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“
I do not understand. You just explained to me that you do not replicate human beings, so it would be hard for you to profit from my DNA. Moreover, as people back there suppose me dead, now my genetic profile is of no value at all.”

“
Yes and no. Be prepared for the most surprising part of this and then judge for yourself. Indeed, here replication is strictly forbidden and not tolerated under any pretext, including the security of our society, so we need your DNA as you hold it at this time; this is, we need you to carry out a single mission as an agent to our service. This takes care of your first doubt. The real surprise is the one you are about to get. You have been replicated and reinstated in your position. The myth of infallibility that is the dogma of primordial faith of your society has called for this. As your leader cannot go wrong, he had to get a new fellow to take your place and cover his mistake. Not even your wife is aware of this. Impersonation through replicas reprogrammed after a failure is a common routine within all executive levels of corporations. In the eyes of everyone else, you keep living the life that you always have lived.”

As
warned, such revelation led him to a state of stupor that made his jaw loose and his mouth half open while his eyes had turn round. It took him a few seconds to recompose and be able to speak again:

“Must
I return to the place from where I just got away?” he asked shyly.

“Indeed
, one way or another. At this time our specialists are designing a mission whose scope we will let you know at the time. Basically, we need you to go to work at your old job for another day. We will provide you the means to get there and return, and our network of agents will provide the necessary support to ensure the success of your trip. The risks you will be taking are familiar to you. You should not have trouble to adjust as you will be in your natural environment. You have to understand that this opportunity is unique and we aim to get from it as much as possible. We just have to hear your answer. Will you earn your new life rendering us this little service?”

The
ironic expression on his face framed his answer:

“
As I see it now, either I put at serious risk my life or I lose it immediately. You do not leave me many options. I will cooperate with you.”

“Great
! I was counting on common sense to bring you on our side. From this point you have become a recruit. You will easily understand why you qualify as special. Tomorrow we will introduce you to the officer in charge of the mission. You should not make any comment to unauthorized personnel about what has been discussed in this office this afternoon. From this point you have become one of us. Welcome aboard.”

Minutes later
he was walking slowly the path back to his room, trying to assimilate this recent turn of his life. The mere idea of returning to the place he had fled taking so many risks and suffering was causing him severe discomfort; however, he knew he was on their hands. He hadn’t a better choice.

The price
to pay for his freedom was becoming higher every time. The dangers that awaited him would be huge. But what really kept him restless at the time was to know that he once more would be close to Lucy, but only to almost immediately leave her again. The thought was unbearable. For the first time since his escape he would spend the whole night awake and his tormented thoughts would not let him sleep even for a while.

It wasn’t dawn yet when a messenger reached his door to deliver an instructive sheet, properly wrapped and sealed in an envelope. With this he was being informed about his new routine from that day on. After turning on the light he received the delivery in hand without a word. Once alone he tore the envelope at one end and its content got before his reddish eyes. He carefully read the information until being sure to have understood, then stood up and headed for the shower. Having become a recruit, starting this morning he had to take the basic training course for agents of the intelligence service, which would absorb all of his time, leaving him only a few hours to sleep for the next 30 consecutive days.

At least this would keep
his mind busy and his body tired. Physical training sessions would alternate with study throughout the entire process, leaving little or no room for the thoughts that had stolen his sleep last night.

When
he exited the residence, recruits transportation to the training camp was waiting already. Some of them were lining up to ride in the back of the truck, where four benches would accommodate them during the trip. The driver checked in a list as each passenger boarded the vehicle. His brand new uniform might let him go unnoticed among the group if only it weren’t that his age exceeded by far that of any of his companions.

Indeed
, this was a group of men and women hardly above 25 years of age, which was causing him some apprehension. It would not be easy to him keeping up with the pace they would set in fitness sessions. Still, he thought that probably he was the only one in the group who had guaranteed to pass the course regardless of his performance. After all, his value to the organization lay in factors very different from those of his companions. The best to do would be to take from the experiences to come as much as possible without worrying about anything else.

During
the more than two hours journey the discretion recommendation received by all on board became obvious. The general rule was silence, which on the other hand was almost unavoidable due to the difficulty to strike up a conversation amid the continuous noise of the canvas canopy, which didn’t stop to shake under the wind.

The cool morning air
rushing between the passengers forced them to keep their hands inside the pockets of their jackets and their faces looking back to prevent numbing from the cold relentless wind. The hum of the tires as they rolled on the pavement completed the collection of sounds, which along with the movement yielded a kind of hypnotic effect that made time go unnoticed.

