Harold James Adams was smart beyond his years. To make matters worse for his captors there were nineteen more just like him. Freedom takes on a whole new meaning in this story, can they ever really be free, or is it just an illusion like the life they have lived almost from the start.

(Author's note)... The TG element of the story doesn't show up till well into the story and the main character/s are not directly affected by it. Hope enjoy.

Chapter 1

From the start, my life was all too well thought out for me. I was one of twenty genetically enhanced children that were the first of our kind. When I say ‘our kind' that's not a put down, as if we were better than the average normal person. We were just different.

In truth, the ban on cloning included what the doctors had done to us, but you will see soon enough that the people involved weren't concerned over such trivial things as breaking the law.

Our parents knew before we were born that they would not get to keep us. Also, there was a 50/50 chance that any of us might be born a basket case or completely normal. It was a test to see if man, or men, could evolve beyond what naturally was. The base idea was the genetically enhanced children would produce in like manner as is the case in all of nature.

At birth we were handed over to the people we would identify as our parents. It wasn't the truth, not even the women that gave birth to us were our real moms. They were just women that the Center used to carry us to term.

The Center was not the real name of the place. It was just a name that we, the children, gave it so when we talked everybody would be on the same page.

By the time we were six years old we knew that ten of us were fairly normal. The other ten had a world of problems, some bordering on being psychotic. Even so we were all very healthy and our bodies were developing as normally as any other children on the planet.

We were a matched set. Ten boys and ten girls, half of us normal and half considered a basket case. The normal group was always on full lock down and never allowed to leave the Center. The others were never seen as a threat and often took field trips and came and went almost as their parents pleased.

I was ten years old by the time the reality of all this set in. I could type ninety words a minute on the computer error free. I wrote and designed software, I could hack any computer in a matter of minutes. My hand/eye coordination was off the scale, as was most of the IQ test they gave me.

In the real world, I could have passed myself off as most anybody I wanted to. A doctor, lawyer, some military person, the local mechanic, you name it. I had the knowledge and the skills to pull it off unquestioned. Here is where the ‘Pretender project' was born. My name is Harold James Adams.

This was also about the time I fell in love with Nikki, one of the so-called basket case girls. She had beautiful long blond straight hair and green eyes that sparkled like diamonds. A slender figure and the face of a angel or so far as I was concerned. I told myself had she came out normal like the rest of us that she could have done and had anything she wanted.

By the time we were sixteen it seemed everybody knew about my feelings for Nikki. So when Charles, the man that was actually my handler at the center, approached me about reprogramming her brain like you would a computer, I jumped at the chance to be on the team that explored that.

His reasoning for the project and mine were much different and when the time came, I could manipulate the outcome of the test. By now I knew I would never be allowed to leave the Center. I knew a lot of what went on here was against the law, never mind being very morally questionable.

Just to give you an idea of some of it, as a group we planned tactical assaults for the military. Casualties were the lowest part of the equation. So long as the goal of the mission was a success they cared less how many lives were lost. We planned so many things like this I soon lost count.

I hacked my way into the Center's computers once and found out that they actually used female prisoners as birth mothers to us. I found a lot more than I ever let on that I did and I knew full well what an evil place it was. To them it was all about money and power. Everything else was secondary.

As a group, we mapped and scanned the brains of the ten basket cases, as they were called. Not a term I liked or used often, but that was how they were known. Nikki's brain was as normal as any of us. The chemical makeup of her blood, adrenalin, cerebral cortex fluids, all checked out normal.

When it came time to test our theory that you could use white noise to reprogram the human brain, I urged caution, baby steps was what I called it. In truth, I wanted to do more studies to see and try to fix whatever had gone wrong at the start. The group agreed with me, our task master Charles did not.

Our first patient came to us via the local nursing home. His legs were paralyzed and Alzheimer's had pretty well claimed his memory to the point he couldn't tell what day it was or even his own name. He was in his late seventies and otherwise reasonably healthy.

Five of us from our computer keyboards turned him into a master spy. He would believe he had just turned forty years old and was fully mobile. He would also believe he had been injured on an operation and in the hospital for many years, since that would explain his deteriorated condition. The only memories of his real life that were kept were the simple stuff.

The location of his home, his status with the C.I.A. and the operation that had landed him in the hospital. There was no real family or friends since the man was an orphan and had never married. In truth, there was little, if any, damage we could do. The natural aging process had already done its job. Still, I felt sorry for the man if what we were about to do went wrong.

Ninety percent of the information we were about to put in his head was real and came from a real master spy that had died here of natural causes. We were asked to change two things, specifically. One was to dumb down his ability to feel pain by fifty percent. Two, we gave him all the fighting skills of a master ninja.

We all questioned what we were asked to do. With the pain center that dumb down you could shoot him with a gun and it would seem as if it were a bee sting. Hand to hand combat with a master ninja, that was a no brainer. Nobody stood a chance against him one on one.

It took us three days to make it work in the computer simulated environment. It wasn't that it was all that complicated, we had decided that we could cure the Alzheimer's by altering the brain chemistry. We didn't tell Charles that was the part that was holding us up.

Assuming this test was a success, the man would have a new life, more or less, and be cured all at the same time. Not the goal of the Center for sure, but we were more into the cure than the other stuff.

It took three full grown men to get our subject into the stem bed, as we called it. His legs seemed stuck in the sitting position and there were more than a few signs of arthritis. He groaned in pain the whole time he was being moved.

I said a silent prayer for the man, then slipped the headset over his ears and attached the pads to monitor his brain waves as well as his heart. I loaded the program on the main computer and looked into his vacant eyes. I hit the enter key.

For a split second every muscle in his body went taunt. His heart never missed a beat and I watched as his brain waves were completely changed. The last command in the program was that he would sleep for one hour and then awake as if nothing had ever happened as far as being in the lab was concerned.

He was taken to the Center's hospital and we, that is, the group, waited almost breathless to see if it had really worked. There were four cameras in the room and it was small so every inch was covered. That hour of sleep seemed like a day to us.

He awoke and turned and got out of bed. He walked to the bathroom and took a shower and then trimmed his beard and mustache and combed his hair. He checked out the room thoroughly and found all the cameras and bugs in the room. Guess that was the spy in him coming out right off.

