by Sheila Lowe
“I didn’t sell anything.”
His expression was deadpan. “Perhaps it’s a matter of my wording. What did you do with the information?”
“I didn’t do anything. I don’t have any information.”
“Who are you working for?” Nguyen pressed.
“You know I work here, for Simon Lawrie. Why are you asking me this?”
“Ah. I understand that was the story you told Mr. Bagshot, but you and I know it is not true. Don’t we, Ms. Mack?”
Jessica chose to ignore his use of her real name. “You saw me here yesterday. You were in Simon’s office when I brought those scientists in. We talked on the phone last week.”
“Yes, I saw you here, but that does not explain what you were doing here.”
“What’s really going on here, Kevin? Why did those goons break into my apartment twice?”
Surprise flared in his face. “How do you know that?”
“How do I know it? I was there!” Her voice rose with emotion. “What did they do to me that first time? You have to tell me!”
“What do you mean by that, Ms. Mack?”
“You know what I mean. They did something to my mind. I need to know what it was!”
Kevin Nguyen sat up straighter, one brow cocked with interest behind the heavy glasses. “Your mind?”
Jessica jumped out of her chair, choking on emotion. She leaned across his desk, her hands splayed on the blotter. “I don’t know what you sent those men to do to me. All I know is, I woke up on a train with no memory. I know nothing about my life. Why can’t I remember? Tell me what they did to me!”
Nguyen frowned at her, processing what he was hearing. At length, he said, “This is a very interesting story. Why don’t you tell me everything that happened and I’ll see if I can help you.”
“It’s not a story, it’s the truth. I got off the train in Ventura and ran into a neighbor who took me to my apartment. That’s when I found out that my name was Jenna Marcott and I decided to show up at work and see if I could figure out what happened to me because, of course, then I didn’t know anything about your thugs. I found out last Saturday that I also used to be Jessica Mack. Was it a drug? What did they do to me? Why do I have amnesia?”
“This is true about the amnesia?”
“Of course it’s true. Why would I make up something like that?”
“That, Ms. Mack, is an excellent question.”
She could practically see the wheels turning in his head. Was it possible that he didn’t know what had happened to her? Nguyen seemed to ponder what she had told him. At length, he said, “Perhaps you will allow me to show you why I am puzzled about what you’re telling me.”
She followed when he rose and left the office, led her around a corner to a heavy fire door. Unlocking it, he pushed it open and waited for her to pass through.
The environment they entered could not have been more different from the one they had just left.
They were in what appeared to be a reception area, where a petite Filipina nurse in blue scrubs sat behind a desk reading People magazine. She glanced up and nodded a greeting at Kevin Nguyen. Then she caught sight of Jessica and her face went slack with surprise. Her head turned toward a half-closed door across from her desk, then back to Jessica.
“What—how—?”
Quelling her with a stern look, Kevin Nguyen beckoned Jessica to follow him into the room that had been the focus of the nurse’s startled glance.
In the dimly lit room, vital signs blipped silently on a digital monitor next to a hospital bed that was angled toward the door. Nguyen went and stood next to the bedside. He turned to Jessica, and like Vanna White revealing a vowel, he spread his hand and said, “Allow me to introduce you to Jenna Marcott.”
t w e n t y - s e v e n
She might have been looking in a mirror.
Is Project 42 a cloning experiment?
Jessica shook her head, denying what her eyes were telling her. “I don’t understand. Why does she look so much like me?”
“You tell me,” Kevin Nguyen said smugly.
Her mind blanked. Without thinking, she pushed past Nguyen and ran from the room, past the nursing station, chased by Nguyen’s shouts. “Hey! Hey! Stop her!”
She shouldered her way through a door marked “exit”—not the one she had entered with the security chief—and ran smack into Bagshot. His massive hand closed around her wrist and with a vicious jerk twisted her arm behind her, bending her almost double.
“Lemme go, you bastard!”
