Excerpted from UPGRADE by Blake Crouch. Copyright © 2022 by Blake Crouch. Excerpted by permission of Ballantine Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.   That night, after dinner, I beat Ava in three games of chess. None of them were even close, and the last one required only twelve moves to checkmate her. “What the actual hell is going on here?” she asked, tipping her king over when she saw the inevitable end. “Have you been going easy on me all this time, Dad?” “No.” I laughed. “How are you suddenly this good?” “What’s going on?” Beth asked from the couch. “Dad just shellacked me for…… ” Ava counted up the losses in her head. “….. the ninth game in a row.” “Impressive,” Beth said. “Impossible,” Ava said, staring at me suspiciously.   Memories were coming back to me, and not just of every book I’d ever read. Random moments of insignificance. Pivotal events that had shaped my life. From a month ago. From a decade ago. From my childhood. It was an eerie sensation. As if someone…