43 pages 1 hour read

Blake Crouch

Recursion

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

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Book 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Book 4

Chapter Summary: “HELENA - November 15, 2018-April 16, 2019”

Two guards, Alonzo and Jessica hold Helena captive in a New York apartment. Rajesh visits. He explains that Barry is dead, and DARPA is detaining Helena. He offers Helena employment. She refuses.

Days later, Jessica drives Helena to meet DARPA employee John Shaw, who has been reconstructing the chair. Raj is in the DARPA lab, along with Timoney Rodriguez, a young soldier. John sends Timoney into a memory.

After Timoney flatlines, Helena discovers that a recent school shooting has become a dead memory. In this timeline, the shooter was immediately killed by an anonymous vigilante.

Despite her objections, Helena begins working with DARPA. The team is joined by Steve Crowder, a young Navy SEAL, and Albert Kinney, a systems theorist. They agree to cap memories at five days old and vote on every assignment. They use the chair to stop a child killer, a college shooting, and a terrorist attack.

John is pressured to disclose their work. Soon, they receive a military-related mandated assignment from 76 days ago. The memories vanishing and reappearing disorients the public. The team receives more military assignments.

On her way to DARPA one day, Helena is caught in a bombing and killed. She wakes up in a new timeline in her apartment.