“Bring her back here.” Nguyen’s terse command came from the door. Bagshot hustled Jessica back inside the medical suite.
“I think—” Bagshot began, but Nguyen cut him off. “Don’t think. That’s not what you’re paid for. Nurse Anna—”
Jessica’s mind was reeling. She clapped her hands over her ears against the buzzing, but the wasps droned louder than ever.
Nguyen had identified the young woman in the bed as Jenna Marcott. But how could she be? I’m Jenna.
No, you’re Jessica.
I’m both. Aren’t I?
Distracted by the soft swish of scrubs and a gentle hand on her arm, Jessica let herself to be helped into one of the visitor chairs. The nurse’s voice said, “Put your head down, miss,” and pressed against her neck until her face was almost between her knees. It felt like she’d been living half her life in this position.
“What are you running from, Ms. Mack?” Nguyen questioned. “Did you think we wouldn’t figure it out?”
Jessica turned her head and looked up at him. A wave of vertigo made her regret it. “Figure what out?”
“That you and Ms. Marcott were working together.”
“Are you crazy? I’m not working with anyone. I’m Jenna Marcott.”
“It’s clear to me that you are not.”
“I don’t understand what’s happening. Why does that girl look so much like me?”
“‘That girl’ is Jenna Marcott,” Nguyen repeated. “You still say you don’t know her? I let you go on pretending to be her for a few days so I could keep an eye you, but I admit, I’m still not sure of your game. So, now it’s time to let me in on your secret.”
“I told you, I have amnesia,” Jessica repeated. “If I have any secrets, I don’t frigging remember them!”
Nguyen turned to the nurse, who was regarding the scene as it unfolded like a play, her dark eyes alight with interest. “Nurse Anna, please come.” To Bagshot he said, “Escort Ms. Mack.”
They all trooped back into the hospital room where the patient, oblivious to the drama unfolding around her, slept on. Blonde hair fanned out around a pale oval face that was a virtual duplicate of Jessica’s. The one conspicuous difference was their hair length.
“Time for Ms. Marcott to wake up,” Nguyen said.
The nurse’s eyes boomeranged from Jessica to the young woman in the bed and back again. “But Dr. Kapur—”
“Is Dr. Kapur your employer, Nurse Anna?”
“No, sir, but...”
“Then do as you’re told. Do it now.”
To the left of the bed was an IV drip pole. Jessica could make out the word “propofol,” printed on the label. The name sounded vaguely familiar until she remembered it was one of the drugs administered to the pop star Michael Jackson prior to his death. Media reports had described it as a drug used by anesthesiologists. The nurse edged around the security chief and reached up to turn off the valve on the bag.
“Who is she?” Jessica whispered again, unable to stop staring at the young woman Nguyen had identified as Jenna Marcott. “Why is she here?”
“Ms Marcott is participating in a research experiment requiring in-patient care. The big question is, why are you here?”
The nurse glanced over at him, her expression discreetly neutral while her stiff body language radiated disapproval. Silent, she stood in a protective position next to the head of the bed where the patient had begun to stir.
&nb
sp; “What kind of experiment?” Jessica pressed.
“That will be a subject for later discussion. I admit I’m curious about the remarkable resemblance between the two of you. Although, seeing you standing next to her, I can detect some differences,” Nguyen said. “If you weren’t working with her, what were you doing posing as Ms. Marcott?”
“I wasn’t posing. I told you. I thought that’s who I was. Who I am. I—I don’t understand what’s happening.”
The patient’s eyelids fluttered. Her lips moved, but the sounds that emerged were nonsense, words jumbled together.
“Ms. Marcott?” Nguyen said loudly. The patient moved her head, mumbled something indistinct again, and gave a deep sigh.
“Mr. Nguyen, please give her some time to wake up,” the nurse protested. “The sedation will make her groggy.”
“How long?” Nguyen asked.
“About thirty minutes, maybe more.”
