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I hoistedthethe thumb drive with my other hand I shoved it into , hoping that Dr Banks would be too distracted by the hand he could see to wonder what the hand under the desk was doing
"They didn’t say anything," I said I closedat me like… like this was my fault soy looking out for my health, Joyce’s health wouldn’t have been at risk Moer they’d been playing pretend with That their real… that Sally died when she had the accident, and I’irl who took her body as ht before, when I was having a bad night But it just hurt so ht"
My head snapped up without e coer, and raw terror "What did you say?"
"I said, she was right" Dr Banks sat down in the chair that I had abandoned, looking at ravely "Sally, you have to know you are not the person you were before your accident We are each of us the sum total of our experiences We are shaped by our h, and no two people are exactly the same, ever, because no two people experience exactly the same lives Sally Mitchell died when her brain activity ceased Sally Mitchell was born when her brain activity resumed Maybe if the ed, you’d still be her, but they were daht like to pretend you are You’re someone entirely new, free of her sins and successes and ee"
"There’s a chancehoeakof the drums
"And if it does, you’ll have the first Sally’s memories on top of the second Sally’s ain For you, recall would be a forht away--then, all this would have just been a strange gap in the h, and you’ve lived a different enough life, that you would die if she reclaimed herself Would that Sally have loved Dr Kiaze sharpened "Would she have been willing to go through the broken doors at the behest of a wo about" I didn’t have to feign my shock
Dr Banks smiled "Don’t you?"
I gaped at him, not sure what else I could say As I did, I realized that by putting otten access to his computer, but I had done so at the expense of my access to the door Dr Banks was between me and the only exit The eren’t the kind that were intended to be opened Even if I could somehow smash them before he stopped me, all that would do was allow me to plummet to my death more than twenty stories below
"Did you really think that I wasn’t keeping a close eye on you? I’e invest to let you run around willy-nilly withoutThe shower trick was a good one, I’ll grant you that Unfortunately for you, I’ve had that shelter bugged since the day you applied there We got everything Including a few key words that only one person I’ve ever knoould think constituted a cypher" Dr Banks leaned forward in his seat, expression sharpening "I hoped you’d lead us to her You didn’t And so I’ you: where is she, Sally?
"Where is Dr Shanti Cale?"
The nuThere werewith its collective tienetic structure of D syenesis, the little ithout which the private lives of two scientists would never have been up for scrutiny We were a smokescreen, one that I didn’t realize he was intentionally casting until it was too late for et out of the line of fire
Were we lovers? Yes, ere I was married at the time--I’m still married now, as far as I’ht soht, a to promise me the world I would have been a fool to deny him whatever he asked from me
As it turns out, I was a fool anyway, but not quite in the wayto the promises he made eren’t in the bedroom Those may have been the only true words he ever whispered in my ear
--FROM CAN OF WORMS: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SHANTI CALE, PHD AS YET UNPUBLISHED
I always knew that this grand experie at which our only choices were evolve or die Unfortunately, there is no way of predicting which choice we are going to ularity can go
For the sake of ht decision The only probleht for all theoes, I am terribly afraid that half of the people I love are doomed