Due Exchange

The warden bellowed a hardy laugh behind his desk, he was clearly enjoying every moment of this.

"Yes… yes my boy, look into the face of your replacement. He wouldn’t have been necessary except that there are those who wish to witness your execution. And… well, Blake, we aim to please you know."

"Keep him away from me!" Collin shouted and sprang from his chair, he circled the other and pressed himself against the desk.

One of the suited men grabbed Collin by the elbow.

"Sit down Mr. Blake" he said and guided him to a chair.

"That’s enough, go and tell Jack to take you to your quarters now" said the warden to the clone.

Collin could hear his own heart beating in his ears as he watched the twin exit the room. Then he turned to face the warden again, his eyes now pleading for an explanation.

"I must say… it’s so good to see you squirm"

"If… if he’s gonna fry…. then…"

"What about you?"

Collin managed a nod.

"As I said, your going on vacation. An exclusive resort, a thousand light-years away."

Collin stayed silent, his anger unable to overcome his fright.

"Let me introduce you to my colleges. Mr. Sathers and Mr. Briggs of the C.I.A."

The two men gave slight nods, holding uninterested expressions.

"I myself am an agent, I was stationed here ten years ago for the purpose of prisoner exportation. You see, as I said, you’ve been selected for just this purpose."

Collin’s head became light, this was taking the form of a bad dream.

"Prisoner…"

"Prisoner exportation, we’ve been doing it for years, ever since the late fifties to be exact. They made contact with us and made it quite evident that they were superior to us in every way. Luckily for us, their motives were pure. They requested human specimens for their own personal study. In exchange we were given extremely advanced technology, including the ability to clone as you saw."

As the words sunk in Collins eyes trailed down.

"That’s the short story at any rate. Anyway, we obviously couldn’t pluck out decent citizens from their homes and ship them to an alien planet to be prodded and probed and whatnot. So the Prisoner exportation program was initiated. We pick those scum of the earth that we can certainly do without, the inhuman devils that no one is likely to miss. Those like you my friend."

The warden was grinning from ear to ear.

"So now, Sathers and Briggs will escort you out. We ship you fellows off from Washington, there’s a station there where we do alien communications."

The two men went to either side of Collin and urged him up.

"And one more thing Blake. When your full of needles and being slowly dissected like a bug, and you watch as your vital organs are displayed in front of you. Just remember me, sitting here smoking my cigar, and know your sorely missed." He winked up to Collin with that same sick grin, then turned in his chair to face the window and the view of the courtyard.

~X~

Collin sat in the back seat of the unmarked car and stared hollowly out the window as they drove to Washington. Nothing was relevant anymore, he had veered off the road of reality to end up in a nightmare. His stomach felt like lead, it sank deeper and deeper every mile they traveled. They reached the base in Washington at about four O’clock in the afternoon. Collin was then escorted up to a narrow hallway and into a room where a conversation was already taking place.