Agent X

xx| 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙵𝚘𝚞𝚛 |xx

Eighteen years. That's how long I'd been hidden from the world, stored in my own private wing in the IIA Headquarters. My entire existence had to be kept silent. The Director called me the Agency's secret weapon. In case of emergency, I could be used as a 'hail mary' to save the day. Secrecy had and always would be of the utmost importance.

Thus, I was cooped up on the top level of the IIA headquarters, the one area that nobody was allowed to enter, not even Agent X herself. It was reserved for the U.L, a few trustworthy guards, two scientists, and me.

I had everything I needed in my corner of the agency. Behind a perpetually locked door, there was a spacious living room that opened into a kitchen on the north side. Past the kitchen was a balcony enclosed by a one-way window, enabling me to look out over Washington D.C. Three doors were on the left side of the room. One led to my bedroom, the other a training area. The final door led to the laboratory, the place I was created. Two scientists, Professor Allen Endals and Jess Nyryn, had conducted a series of top secret experiments that ultimately led to my birth. For security reasons, they were responsible for taking care of me, as well as performing monthly checkups on me and the real Xara.

And that's it. That's all I needed. For eighteen years, I spent my life in a grand total of five rooms.

It had been a normal morning for me on the twentieth day of June. I had eaten a typical breakfast of sweet potato, chicken, kale, and avocado, a concoction that the real Xara often ate in order to maintain her physique. The U.L. tried their best to ensure that I ate the same foods as my predecessor. They said that it would help me be more like her. I always found it kind of funny. After all, I was already a clone. How much closer to the real Xara could they get? And yet, it was like they wanted me to physically become Xara.

So that's who I was. I was Xara, Agent X.2. That's what they called me, at least. I figured out their game years ago from a psychology book. Calling me 'Xara' was a way to convince me that I really was the star agent, which would ensure that I behaved, thought, and lived like her.

Naturally, since I wasn't on active duty, I had a lot more time on my hands. Which meant that I had time to train, study, and learn more than the original Agent X ever did.

After breakfast at six in the morning, I would spend about two hours watching old news reels or listening to recordings. From eight to ten in the morning, I went through a rigorous workout with Professor Nyryn. After that, I was instructed to listen to more recordings in order to get my heartrate down. Once I had eaten lunch, I usually spent the afternoon reading informational books, studying maps and diagrams, or learning about previous IIA missions.

Essentially, I was being disciplined to be the smartest and strongest person that ever existed. The directors believed that I could be even greater than the current Agent X. I had all the odds in my favor. I was younger and had more time to learn. The only advantage that the real Xara had over me was experience in spy work.

But even her experience could be transferred to me. With groundbreaking scientific technology created in our laboratories, the agency could upload files of Xara's brain into my own. That way, everything that Xara knew and remembered could be preserved, handed down so to speak. I knew everything that she knew, could recall any experience she'd had. And yet, the two of us would never be identical.

This copy of Agent X's memories and thoughts was uploaded into my brain every month, right after the real Xara was required to have health inspections with Professor Nyryn. In this checkup, the professor would discreetly hook up Xara's brain to a computer and download a copy of her brain. Then, they would transfer all of the data to me. Over the years, I had come to recognize people outside of my isolated world. Through her memories, I had not only gotten to know other people, I came to understand what Xara thought of those people. I understood how she processed information and reacted. I was being conditioned to think like my predecessor.