After a long day of work, Hans sat in his office, quickly organizing the files from the day, and adding notes here and there. A lab assistant came by with a tall stack of files, silently placing them on the desk, before quietly leaving the room. Hans never even looked up from his work, focused on making the needed adjustments to his patients’ files. Finally, as the bright lights started to dim, signaling the end of the day, Hans broke his focus and started cleaning up.

As he was leaving the room, the patient file on top of the new stack caught his attention. The patient file read; Patient 777 presents symptoms of higher intelligence. 777 resided in the lower Circles until sold by blood sister for a “better life”. The sister is now in the process of becoming a maid, so please make sure to not assign the two to the same Circle. 777 has a lot of questions, but very little fear. The patient has never displayed any anger or violence toward his caretakers. The patient contains a weak build but a very strong mind. Do not underestimate his cunningness. Do not be swayed by his questions, and remove his soul as quickly as possible. Recommended positions - Electrician or Worker. Signed, Head Researcher, Freeman77.

If this wasn’t enough to stop Hans in his tracks, the attached photo made his blood run cold. Staring back at him out of the yellow parchment paper, was a photo of him at age 8. Even though Hans knew it couldn’t be him, the boy looked exactly like him at that age, down to the scar on his cheekbone, mirroring one on Hans’ cheek caused by the glancing blow of a pick from his first rat lobotomy. Questions forced their way into his mind, shattering his perfect control; “How was this possible?”, “Wasn’t cloning illegal?”, “Has someone made a mistake?”, “Was this a stupid prank?”... Hans was overcome with emotion, ranging from anger to fear to grief.