After a while, though, too much free time begins to feel more like empty, wasted hours, and Jeremiah got antsy, the way one does when a vacation has gone on too long. He craved his old routine. More than anything, he wanted a walk. Not the augmented reality kind he could get on the treadmill, an actual walk in the woods where he could feel the breeze on his face and the crunch of the leaves underneath his feet. It didn’t help matters that he was made to watch his clone doing all the ordinary activities he was beginning to miss. He started to fixate on things that shouldn’t have bothered him. He hated that the clone was left to choose a new car to replace the one that was wrecked. A dark blue Lincoln town car? Really? It looked like something a G-man would drive. Although he knew he would have ended up with the same car—sedate, appropriate, not too flashy—he had to wonder why he’d suddenly started eyeing a lemon-yellow European sports car while he watched the clone haggle at the car dealership. He found himself wishing the clone might at least have taken it for a test drive.
The days went by, in what felt like four-hour stretches to him, and Jeremiah was repeatedly astonished by how exact this replica was. In those first days, they watched it in a variety of activities: leading editorial meetings at ViMed, walking the trash to the curb on a Monday morning, stammering and fidgeting through casual office conversations in the hallways of his office. Each time, Jeremiah had the feeling he was watching a television show he somehow had forgotten he’d written. It got to the point where he could mouth the words of every other thing the clone said, both at home and at work. No, I don’t want any pie... Let’s put some polish on this write-up... Have you finished your homework yet?... Yes, dear... No, sir... I suppose you might be right, dear... No wonder Diana and Parker had been so totally and utterly fooled by the thing. He was almost fooled himself. It was a marvel, to be sure, but increasingly unsettling to him.
“This is stupendous, Mr. Adams,” Charles Scott exclaimed during a random check-in.
This is pathetic, Jeremiah thought.
“And what’s truly remarkable,” Scott added, “is that the clone seems to be perfectly convinced himself. He actually believes he is you.” Scott shook his head in a show of unexpected amazement. “He doesn’t know the difference at all. Everything is working exactly as we hoped. He has no idea he’s a copy.”
“Yes, well, except he is a copy. He’s not really me.”
Scott waved a hand in annoyed dismissal and sat down on the edge of the couch. “Yes, yes, of course. But don’t you find it fascinating that he has no awareness of that? Isn’t it intriguing that he could, essentially, continue living your life for, well, for the rest of your life? And no one would know. Not even the clone.”
“I don’t know if intriguing is the right word,” Jeremiah said. “Disturbing, maybe. Scary as hell. ‘Breach of contract’ springs to mind.”
“I’m not suggesting anything quite so nefarious,” Scott scoffed. “I’m not talking about you. But consider the possibilities, Mr. Adams. Think about what this could mean.”
“Why don’t you illuminate me? What could it mean exactly?”
“It means an end to needless suffering,” Scott told him. “It means we are no longer chained to the random failings of our imperfect bodies. This can change everything, don’t you see that, Mr. Adams? This is a second chance.” Something in the man’s tone, the way his eyes seemed to focus on something far away as he spoke, made Jeremiah pause.
“What do you mean, a second chance?” he asked carefully.
“Exactly what it sounds like. Imagine the implications if every man, woman and child could have a perfect, healthy spare. For God’s sake, man. Use your imagination! Blood transfusions, organ transplants, even stem cell therapy—all of it would be as simple as going to the dentist.”
“So, what?” Jeremiah asked uneasily, “This is spare parts? That’s the way you see this? And to hell with the moral implications?”
Scott’s face reclaimed its usual austerity and he looked Jeremiah hard in the eyes.
“Morality isn’t always the best judge of what is right, Mr. Adams,” he said stiffly. “And the medical implications, that’s just one benefit. There are other interested parties who see even more potential in what we’re doing, and they are providing the bulk of our funding for this entire endeavor. Those deep pockets might suddenly dry up if this experiment were to fail somehow. But so far, it’s been an astounding success. It’s working seamlessly.”
“If it’s working so perfectly already,” Jeremiah said, “why do we need an entire year for this? Why not three months? Why not just end it now?”
“Science takes time,” Scott said. “Besides, there are other factors at play here. It’s more than just the behavioral aspects we’re monitoring. We need to ensure that the clone is physically viable, as well. There have been some issues with vital organs in earlier attempts. Nothing for you to be concerned about. Dr. Pike seems confident that these issues have been addressed. But we need to be certain. We need the full year, as your contract clearly stipulates.”
Scott turned quickly and retreated out the door without another word, leaving Jeremiah with an unnamable feeling in the pit of his stomach and a sudden resolve to prove the man wrong. This clone couldn’t be an exact duplicate of him.
He began to scrutinize the clone during every viewing, trying to decipher some flaw, some minuscule difference. Something wrong and unexpected. I don’t walk like that... That tie? Really?... I would have used a different word there... I’d take the back roads if I were him—doesn’t he know the traffic will be murder this time of the day?... But every single time, without fail, the clone did everything exactly as Jeremiah would have done himself. He could say he would have made a different choice, done a different thing, but there wasn’t a single time that this was actually true. On one morning, in fact, Jeremiah got up early and made himself waffles for breakfast, something he never ate during the workweek, preferring instead just a quick coffee. Implausibly, on the monitor an hour later, the clone popped a frozen waffle into the toaster. Diana had looked mildly surprised but didn’t question it. Jeremiah was absolutely shocked.
“Is it startling to you to see all of these similarities?” Natalie Young always began their sessions with a question. They had begun meeting twice weekly in her small office located on the same basement floor as his apartment. Despite the fact that it was only down the hall, she always came to escort him. He wasn’t allowed to go even that short distance on his own.
“No. Not surprising,” he said. “Just, I don’t know, getting annoying, I suppose. I know everything he’s going to say, exactly what he’ll do. I yell at the monitor for him to call a specific person at work, for a quote or something, and before I finish talking, he’s dialing the number.”