Seeing Double
Disclaimer: All rights reserved to Graeme Manson, John Fawcett and the BBC.
Summary: A small English family living in Ontario are pulled into a strange series of events after meeting a group of identical looking girls they don't know that the girls might just reveal more about their history
The Woman
Chris's POV
San Francisco seemed like a good place. We had arrived early this morning and were currently looking for the house of Hazel Blanc. We had managed to leave Tommy with our parents, telling them that we were visiting some friends from high school that had moved here some time ago. After what seemed like an eternity of walking, we reached nineteen Geary Boulevard. It was a very large house, for a start we thought that it was a block of flats, and only after careful inspection had we realised it was one house.
Katy knocked on the door and moments later an elderly Mediterranean woman with a beaming smile and bright green eyes answered. "Hello, can I help you with something?"
"Yes, we're looking for Hazel Blanc." Katy stated, returning the elderly woman's smile.
"Follow me please." She said, leading us into the brightly lit hallways of the house. "Ms. Blanc is very busy, but she may be able to squeeze you in."
We followed her through the white painted hallways of the house. The decorations in the house made it obvious that this Hazel woman was loaded. There were statues, vases and expensive looking paintings hung on the walls. I was so busy admiring the expensive decorations in the house that I bumped into Rick when we stopped in a very large living room.
"If you will just wait here, I shall fetch Ms. Blanc for you." She said turning to leave the room. "You know," she said turning around in the doorway, "You two look a lot like that Peter boy that Ms. Blanc was friendly with. The only difference is your piercing." She finished, gesturing at Rick's eyebrow piercing.
Once the old maid had left the room we all started examining the room. Looking at the bookcases that lined the entire right wall I said, "The Hazel woman must be loaded."
"No kidding." Rick replied, picking up a gold statue of what looked like Jupiter sitting on his throne.
"I wonder how she got all of the money to pay for this." Katy said admiring a painting of a lake.
"Let's just say I came from a good family."
We all spun around to look at the doorway where the heavily accented voice had came from. Standing there was a beautiful woman, around the same age as us. She had tan skin, deep dark brown eyes, and dirty blonde hair, arranged to fall down in curls around her cheeks.
"Well, it seems Peter was successful in retrieving you." She said stepping into the room. "I'm sure that you've guessed who I am so, the only question remaining is, where is Peter?"
We all looked around awkwardly before I stepped forward. "I'm sorry to say this but... Peter... Peter's dead."
A look of shock passed over Hazel's face, although the look was gone as quickly as it had appeared.
"H-How did he die?" She asked curiously.
"He jumped out of a window when I was heading home. I think someone was chasing him." I replied, awkwardly. "B-Before he died, he told me to that he's sorry and to give you this." I handed the pen drive over to her and she eyed it curiously.
"He actually managed to get it." She said, taking the pen drive. "I only told him to find you three... God, he is such an idiot!"
"Why is he an idiot?" I asked, wondering why she was suddenly angry.
"Because, I only told him to get you three here. Getting this information was too dangerous, I told him to stay away from Dyad!" She grunted, rubbing her forehead in frustration.
"Dyad? What the hell are you on about?" Katy asked, becoming slightly scared of this woman.
"Come with me, I'll tell you everything you want to know."
She led us out of the room and up the stairs. After going through a few hallways, she led us into a large study, with bookcases lining almost every wall, a few chairs and tables, and a desk with many notes and an expensive looking laptop on it.
"Back in the 1980's, the Dyad Institute, a government institute focusing on the evolutionary development of human biology, and how it can be changed, launched a new project, Project Leda, which was focused solely on the cloning of human DNA." She started, after looking over the contents of the pen drive on her computer. "They started small, focusing on cloning human organs and other major body parts. After a few years of perfecting it, they finally decided to launch their main focus, cloning of actual living human subjects. In 1984 they launched a subdivision of Project Leda named Project Helen, which focused on cloning female subjects, and after a success in that they launched another subdivision named Project Pollux, which focused on cloning male subjects. Using a sort of, 'natural selection', they were able to make these, 'Leda clones', smart, strong and almost invulnerable, without actually changing their DNA."