Images were spiraling through Jessica’s head like tumbleweeds: her flight from the Escondido apartment. The Ariel mermaid on her desk at work, the Belle figurine Farley had broken, the two names in the contacts lists on the cell phones. The different voices on the two cell phone greetings, one bright and sunny, the other half-dead. Now she understood why her voice on the one was so listless. It was after the accident....
“Jess?”
The weak voice from the bed snapped her back. “I’m here, Belle.” Jessica’s response had been automatic. Then she realized what she had said.
“Ah!” Nguyen said triumphantly. “You do know each other.”
“No,” Jessica said, moving further into Jenna’s line of sight.
“What—?” Jenna Marcott’s eyelids opened halfway and she yawned languidly. “Water.”
Nurse Anna patted her hand. “I’ll get you some.” She went into the bathroom and returned with a wet washcloth. Pushing past the security chief, she pressed it to her patient’s chapped lips.
“She won’t be able to drink just yet,” she explained to Jessica, paying no attention to Nguyen. “She’ll have to wait a little while.”
Jenna licked the drops on her lips. “Wha’ happ’n?” her words were slurred as if she were drunk, her thoughts mixing together. “Where’m I here?”
“You’re in the medical suite at BioNeutronics,” Kevin Nguyen said. “You’ve been asleep.”
“Why’m—Where’d you say?”
Even the timbre of their voices was similar.
“Don’t you remember?” said Nguyen. “You volunteered to participate in a research experiment.”
A look of puzzlement passed over Jenna Marcott’s face. She closed her eyes and turned onto her side. “Lemme sleep.”
The nurse reached over to fix the hospital gown so that it covered Jenna’s naked back. She said, “It’s going to take a little while for her to wake up properly. You should wait outside. I need to remove the feeding tube and the catheter and get her ready for you. I cannot do that while you are in here, Mr. Nguyen.”
“Feeding tube?” Jessica repeated. “How long has she been here?”
“I think you can figure out the answer to that,” Nguyen said, leading her out into the outer office area.
Jessica shook her head, trying to clear her head of growing bewilderment. “You’re telling me she’s Jenna Marcott, and I’m not. You’re implying she’s been here at least since I showed up at BioNeutronics.”
Project 42. This has something to do with Project 42.
“Does Simon know?”
Kevin Nguyen shook his head. “Dr. Lawrie is unaware of Ms. Marcott’s participation in the experiment. He believes and accepts that you are his assistant and his—well, let’s just leave it at that. Obviously, you have him duped.”
So, Simon Lawrie was not Jessica’s lover after all. That explained why she felt nothing for him. Yet, the door to her memory was still as locked as the dark room where she had been held captive.
“I am at least Jessica Mack, aren’t I?” pressed Jessica. “Why can’t I remember?”
Why did I call her Belle?
Nguyen’s thin lips compressed into an even tighter line. “That is something I hope Jenna will be able to help us unravel.”
The nurse had turned up the lights and raised the back of the bed. It was close to an hour later and Jenna Marcott was sitting on top of the sheets, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt very much like the ones Jessica was wearing. She looked more alert. Her face, still ghastly pale, lit up when they entered.
“Jess!” she exclaimed. “I thought I was dreaming you, but you’re real! What are you doing here?”
Jessica hung back, unsure how to respond to this stranger who was her mirror image.
“You appear to know Ms. Mack,” said Kevin Nguyen.
Jenna Marcott frowned. “Of course I know her. She’s my twin.”
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My twin.
Jenna Marcott’s words acted like tumblers of a lock clicking into place. The door to Jessica’s memory cracked open an inch. When she moved into the light Jenna’s mouth dropped open. “Jess—your face—Omigod, what happened to you?”
“I—I—” Jessica’s voice didn’t want to work. Her mind was jumping with questions.
Jenna’s eyes shifted to Kevin Nguyen. “Will somebody please tell me what’s happening?”
