Diotech scientist ever use those words before. That was not the mantra of this compound.

He struggled for words, looking distraught. “Your mother. She asked me to look out for you before she left. She would be livid.” He took a deep breath, seemingly lost in thought. “After the last time…” His voice trailed off and I could tell he’d spoken more than he’d intended.

My eyes narrowed. “The last time?”

He offered me a smile that was faker than the scenery these walls projected. “I need you to forget Seraphina. I may not be able to erase her from your mind, but I can beseech you to trust me.”

I snorted at this. “You’ve got a lot of nerve asking for trust.”

I studied Rio’s reaction carefully. A flash of something that could almost be described as pain flickered on his face, disappearing a nanosecond later. “If you can’t trust me, then I can’t protect you.”

“Maybe I don’t need your protection.”

Rio moved toward the exit, slowly shaking his head. “You have no idea what you need, Lyzender.”