I survey the server room, which is filled with the most high-tech computers, at least fifteen monitors, and other hardware I don’t recognize.

Maude starts typing furiously on an elaborate keyboard. “If we can find a way to reset the Duplicates, back to their original state, the ones at home will abandon their roles.”

Reset the Duplicates? Reset them so that they don’t remember anything about their lives? So I don’t remember anything about my life? The thought is so terrifying I feel the ground begin to spin beneath me.

Maude, oblivious to how this would affect me, goes on. “Gravelle’s brain implants—we’ll have to shut those down, make sure they stop transmitting…from fighting us.”

“Can you really do all that?” I ask weakly. If I felt thrown off course by the idea of being a Duplicate, I now feel shaken to my very core. Dizzy, like if I don’t grab hold of something solid, I might evaporate.

And yet, I understand why Maude is suggesting this, why it needs to happen.

Maude moves through a series of windows on the screen. I try to banish the pounding in my heart, focusing on the monitor. I can’t make sense of what she’s doing, but I understand the gist—she’s hacking the system. “I’ve already gotten into the server that controls all thought management. I’m two steps away from hitting a central reboot. Holy cow!” she says suddenly, sitting up in her chair like she’s being branded with a hot poker.

“What?” Levi asks. “What’s wrong?”

Maude’s shaking her head like she doesn’t believe what she’s seeing in the programming. “It’s a fail-safe,” she whispers. “Built into the code. If we reset the Duplicates, wiping their minds clean—”

“Which we have to do if we want to guarantee that the originals get their lives back,” I remind her, my voice not revealing how utterly bereft I feel inside. I know it’s what we have to do. But I’m going to lose my entire identity. My past, my present, and my future. I’ll have nothing—no memories, no life. It’s the most horrifying thing I can imagine, and I try to hide the tears that well in my eyes.

“If we go ahead with the reset,” Maude keeps talking, completely unaware that I’m breaking inside, “this entire island explodes. Castor too.”

I tear my mind away from my own fears long enough to process what Maude’s just told us. “Wait. What are you saying? A bomb will detonate? More than one bomb?”