His old boss from the C.I.A. entered the room and it was almost like a family reunion for the first few minutes. He told our subject he had been in a coma and he had to get physically fit enough to pass a basic physical to be active again. Our subject accepted this explanation and was in the gym working out the next day.

In ninety days he passed every test we could throw at him and his boss came to take him away. Yes, if you're wondering, we did cure him or at least so far as the blood tests were concerned.

One success is not a guarantee for further use of what we had discovered. However, I had found out some things that the others were not as yet aware of. One I considered to be a big discovery. Simply put one male and one female in our group were mirror images of each other genetically speaking.

Paul's twin could have been called Paula, Rick's twin called Rachel and so on. Only our mirror images were the group known as the basket cases. A note I found in the Center's files on us said, ‘who better to fall in love with than a mirror image of yourself'. That was what tipped me off and it had happened just as they planned. We were all in love with our mirror image.

The day our first test subject left us I hatched a plan that would free us all. It would take some time for sure, but I felt sure it would work and in the end we, as a group, could expose the Center for who they really were.

At our eighteenth birthday party, and yes, we were all the same age, in one of the few places that had no surveillance, that was the atrium, I ran my idea or plan by the others. They all said yes and were willing to do whatever it took to free our mirror images.

For the plan to work at least one of us had to stay behind and trust that the others once free would get the last person out. Since it was my plan, if it didn't work, I would take the blame and I elected myself to be the one that stayed behind. I, likewise, had to tell the others some rather disturbing news, as well.

The Center had a standing order not to take any life saving measures if any of the basket cases were to die. Worse than that they had instructions to cremate the body as quickly as possible. This would leave no evidence of the experiment and in the end that was the fate of us all.

Charles was the only father figure I had ever known. Clair, his wife, had been my mother, so to speak, and was the V.P. of the center. Her father was the president of the Center and it was intended that she take his place.

Inside the walls of the center Clair was known as a stone cold bitch. She wore something black every day and her favorite thing to wear, as she thought it projected her power, was leather of some kind.

She seemed to always be under a great deal of stress and she had been warned many times that it was taking its toll on her body. I think each time she was told that, she pushed herself even harder.

The group agreed I was the strongest and, as such, I would be the only person that knew in full just what our plan was. They would be suspicions for sure when it all started coming apart. By the time they figured out it was me that was taking them down it would be far too late.

Clair had been on heart medication for five years now. Everybody knew her days were numbered, including her, and I saw how sad that made Charles. This was the door and maybe the key that unlocked it for all of us. In our mental ward there was a woman that, save her blond hair, was the mirror image of Clair. I figured she was a cloning experiment that went bad since she was half Clair's age.

I often worked in the lab long after the others had gone to bed. It was part of my genetic makeup that allowed me to function on less sleep than they did. I was there working away on my plan when Charles came to see me.

"Working late again?" He asked.

"Is there such a thing for me?" I replied.

"Not really," he sighed and paused as if there was more he wanted to say.

"Is something wrong?" I asked. "You seem upset."

"Your mother is in the hospital," he paused again.

"And?" I questioned in a single word.

"They give her a week, ten days tops," he paused, as the tears filled his eyes.

"Her heart?" I asked, as I held back my own tears.

"Yes," he replied and then looked at the floor.

"What if I told you that wasn't a problem?" His head snapped up and he looked at me as if I had insulted him in some way.

"Dying is not a problem?" He looked at me with a stone cold face.

"She has a clone or a twin in the mental ward here in the Center. I know you go down and see her every Friday and spend an hour or two with her. So hear me out," please, I added.

"Clair's heart might be gone and for that there is no cure. But her mind is still there and sharp as ever. We turned a seventy plus year old man into a forty something year old master spy just a few months ago. Who says we can't do pretty much the same with Clair's clone? I paused and watched as the wheels turned in his head.

Charles paced the floor for several minutes with his head down. He had no clue I had already prepared a program that would be added to the new Clair's personality that would help us all escape. All I needed now was permission to copy Clair's brain and reload it into her clone.

Charles stopped at the door, then opened it and asked me to follow him. Like always, I did it without question. We went to see the president of the Center and Clair's father. He invited us in and I could see the tears in his eyes as Charles started to tell him my plan to save Clair.

"You'll do no such thing," Clayton blustered when Charles was done.

"Don't forget you have a twin down there, as well," Charles spoke softly. "He's half your age and when the time comes, we can roll back the clock for you, as well," Charles added.

Clayton just smiled and I knew then his devious mind had seen the light. At some point another clone would allow him to live as long as his genetic material would allow. That could be a very long time to say the least.

"If Clair will agree to it, then I will," he blustered, as if he was still opposed to the idea.

Charles and I went straight to the hospital and like her father at first she said no. Charles convinced her that it was the only way she could live and stay in her place of power. Power was not something she was ready to give up so easily and she agreed.

Charles told me about Clair's twin. She was twenty-five years old, but mentally she hadn't developed enough to even go through puberty. I told him we could induce that and even make her body develop in most any way we wanted.

Chapter 2 The New Clair.

Quietly in the atrium where nobody else could see or hear Charles told me what he wanted. Clair was short and small breasted. Since he was six foot tall he wanted her to be close to his height. He also wanted her to have a bigger bust line, but not really big. I told him that it was possible to make small changes and I would see if I could do it and make it work.

Early that next morning we got a fresh scan of Clair's brain. I wrote in the changes Charles had asked for and ran the simulation for him to see.

For a change, when Charles saw the end results of the new Clair he was vary happy. We talked for several hours after the others were gone. I don't recall him ever being so light hearted as he was that night. "Any other changes you would like me to make?" I asked, realizing his better than normal mood.

"Since the new Clair hasn't undergone puberty as of yet, she has no body hair, can you see to it that she never does?" He asked.

"I can," I replied in sure tone as I started tapping the keyboard.

"How about a little smaller waist and more hips?" He asked.

I changed her B cups to D's and gave her a 34, 24, 35 figure. The computer had to chew on the changes for a few minutes, but the image that popped up was stunning to say the least. At five-foot-eleven with that figure she looked a bit like a goddess to Charles. To achieve that look her ribs had to be bent into a cone shape, Charles loved that as much as the other changes.

"I hesitate to remind you that the new Clair will have all the old memories of the old one," I cautioned.