"And we're the products of this experiment aren't we?" I asked, slightly shocked from the information I had been given. It was strange, almost impossible to think that my siblings and I were clones. Living, breathing science experiments, it seemed so unreal.
"Yes, Rick and Chris, you are the results of Project Pollux, and you, Catherine, are the result of Project Helen."
"And... you sent Peter to find us?" Rick asked curiously.
"I did."
"But, why did he kill himself?"
"He was most likely being chased by an agent of Dyad. We had received information of another experiment, Project Tyndareus, which was conducted after Project Leda. I told Peter to ignore this information and go to collect you, but it seems he went after the information anyway."
"So, this Project Tyndareus... it was a cloning experiment as well?" I asked, suddenly wondering who these other clones were.
"Yes, you see, these clones had minor... adjustments, you could say, to their reproductive organs, in order to render them infertile... for some of them, it caused life threatening cancers. You see, the reason why they made these clones smarter and stronger, was because they were trying to make soldiers. Perfect soldiers, to be exact. But this disease greatly weakened their immune systems, thus making them easily sick and no longer 'perfect'. So they got funding from another company named Topside, who provided them with greater research and more biologists to help make them boost the clones immune systems. The first project, Project Castor, an all male cloning trial, came close but they weren't perfect. Although none of them developed any terminal diseases, most were born with mental handicaps or minor physical deformations. The female cloning trial, Project Clytemnestra, was successful and they managed to create the perfect soldiers for the US Military. These clones were smart, strong, athletic, infertile, and immune to many diseases."
"Wait, if they made us infertile, how was I able to have a son?" Rick asked curiously.
"Actually, that's one of the few things I don't know. But there seems to be a pattern. All of the other fertile clones were part of a set of twins or triplets. I think that the egg splitting in the womb causes a break in the genetic code." Hazel replied.
"So... where are these clones now?" asked Katy, "I mean the ones from Project Tyndareus."
"Well, Catherine, you're looking at one." Hazel stated nonchalantly.
"Wait, y-you're... a clone?" I asked, now extremely curious as to how she knew all of this.
"Yes. Did I not make that obvious?" She replied dryly.
"Ok, I just need to ask this. Why did you send Peter to find us?" Katy asked with a look of confusion on her face.
"For two reasons. One, we are trying to bring this to the attention of as many clones as possible. And two, I need your help." Hazel replied. "You see, the man who helped me and my associates discover the cloning trials has disappeared."
"And you need us to find him?" Rick guessed.
"Yes, his name is Daniel Gordon. He's a Pollux clone from Ontario, so it would be much easier for you three to find him." She answered. "He managed to get information on Dyad by using his police credentials, and I'm afraid they may have realised this. If they have, then his life is in danger."
"Do you have any idea where he could be?" I asked, eager to meet one of my clones.
"I believe he was going to Scarborough to meet a group of Helen clones who have been able to find each other. So that will be a good area to start."
"Wait, so there is a group of my clones living only miles away from us?" Katy asked, a look of shock on her face.
"Yes. Most of them actually live very close to you." She began to write on a small piece of paper. "Go to this address and report the information of the other clones to me. You will also want to tell them what's on these pen drives." Hazel finished, handing the scrap of paper and two pen drives over to Katy.
"What's on the other pen drive?" Katy asked.
"That pen drive has the information about Project Tyndareus on it." Hazel replied. "Now, I think it would be best if you leave now."
"Why?" I questioned.
"Because my father is coming to visit and I don't want to explain why everything who enters this house looks identical."
Hey readers! Soooooooooooooooo sorry that I haven't updated any stories in ages, BUUUUUT, to make up for that I have released a bunch of other one shots and a few more chapters of this story. I have also updated the last chapter a tiny bit because of minor plot change.