Susan wheeled me out of the pneumatic door to an antiseptic-white, tiled outer corridor. We passed a dozen similar doors, each chamber’s electronic keypad marked by either a green or flashing red light. I wondered who else they had hooked up to their insidious machines, whose memories they were probing.

At the end of the hall were three elevators. Susan swiped the magnetic strip on her identification card and pressed the UP button. The middle car arrived and she backed me inside.

We were on the twenty-third floor. The thirty-three elevator buttons were arranged in ascending order to reflect the subterranean location of our facility, the top floor listed as G.

She pushed SEVENTEEN. “Zach, we’re being watched. Don’t react—I know you can hear my thoughts. I want you to tell me you’d prefer to take a hot bath to get your circulation going before you eat something.”

My pulse raced as I heard her words whispered into my consciousness. “Susan, if it’s okay with you, I’d like to take a hot bath to get my circulation going before I eat something.”

“Good idea. I’ll take you to your quarters.” She pushed FIVE.

The elevator passed the seventeenth floor and stopped on the fifth.

The doors opened and Susan wheeled me out to a seemingly endless corridor that felt more like a dormitory than a secured floor. Corkboards spaced at intervals along the walls held flyers advertising the week’s schedule of social events. We passed a dozen rooms, a lounge, and a weight room before we reached Suite 514.

Susan indicated the keypad, and I pressed my thumb to it, unbolting the door.

The room brightened as we entered, revealing a small living room that looked out onto a dazzling view of a Mediterranean beach and an azure sea. The balcony door was open, venting the air-conditioned apartment with warm gusts of briny air. I heard the ocean washing along the shoreline and seagulls cawing—and none of it was real.

Susan shut the door of the video-screen balcony, extinguishing the view.

“Zach, keep all verbal communication to small talk. Once we’re in the bathtub, I’ll answer all of your questions.”

I caught myself nodding. “Uh, nice place.”

“Let’s get you into a hot bath.”

I stood and leaned on her shoulder as she led me into her bedroom.

A queen-size bed faced bay windows that were part of the same holographic system as the balcony. There was a sound system and a flat-screen television. A wall of mirrors concealed a closet.

I stripped out of my surgical greens while Susan ran the bath water. My arms were covered in bruises from multiple I.V.s. My leg muscles had atrophied. Remembering the weight room, I decided a workout would follow my meal, if only to regain some strength to escape.