“I have amnesia,” Jessica blurted, talking fast. “I met a guy named Zach downtown and he thought I was you. He took me to your apartment and when I saw the gnome I knew there would be a key and when I got inside I found a purse with ID that looked like me, so I thought—and now you’re saying—”
Jenna put up her hands, palms out. “Wait! Stop. Are you saying that right now you don’t know who I am?”
Why didn’t she sound surprised? Jessica bowed her head, shame burning her face. How could she not remember her own twin sister? “I’m sorry, no.”
Jenna reached out a hand to her, but she was still a stranger and Jessica was none too sure how she felt about being so close to someone she didn’t recognize but who looked exactly like her.
“You were in a car accident a few months ago,” Jenna began. “You had a head injury.”
Jessica interrupted. “I know about that part. I mean, I don’t exactly remember it, but I know about it. And I know about—about my—” Emotion welled up in her throat and choked off the words.
“Ah, Jess, we don’t have to talk about that right now.” Jenna reached out her hands again. This time, Jessica took them and felt an electric current pass between them, binding them in some primal way.
“Since you had the accident, you’ve had little spells of forgetting, just...certain things.” Jenna glanced at Kevin Nguyen, who was closely following their exchange. “Everything’s so fuzzy. What am I doing here?”
“You’ve been here for more than a week,” Jessica said.
Her scrunched in confusion, Jenna tried to understand. “What? A week? That can’t be right. How—?”
Jessica turned on Nguyen, who was observing them both. “You’re the one behind all this. Tell her!”
“As I’ve already explained to you, Ms. Marcott volunteered to be an experimental subject in a research study. It’s just the residual effects of the sedation. She’ll remember later.”
“What kind of research?”
“If you want to know about our experiments, you will need to see Dr. Polzin.”
Another tumbler fell into place and the door cracked a little wider. “The first time your men broke in, it was Jenna they kidnapped, not me. But I saw it—”
A sob caught in her throat as the hazy memory from her dreams came into the sudden, sharp focus of déjà vu. Jessica knew why she had sought refuge in amnesia. Even though most of her past was still locked in a black box and stowed in the far reaches of her mind, she knew it with absolute certainty. “I saw it on the webcam! I thought they killed you, Belle.”
On the heels of her child’s death and her own head injury, the belief that her t
win had been murdered by Nguyen’s thugs was more than she could bear. She had shut down emotionally and ended up on the Amtrak Surfliner to Ventura, coming to her sister’s side.
“We were talking and you went to get a glass of wine,” Jenna said, filling in one more of the gaps. Her eyes widened in remembered fear. “These men came into my apartment while I was waiting for you to come back. One of them grabbed me from behind.”
“You slammed your head back,” Jessica said, recalling the images she had summoned under the pressure of Bagshot’s questioning.
“I think I broke his nose.”
“All I could see was the blood. I thought it was yours.”
Jenna squeezed her hand tight. “I don’t remember how I got here.”
Jessica glared at Nguyen. “This is what you call ‘volunteer’ participation?”
He shrugged. “Ms. Marcott signed a consent form. She must have forgotten we were sending someone to pick her up.”
“Oh for Christ’s sake.” Jessica wanted to punch him again. “Seriously?”
Jenna slumped back against the pillows, clearly exhausted by the exchange. “You’re lying, Kevin,” she said faintly. “You did this because I was going to blow the whistle on Project 42.”
“You have quite an imagination, Jenna,” Nguyen said in a patronizing tone. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re referring to.”
“What they’re doing isn’t right and you aren’t going to shut me up.”
Nguyen made a dismissive sound. “Jenna, Jenna. You’ve been watching too many Forensic Files shows on TV.”
Jessica held her tongue. Her sister was unaware that the flash drive on which she had gathered what she believed to be incriminating files was sitting under a pile of rotting noodles on her kitchen counter, a fact she was not going to reveal to Nguyen.
“If anything happens to me—us—” Jenna said.
“Why would anything happen to you?”