*  *  *  *  *

There was proof the woman was not human, Sabrina thought as she watched the woman's hand heal.  Except she bled bright red blood, not blue or yellow, which would have been more telling.

"Ferd said I was immune to viruses.  He was quite stimulated when he said I couldn't catch the 'common cold.' His heart rate went up to ninety.  Evidently my hearing is also excellent."

"Did Ferd say why he made you?"  Sabrina asked.

"To be a new offshoot of mankind and to obey.  But I'm not an offshoot of man.  I am a descendent of woman.  You specifically."

"Right,"  Sabrina said, and smiled genuinely for the first time since waking up in the tanning salon.  "The concept that mankind came from women first is one that many find hard to accept."

"Why?"

"It's like the chicken and the egg.  Which came first.  One religion teaches that the first woman was made from a man's rib."

"The egg came first.  And I read about the rib.  It must be a myth because the theory does not seem very probable, although I had the capacity to be either man or women.  But Ferd had to use a whole person, not a rib, to make the body."

"Tell me about your life."

"Mine? My purpose is to be an offshoot."

"I want to know all about you,"  Sabrina said.  "But first let's name you."

"What will we name me?"

Sabrina had already decided on the name.  "Eve."

"I understand."

"You're the first of your kind, Eve,"  Sabrina said, and without thinking held up her tea cup for a toast. 

"I can smile, too,"  Eve demonstrated with a big grin.  She looked very charming to Sabrina, even knowing she must resemble Eve when she smiled.

"But,"  Eve continued, the smile instantly vanishing, "I don't feel smiles.  Or sads."

"No emotions?"  Sabrina asked.

"Ferd said I would function in a superior manner intellectually, since I do not have feelings or emotions."

"You won't have much fun,"  Sabrina said.

"I don't think I will have fun, either,"  Eve stated flatly.  "And because my body is based on yours, the hormones necessary to make my body function will eventually affect the brain."

It sounded like a dire event from Eve.

"Then you will have emotions?"

Eve nodded.  "Ferd said I was not a fail-safe experiment, but he could not make the body function without hormones.  He said eliminating peripheral pain receptors was easy, but making the body work without hormones was impossible.  So I am still experimental.  And unpredictable.  Of course, I am highly intelligent, so I will control myself if the hormones cause irrational instability in cognitive functioning."

"I see.  Um...how old are you?"  Sabrina asked.

"I don't know.  The first thing I remember was my bottle.  Ferd used it to give milk to me.  And he helped me learn to walk.  That was when I was falling down a lot.  When I was so large.  Then there was a blank time.  For a while I could not hear or see and that time is fuzzy, but I think it was after Ferd implanted the computer.  I remember Ferd talking to me.  He called me his Big Baby.  He played tapes.  The alphabet.  Words and spelling.  He also read to me.  I could make sounds, so I copied the word sounds and the alphabet.  Ferd also called me his 'Computer Brain Baby.' I like Eve better, though.  The fifth and twenty second letters of the alphabet.  Eve."

She repeated the name several times, as though trying out the sound.

"Then what happened?"

"About 288 hours ago, twelve days, I could see.  First fuzzy light.  Then blurry colors.  Ferd kept talking about rods and cones and true colors.  Evidently I did not see correctly and distinctly because he had used hormones on me that damaged my eyes.  And made me large.  Now I see colors differently than just a few hours ago.  From the copy of your retina.  After I could see, I learned to read from a computer reading disc.  I read many books, three dictionaries and a set of Britannica Encyclopedias.  I don't forget anything.  Ferd said he wanted me to fit in, so I had to study the way people walk and talk and act.  I watched lots of television.  I know it bothers you that I study you, but you are the first woman people, excuse me, person, I have met, so I have to research you.  I learned to blink just like you.  Each person blinks differently, so I thought I should learn yours."

"I wondered about that."

Eve gazed at Sabrina like a small child, looking straight at her without avoiding her eyes, totally without guile or self-consciousness.  Adults had the habit of glancing at people in the eye only for a second, but Eve had not learned that yet.  In a way it was kind of nice.  One would never get the feeling that Eve was trying to hide anything.  Or would lie.  It was also extremely disconcerting in an adult.

The chime connected to the lobby rang.