"I am designing my wife. How many men get the chance to do that," he stated firmly.

Neither of us slept that night and I made a number of changes to the new Clair before he was happy. The last two changes were to me the most interesting. He wanted her to have a real love for stockings and garter belts and an equal hatred for panties. Hey, it was his wife. I made the changes as he requested. I knew some of them would cause problems but he got what he wanted.

He had no clue about my personal additions to her new persona. I would wait and see how his changes affected her and there was a few that I was already considering for the new Nikki when the time came.

A week later Clair died of a massive heart attack. Before we started the procedure for creating the new Clair more changes had to be made. All memories of having a heart problem were erased. The old Clair's body was buried, but without a head stone or name on it. The new Clair would believe she was just waking up from her monthly brain scan.

I was chosen to tell her that at the Center's request her body was being plunged back into puberty. Once she was fully developed she could return to her normal life with Charles at her side. She was not happy to say the least.

Everyone knew about the new Clair before the end of the day. Word was around the center that if she was a success, everybody here would soon be doing monthly brain scans. That was part of my plan and if that happened, we were well on our way to being free.

The old Clair never liked me much. I had written in her program that her feeling for me would be ambiguous. That lasted for about six months. Once she realized all the changes Charles had made in her personality, she rightly blamed me for it. After all, it was my hands on the keyboard no matter who requested the changes.

Her reasons not to like me much were different, but they were there, nonetheless, and there was no getting around that.

She complained bitterly about growing pains in her legs. Never mind that her power suits no longer fit her. Her once thirty inch inseam was now thirty-three inches. Being taller was okay, but till she could update her wardrobe she was stuck with the dresses and skirts that still fit.

When her breasts didn't stop growing at a full B cup, she read me the riot act again. Likewise, when the reality that she wore stockings and garter belts all the time and hated panties. Well, lets just say her dislike for me hit a whole new pitch.

I was watching her closely for other reasons. I was looking for any glitch in the brain wave patterns we had given her. I often saw her nude or nearly nude when she went for her checkups with the Center's doctors. She had zero body hair and Charles was very pleased with that part.

I listened once as she expressed her concerns about her still growing breasts and shrinking waistline. So far it seemed that she hadn't noticed her enlarged clit or the fact that it was much more sensitive than before.

Almost as soon as her periods started, she went on birth control pills. I had expected that she would since Charles had wanted that. The doctor gave up a secret she wasn't supposed to, but at this point there was nothing she could do about it anyway.

"Your puberty will last for eighteen months," she stated in a matter of fact tone.

"So whatever I look like six months from now, is basically what I will look like for the rest of my life?" Clair all but asked.

I saw her cheeks go flush with anger and I knew in a matter of minutes I would catch the brunt of it. As soon as she was dressed and left the doctors office, I called for Charles to come to the lab. Charles was there long enough for us to say hello before she came busting through the door.

She didn't bother with saying hello. She went right into a rant and said things that would have made the hardest old sailor blush with shame. Charles had to stand between Clair and I, as she was so upset she would have hurt me if she could.

Eventually, he wrestled her into a chair and then sat straddling her to keep her there. I sat on my stool at the computer and tried to act busy as they talked.

"Clair, you have to stop and remember who you are. Remember all the times you wished you were taller, now you are. Remember wanting a better figure, now you have it. Harold did nothing to you that I didn't allow and what I did allow was all the things you said you had wanted over the years," he paused as her eyes went blank as if she was checking her memory for the things he had said.

"It's true," she spoke in a calm tone. "Over the years I did tell you I wanted all the things that are happening to me now. But that was a fantasy!" She all but screamed.

"Yes," Charles said in a loving tone. "I made your fantasy a reality. I thought it would make you love me more," he said with tears in his eyes.

I felt the tension in the room crack and then the tears began to pour from Clair's eyes.

"You're still the woman I have loved all my life," Charles said through his tears. "And now you're all the more what you wanted to be."

For the next few weeks Clair was not allowed to come to my lab. Charles had given her all she ever wanted and now that she had it, she still wasn't pleased. He once said to me that he felt there was nothing that could really make her happy. Right now I could not disagree with that statement.

When her puberty cycle ended, she very calmly walked into my lab one day and asked that worse question she ever could have. I would have to lie now and worst of all I was not good at it.

"Why?" She asked pointing to herself. "Why all of this," she added before I could reply.

"You and Charles are the only father and mother I have ever had. Did you think I would stand by and watch you die while I had the means to safe you?" I stated flatly.

"We're not your parents. Your life here, this place, all of it is nothing but one big lie. Each lie more elaborate that the last. My death was my chance to escape this hell and you stole it from me," she started to cry.

"Then stop feeling sorry for yourself and help us all escape this hell," I stated still shocked to hear her say what she had.

"All who?" She huffed. "None of you have the skills to live outside the Center," she added.

"But we could have them," I gestured palms up at the computer. "Look at the new you in the mirror and then tell me it's not possible," I added with a hinting tone.

I saw the sparks fly in her memory. I had opened the door for her to walk through, now if she did what I had placed in her mind to do soon all of us would be free.

Chapter 3 Success and complications.

Clair had turned out just as Charles and I had programmed her to. That success started a never ending line of Center employees coming to my lab. That included the President and his personal staff.

Clair's distaste for me was well known throughout the Center and for all to know that never changed, not even for a second. Now, with all the employee engram's and memories stored on computer hard drives the possible traits and abilities I could give any of the basket cases seemed endless.

Since it was long ago decided that I would stay to the very last my mirror image would be the first to go. Clair had taken the suggestion I planted in her mind as her own and setup a safe house that each of us would use for six months. Time enough for the Center to forget about us.

Via the computer I gathered up all of the better traits each of the employees had. Everything from personal grooming to character traits was covered in that program. A second program covered martial arts skills and enough stuff from our master spy program to help them live below the radar till they could establish an ID they could use in the real world.

We each worked on programming our mirror images puberty, as it were. They would all go through puberty of some sort and that was the time to make any real changes. For the most part none of them made any real changes to their mirror image.

I took my cues from Charles and much of the stuff we had done to Clair I likewise programmed into Nikki's file. She would have my IQ and a great many of my skills, especially, when it came to computers. Like Clair she would be tall and well built, but like me she would be much smarter than most of her peers.

