Unremembered (Unremembered #1)(66)

Unless . . . I sweep my eyes around the room again. Unless I’m on the Diotech compound now.

But that doesn’t make sense. Why would Maxxer bring us there? In the car, it seemed like she was afraid of Diotech.

The floor trembles and I glance upward to see two feet stalking towards me. From this strange angle, I can only barely make out her features although I’m fairly certain it’s the woman from the car.

‘You’re awake,’ she says.

I push myself to a seated position and rub my eyes. ‘Where are we?’ I ask groggily.

‘My storage unit.’

I glance around the small, dank space. There’s nothing in it except the lamp, a mattress that appears to be filled with air, a shabby metal table and one metal chair behind it. On the table is a collection of mostly unfamiliar devices. The only one among them that I recognize is a laptop.

‘You live in here?’

‘Temporarily, yes,’ she says. ‘I tend to move around a lot. Storage units are easiest. You can rent month to month and there are no nosy neighbours.’

‘Why did you deactivate us?’ I ask.

‘I had to make sure you had no memories of where this place was. Nothing for Diotech to steal later. It’s safer that way.’

‘When will he wake up?’ I nod to Cody.

‘In a few minutes,’ Dr Maxxer replies. ‘His brain chemistry is slightly different than yours. It will take a bit longer for the effect of the Modifier to wear off.’

I rub the back of my head, which is somewhat sore from lying on the cold concrete floor. And that’s when I feel the small rubber disc at the base of my neck. My hand darts to my left ear and then my right. The cognitive receptors. I never took them off.

‘What else did you do to me?’ I ask frantically, standing now and looking around.

‘Just returned what was rightfully yours.’ She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a small silver cube. I immediately recognize it as the hard drive Zen used to store my stolen memories. It’s glowing green again.

I gasp and take a step towards her. ‘How did you get that?’

She looks at it and then back at me. ‘I found it when I searched you.’

‘Me?’ I ask in surprise.

She nods. ‘It was in your pocket.’

I shake my head. ‘But that’s impossible. The last time I saw it, Zen was putting it in his own pocket. Right before I fell asleep. Then those men showed up at the gas station and they took him and I never saw it again.’

Maxxer raises her eyebrows tauntingly at me. ‘Maybe you should take another look at that gas station.’

I hastily play back the scene in my mind. Moment by moment.

Zen told me to stay in the car while he paid for the gas. Then the girl with the cellphone took my photograph. A second later the men appeared. I ran to Zen but he pushed me away. He placed his hand on my hip and told me to get as far from there as possible.

On my hip.

I reexamine the action more closely and, suddenly, now I can feel him slip something into my pocket before he shoves me away. I didn’t even notice it at the time because I was so distracted by everything that was happening around us.

But Zen was clearheaded enough to make sure I had the drive before I left.

He wanted me to have access to the rest of the memories.

He wanted me to have the final pieces of the story.

And most of all, he wanted to make sure Diotech didn’t.

‘You,’ I say with sudden realization, blinking at Maxxer. ‘It was you who triggered that memory? The one about the poem?’

‘Actually,’ she replies, ‘I didn’t have to. You triggered it yourself. I just turned on the drive.’

I blink. ‘How did I do that?’

She shrugs. ‘You must have been thinking about Zen when you were unconscious. Clearly that was enough.’

I can’t help but smile at this.

‘It should make my explanation a bit easier though,’ Maxxer says.

‘What explanation?’

‘The one you’re about to ask of me.’

I stare at her in astonishment. ‘How do you know what I’m about to ask you.’

She smiles, her slender eyes crinkling at the corners. ‘I know a lot more about this conversation than you might think.’

This whole exchange is making no sense whatsoever. My head is starting to pound. I shut my eyes tight.

‘Go with your instinct,’ she advises. ‘Ask whatever question pops into your mind first. I promise, it will be the right one.’

‘Where is Diotech?’ I ask without thinking.

‘It’s not a question of where,’ she says. ‘It’s a question of when.’

‘Huh?’ I’m so confused now, the walls feel like they’re closing in.

‘Keep asking,’ she encourages. ‘You’ll get there.’

I take a deep breath and ask the next thing that pops into my mind. ‘How do you know so much about Diotech?’

She lowers herself into the chair and folds her hands in her lap. ‘Because I used to work for them.’

‘Used to?’

‘Yes. I was one of their lead scientists.’

‘Why didn’t you want me to know how to get here? Are they after you too?’