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The door closed behind Rick, the little red lightitself politely off "Cute," I said, stepping forward to pressplate Needles bit into the skin at the point where each of ers joined my palm That was an unusual spot for a test array I took a sht turned green and clicked off "That’s h," said Steve He sly when I looked back at hih the door to whatever aiting on the other side Steve wouldn’t have sht be a clone, and Rys about a person’s essential nature never change
The door opened on a narrow hallway that looked like it was constructed hundreds of years before the Rising and never substantially redecorated Rick aiting A relieved smile spread across his face when he saw ht I’d go back to the nice man in the lab coat as about to have raine, straightening and looking at hi into"
"No I couldn’t have" The door swung open as Steve joined us in the hall Rick switched his attention fro us?"
"Not that I saw," rumbled Steve I raised an eyebrow He explained, "This is one of the tunnels built during the Cold War, in case we needed to evacuate the capital They probably wouldn’t have been any use in a nuclear strike--a nuke’s a pretty dae, quite nicely"
I nodded slowly, catching his round No wireless transs For the moment, we’re in the clear" Steve looked past me to Rick "You can proceed, Mr Vice President"
"Thank you, Steve" Rick sighed, beginning to walk "It really is good to see you"
"Most people just send flowers Raising the dead is a little extre hi on?"
"I meant it when I said that, if it had been up to me, I would have sih to know yourself" A o tothat I have been responsible for your death more than twenty tiia Mason was decanted I told myself, ‘That’s it No more If she’s not real, we find another way’ But each time, I couldn’t think of another way, and we needed you I needed you"
"Why?"
"Sa you’d play nicely with the other children--people associate your face with the truth If you tell them a lie they want to believe, they won’t question it"
"And the govern people like me People like your wife God, Rick, is that really what you want?"
"No That’s what they want" Rick stopped at an unsecured door, pushing it open Gregory was sitting at a ter over his shoulder I couldn’t even be surprised Rick kept talking: "I want you to tell the world the truth I want you to blow it all to hell People believe you People believe in you, because of the way you died They’ll believe the truth even if they don’t want to, as long as they’re hearing it froia," said Gregory, looking up froain"
"It was touch and go for a while there, but I pulled through," I said "How about you?"
"Minor burns, concussion, and I won’t be working with the CDC again anytiht I was tired of them anyway"
"Good" I turned to Rick "Now please Explain A huge global conspiracy has ruined ain, leaving ine--and they did it for what? So you could clone lobal conspiracy has ruined your life If it helps, they also killed my wife" Rick’s smile faded like it had never been there at all "I took Lisa’s death for a suicide, because that’s what they told me it was I found out differently only when I saw her file They did it because of what you saw back in that roo to be a cure There’s just going to be a ith the virus, one we can’t win, but can only adapt to We can only survive it And that’s not acceptable to so this instead?"
"It didn’t start out like this, Georgia It started out with good intentions--God, such good intentions They thought they were taking steps to protect the country In the end, no one noticed when protection turned into iood of the people’ turned into ‘for the good of the people in power’ It was all baby steps, all the way"