Writing the time release part of the program was the hardest part. Once I had transferred it all to her brain she would die. Not really, but for a few moments everybody would believe she was. That would get her a one way ticket to the morgue. One of the places where there was no security at all. From there she could and would escape and be long gone before anyone was the wiser.

After Clair told me about the cabin she had set up and the money she had hidden away for each of us to escape, I erased that from her memory. She would be fully aware when the escape happened, but have no memory of her part in it. That assured me she couldn't send the Center's goons to bring her back.

Routines at the Center were few and far between save one. Once each month Clair took us all outside and gave us the tour of the grounds. Once Nikki was programmed, when she got her monthly walk outside, she would die. That would set everything else in motion. Till then there would be no changes in her for the Center to notice. When Clair left her to get help, they would find her dead, she would be taken to the morgue, awake and just walk away. She would instantly know what to do and where to go.

Just in case your wondering, our little walk outside was to expose us to real sunlight. Your body cannot use or process vitamin D without it and that was the only reason they did it.

I had a back door in the Center's computers now and Nikki had that information, as well. In six months she would contact me from a public computer so it didn't lead back to her location if we were caught. I had to believe that I might be playing right into the Center's hands by doing this. Still it was a chance I had to take and it went off without a hitch.

March twenty-second was the last time I saw her and I gave her a kiss on the cheek before she left with Clair for her walk outside. The deed was done now. I might had sentenced her to death and in the same tone I might have given her freedom. I did give her the free will choice not to help the rest of us escape. I felt that was only fair.

I watched in the security cam as she fell over dead just a few feet out the door of the Center. Clair ran for help, but the only help she got was to watch her body zipped into a body bag and taken away.

If she escaped from the morgue, the Center would not tell us. They had worked long and hard to make us believe there was no way to escape, period. No way would they allow us to know if she had pulled it off. It was the longest six months of my life waiting for the day she would contact me.

Then on the day six months later, exactly, she contacted me. Her first words brought tears to my eyes.

"I'm here to help," suddenly appeared on the screen. She made it and I was overcome with joy that she had.

"Need more bodies to make the plan work, send the next one ASAP," she typed on the screen.

"Coming soon," I replied and logged off before security could catch us.

Chapter 4 The beginning of the end.

Two escapes a year meant I was here for another ten years. Unless the ones that escaped got brave and figured another way to take down the Center or at least break us out. As a group, we decided to follow that rule of women and children first.

Ann Marie escaped the same way Nikki had the next day. Nikki contacted me long enough for me to know she had made it to safety, but urged caution as the Center was sure to catch on if bodies kept coming up missing.

From the atrium I listened to a full on verbal fight that Charles and Clair had with Clayton. They accused him of taking the two dead girls before we even had the chance to mourn for them. He admitted that he had the bodies taken away the same day they died, but that was all he would say. I had tampered with his memory just a bit.

Everything he said to them was a lie. I could read his face like a book. Now, he wondered what had really happened to the bodies. It was Clayton that had signed the bodies out, but as to where they were taken and why, nobody knew that part. And he wasn't about to admit they had escaped.

One by one all of our mirror images died and so far they had all done well on the outside. They were all in contact with each other and together working on a plan to get us out of this place.

I quietly programed all the others and myself with the skills we would need to live on the outside. They didn't have the plan fully ready to go, but Nikki assured it could happen any day. Having the knowledge and skills to live on the outside made the rest of us want our freedom even more.

Clair had become rather happy with the new person she had become ‘so to speak'. Charles was happier still when her bodies chemical makeup settled into what was now considered normal. When Charles brought me his clone and asked for Clair to have the same access to his new persona just as he did, I was shocked. This was not normal behavior for him at all.

Two days later Clair came to my lab and I had to ask the question.

"Is there something wrong with Charles, is he dying?" I added.

"Of course not," Clair scoffed.

"Then why bring his clone to life, as it were," I stated.

"With your help he created me. Now it's my turn, after all it's only fair don't you think?" She smiled.

The new Charles would have a much higher IQ. An extra inch added to his manhood and a more muscular build that he would work on in the gym from time to time. A full head of hair, something he had almost never had. And last but not least, he would see to it that Clair became a stay at home wife.

That last one told me just maybe they had planned an escape, as well. If they had I would be proud for them and hoped it worked and soon. I felt sure any day our escapees would be back to set the rest of us free.

I loaded the program and hit the button. In a matter of just a few seconds the new Charles was up and walking around. Clair talked to him for a few minutes and most of it I didn't get to hear. Almost as quick as he came to life, he was back to the shell he had been. Now, I was really concerned that something was up.

I had already planted a virus that would erase all the work we had done here the first time anyone accessed it. Start to finish the erase would take less than a minute, all they had to do was try to crack my password and it was over. I logged off the system every night and nobody knew my password. Likewise, if the system went inactive, you had to have my password to start it again.

Clair gathered us all up in the atrium one day and told us should something happen that we had to leave the building there would be two mini vans in the parking lot and we should get in them as soon as possible. Charles would drive one and she would drive the other. She almost got caught passing us the information and in my mind I knew the time was close. I figured, as well, that she and Charles were somehow going to help us get away.

A week later an explosion rocked the building. As flames leaped from the air vents, I logged off the computer system and headed for the stairs that would get me out of the building. In all my time here we had never done a single fire drill and people were panicking right and left. As security cleared each floor, the doors were locked. Anybody left behind was dead.

I stood in the parking lot for several minutes watching the blaze use the air shafts like a chimney. As soon as the group was accounted for, we made our way to the vans. Buses were coming from the underground parking area for the others and I was surprised that one was already full of patients from the hospital. The new Charles broke free and came to check on us. Security followed him and as soon as he got in they shot at him through the window.

Clair used her van to run them down and the new Charles took the now dead, old Charle's place. Police and fire were on their way, but we couldn't wait to see if the Center survived or not. This was our chance at freedom and it was now or maybe never.

About ten miles away we pulled into a well crowded shopping mall. Our ten mirror images were there and we all left save Clair and Charles. They were going back to the center, it was up to us to get them out. Clair kissed me on the cheek and left us to get going.

