Sverdlovsk, USSR
November 1985
Despite a series of startling, early successes, Nikolay Suslov’s ten-year program of clone research was stymied. He was frustrated, and to make matters worse, that rodent-looking KGB major was arriving today from Moscow for yet another briefing. The man’s inquisitiveness knew no boundaries, and the KGB’s unreasonable demands on the institute’s ‘product’ strained credulity and stretched Suslov’s own scientific abilities to the breaking point.
Suslov tried to be fatalistic on that point. True, the operational requirements of the KGB presently exceeded the possibilities of known clone science, but the Soviet government was extremely generous with its funding and that moderated Suslov’s exasperation to some degree. Still, Suslov’s ego took a blow when Major Vladimir Putin ridiculed the latest clone prototype and threatened a cutoff in KGB sponsorship of the project. The major’s highly unflattering appraisal of the institute’s progress had instigated a series of high-level program reviews. Suslov was forced to attend a number of tense meetings with the project’s sponsors in Moscow, who were beginning to doubt the wisdom of their investment.
Over the past six months, it seemed that Nikolay had spent more time in Moscow explaining the failure of one clone prototype after another than he did working to solve the technical problems confronting the project. The latest experiment had begun auspiciously enough a year and half before when a foreign exchange student from the Patrice Lumumba Institute in Moscow was abducted briefly during a staged tryst with a KGB ‘lastochka’ in the Turist Hotel Complex on Leninskiy Prospekt in southwest Moscow. A number of DNA samples were taken from the drugged Ugandan graduate student, stored in sterile conditions, and flown that same day to the Institute of Applied Genetics in Sverdlovsk where Suslov and his team of geneticists eagerly awaited the specimens.
Using the proprietary cloning techniques perfected by the institute and employing the Accelerated Embryo Development Technology (AEDT) and In-Vitro Gestation (IVG) procedures conceived and developed by Director Suslov himself, an identical copy of the adult Ugandan student was ‘produced’ outside of the human womb a scant 18 months later. This adult version of the ‘subject’ was an exact copy in every physical detail to the original, something which should have marked the crowning achievement of Suslov’s career.
Instead, the standing ovation which greeted Suslov when the naked clone was unveiled alongside a life-size photograph of the Ugandan student changed abruptly into embarrassed silence and then catcalls and whistles as the clone squatted and defecated alongside the podium where Suslov stood. Clearly, the clones’ intellectual development had not kept pace with his rapid physical growth.
Later that afternoon, Major Putin gave Suslov a tongue lashing, the likes of which Nikolay had not experienced since he was booted out of Young Pioneer Camp #128 at the age of eleven for drinking vodka with his friends.
“So,” the major had begun in a soft voice. “Tell me again why you thought the moment was propitious for me to invite two KGB generals and a CPSU Central Committee member to see this man shit on stage?” When Putin finally got to the word ‘shit,’ his voice reached a shattering crescendo, and Suslov felt his ear drum vibrate and felt the spray of the enraged major’s spittle in his face. The major was not tall, but he was wiry and grabbed Suslov by his lab coat lapels, shaking him like a wayward stepchild.
Suslov trembled and started to explain. “Comrade Major,” he began to stutter. “The challenges of transferring the knowledge and experience of the ‘subject’ to the clone have proven more formidable than we anticipated.”
“That’s not very reassuring, Suslov,” proffered Major Putin. His anger had yet to pass, and his face was red from emotion. “Do you have any idea how you made me look today?”
“Comrade Major,” interrupted Suslov, “Try to understand, please. What we have already achieved is something no geneticist in the West would even believe. We have solved the insurmountable biological challenge of creating a physical adult clone from a single DNA sample in a short period of time. Now we obviously must concentrate our skills on developing the clone’s intellectual capacities and transferring the subject’s knowledge and life experience. A few years ago, we would have laughed at the very suggestion!”
Putin began to calm down. He himself would be the first to recognize the astounding success of the institute in creating human clones. When the major was first briefed on the project and had visited the institute five years before, he had been dismayed at some of the monsters he had seen developing in large translucent ‘in vitro wombs’ suspended from the ceiling in Suslov’s laboratory. His thrill today at seeing an actual identical copy of the ‘subject’ had quickly turned to dismay, though, when the clone unexpectedly grabbed the director’s beeper and tried to insert it into his own rectum. In the end, it had taken three of Suslov’s assistants to subdue the clone and put him in a strait jacket.
Putin was beginning to understand the director’s predicament but wasn’t ready to let him off the hook yet. Nikolay hurried to explain the obstacles confronting his research.
“The problem is that different types of memory are stored in different parts of the brain, Comrade Major, even in different parts of the body. We are developing our own technology to transfer memory and learned skills to the clone via Neurotransmitter Synthesis, a technology we are developing using stem cell implants carrying the subject’s own neural DNA.”
Putin looked at the director impatiently. “So when can I expect a clone that does not have a desire to insert foreign objects into his rectum?”
“Comrade Major, with all due respect, I’ve reported on several occasions that we are still years away from meeting client specifications. This is not a factory assembly line.”
“You may wish you were working on an assembly line if I don’t see some progress next year when I come back. A corrective-labor camp is not a comfortable place to spend a Siberian winter, Suslov. Ponimayesh?”
“I understand, Comrade Major.”
Putin left the director’s office without saying good-bye. He walked briskly through the sterile corridors of the institute toward the exit where a black Volga was waiting to take him to the airport and the two-hour flight back to Moscow. The lab technicians in their white robes glanced at Putin nervously and moved to one side of the corridor. Lost in his thoughts, the major spoke to no one. The institute employees who saw him leave associated his severe expression with the raised voices they had heard emanating from the director’s office. The news about the disastrous clone demonstration had spread quickly through the institute, and people feared for their jobs. Those in management positions feared for their freedom. Failure in a KGB-funded classified project was close to a treasonous offense and sometimes carried a heavy price: long, unpaid vacations in remote destinations.
Major Putin was ambitious, and he was concerned about the possible repercussions on his own career should Suslov’s project eventually prove to be a failure. Vladimir now thought that his decision to accept the position as project liaison officer had been a risky one. Even though his initial connection to the project had been more as a messenger boy, Putin had become enthused with the science-fiction nature of the research and the operational potential of the project. He had drawn up a report detailing a variety of scenarios in which the institute’s clone research could theoretically be utilized. The report had caught the eyes of Vladimir Kryuchkov, Deputy Chairman of the KGB, and Putin’s star began to rise. There was only one catch. In the eyes of the KGB, Major Putin now represented the institute and he would share Suslov’s fate: success or failure.