Constance (Constance #1)(92)

“Please don’t hold it against her. There can’t be two of us for what comes next,” Abigail said.

“She poisoned you.”

“Yes, I know,” Abigail said.

“So you’re just going to let yourself die?” Con said.

“Not as long as she is here,” Abigail said and squeezed Cabigail’s hand.

“You’re both insane,” Con said, but the two Abigails weren’t paying her any attention.

“Why don’t I go lie down?” Abigail suggested.

Cabigail agreed and took Abigail by the elbow to help her up from her seat. Abigail’s legs buckled, but Cabigail caught her before she fell.

“Would you help me get her to the lab, please?” Cabigail asked Con.

Con put an arm around Abigail’s waist and helped walk her down the hall. Not out of any real concern for Abigail, though, she was just curious to see the lab. And to see what happened next. She wanted to believe their confidence that she’d give them what was locked in her head was just more of their mind games, but she needed to know for sure. Well, she needed them to try and convince her. Then she’d know the truth about her original. And whatever it was, she suspected it would be in her aunt’s laboratory.

Where the rest of the complex was resolutely minimalist, the labs were packed with medical equipment and computers. Con couldn’t identify most of it, but she recognized a CT scanner against one wall. A spectrophotometer. Two examination tables. There was also an upload chair, although the Abigails’ chair was much more utilitarian, without any of the creature comforts that went into the Palingenesis five-star spa experience. Con counted three wombs similar to the ones Palingenesis used to store clones. Two sat empty. The third held an inanimate clone of Abigail Stickling. The backup to the backup to the backup, if Con had her math right.

“Do you want to rest in the office?” Cabigail asked.

“No, just take me to the tray. It will be a pain to move me after I’m gone.”

Cabigail nodded at the good sense of that. Together, they wound their way to the back of the lab. Abigail’s head dropped to her chest, and her breathing became thick and labored. Her feet gave out and dragged behind them on the floor. As they approached the far wall, twin metal doors parted to reveal a blackened chamber. A flat metal tray on a track rolled out and shuddered to a halt.

“What is this thing?” Con asked.

“An incinerator,” Cabigail said.

“Why the hell do you have an incinerator?”

Cabigail looked at it, then back to Con. “Isn’t that kind of self-explanatory?”

“You cremate a lot of bodies?”

“Too many to count over the years. They are the byproduct of our research. Now, if you don’t mind, would you lift her legs? I’m not strong enough to get her up by myself.”

“She’s not dead,” Con said.

“I know,” Cabigail said with genuine sadness. “It’ll only be a few minutes now.”

They managed to wrestle Abigail up onto the tray, miraculously without dropping her. Con leaned against the wall, panting from the exertion.

Abigail’s eyes fluttered open. “Are you there?”

“I’m here,” Cabigail said, taking her hand. “Do you need anything?”

“No, it won’t be long. I can feel it.”

“So, I was thinking,” Cabigail said. “When did you do your last refresh?”

“Yesterday evening. Why?”

“Well. When this is all over, and I’ve finally solved the mind-body problem . . . maybe I could bring you back. Would you like that?”

“You would do that for me?” Abigail said, brightening at the thought.

“Why not? If everything works the way we believe, it will be easy enough to hide two of us from the world.”

“That will be so nice. Thank you,” Abigail said.

“I’ll miss you until then,” Cabigail said and brushed the hair from Abigail’s forehead.

“We will have so much to catch up on,” Abigail said.

“And all the time in the world to catch up on it.”

“Until then,” Abigail said and closed her eyes for the last time.

Cabigail stood there holding her hand until Abigail stopped breathing. Then she started the incinerator. No parting words, no moment of silent reflection. All the sentiment of taking out the recycling. The tray retracted back inside the wall. The metal doors closed. Cabigail punched a second button, and the incinerator roared to life.

“I don’t understand,” Con said, stepping back from the heat.

“I thought we’d been over that,” Cabigail said.

“No, I mean, why build this place at all? Why didn’t you just finish your work at Palingenesis? Why go to these insane lengths? You spent seven years planning to steal your own invention from your own company. Was it just greed? Are you that selfish?”

“Selfish? You think I’m the selfish one.”

“What else would you call what you’ve done? All so you could keep immortality all to yourself.”

Cabigail shook her head in disbelief at how badly she’d been misunderstood. “What do you think would happen if Vernon Gaddis or Brooke Fenton got control of my work?”

“They’d sell it.”