The truck
slowed down with a jolt to cross the large gate that had opened wide. They were arriving to a training camp, which rather resembled a huge military camp.

The buildings inside were scattered. It was easy to guess that
the facility had been designed with elements that could be easily moved. Security policies of the Bureau of Intelligence stated it so.

On the large
esplanade around which the barracks lined, recruits swarmed divided into groups dedicated to a variety of activities. They all were dressed in the same way that those who were arriving. The noisy pounding of boots against the gravel was only superseded by the sound of the orders whistles.

The truck stopped at o
ne end of the field to deliver its human cargo. Upon setting foot on the ground each of the newcomers went to the esplanade to form at attention in a line, the first of them looking already how the feet of those who followed slid on the loose surface, and all of them breathing the dust that had arisen in a thick cloud.

The oldest of the recruits
was taking pains to suppress his discontent. He had been used for a long time to occupy important positions. The idea of being surrounded by so many young people who would not hesitate to blindly obey the orders of their superiors disgusted him. After all, in spite of having the looks of a man entering his forties, his real age was 83. His mind could not ignore this fact.

An urge to rebel
seized him, forcing him to dip into his well-developed ability to control his reactions in order discipline himself. He was in a situation where he had had to give up his free will and submit to that of his recently imposed superiors.

Once
everybody was in line, the officer in charge of this new group passed the recruits in review. He did not make any sound while his eyes ran up and down, and he moved his head from side to side in a gesture of disapproval. When he came up to the dissident he looked him straight in the eyes; then his gaze pointed towards two men dressed in white coats that were waiting at a short distance. It was to them he had to report.

He understood this order at once
. Unable to hide the smile, he went towards them. He thought that after all he would receive preferential treatment. He would probably get rid of the hideous military training the others were condemned to. This, by itself, was giving him a sense of importance.

While
walking the stretch between him and his personal welcome committee, he carefully observed the two men waiting for him.

The first
one wore a gray beard, long and unkempt, that circled his round wrinkled face. His expression was smooth and the line of his mouth was as relaxed as his gaze, which altogether gave him a good-natured look that gave off a sense of confidence. The second one, much younger, kept a serious but easy attitude as the light of the morning sun made his shaved head shine.

As soon as he
stopped in front of them the old man greeted him amiably while shaking his hand in a familiar way:

“
Welcome! I am Professor Kilgo. With me is Professor Naim. You need not to introduce yourself. In recent days my colleague and I have plunged in as much information there is available about you, to the point that now we feel we have known you since long ago. Over the next days the three of us will work on your subconscious. At some point you will be wishing to be sweating in the dust with the other recruits instead of having fallen under our care; however, it is essential that we get to your deepest fears to ensure that you face your mission with the best odds of success. Your life may depend on this. Now we will escort you to the room you have been assigned. As soon as you get settled you must come back to us to get started. We have little time. We must make the most out of it.”

Now t
he smile he had during his short walk had been replaced by an expression of amazement. He had not guessed it would be a training of this nature, if the program just explained could be called so. It was taking him some time to recompose and be able to respond, and meantime the professors had begun to laugh.

“I’
ve been taken by surprise,” he said finally. “I was guessing I would be instructed in the details of the mission, maybe in the names of my contacts or the escape routes. I never expected to be subjected to mental profile assessment.”

“And you will not.
In the coming days we will not be helped with any sophisticated apparatus. We will just guide you through a journey in which it will be you who pose the questions and then give the answers. We know that in these days where you come from there is not such a therapy; however, it is only from the depths of yourself where the conviction that you are acting rightfully may arise, as well as the self-assurance that you will need to succeed. The challenges that you will face during your upcoming adventure may be more demanding than you suppose.”

The more
he heard the most was his amazement. He was sensing that the days to come would have little of pleasant; however, he had to continue to the end, such had been his choice. He finally answered:

“I am in your hands,
I hope for the best.”

The laughter of the enigmatic professors
started again, and this time it would go on until they had left him in his room.

A
pounding on the door made him sit up. He just had rested for a few minutes, lying on the hard bed, when Professor Naim’s knuckles beating on the wood brought him back to reality. He was still suffering the effects of the anxiety access that had begun when they left him in his accommodation. As he opened the door the visitor let his voice be heard:

“
How do you like your new lodging? You are lucky. You were granted the best you can get in this place. The rest of the recruits share 24-bed barracks.”

“
After thinking over our recent conversation I wonder if I’d rather be with them.”

“
Come on! Do not worry. It’s no big deal. My colleague enjoys a little drama. The fact is that you will be working as many hours a day as any of them, except that we will make you sweat less and think more, and at the end of the day you will be equally tired.”

