I can’t even acknowledge his joke; I’m riveted to the action in front of me. The guard holding the Tessa clone by the arm marches her right past me, and before I’m even conscious of what I’m doing, I reach out and grab this Tessa girl by the hand, nearly tripping her.

“Who are you?” I ask her. “Where did you come from?”

The Tessa clone looks at me with wide eyes. Her stare rattles me. She’s not Tessa; no, now I see she’s nothing like her original, who’s been through so much, and done so much, good and bad. This girl’s not like Theodora, either. There’s something naive about the way she looks at me. Something hollow.

“I’m Tessa,” she says, her voice emotionless. “Tessa Leroy.”

“Let’s go,” the guard says. “Car’s waiting to take you back.”

“Back where?” I ask, hurrying alongside them, with Ollie next to me. They start to move toward a black stretch SUV with dark, tinted windows idling in the circular drive. In all the mayhem of the fire alarm, I hadn’t noticed it.

Neither the guard nor the Tessa clone answers me. Frustrated, I’m about to demand answers when I spy an article of clothing on the ground—Tessa’s jacket. She was carrying it, still not fully dressed, and in all the chaos, she must have dropped it on the grass. I reach down and grab it. It’s that purple bomber jacket she had on yesterday. I check the tag—H&M, size 6—and notice that a name tag has been sewn inside next to the manufacturer’s. It says only one word: “Duplicate.” And next to that, some numbers: 001.05.

Duplicate? What on earth does that mean? And those numbers…

“What’s a Duplicate?” I ask the Tessa clone as the guard shoves her toward the SUV. She shrugs, looking me in the eyes. “How would I know?” I sense something in her look now besides emptiness. There’s a kind of hopelessness there too.

I spot the other two guards bringing the Archer and Jake clones around to the waiting car. They’re handling their charges roughly; the Jake clone’s arms are pinned behind his back, and the Archer clone is yanked into the back seat. The guard holding the Tessa clone opens the back door of the SUV and is about to shove her inside when she bites his hand, hard. He winces, letting go of her. She starts to bolt, but he pulls a syringe from his pocket and stabs her in the arm with it. In moments, she goes limp. He catches her before she falls, carrying her to the car and resting her inside.

I’m following all this, still holding the jacket, when I notice a man in the last row of the SUV. He leans forward to help the guard settle the unconscious Tessa clone into the car.