This was not an event the Center could control. With the police and fire came the news reporters and Clayton finally gave one of them a few short words that they called an interview. An overloaded generator had started the fire and the natural gas it ran off of had fueled it after it started. Everyone was present and accounted for so there was no loss of life.

I knew then, I saw it in his eyes. How masterfully his manipulation of people and events had brought about the mission statement that had started this whole chain of events.
My bet was he had some of the Center's goon take away the bodies of the dead security guards.

It was the goal of the program that twenty couples be created and genetically enhanced. Once their allegiance to the center was well established they would be given their freedom to live among society and have children. Each generation sharing all the qualities of the parents. In his personal notes I had read that the plan went sideways when our ‘mates turned out to be fruit cakes,' or so he called them.

We or I, in fact, had played right into his hands, but then I knew something he didn't. It's true, in a manner of speaking, that we were all hard wired to love our mirror image. Thing was together we could never have children. Outside of our group it was very possible, but then that wasn't very likely to happen. None of us could even bear the thought of cheating on our mates.

In the five years Nikki had been out and free, she had amassed a small fortune and a week later we moved to Hawaii. Nikki and I both wanted Charles and Clair out of the center and together we plotted just how we would do it.

From a cafe with wireless Internet service I sent Clayton an E- mail. I had known about his private account for years. In short, I told him about the virus I had left behind and the damage it could cause. Moreover, the only way I would allow him to have any access to the data was if he put Clair and Charles on a plane to Hawaii in the next twenty-four hours. They would be able to leave there with anything they wanted or claimed as a personal possession.

Clair and Charles had suffered just as much as we had. To Nikki and I they were like our parents and the real Charles had given his life to set us free. They had the right to be free just as surely as we did.

I had left Clayton no out, the risk was far less than the reward. And if he tried to hold his ground and break my password, one wrong move and it was all over. It wasn't an empty threat. He knew I had the knowledge and skills to do it.

Two days later Charles and Clair landed in Hawaii. It was so cool to see just how much mom and daughter looked alike. Charles knew right off what I had done, but to his credit he never said so.

With the access codes that Charles brought out of the Center with him, I gained control over the system and removed all the data that allowed the stem chair to function. All the profiles I had created were left there save the ones that were personal to us. That is all twenty of us.

If he wanted to create another Clair and Charles that was fine by them so we left theirs there. It would take many years to reverse engineer what we had done and a whole new batch of kids to do it with. I wasn't concerned that it would happen in Clayton's lifetime or ours for that matter.

When I was done, I removed the virus and E-mailed him my password. I am sure he was stunned to find out it was his own name. He answered back almost the same day huffing and puffing about how I had set back his project fifty years by taking out the data for the stem chair.

In kind, I replied and told him there was nothing in our deal that kept me from going public with what I knew about the Center and his attempt to build a master race. That was exactly what I was prepared to do if I ever even got wind he was trying to do it again.

A year or so later the Center's owners and founders tapped Clayton to start the project over. He refused and they assassinated him the same day. Clayton was nobody's fool. He knew a losing hand when he saw it.

His successor tripped the virus I had planted in Clayton's personal accounts. I already knew his will left everything to Clair, but by now the money he had stolen from the Center was all that was left. Clair and Nikki suddenly had fifty mill each wired into their accounts offshore. That was money that would never be found by the Center.

For the moment we all breathed a sigh of relief. Who knew what the man that took Clayton's place might do or try to do. He might even send the goons from the Center to pick us up. Right now, seeing Nikki and Clair wearing bikinis that would bring tears to your eyes was good enough for me.

A month later a really big man came looking for us. Angry ex- marine type from the looks of his hair cut and ill fitted suit. He was very polite at first and called us all by our real names. He never said what his name was. He did tell us we had worked hard for our freedom and the powers that be were content to let us have it.

There was just two things that he or the company, as he called, them needed to tidy up. One was the matter of some missing company funds and the other was the operation program for the stem chair.

Nikki offered him a drink and since we were all being friendly he took it without suspicion. Then he turned a little ugly.

"The last thing I want to do is harm anyone, but I have orders to do whatever is necessary to get what the company sent me after. Now who is going to tell me what I need to know?" He said, as he took the gun from under his jacket.

Thankfully, he didn't get the chance to use it before he blacked out from the drugs in the drink. I swiped his I-Phone and used some spyware I had made for the C.I.A. and got all the data off his phone. I even got all the pictures he had tried to erase.

I took a picture of him with my digital camera and ran it through every criminal data base I could access. Wayne Morton was the name the computer spit out and he was wanted for several mob related hits and had some drug charges he needed to answer for, as well.

I put the wanted poster issued by the F.B.I. in his jacket and then we drove his car to the local police station and left him there. Of course, we called and told the police he was parked outside and not ready to really put up a fight. He was arrested and it made the news big time.

In the meantime, Charles and I were sifting through the data we had taken from his cell phone. There were five phone numbers tagged as HQ. One was in Philadelphia and we knew that was the Center where we had been, so it seemed there was at least four more.

One number was tagged as an ICE number and we knew that ICE was In Case of Emergency, so we decided that number was the person he answered to.

Finding us was easy enough. Charles and Clair had been sent here by Clayton, so it was just a matter of some simple checking around to find out just where we were staying. We decided it would be wise to move and the next day with new and complete ID's Nikki and Clair left us.

We found an eighty acre estate in Texas that was in foreclosure and Nikki made a cash sale bid on it. It took some doing, but they finally accepted the offer and now we had a new place to live.

The only thing we really took from our home in Hawaii was the computers. Charles and I boxed them up then had them sent air freight to our place in Texas. It took two weeks to get settled in and then we had what you might call a planning session.

We couldn't keep making waves with the Center and expect that they would leave us alone. We had but one choice and none of us really liked it. We had to figure out a way to destroy them from the inside. That meant doing things none of us wanted to do, there was a good chance innocent people could be hurt or killed. None of us wanted that.

When I suggested that we take whoever they sent after us next and turn them into an agent for us, they knew what I was talking about.

"You're talking about making another stem chair," Clair said wide eyed.

"That's not a good idea," Charles spoke next.

"I like that better than having to do it ourselves," Nikki piped in.

"And what if they manage to get it away from us. What do you think they would do with it?" Clair stated.

"That's a possibility we have to face, but I can always sabotage the computer system like I did before in case that happens," I replied.

