"The experiment was a success."
The words fell like lead in the otherwise still air. The speaker was a short man in a white lab coat. He stood in front of a tall array of television screens, some dark, some flickering with a weak light.
A redheaded woman looked up at words. She stood and walked over to him, studying the many screens. "Which one?"
The man pointed to one near the top left. It showed a teenage girl clutching the arm of a boy about her age, sobbing into his shirt. The boy put his other arm around her and murmured something soft to her. The girl smiled slightly, reaching up to kiss him.
"Oh, that one," the woman said dismissively. "I wouldn't say that one was a real success." She gave the man a meaningful glance.
"You mean…the dark-haired boy? Oh, him." The man laughed, a short, humorless sound. "He'll return to his flock within the year. It's how he's programmed."
"If you say so…" the woman still didn't look convinced. "Are we going to continue the experiment, then?"
"We will," the man confirmed.
"Very well. I'll go tell the others." The woman swept out of the door.
The man stayed, still gazing up at the screen. He brushed his hand across the control panel, almost unconsciously. "Silly little things," he murmured to himself. "They think they're free."