between the two of us. It would have been comical if the moment hadn’t been so tense.
“You know about—?” Dr. Kapoor whispered, but she didn’t finish. Didn’t want to be the first to say it outright, I guess, in case she was wrong.
“The girl that looks like me,” I said.
“Then it is true,” Liam said. He sounded sick. “You’re . . . you’re one of them.”
Dr. Kapoor looked baffled. “Don’t be absurd. Of course I’m not—no.” Outside, a car door slammed. She glanced behind her, then fixed me with that intense glare. “You should leave here. It was a mistake letting you come. I thought . . . But it was a mistake.”
I stepped toward her. “I need to know what happened. What’s happening here.”
“No, you do not, Ms. Novak,” Dr. Kapoor said. She knew who I was. She’d known all along. “Trust me. Those answers aren’t worth the price that comes with them.”
“What price? What is this place? What are those things? The girl who looks like me, is she—”
Dr. Kapoor made a harsh, almost amused sound in the back of her throat. Her voice was pitiless. “The girl who looks like you. Or is it the other way around?”
VIDEO EVIDENCE
Recorded by Joy Novak
AUGUST 14, 2003, TIME UNKNOWN
The second Sophia stands trembling in the mist, her arms wrapped around herself. Novak makes a sound, not quite a word, a soft “ah” repeated.
HARDCASTLE: Joy, get away from that thing.
SOPHIA: Mama? Who is she?
SOPHIA [2]: Mama, who’s that girl? Why does she look like me? Mama, I’m cold.
NOVAK: Right. Okay. Okay.
She steps forward and lifts the mud-stained Sophia into her arms. She begins walking back toward the bunker, limping heavily.
BAKER: Don’t let that thing in here!
NOVAK: She’s just a child.
HARDCASTLE: That thing that attacked us looked just like Carolyn.
CARREAU: She weighs twelve kilos. I think we can defend ourselves.
HARDCASTLE: No. Joy, think about your daughter.
NOVAK: I am. I am bringing her in out of the cold, where it’s safe.
HARDCASTLE: What—
KAPOOR: She got lost, Will. None of us was with her. She could have— We don’t know which one is real.
BAKER: Oh, shit.
NOVAK: Move out of my way, Will.
BAKER: No. No way. We can’t—
Carreau shoulders past Hardcastle, opening enough of a gap for Novak to squeeze through. She walks gingerly to the other end of the hall and sets the second Sophia down near the wall.
NOVAK: Stay there, sweetie.
She sets the camera down on a chair that has been left in the hallway. She gives it a short, steady look, and adjusts it fractionally so that it is trained on the people in the hall.
CARREAU: Get that door closed.
BAKER: You want to shut it in with us?
NOVAK: Stop saying “it.”
Sophia—the first Sophia—has backed up against the wall, staring at her double wide-eyed. The new Sophia tugs on Novak’s sleeve.
SOPHIA [2]: Mama, who is that?
NOVAK: That’s—you’re—
Baker suddenly lunges for Sophia. She grabs the girl by the arm, shakes her.
BAKER: Which one are you? Which one?
She seizes the girl’s chin as Novak yells and lunges forward. Sophia shrieks and struggles. Novak cries out in pain and her leg gives out, spilling her onto the concrete floor. Carreau grabs Baker’s arm, trying to pry her free, but she’s still shaking the little girl, yelling.
BAKER: Which—which—little crawling thing, little sneak, little thief, little stray.
She twists Sophia’s arm. Sophia howls in pain.
KAPOOR: Caro!
BAKER: We have to know!
Sophia jerks free of her grip and pelts to her mother, who gathers her close and whispers to her. The girl retreats farther, joining the second Sophia. The girls whisper.
SOPHIA [2]: Who are you?
SOPHIA: I’m Sophie.
SOPHIA [2]: I’m Sophie.
SOPHIA: Oh. Me too.
Hardcastle has his hands raised, palms out, separating Novak and Baker.
HARDCASTLE: We can’t lose our heads here. Calm down, Carolyn.
BAKER: That other me attacked us. That thing is going to do the same.
KAPOOR: Attacked us?
NOVAK: Caro . . .
BAKER: We saw her. We saw her out there and she wasn’t dead. You didn’t manage to kill her, Will, but that’s okay, Joy took care of it for you.
She laughs hysterically.
SOPHIA [2]: I’m scared.
SOPHIA: Me too.
Sophia holds out her hand. Her double takes it.
CARREAU: I thought you said you went—uh. To the . . .
He clears his throat, a rather liquid sound.
CARREAU: You said you went toward the beach.
KAPOOR: We did.
HARDCASTLE: That’s what we were going to do.
KAPOOR: That’s what we did.
NOVAK: You still haven’t explained where you got the gun.
HARDCASTLE: I don’t know. I don’t remember. We were down by the beach and we saw Carolyn. She attacked us.