"It's settled then, we build another stem chair and we take them down from the inside once and for all," Charles stated.

We had covered our move as best we could, but we all knew it was just a matter of time till they found us again. I started that night getting together the components I would need for the new chair. Most of the parts I ordered online through an account one of the others had set up. Of course we warned all of them that we were being hunted.

It took me three months to get the stem chair ready for a trial run. Now we needed a subject to try it on.

At one of the local nursing homes, Nikki found the perfect subject. A young oriental girl who had brain and spinal cord injuries from a car accident that had killed her parents. Her only relatives were in Red China and told the nursing home they wanted nothing to do with the daughter of a defector. She had a few weeks to live, maybe, two months at best.

We sent Clair in as an assistant administrator at the nursing home. Charles and Nikki went to work for the ambulance company they used and the plan was set. I made a device that I gave to Clair that would create a nice hiccup in her heart monitor. They would call an ambulance to take her to the hospital and Charles and Nikki would bring her here.

They would later find the ambulance abandoned and bloody from a shoot out type of deal and assume that China had come to claim one of their own. The lack of bodies would be suspicions, but the case would be closed quick enough.

First we scanned her and copied all of her original memories. We found the brain damage, too, but that was minor considering the spinal cord damage. Her brain would heal itself over time, but the nerve damage was questionable.

Just to get her body functional again it would take an extensive reroute of many of the nerves from her waist down. There was a real chance her body would reject the new impulses on nerves not accustomed to what they were supposed to do.

We had already collected all the information on her we could get our hands on. If it worked, we would show her what had happened and how. Then she could choose to stay with us and live a long happy life or I could undo the process and she would die. That might not sound very nice but for all the world to know she was missing and presumed dead.

With the program written and tested I hit the button and we all crossed our fingers just for luck. In a matter of just a few minutes she was up and about as if nothing had ever happened. A little scared at first, but we had expected that.

Emotionally she was all over the place as we showed her all the video files and news clippings we had on what had happened up to the point of her being here. She cried over the loss of her parents and cussed her family in China that had abandoned her and so on it went.

We had lunch and let her emotional state come back as near to normal as it would.

"What now?" She asked.

"We want to make you an offer, you can refuse and none of us will hold it against you. We will have to return you to the nursing home and allow nature to take its course. Still the decision is up to you," I stated. "First we need to know a few things," I added.

"Such as?" She asked.

"What were your plans for the future, or had you really made any?" I asked.

"Well, I have done some modeling already and while I did enjoy it, I know I won't be tall enough to follow that as a profession later on. You will think I am just being a silly girl, but my other love is acting. And more to the point there are several porn stars that I really like. I know they make great money having fun, too, so I was considering that area," she paused.

"Well, let's see if you like the offer," I paused to make sure she was listening.

"First, you stay here with us for one year. That will give your body time to heal and maybe recover from the accident. Second, once you have officially been declared dead, we will create for you a whole new identity. You will stay here and attend college which I will make very easy for you and you can study acting. Once you graduate, we will help you get started out and on your own," I paused.

"And just what does all this ‘help' cost me?" She asked.

"This house is huge and we need a maid. Likewise, if you are the maid, nobody questions you being here. On the day that you leave us all memories of your time here will be erased." I stated.

"When do I start?" She asked with a big smile.

"Right now," I replied, as I took her hand and headed for the computer room.

Since she was still in the stages of puberty, I told her we could design her body at least to some degree. She wanted to be taller and have a good bust line. Smaller waist and modest hips were a plus, too. She confided in me that she was very modest when it came to nudity. Not a good thing for a girl who wanted to get into the porn industry. She also had a really hard time with high heels, another thing she wanted to fix.

The list of things we changed was sizeable, but all of it was geared towards reaching her goal of being a porn star. She soon got tired and wanted to sleep so Nikki showed her to the servant's quarters downstairs.

A lot of what I did on the computer was to make her think and feel just the reverse of what she had been. I wrote a subroutine that would have her immune system working night and day to repair her spinal cord, as well as the brain damage.

In the end, her body would look much like Nikki and Clair. And, yes, I programmed out the body's natural ability to grow body hair. I gave her a well above average IQ that would make college a breeze. I worked really hard on her motor functions and gave her that love for stockings and high heels. In the end, I surmised that her programming was far more sexy than either Nikki or Clair. That was what she wanted and that was what she got.

That night I hit on a idea that up till now had never crossed my mind. When Nikki and I laid down that night in bed, I asked about what and how she felt when she first awoke outside the center and on her own.

"At first I thought I was you and the Center had played a trick on me putting my brain in a girl's body. It was quite a shock. The first time I looked in the mirror I was really shocked. The longer I was at the cabin I began to realize I was not you. There was a lot of you floating around in my head, but I was not you."

"Once I had my new ID and left the cabin for the real world, so to speak, I realized just who I really was and what I had to do. My own personality began to evolve and while I still felt like a man trapped in a girl's body at times, I knew that was just the memories of you. It's not an issue now since I know who I really am," she added.

I wondered to myself if there was a nightmare worse than being a man trapped in a woman's body or vise versa. I didn't ponder it too much, I cuddled up to Nikki and went off to sleep.

The next day around lunch time I loaded the program I had written for China, as we called her, and ran the simulation so she could see the end results. She was pleased and I warned her that I had never done such an extensive rewrite so we might have to make some adjustments as we went. She was fine with that, as well, so she laid on the bed and I loaded the new China.

When she awoke, she said she felt no different than before. She did have a tingling sensation in her low back and I told her that was her body trying to repair the nerve damage caused in the wreck. I sat her down at the computer and directed her to a web site that had all the information for training a proper maid. With her increased memory capacity and learning ability she absorbed it like a sponge.

In the meantime, Nikki and Clair were on a mission of sorts. They were shopping for China, since women generally love to shop it wasn't hard to get them to do it. I'm sure the super sexy stuff China had asked for was probably a bit hard to find, but I was sure they would get it for her.

For the most part she was healthy now, but she still lacked stamina having been in the nursing home as long as she had. After dinner the girls went downstairs and sorted out her new wardrobe.

Charles and I sat on the deck and made a loose outline for our plan to take down the Center. They would send people to find us, that was a given. We had the means to turn them to our side, but it had to be seamless for it to work. If they got any indication they were working for us, it was all over right then.

