章 33: Chapter 33
She staggered into the kitchen, fumbling her way through the darkness. Somewhere farther off she could hear voices, three different pitches crashing over each other, fighting for decibels. She pushed through the kitchen, emerging into the house's foyer, and found the lights on, blazing. Squinting against them, she traced the shadows of her parents and someone else - another Memory Recoder - that she scarcely recognized but couldn't place.
The third entity, the Memory Recoder, had dark hair and bright, unsettling eyes. He had her mother's arms pinned behind her back and stood opposite her father, his expression wild. Her father had a gun aimed at both of them.
Before Lysandra even had a chance to figure out what they were saying, the sudden blast of a gunshot filled the foyer, sending a single spurt of blood against the paint of the opposite wall.
The room fell silent.
In the end, her mother was the one who slumped to the ground.
Lysandra couldn't even find the breath to scream.
She opened her eyes to see the overhead lights and the dark ceiling of Cale's studio. When she turned her head to one side, she saw a concerned pair of eyes leaning over her. They didn't belong to Cale. Only after a few seconds of examination did Lysandra realize they belonged to his sister Clove.
"Are you awake?" the girl asked, her voice cautious and light.
Lysandra nodded and sat up. "Where's Cale?"
"They took him to the infirmary," Clove answered. "That man shot him in the arm." Lysandra expected her voice to tremble, but it stayed perfectly steady.
"Is he going to be okay?" Lysandra asked.
Clove shrugged.
She took a deep breath and changed the subject. "What about that other man - the one who said he warned Cale about me? What happened to him?"
"He's gone." Clove shrugged again.
Lysandra stood up. "I need to go," she said. "If Cale comes back, tell him I went to see my father."
"Okay," Clove said. She didn't speak again as Lysandra brushed out of the studio.
Her father's cell was the only one occupied among a row of empty rooms. Lysandra stood on the outside, her fists clenched by her sides, her breath coming in unsteady gasps through her clenched teeth. Simon Ferry hardly spared her a glance as he asked, "I assume you want me to tell you about your memories."
"Why did you shoot my mother?" Lysandra demanded.
"You shouldn't know about that," Simon replied, his gaze cast down at the floor, his tone flat.
"It came back to me," Lysandra snapped. "Would you mind explaining yourself?"
"I wasn't aiming for her," Simon responded.
"Really? You couldn't come up with anything better than that," Lysandra accused.
"I don't need to. It's the truth."
"Isn't there anything else you can tell me?"
Her father tipped his head back. "Well, I did promise you I'd tell you something."
"You did."
"So," he began. "Let me start from the beginning."
Lysandra waited.
"I was a Memory Recoder," he said. "I have always been a Memory Recoder. When you were young they considered me a very successful Memory Recoder. And so while I was working I met this man who called himself Rose."
"Morpheus," Lysandra said.
"Yes," her father confirmed. "At first all he wanted was to be able to say he knew me. But as time passed, he began to demand other things from me. Moral rights and wrongs, techniques, and secrets of Memory Recoding. Things I refused to use or couldn't. But he wouldn't back down. So when I told him that I'd never share those things with him, he decided to try another tactic."
He paused. Lysandra didn't say anything.
"He tried to get the information from your mother, Corinna, by making her believe he was in love with her."
"Did she believe him?"
"I don't think she did. He was - is - a very convincing man, but no matter what he did, he always seemed to have some complex about her, some weakness toward her. I think he instead persuaded himself to fall in love with her." Simon glanced back down at the floor.
"So?" Lysandra prompted.
"That's enough for now," he answered.
"No, it's not. Why did you shoot her? What happened between them? Between you? Why was I there?"
"Lysandra," her father snapped, his voice reaching a louder volume. "Now is not the time. You need to let your memory process this information first."
"Fine," Lysandra said. "Then I'll be back. As long as I'm not hunted by some crazy Memory Recoder before I get here."
Despite the threat, her father didn't respond. She turned and stormed out of the block.
She returned to the CA Memory Recoding Clinic when she had finished, but there was still no sign of Cale. She left without saying a word to Clove - a knot had formed in her throat, making it impossible for her to speak.
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