“It’s great to finally meet you in person, Jeremiah,” he said. “I’m Brent Higgins. You and I are going to be spending a lot of time together over the next twelve months. I’m looking forward to it.”

“Likewise, Mr. Higgins,” he said.

“Might as well call me Brent.”

“Might as well. And you’ve already decided, apparently, to call me Jeremiah. So, Brent, do we begin today, you and I? Now?”

“We’re scheduled for our first viewing shortly,” he said. “They’ve discharged the clone from the hospital, and we’ll pick him up when he gets home. The monitor will go on when it’s time. I thought I’d come a little early so we could get acquainted, go over the basics and all.”

“Great. Can I get you anything? Coffee? They got the beer you asked for. It’s in the fridge.”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. I hope you don’t mind. It’s not for when I’m on duty, you know. But as I understand it, we’ll have a bit of downtime. I’m here for six hours every day. Dr. Scott is fine with it, but if you have a problem, that’s okay.”

“It’s no problem. So, the basics? Don’t we just watch the clone together? Is there more to it?”

Brent went to a closet near the kitchen and took out a white lab coat, which he donned over his T-shirt.

“A little,” Brent said. “As you know, we will be watching the monitor for a different four-hour period each day. I’m basically here to observe your reactions to the viewing and note any relevant changes in your reactions. Pretty straightforward, really.”

“That’s nice work if you can get it.”

“Actually, it’s a fairly critical aspect of this whole experiment,” he said, a hint of injury in his expression. “After all, Jeremiah, the point of the whole thing is to watch you as you’re watching your clone. You know, to gauge whether it’s an exact duplicate in thought and action. You’re the expert on that. It’s key. I mean, it’s one thing if it can convince the people on the outside. It’s another thing if it can convince you.”

“Of course. Sorry. I didn’t mean any offense.”

“None taken,” he said. “Anyway, the point is, part of my job is getting to know you on a more personal level. I need to do that if I’m going to be able to accurately assess your responses to the clone.”

“Sounds reasonable.”

“So, essentially, we’ll be watching together, and I’ll follow up each viewing with a series of questions for you. Once those answers are put into the system, we’ll get the schedule for the next day’s viewing. The exact times are selected randomly.” Brent took a seat on one of the couches and opened up his laptop. The monitor on the wall went on almost at the same instant, so that anyone watching might have been forgiven for thinking Brent Higgins had turned it on with his own computer.

“Time to get to work,” he said to Jeremiah, and motioned for him to have a seat.