The Copy by Grant Boshoff

think so at the time. I only saw a way out; a way to do everything that needed doing; to maintain equilibrium in my life."
    "And this solution was to clone yourself, was it not?"
    "Yes it was. After the FDA injunction I'd had all equipment and materials relocated to my private lab - on the floor above my office. In those days I spent most of my time, when not in DC, in my office, sleeping on the couch a handful of hours a night. Often I couldn't sleep at all and would go up to my lab and lament over what could have been. I'm not sure even when I had the idea. It just seemed to grow organically out of the circumstances, but I found myself - before I'd even formalized it as a plan - sketching out equations and researching developments in neuroscience. I knew I had the ability to clone the body, but I needed to replicate my own consciousness as well, in order to create a true copy."
    "And you accomplished this, did you not, Mr. Bartell?"
    "I did."
    "When exactly?"
    "I tried right away - within a month. I built a cerebrum scanner using an experimental neuro-imaging device we'd shelved some years before. Surprisingly, it worked on the first try. But I was too rushed, too frantic. And too overconfident. As it turned out, the DNA structure wouldn't hold long enough to develop a full-size human body."
    "So, when exactly did you produce the copy of yourself that we are speaking of today?"
    "Six months ago."
    "Six months ago?" said May with a surprised look. "So you've spent the last eight years developing this?"
    "Yes, in a sense. After the first few failures my resolve weakened. Things gradually returned to normal. The company went through a reorganization and somehow weathered the storm. We found other avenues and slowly began to rebuild. During this time I kept working on my plan, when I could, constantly refining and testing, but I was missing something in the DNA matrix. Then, a year ago my wife filed for divorce."
    Geoffrey looked to Camilla, who had her sunglasses back on now.
    "Then the attacks began. GenLabs announced a revolutionary gene manipulation process which came under fire. The whole nightmare started up again, just as it had eight years prior. It was then I knew I had no other choice. I devoted every spare waking minute to the project. Six months ago, thanks to some groundbreaking research from UCLA, I found the final piece of the puzzle. That's when I created my copy."
    "And this copy - this clone - he thought and acted just like you?"
    "Well, no, Mr. May. He didn't think and act like me; he was me."
    "Objection!"
    "Grounds?" said the judge, dipping his head to look at the District Attorney from under a stern brow.
    Alton McBride open his mouth, closed it, frowned. His hands flapped in the air.
    "Overruled," said Lemar. "Please continue, Mr. Bartell."
    Geoffrey Bartell thanked the judge and turned back to the microphone.
    "Things went well for the first few months. Between the two of us we were able to weather the current storm and repair the mess I'd made of my family life. It was a perfect solution. Or so it seemed. I began to notice problems with my copy. I'd rushed things again it seems, and my memories - in the copy that is - began to degrade. I noticed an anomaly, a misstep if you will, in the continued convergence of our stream of experience."
    "Can you be more clear on this point, Mr. Bartell?"
    "Sorry, yes. Essentially it would be on the order of a split personality. What once was identical began to diverge, due to this anomaly, and thus our shared consciousness went out of step."
    "And how did this misstep, as you say, manifest itself?"
    "The copy became moody, morose at times, and less and less able to function as one part of the whole."
    "When did you first identify this anomaly?"
    "Christmas Eve."
    "And did you not correct it at that time?"
    Geoffrey frowned. "No. It had just begun to surface then. But the degradation escalated over the next six weeks. We began to argue frequently, my copy became