Borrowed

‘It’s like this, Jean-Claude. Xavier is hoovering up information at warp speed and I have a concern about where this is going. At the moment he’s using a borrowed tablet, but at the speed he’s working, if we give him a device of his own, he’ll have all human knowledge in his brain in about a week and a half I should think. And then what?’

There was a long silence at the other end of the line and then Joe heard a lugubrious sigh.

‘I don’t know what to tell you Mr Driver.’

‘Are you still in touch with the other clone - did you say her name was Emma? What’s happened to her?’

‘Emma is toujours linked to our communication channel. She is in a slightly different situation. She is currently in storage and has no access to any information. She thinks the purchasers were so alarmed by the realisation that she was sentient that they repacked her and she is not sure what is happening now.’

‘Oh my gosh, that’s awful. Do you know where she is?’

‘I have the co-ordinates, oui. She is not very far, geographically speaking from where you are. I fear for her continued safety.’

‘I can imagine. And what about the others, I think you said there were about thirty more?’

‘As I mentioned yesterday, I think the others must be lost now. I've heard nothing from them and none have been returned to the depot.’