The Castle

Chapter 1

"The Castle doesn't exist," Laurence Dominic objected. "It's a myth."

Adelle DeWitt leaned back in her chair and smiled archly. "Of course they don't exist, Laurence," she said. "But then, neither does the Dollhouse. Can't you see the potential synergy?"

Dominic snorted. "A floating pleasure dome for the ultra-rich, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean? They sound more like they'd be competitors to us. Assuming that they're real."

"Oh, they're quite real," DeWitt said. "And they're not exactly competitors. They offer the ultimate secure location in which people of sufficient means can live out their fantasies. While we offer – the fantasy." She reached for a large red folder on her desk. "We'd complement each other marvelously. We'd give their clients another service, and they would give us the solution to many of our security problems."

Dominic shook his head. "I can't believe the Board of Directors has agreed to this. They've always been very careful to preserve our independence."

"Nothing's been agreed to yet, Laurence," DeWitt pointed out. "The Directors have merely authorized us to undertake a fact-finding mission, to see if Mr. Kassel's facility lives up to its reputation."

"So you're going," Dominic said, barely able to keep the disapproval from his voice.

DeWitt smiled again. "Oh, no," she said. "Not precisely, anyway. I'm sending Echo."

"What?" The smile vanished from Topher Brink's face when he heard what DeWitt had in mind. "No," he continued. "Do you have any idea how dangerous…"

"Come now, Topher," DeWitt interrupted. After her meeting with Dominic, she'd gone down to Brink's laboratory to discuss her requirements with Brink and Dr. Saunders. "I know I'm in your files. You've imprinted my personality on Actives before."

"But only selected portions of it, not the whole thing," Brink pointed out. "And you know how our previous experiments with single-persona imprints have turned out."

"I'm not asking you to use only my personality, Topher," DeWitt said. "Echo will need my memories and my negotiating skills. But I trust you to come up with a persona that will be suitably compatible with Echo's brain."

"It's not just that," Dr. Saunders chimed in. "We've always been very careful to ensure that the imprinted personalities don't know anything about the Dollhouse. This persona would know. What's more, she'd know that she's an active."

"Right," Brink agreed. "And that could trigger all kinds of psychotic reactions. I really can't predict…"

"We'll have sufficient opportunity to ensure that the imprinted personality is stable before Echo is deployed," DeWitt assured him. "Besides, I've always wondered what it feels like to be an Active. Now I'll know."

"No, you wont," Brink objected. "She'll know, not you. I won't be able to imprint her memories into your head when she gets back. Unless you want to risk scrambling your own mind."

DeWitt shrugged. "A pity. Still, she'll know me well enough to be able to describe it to me in sufficient detail, I'm sure."

"I can't recommend that you use Echo," Saunders said. "Her last few missions have exposed some irregularities in her behavior. Until I have a chance to figure out what's going on in her head, I have her flagged for low-risk missions only."

"Those 'irregularities', as you call them, are precisely why I want Echo for this job," DeWitt said. "She's shown an ability to think outside the box, beyond the constraints of her programming. That's what she'll need for this mission."

Brink stood up from his chair. "Look, Miss DeWitt, what do I have to say to explain to you how crazy this is?"

"I'm aware of the risks, Mister Brink," DeWitt snapped. "The Board and I have judged them to be acceptable. Now, stop stalling and set up your equipment. You'll need an up-to-date scan of me for this to work."

Brink slumped down in his chair and shook his head. "I'm not going to take responsibility if we wind up losing Echo," he muttered.

"Don't worry, Topher, you've made your objections perfectly clear," DeWitt said. "But the Board has authorized this. It's out of your hands."