The headman or the person we had decided was the headman lived in Japan. He was well protected by their version of the mob, so getting to him would be hardest of all. The other Centers were located around the world. Russia, Japan, Australia, and Brazil, the one here was still under renovation.

Mr. Norie was how he was known. He had a son he was grooming to take his place and he was very proud of him. He often used him as a muscleman in Japan, but so far he had never left the country. His wife was dead and he and the son were very close. Using family is always an easy way to get someone to cooperate.

The next day China was bouncing around the house like she owned it. She had on a pair of sheer black stockings, a black with white trim pair of high heels. A black shelf bra with white trim and black and white hair scrunches for her twin pigtails. And that was all she had on, trust me, she was quite an eyeful. I wondered then if I had lowered her modesty level just a touch too low.

When she wasn't working on the house, she was in the pool nude, I might add. Or she was in the gym we had set up in part of the basement. It didn't take long for her body to respond and soon she was really starting to look healthy again.

Two months had passed since we fixed up China and now we had a visitor. He was Japanese for sure and we wondered if maybe this was the headman's son. He was trying that same friendly approach like last time, but had already let us know he was not alone. We knew about the goon squad he had left in the car. We had cameras all over the place.

Nikki fixed him one of her special drinks and he took it. As soon as he passed out, Clair went out to get the goons with him to come and take him away. As soon as they were in the house, we overpowered them and locked them all in the basement of the guest house. They would not escape, we had fixed it just for such a purpose.

When our Japanese friend awoke he started shouting and making a fuss about who he was and the power his family had. We stood by and let him rant till he was done. We hadn't asked him a single question and already we knew this was the headman's son. The plane ticket in his coat pocket told us he was set to return home tonight.

He wasn't much older than China so I clipped out all the puberty changes and then loaded the program I had already written for our friend.

He would return to his home and plant a computer bug for me that would tell me everything the man was doing. His body would start to change into that of a female, but I did not give him any desire to be one. When the program had run its course, he would tell his father that we had done this to him and we would do much worse if he sent anyone else after us. He would have no memory of finding us or what and how it all happened.

That done, Clair took him and the rental car back to the airport and sent him on his way. Now we still had four rather small oriental men locked up in the guest house to deal with. We were talking about what to do with them when China walked in.

She suggested that her work load would be much lighter with some help. She was starting college soon and that would require a lot of study and time. She still wanted time to swim and work out in the gym, too.

"Maybe they can become a carbon copy of me," she smiled and left the room.

We were all just looking at each other kind of thinking about what she said when she turned and came back in.

"I think Charles and Clair would be much more comfortable in the guest house and they would have more privacy. With a couple of maids to keep the place clean and tidy that would be a snap," she added and then left again.

We actually had two, one close to the main house and another out by the main gate. The one by the gate had its own pool and was fenced off so it was very private. Charles and Clair had talked about moving into it, but so far as I knew they hadn't decided.

If we turned those men into female maids, they were all for the idea and even Nikki liked the idea.

The next day China and I sat down at the computer and since her skills were getting better I asked her to help me.

"What would you change if you could?" I asked.

"For those guys I would pull out all the stops," she smiled and took hold of the mouse.

"Double D cups at least in the boob department. I would force their ribs inward like the women of the Victorian era that wore corsets all the time. Give them a somewhat overly plump bottom and no modesty at all."

"Is that all?" I asked.

"Well, not really," she paused.

"I'm giving you a free hand," I stated.

"At some point I would want them to have the desire for the operation to really become a female. After all, when I am done here, you already said I was free to go. This way you would still have me in a way, maybe even four of me," she smiled. "I would program the puberty thing to happen in double time, too. That way they don't have the chance to question it," she added.

China and I made the changes in the program and I left enough of their memories in tact for them to be tormented with every change their body went through. Start to finish the program would last for nine months. At that time they would all but beg for the operation and we would let them have it. They got a lot of China's cheery personalty and a ton of girl overboard.

We drugged their food and water that night and when they awoke the next morning, China started training them right then. She was a task master and then some.

I got data every day from the bug the son had planted for me. I knew in some detail about every operation the center had on the books. The son was already showing female traits and the father was more than just worried. The family doctor could find nothing wrong with him, save his body chemistry was turning him into a woman.

The father was actually considering setting him up to be killed and letting someone else take his place when the time came. I didn't want to see the young man killed so I decided it might be time to make a phone call and see if the father was ready to fold his hand.

I bought a pay as you go phone and didn't register it. I activated it and planned to use it just once and then throw it in the river. Water and mother nature would do the rest.

He had been home for about six months now and the guest he had left behind with us, well, they were turning out to be real cute and real quickly, too.

I made the call around noon, Japan time. When the father answered the phone I told him I was Harold James. He went into an absolute fit for the first few minutes and then having said whatever, he calmed down and started speaking really good English.

"I know about your son. I am the reason it's happening. You have a choice to make, sir. I can stop your son from turning into your daughter, but you have to close down all four of the other Centers and stop the repairs on the other one.

"You did this to my son to get to me," he huffed.

"Well, of course, if I can do it to him, whose to say I can't do it to you, as well. I'm sure you wouldn't want that," I smiled.

"I will send you my son first and you undo whatever you did. Then I will close it all down," he stated, as if he were still in charge.

"No, you don't understand. In about another three months the damage to your son will be irreversible. You're not in charge any more, you close down and walk away, then I fix your son. You can call this number when you have decided," I stated.

I hacked into the C.I.A. mainframe and added the sons name to their watch list. Two weeks later, as he was running from one doctor to the next looking to find out what was wrong with him, they caught him. He gave up all the information the C.I.A. needed to raid all the centers. They cared less about the information on the computers inside the buildings they just blew the whole place up. Of course, to cover their own butts they let the son go before they did.

The father called me now with just a month left to go.

"Are you happy now?" He asked.

"I am very pleased to see you have lost the centers," I stated with a smile.

"Now, you fix my son...now," he huffed.

"Give him the phone," I said, politely.

"Hello," he said in a soft rather cute voice.

I put the phone I had over the speaker and sent the white noise that would erase the puberty program. I knew he would pass out and he did.

"Now, he is dead," the old man yelled.

