The file just bared dry facts, how he came to the Institute and what his background was. He had no background at all, until now.

Eighteen years ago, he had vanished from the face of the earth, being incinerated in a terrible car accident. They had not found a trace of the body, so they had assumed he had been totally evaporated.

However, he was not. The picture in front of Henry showed an eighteen year old boy with a horrifying patched up face, a third degree burned face unsuccessfully restored by poor surgery.

Maybe his birthday present was the revealing of his true identity by his adoptive parents. Now he had come to claim his right of birth. There was just one problem. He had a cloned version of him living up his life.

It took Henry four days to get his appointment with Arnold Wellington, founder of Arnold's food chain, who's business stretched from Taiwan to Sydney, from Los Angeles to Rio.

They were seated in Wellington's private chambers, an eighteenth century mahogany desk with silver inlets, creating a comfortable distance between opposite worlds. The open fire blasted and Henry felt hot. He was impressed and not at ease, staring at the strong, well fed figure before him.

Arnold had the same reaction as Henry when he faced the bare facts. Henry scraped his throat with a nervous harrumph.

"It has no precedent, mister Wellington. I frankly don't know how to solve this."

Arnold faced the man to see a frightened civil servant, and he realized he would have to solve the situation by himself.

There were many issues involved here. First, there was the cloning thing. After Billy had disappeared, his wife had experienced a huge depression and he himself had felt guilt because he had bought this Italian sport car for her after she had given birth to Billy. The same car Billy had been killed with. She had miraculously escaped death, but had left her baby in the car. A human reaction of self-surviving.

They had decided to clone Billy and a healthy and happy new child was the result of it.

The new Billy - they had decided to use the name again - was now on the brink of entering the best university money could buy.

Arnold stared at the picture. His hand trembled slightly. The new Billy was not a copy; they were not even like twins.

"They don't resemble,' he said in a dim voice, looking to Henry with begging eyes.

"Their genes are identical,' Henry said, "it's not only a question of externals."

They had not thought about the consequences. It had never occurred in their minds this would ever happen. They had the knowledge; they had the money. However, they did not have the moral implications that came with.

"Thank you for you visit, mister - uh Dubzek. I will have my lawyers in due time to inform you what I will decide."

They rose, Henry looking like a man who had lost his burden, and Arnold looking like a man who had taken it over.

They met in one of Wellington's private flats uptown, which he used for his secret life, and affairs that cannot tolerate daylight. The curtains were drawn and only a desk lamp lit the room. The stocky man with the gray short haircut apparently took care of matters in a clean, professional way, no questions asked.

He had Billy's photograph and peered at it attentively, absorbing the face he would meet soon.

It was a face easily to remember with all those burned spots and malformed shapes. "Okay, boss. It's done."

He left the room and Wellington buried his head in his hands. His skin burned and his heart pumped adrenaline to his brain. He knew he had made a terrible decision, but he had not found another way to deal with. He only knew the old Billy would fight the new Billy and claim his extractions.

He would have to go.

The old Billy had to go to let the new Billy go on living, a life his parents had carefully outlined for him. Wellington's money would not be the plaything for juridical joust, an endless chain of lawsuits spread out by the moral knights of merciless media, creating Wellington's shares to drop like stones and causing his wife to have a serious breakdown.

Tomorrow one of the originals would cease to exist.