“
I don’t know why I find it hard to believe you, however, I have no choice but to submit to you; so, the sooner the better.”

“
Excellent! You are about to live the most profound experience of your life. Come along with me.”

The
ir cruising along corridors, offices and countless doors lasted nearly five minutes. The tour turned out so intricate that he knew he would not find the way back on his own; however, he was guessing that he had been led through this maze for some reason. At the time the only thing he was certain about was that they had achieved their purpose. He was lost in the place.

When
the door behind which Kilgo was waiting finally got opened, a slight dizziness was clouding his perception. The old professor’s cheerful greeting accompanied by his usual laughter was immediate:

“
I see you have finally arrived. For a moment I doubted if you would make it. Naim has got lost several times despite making the same way every day. Sit down in that chair and first of all tell me, where do you find the north?”

The visitor sat
where he had been told to and noticed immediately that the room had no windows. He looked around the inside, hopelessly trying to find some reference, until he finally had to answer:

“
I have no idea. There are no signs to locate it, and the trip itself makes it hard to get my bearings.”

“
Well, I see we have successfully bewildered you. We will begin our work by listening to the story of your life. You must tell us absolutely all the events that you can remember, starting from the moment when you saw light for the first time and up to the present moment, and without missing a single detail. It is important that you feel sure about everything you say. And do not worry about time; we have no other occupation scheduled for the following days, at least not one more entertaining than this one.”

“
But not long ago I spent a week locked in a dark hole in the ground, and it was in recalling my life what I used all that time for. Is it necessary to do it all over?”

“
Indispensable! But this time it will be loud, so my colleague and I can learn even your deepest buried secrets. Consider your previous hindsight as a mere rehearsal that will facilitate this new attempt. We will begin with the oldest memory that you keep from your childhood. Well, we are all ears.”

From th
is moment his long monologue began, and it would only be interrupted to have short periods of rest.

During that day
and the next two, only the man’s voice telling his life would be heard inside the room.

His whole story would
end up exposed in great detail, starting with the years when he lived under the care of his parents in a modest apartment in the old center of the city where now the corporation that had employed him was settled.

His childhood was typical
to a middle-class child. His father worked as a mid-level executive for a bank devoted to serve the residents of their community, which was run by its owners and located near the family home. This let him return home for a while almost every day to share lunch with his kindred. He also avoided the many hours that others wasted every day moving through the congested streets.

His
mother took care of him full time until he reached the age to attend elementary school. This relaxed her daily schedule and allowed her to get a job as an assistant manager in a small company that traded on fabrics, which soon resulted in the economic upturn that later on would get them used to vacation frequently, as well as granted them access to certain luxuries.

Not having outstood
in school, his childhood and early adolescence went on among his working days routine and his many weekends of relaxation, during which his father used to take him somewhere in the north woods or the southern open plains to spend time fishing, hunting or just camping.

The countless times he slept under the stars
made him develop a strong sense of attachment to nature and a deep love for adventure.

The landscapes
where father and son used to share their adventures got indelibly engraved in his very deep to make him feel a part of nature itself.

After entering the middle
school his relationship with his father gradually loosen up. New friends and new activities that came along with them began to fill his leisure hours, so weekend hiking with his father began to be less frequent each time, until finally it got to a stop, thus leading him to distance from the man who shortly before was still his best friend.

All those
parties and sleepless nights shared with friends made him once and again get into arguments with his mother, impeding the good communication that had existed between them before. This situation would last for long.

While
deep inside he always had felt great love for his parents, his independent nature and his newfound assertiveness made him embrace wild life more vehemently every time, which by the way was the regular behavior of youngsters within his community .

As time went
on he was admitted in college to attend business school. During this stage some of the most significant events of his life would strike.

It was
his freshman’s year when he first ran into Lucy and an instant attraction that would last for the rest of their lives happened between them.

Although
she was attending art school, the most common thing was finding them together at any time. They spent weekends and holidays together no matter how small their spending budget or how irrelevant the activities they shared.

The
ir relationship soon took them away from the rest of the friends group and they became formally a couple to everybody’s eyes.

His new relationship and the apparent calm that
it had brought to his life made his parents look upon Lucy with favor; after all, the coexistence between the young lovers and they had increased because the four of them shared a few hours each week, especially when they dined together on Saturday nights at some fashionable restaurant.

The corporate merger fever that
arose in the early twenties took its toll on the peace of the recently renovated family life.

The banking house
for which his father worked was swallowed, along with many other small financial institutions, by a large conglomerate, causing the man to lose the job held since long ago.