"No, just asleep for a few minutes, he will wake up and be fine in no time at all," I replied, still smiling away.

He ended the call and I threw the phone in the river right then.

China was just two weeks for her first day in college when I sent the others off to have the final operation. Before they returned they each would personally survey the sites where the centers had been located. I wanted to make sure they were destroyed or at the very least damaged beyond repair.

When they came back, we had four very happy smiling girls. They had more than a few aches and pains, but I could and did take care of that. With their pain centers dumb down they had no problems wearing the harnesses China had designed to hold their stints in place almost around the clock.

They all spoke perfect English and they all, likewise, reported that the sites where the Center's had been were well destroyed.

Charles and Clair quickly moved to the gate house. I knew Charles and Clair well enough to know the two maids that went with them would very seldom be fully dressed. On the rare occasion, they might find themselves dressed as French maids at best. They didn't trust that what we had done would last long term. It's rather hard to hide a weapon on a nude body, too.

The two that stayed with us were allowed to dress as they pleased. Nikki and I made no hard and fast rules about that. Most of the time they dressed much like China had at the start. It wasn't hard to get accustomed to seeing them semi- nude most of the time. They were actually very pretty.

For the moment, the danger had passed, but Nikki and I were all but sure it wasn't over. The head man may have lost the Centers, but his desire to see us dead for causing that, that was something we were pretty sure was still in tact.

Charles and I had already talked about that very thing. None of us were prepared to give up our genetically enhanced bodies. While on the other hand, a dead body was the only sure way out of danger. Any idea we came up with had dead bodies in it one way or the other. We were not like the Center, we cared very much about casualties.

Chapter 5 The end results and the means

Once China was out and on her own, she regarded Nikki and I as good friends. That was fine by us and she had no real memories of just what and how we had fixed her up or even the time she spent with me designing our current maids. She was like a twenty-four hour ray of sunshine around here and we were sad to see her go.

All of us that had escaped the Center were still getting death threats. Nikki and I got more than anybody, as we were seen as the masterminds behind the mass exodus, as well as the loss of the other Centers. We just couldn't find a plan that we all agreed on that didn't involve someone getting killed.

Finally, I laid out the plan that I had saved for last. Even I didn't like it, but it seemed the least severe of them all.

"All over the U.S. there are people with otherwise healthy bodies wasting away from some mental deficiency. The way I see it we can get a couple of them and make them over into the same people we are and then allow them to be killed. Or,...we can create our own goon squad and send them to Japan to take out the top man and his son," I paused.

"So two dead bodies here or two plus dead bodies over there." Clair restated it in short.

"How about a somewhat different approach to that same idea," Charles spoke next.

I saw the lights come on and Clair turned to look at Charles face to face.

"We already have four healthy bodies here and with some of their memories restored they could probably walk right in and take out only the targets," Clair smiled.

"That might work, but it would take some time to remove the other parts of their memories of being men," Nikki spoke up quickly.

"This is true, but not impossible and as men they were here to kill us if it came to that," I added.

"Then it's settled, Nikki and I will rework their programs and we will just send the goon squad home to do our dirty work," I stated.

We all agreed and then Nikki and I headed for the computer room and started the rewrite process. It would take a while to do it and in a way we would be sad to see them go. Nikki and I pondered the idea of some way to save them and bring them back here to us so they would be safe. The desire to preserve life at all cost seemed to be bred into us.

The two smaller ones got master ninja skills and the larger two got Navy seal training. All their knowledge of Japan and the places where the boss might hide out or was known to stay were also given back to them. In short, we programmed them into a four woman black op's team. We almost had to force ourselves to do it, but just to insure they accomplished the mission we turned their pain center nearly off.

The time needed for their manmade vagina to heal had long since passed and having had the harnesses and stints in place almost around the clock they were all quiet capable of having sex and enjoying it. As soon as they had healed, I had put their pain centers back to normal and the stints and harnesses were discarded. Changing it again didn't feel right, but we saw it as necessary. We set it so they would plan and execute the mission together and once it was done they would all return here to safety.

Once they were on the plane and headed home, all memories of what they had done would automatically be erased along with all the skills we had given them. They would, basically, be our maids returning home from a vacation.

It took three months to get all the coding done and none of us were happy when we put them on the plane bound for Japan. There was a very real chance none of them were coming back.

I found a Japanese news site on the web that was translated into English. Every day now we watched the news to see if they had accomplished their mission. Of course, there was a real chance that it would not make the news at all, but still, we watched just in case it did. The round trip tickets were good for one month.

Nikki was watching the live feed from the cameras at the airport where they would catch their flight home. She was pretty good at spotting faces even at a glance.

Then two days before the plane tickets were to expire, Nikki spotted them catching a plane to come home. In a way, we were happy and in another way, a bit unsure, as there was no news as to Mr. Norie's death.

Charles and Clair picked them up at the airport and they seemed all too happy to be back here. They quickly began to speak in English and with no other way to know we asked them what had happened to the mission they were on.

In short, they had decided it would be better to give the police enough information on our target for him to be arrested and jailed for life. That was the backup program Nikki and I had written in. If they used that plan, their memories were not erased.

The next day after they were home the man and his son were arrested. And his cartel, along with almost all the members, we, likewise, arrested and charged. His whole house of cards had dropped on his head.

We got the girls together and asked them how they did it.

One had posed as a hooker to get close to the main man. He didn't date in the normal way, he had his son pick a girl off the streets for him and they already knew that. When the man went to sleep, they raided his computer and copied enough files to give the police a reason to search his place and then left to come back here.

I asked what I thought was the ultimate question. All of you were home, Japan is your native land. Why come back here, you had your freedom to go anywhere you wanted and the money to do it.

There accents were thick again after being in country for most of a month. The answer they gave us made sense, too, if you think about it for a moment. Life here as your maid is far better than life there would ever be, one of them put it clearly.

I guess sometimes, as Americans, we forget just how well we live stacked against the way it is in other countries. The death threats stopped and with no loss of life. That made Nikki and I, along with nine other couples, all too happy.

I guess it's all too easy to get caught up in building ones own security. And that is a good way to lose sight of the things that mean the most in life. I suspect no one born here in the U.S. would think it was a step up and be happy to be a maid. We have four very happy young ladies that would disagree with that line of thinking. .......The end.