The clone said nothing. Jeremiah wanted to reach right into the wall and pull Parker out of there, give him a hug, swear right along with him, tell him he understood exactly what he was feeling. Let him know it was okay to be angry, and it wouldn’t always hurt like this.

Instead, he could only watch helplessly as his son leashed the dog and stormed out into the evening alone. His double sat motionless for a few minutes at the table and finally got up, leaving the cartons where they were, and poured himself a hefty measure of Jeremiah’s good bourbon. He sat down, turned on the TV and stared into thin air until Parker came back an hour later. He stood and started to say something, but Parker didn’t even stop to look at him. He just went upstairs and both Jeremiah and his clone heard his bedroom door slam closed. Soon afterward, the clone went upstairs himself. He hesitated outside Parker’s door for a moment, and then went to his own bed, where Brent and Jeremiah watched him toss until the wall monitor switched off two hours later.

“There is no way my son is taking Meld,” Jeremiah said when the wall went blank. “Absolutely no way in hell. I can’t believe the clone is even thinking about it! He’s not giving it to Parker.”

“He probably doesn’t know what else to do, Jeremiah. I mean, what would you have done?”

“Not that!” he said. “Maybe he could, oh, I don’t know, actually talk to him or something? And you can put that down in your goddamn notes for tonight. I would absolutely not have acted the same way as that moron of a clone just did. I actually have a brain in my head.”

Brent looked at Jeremiah with a warning in his eyes. Jeremiah didn’t care. But what he had to say next, what he finally had to tell Brent, couldn’t be said out loud. “Let’s play the game, Brent,” he said. “I feel like blowing shit up.”

As soon as the battlefield flickered into view, Jeremiah began typing in the in-game chat.

I need to get out. I need to get to Parker.

How? You can’t go back. There can’t be two of you.

There won’t be.

??

I’m going to take his place.

What?

I’m going to kill him. I will take his place.

!!

No other option. I have to get out.

How?

You can help.

Too risky.

You just get me out. I’ll do the rest myself.

No.

You said you would help me. Parker is alone!

This is murder.

Diana was murdered. My mother. This is something else.

I can’t help.

Why?

The project is still important.

The project is a lie.

??

You’ve been lied to. All of you.

??

Charles Scott is sick. He wants to clone himself. This? Practice run. I’m a guinea pig.

Sick?

ALS. Something. He’s dying.

Brent took his headgear off and turned to look at Jeremiah with an expression of utter confusion.