“It would appear that someone has forgotten to give that dog its medication. He seems overly exuberant considering, in his mind, he saw you leave for work just a few hours ago.”

Jeremiah smiled slowly. Part of him wanted to tell Scott that Louie had known all along, that the clone hadn’t fooled him for one minute. He wanted to see Scott’s face when he realized that maybe his precious experiment wasn’t airtight, after all, that there were some things even science couldn’t account for. It would have felt like one final triumph—a twist of the knife before he left. But he resisted the urge. It wasn’t worth the risk. He’d have to be satisfied, he decided, with the victory he’d already won.

“I don’t know,” he told Scott, “after your people took him out of the house, he’s probably just happy to see us again. Poor thing is just confused.”

Scott pursed his lips and scrutinized the animal for a long moment. “A loyal companion,” he said at last.

“You have no idea.” Jeremiah absently tightened his grip on Louie’s collar. “So how do we do this?”

Scott took a phone from his pocket and tapped a quick series of buttons.

“You’ll notice an icon for a bank account on the home screen of this phone, Mr. Adams.” Jeremiah took the cell phone from him as he continued. “The initial password has been set as ‘replica 321.’ You will see the transaction has already been made to the account in the amount agreed upon. Once you’re satisfied, you can change the password and relinquish the package.”

Jeremiah opened the file and nodded when he saw the account balance was just slightly in excess of $10 million.

He handed over the package. Louie leaned in hard against his knee as Jeremiah changed his bank password to Brent’s cell number.

Scott tore the paper away from the package, letting the wrapping fall at his feet, and unzipped the top of the lunch box to view the contents. He looked away with a sickened but satisfied expression and nodded once. He then extended a hand to Jeremiah.

“I must say, Mr. Adams,” he said. “You surprise me. I never would have thought you capable of this sort of willful deceit when we first met. If I had, I think I might have selected another test subject.”

“Yeah, well, I guess you never really know a person as well as you think, do you?”

“I have a feeling you may be right about that, Mr. Adams. You may be right.”

Jeremiah opened the back door of the car and Louie jumped in and settled himself down on the leather seat, still panting with excitement. Jeremiah took his place behind the wheel, looked once at Parker and drove away from the ViMed lab for the last time.

He had no real idea where they were headed. But it didn’t matter. He’d just keep driving until they decided to stop somewhere. As he turned onto the expressway, heading away from the city, away from everything, he felt an intense excitement rise up in him—a feeling he’d almost forgotten he was capable of. Everything ahead of him seemed so full of potential, vivid with possibility. The fact that it was unknown, untested, only made it that much sweeter. He had Parker. He had a second chance. A single finger seemed suddenly a small price to pay. No matter which direction they chose to go, a new beginning would be waiting like a blank page ready to be filled, and Jeremiah was holding the pen. It was exhilarating, so much so that he actually laughed out loud.