Duplicate Minds

Twenty-Seven

Although he was sitting on the bed, Rajeev felt like he was floating. Everything about this encounter felt like a dream. After awakening in his new body, seeing his son as a grown man had been a shock. But going through the same sensation all over again was more than a shock. It was unreal.

Ted nodded at Rajeev. "I'm going to give you and your son some privacy," he said. "I'll be right outside the door serving as lookout."

"Thanks, Ted."

Rajeev turned his attention back to Dev, who was apparently finding the situation surreal as well.

"That's really you in there, dad?" He sat on the edge of the bed, his torso turned slightly to face his father, who was sitting beside him. His brow was furrowed in a mix of concern and fascination.

"Kind of. A very close copy."

"Of course. I designed the technology that created the copy."

"I know. But I'm more interested in knowing why there are two of you walking around."

Dev frowned, suddenly angry. "There's only one of me. That other son of a bitch is an imposter."

"But how? He looks exactly like you."

"I was naive." He looked away, staring at the wall as if taking in the sight of something in the nonexistent distance. "About two years ago, Greg Maltek called me and demanded a face-to-face meeting. He said he wanted to declare a temporary truce to discuss a possible collaboration. I was skeptical. I had—and still have—grave concerns about the ethics of Maltek's technology. How does he produce the bodies? I don't see how he could do what he does without human cloning, and I don't believe the technology exists to clone a human being without a consciousness—a soul. That means he must be erasing a human consciousness to create 'blank' bodies that he can sell. He's a murderer. Or so I suspected."

Rajeev nodded. "I had similar concerns."

"Maltek has always been secretive about his technology, and one of the reasons I agreed to meet with him was because I thought I could persuade him to open up about it. He insisted on meeting at the Fresh Meat headquarters, and I agreed to do so." Dev paused, shaking his head. His posture belied the hopelessness and regret eating him alive from the inside out. "There was no meeting. Not even the pretension of one. I'd brought along security, of course, but as a courtesy to Greg, I asked them to wait outside. I stepped into Maltek's office alone. I was such an idiot. As soon as the door closed, Maltek injected me with something and I was out instantly. When I awoke, I was exactly where we are now—in this room."

"But to what end?"

"I didn't know at first. I thought maybe he'd just kidnapped me in hopes that my absence would cause my company to fall apart without me. But that didn't make sense. There are other people in the company who can run things without me. I wasn't quite sure what Maltek was up to, but I knew it couldn't be good. An orderly visited me three times daily to bring me a hot meal, change the sheets on the bed and make sure I hadn't found a way to kill myself. They'd provided me with a tablet preloaded with movies, music, and books, but no internet access and thus, no ability to contact the outside world. I was a prisoner and I had no idea why.

"Things went on like this for months. I couldn't tell you how many; time had begun to lose all meaning for me. But one day I received a visitor who was not part of the regular rotation of orderlies I'd become accustomed to. The visitor was me. At first I thought I must have gone insane from the months of solitary confinement. The man who walked through the door was my exact twin. It was like looking into a mirror. But it soon became apparent that I wasn't crazy. The 'other me' was none other than Gregory Maltek."