Louie knew. That dog knew in a single instant that it wasn’t his master who had just walked through the garage door. The very first real test, and it had failed utterly.
Jeremiah said nothing. He was gripped by a sudden alarm. If that dog cost him this $10 million, he could kiss those expensive organic dog treats goodbye.
He turned to Brent with what he hoped was an expression of casual exasperation and tried to explain it away.
“I’m sure he was expecting Parker at the door,” he said. “That dog’s whole world revolves around Parker. He barely tolerates anyone else.”
Brent said nothing but offered a half grin, which Jeremiah took as a good sign. He turned back to the image with some relief.
The clone closed the door behind him, put his keys down on the counter and called to Louie without success. He then went to the refrigerator and took a bottle of water. Jeremiah noted that a different camera seemed to pick up his movements almost seamlessly as he walked through the house. There was never a time when he was out of view. Only the angles changed, blending together almost like a professionally edited film. He couldn’t understand how they did it. He watched from behind as the clone climbed the stairs and, when he reached the top, had a front view as the clone walked across the hallway into his bedroom.
“Is there someone operating these cameras?” he asked Brent.
“No, it’s all automatic—sensors pick up the clone’s movements and the next camera is cued from that. It’s pretty neat, huh? This is the first time I’ve seen it in action. It’s flawless.”
He was slightly shocked when he realized that he had a clear view as the clone took off his jacket and tie in the bedroom.
“How many cameras, exactly, are in my house?”
“A lot,” Brent told him. “We can see him anywhere in the house and all around the property. There’s even a camera in your car and, of course, there’s a whole separate system so we can watch him at ViMed.”
“And in the bedroom, I see.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. There’s a fail-safe installed so we won’t be able to see anything private. It will fade out if anything, you know, physical happens. And there are no cameras in the bathrooms.”
Jeremiah was glad to know they wouldn’t be watching the bedroom, but more because of what they wouldn’t see rather than anything else. What Brent didn’t know was that Jeremiah had insisted, right at the start of this whole thing, that the clone be prohibited somehow from any physical relations with Diana. Scott had assured him it was possible with a little tweaking of the clone’s physiology, and reinforced by suggestion during the initial Meld. Sexual desire for her had simply been wiped out of the thing. As for Diana, Jeremiah doubted it would even be an issue. Those cameras would never have the need to fade out.
“What about my family, though? I don’t really like the idea of them being watched like this. I had no idea it would be so...intrusive.”
“The cameras are only activated by the clone, Jeremiah. It’s all done by facial recognition. State-of-the-art. No one’s going to be watching your family, except for when they’re interacting with the clone. That’s all we care about here.”
Jeremiah turned his attention back to the wall where the clone was just picking up the remote control and switching on the TV. For the next few hours, they just watched as he sat there, propped up against the pillows on the bed, and channel surfed the unfamiliar landscape of afternoon television. The image on the wall was close up and six feet tall and, in the lull of any activity, Jeremiah found himself scrutinizing his own familiar face in all its uncomfortable detail. It was both fascinating and a bit unnerving. He could see every pore in his own cheeks, every unruly gray hair at the temples, every crease around his eyes, every pockmark. He noted with some dismay that his shoulders looked small and slightly hunched over. Do I look like that? He put a hand under his own chin and made a mental note to look up a suitable exercise for a saggy neck. He never realized he’d gotten so soft. At one point the clone fell asleep and Jeremiah was shocked to see his own slack-mouthed expression and hear the sound of his own snoring, which nearly drowned out the TV. How the hell did Diana ever get any sleep? Jesus!
After a while the kitchen door opened, and the clone got up when he heard Louie’s tags jangling again in a jubilant ruckus down the stairs.
“Parker?” he called. “Is that you?”
“Dad? What are you doing home?”
The clone walked down the stairs to meet the boy in the kitchen, cameras following so that Brent and Jeremiah could track his progress without interruption. Jeremiah braced himself. Would his son react the same way that Louie had? Would he know the clone wasn’t really him? This entire thing, he thought, could be all over before it even began. He might be home for dinner, after all.
“I had a little car accident this morning. I’m fine,” the clone told Parker. “But the doctors at the hospital told me to take the day off, so I did. I’ll be back to work tomorrow, though.”
“Whoa! You were in the hospital?”
“Just as a precaution, it’s nothing serious. They checked me out. I’m okay.”
“Did you total the car, Dad?”
“Not sure yet, but I think so. Probably. Shouldn’t your mother be home by now?”
“Nah,” Parker said, opening the refrigerator and turning his attention to the pressing matter of what he would eat. “She’s working late.”
That was news to Jeremiah.
“I thought you had something at school tonight,” the clone said, echoing Jeremiah’s own thoughts right down to the word.
“It got canceled. I texted her and she said she might as well stay late tonight.”
“Did she say when she’d be home?”
Parker shrugged and poured himself a glass of milk to wash down the eight or nine cookies he had snagged from a cabinet. “I don’t know,” he said. “Hey, if we get a new car can we get a convertible?”
There wasn’t a hint of suspicion in Parker’s face. In fact, Jeremiah was stunned at how readily Parker had taken the clone for him. His every reaction and expression, every gesture, was exactly what Jeremiah would have expected. His son interacted with it in exactly the same way he would have done with Jeremiah. As impressive as it was, it hurt. Dr. Young’s words echoed in his mind: “You are literally being replaced, Jeremiah.” That thought hit home watching the clone talking to Parker.
“We’ll see,” the clone said. “Where have you been? Did you miss the bus or something?”
“Nah. I stayed after school with some friends.”
“What friends?”