The picture was
far away from flattering. The head of the family would never again find a job that would meet the level of expectation that his career path made him look for, and his 53 years of age were not an advantage when trying to get a new position, especially in a labor market abundant with bidders who outmatched him in terms of youth, and often more, also in degree.

As
family savings financed the costly education of the only child, supported only by the income of the mother, who still retained his old job, the father plunged into depression and he would never get out from it.

A few
years later, when his only heir had managed to finish graduate school, despair and the emptiness in his life finally caused effect.

In a
cold December morning the former head of the family was found lying inert on his bed, only accompanied by the empty bottle of sleeping pills he still held in his right hand. This event changed forever the mother’s cheerful attitude.

The part-time job that her son served as an executive in the area of personnel for an industrial firm became a full-time occupation, which allowed him to contribute more significantly to household expenses,
but only until he married Lucy and they settled down by their own.

The relationship between mother and son remained close over the years. At this time, she kept the job
she had had for long, while the progress of the young executive, which had stalled for a while, was accelerated when the company he was working for merged with the same corporation that years ago had absorbed the bank from which his father was fired.

The
feelings from this new turn of his fate triggered a fight within him. He could not forget the harm done to his family when his father lost his job, which finally dragged him to death; though on the other hand, the meteoric impetus that this would bring to his career and the many new possibilities provided along, and all this added to the significant improvement in his income, made of this an opportunity that would hardly repeat throughout his life.

In the end
Lucy played a decisive role in the acceptance of their new future by encouraging him to take the opportunity without regard, setting aside the emotional burden that his decision carried along.

His mother was never satisfied with the
direction he had chosen for his life. The deep scars from the events that led her to widowhood would be a heavy burden for the rest of her days.

The
constant reproaches she made him for having accepted this new position in that despicable conglomerate were causing him deep distress, and this led to a rift between them, to the point of turning home visits to his elder mother into sporadic events.

Sharing
life with Lucy fulfilled him. In her company gradually he was seeing his elder years approach. Although both had wanted to be blessed with a child, their activities had forced them to postpone the event again and again, until Lucy reached an age in which it became impossible.

The
ir dreams of giving birth to a child were renewed when human replication surged by the end of the first half of the century.

Countless were the times
they discussed the issue, meticulously analyzing the pros and cons of making such a decision; however, their immense frustration at having let slip the opportunity to materialize their love in a child finally overcome their doubts. Resorting to almost all of their savings, Lucy got enrolled in the long waiting list to undergo the new procedure.

The date
to show up at the lab finally came. The new body was already in the recommended development point and optimal condition. None of them would ever forget the impression of setting eyes on it for the first time.

The complex
procedure was meant to start with a mental backup, and then the information obtained from it had to be implanted into the new container. Later, after the new body had woken up, the old body had to be eliminated. This process triggered a strong disorder in Lucy’s behavior that persisted for many months.

Once with a
rejuvenated body, Lucy chose to wait before getting pregnant. Adjusting to her new anatomy, now of a 27 year old woman, would not be easy. The evident difference between their apparent ages gave rise to some friction between them.

Over time a
solution to this would come. A new promotion in the career of the mature executive granted him as a fringe benefit the right to replicate on behalf of the corporation. He understood he had to profit from this opportunity if he pretended to save his now unsettled relationship.

No
t stopping to think it twice, he underwent the procedure. This took him back, just as Lucy had done before, to the body age of 27 years that was the norm.

As
soon as he adapted to his new condition harmony returned to his home life, despite that since then his mother refused to receive him again. To her, the act that now both of them had committed was a true sacrilege. Although the woman was not exactly a devout, she had lived all her life according to her religious beliefs, the very same that she had tried to instill in his son since childhood. Deep inside she refused to believe that now he had willingly committed an act so abhorrent.

The new youth enjoyed
by the couple brought about the resumption of a number of activities that once had been forgotten.

Their w
eekends, full of outdoor activities, and the renewed vitality that now had invaded them caused the longed for pregnancy, what had prompted them to replication, to be postponed again and again in order to preserve their freedom.

And the years went on
, until the next promotion in his career involved making a commitment to the leader not to procreate. Discussions between the spouses returned as before, with the only difference that now the roles had been reversed. Lucy begged him endlessly to decline the new promotion. However, he could tell that he was approaching the top of the organization. What until that time had been but a silent longing, began to appear as feasible. He was dazzled by the possibility of climbing to the summit of power, since, if accepting the appointment he would be positioned just two levels away from the leader through the ranks.