Second Chances(111)

"Kind of?" Nathan asked.

"For Paige," Julie said. "The detailed scans he had from her. They worked on her for a very long time. It took them three years, but they did it. They made a clone and via trial and error they were able to map the memories he had saved onto that clone."

Nathan slammed on the breaks. He'd been so engrossed in the story he hadn't noticed the street light turn to red until the last second. Julie slammed into the dashboard, while both Jason and Paige were restrained roughly by their seatbelts.

A horn blared at them from the blue Honda Civic that zoomed in front of them.

"Sorry, are you okay?"

Julie rubbed her right arm and grimaced. "Should have been wearing my seatbelt."

"Sweetheart..."

"I'm okay, Jason."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. The light turned green and Nathan eased off the brake. Julie slipped her seatbelt on.

"So it worked?" Paige asked.

"Yes and no. Or rather yes, but too well," Jason responded.

"What does that mean?" Nathan asked, afraid at what the answer might be.

"The memories. She had them all."

Paige's brow wrinkled in confusion.

"All of them," Jason stressed. "I took the scans after the fire. She remembered everything. She remembered being nearly burned to death. We tried everything to get her to deal with it. Hypnosis, therapy, you name it. In the end she couldn't deal with it. It was too much."

"She killed herself," Nathan said softly.

Jason nodded.

"Those articles on the website you sent us to. You tried again and again, didn't you?"

Paige gasped. "They all killed themselves? I'm going to..."

"No," Jason said forcefully. "No. The first Paige did. She couldn't handle the memories. I was ready to give up after that. I had lost my daughter twice, I didn't think I could handle anymore. But a new manager joined our project and he somehow convinced me to stay on and give it another try. He was very charismatic and he brought in new people to the project that he insisted could help. His name was Cameron Kassar. It was his notion to manipulate Paige's memories. So after another couple of years or so Paige was alive again. We'd developed a new life for her. I thought it best to erase myself..."

"You what? You thought it was best for me to think you were dead?"

Tears ran down Jason's face. The venom of Paige's word stung harder than any physical blow she could have landed.

"For myself. Best for myself. I am sorry. I couldn't handle it again. I intended to watch from afar. Paige would be alive again and that would be enough for me. I am sorry, but I was too weak to go through it again. I see how stupid that is now. I saved myself nothing and it only served Kassar's agenda. Heck, I think it might even have been his idea."

"What happened?" Nathan prodded.

"It worked. Seemed like it worked perfectly, anyway. Paige was alive and all seemed well. Cameron had used some of his other experts to sculpt Paige's memories."

"Sculpt?"

"Yes, they used a variety of techniques to alter Paige's memories until she had a bit of fantasy mixed in with the facts."

"But she killed herself as well?"

Jason nodded to Paige.

"So it didn't work," Nathan said.

"I...I guess not." Jason frowned and rubbed his chin.

"No, it did. She didn't kill herself willingly."

"What?" all three of them asked Julie.

Julie looked at Jason and saw the confusion in his eyes.

"So, you still haven't remembered it all."

He shook his head. She reached out and took his hand again.

"Paige, was...well murdered I guess is the best way to say it. It was Cameron. His aim for Jason's project was radically different from what he originally stated it was."

"What was the original aim?" Nathan asked.

"Well, like Jason said, it was ability to clone organs for people who needed transplants, but that didn't work out. The full person cloning though, that really got the government's interest. Think about being able to clone the president if need be. Fear of assassination becomes a thing of the past. What if there was another Einstein? You'd never have to lose his brilliance, you could keep transferring his intellect into a new body when the current one wore out."

"Monstrous," Jason said with a shudder.

"Monstrous? But you were the one doing it," Nathan insisted.

"I was trying to save my daughter...I"

"Don't judge him," Julie said harshly. "Until you've experienced his loss, don't you..."

Nathan held up a hand in surrender. He nodded. He thought about how he felt after Paige had died. He'd have done anything to get her back.

"But that wasn't what this Cameron guy was doing, was it?" Paige asked.