"That's Mark.  My friend.  I want him to meet you,"  Sabrina said.  She went into the hallway and pressed the Listen button.

"Mark is here, Sabrina.  Should I send him up?"

"Yes, Jack.  Thanks."

Sabrina went back into the kitchen.  "Maybe I should have you answer the door, Eve, but I think he might faint."

"Shock? Surprise? Trauma?"

"You'd knock his socks off,"  Sabrina said, smiling.

"You're being funny?"

"Yes.  Let's both go to the door."

Sabrina looked through the peephole.  She saw Mark glance anxiously at his watch.  Whether he was late for another date or just concerned about her emotional state, Sabrina could only guess.

Sabrina opened the door and Mark stepped inside, looking at Sabrina intently and leaning forward to kiss her.

"Hi, sweetie,"  Mark said.  Then he saw Eve.

Mark stared for a second in shocked surprise.  "Hi."

Eve said Hi to Mark and turned to Sabrina.  "His pulse went from 72 to 89."

Sabrina looked at Mark with concern, who was looking with amazement at Eve.  His face did look white.

"You must be a relative of Sabrina's, although I thought Sabrina was an orphan,"  Mark said, smiling at Eve.

"I'm not a relative,"  Eve said.  "I am copied, cloned, to Sabrina's body."

Sabrina thought Mark was probably as surprised by Eve's lack of emotional affect when she spoke as he was to the content of her words.  She really did sound like a robot and she was almost too stiff looking to be human.  When she was not talking or deliberately moving, Eve was still as a rock, except for her eyes, which seemed to move independently and take in everything without blinking for minutes on end.

"Cloned?"

"You better sit down, Mark,"  Sabrina said, leading him into the living room.

"Cloned?"  Mark repeated as he sat on the couch.

"I would look just like Eve, without all the trimmings,"  Sabrina said to Mark.

"Trimmings?"  Eve asked.  She looked extremely alert.

"I mean fixing my hair and make-up,"  Sabrina explained to Eve.  She sat down in a chair across from Mark.  Eve, watching Sabrina, sat down in another chair opposite the couch.

"I must learn trimmings,"  Eve said.

Mark looked back and forth at the two women.  "Your voices are alike, too.  Stereophonic sound."

"I'll try to explain,"  Sabrina said.  She told him about the toothpaste commercial and going to Ferd's Tanning Salon.  Sabrina continued on about Eve and the men who intended to kill her.

Mark looked stupefied.

"Evidently Eve is an experiment and they used my body to make her.  But Eve's brain is a computer."

"They called it a chemical computer,"  Eve said.  "Actually, part mechanical, too."

Sabrina glanced at Mark, who was looking with a kind of dazed expression at Eve, who was again still as a statue.  She explained to Mark about Eve's lack of emotions and physical sensations.

"This is a joke?"  Mark asked.

"At first I thought I was crazy.  But it's all true."

"I can't believe it."  Mark shook his head, looking back and forth.  "Is your hair that light?" 

Sabrina nodded and wondered what Mark thought of Eve's white hair.  He surprised her by saying it was beautiful; like angel hair pasta, or spun sugar. 

Mark took a deep breath.  "It sounds like the Stepford Wives.  Or the mad scientist making Frankenstein."  Then he turned to Eve, "No offense, Eve.  But it does sound rather fantastic.  Like that scary movie about pods from outer-space replacing people by duplicating them, killing them, and taking over the world."

"Eve's existence is proof that it's true."

"All I know for sure is that Eve looks exactly like you."

Eve had been watching Sabrina and Mark "Would you like to see accelerated healing, Mark? I will cut myself.  Or I can set myself on fire."

Eve got up and started walking toward the kitchen.

Oh no, Sabrina thought, she's going for the knife.  "No, Eve.  Come back and sit down.  I'll tell Mark about it."

Eve returned and sat down obediently.

Sabrina told Mark about the healing.  He looked at her dubiously. 

"Eve, do you have a mole on your right thigh, behind the knee?"  Mark asked.

"I don't know."  She started to unbutton the coat.

"No!" Mark said.

"Wait,"  Sabrina said.  "Don't take off the coat.  Just raise it up in back."

Eve stood, pulled up the back of the coat and looked at her leg.  "It's there."  She turned around so Mark and Sabrina could see.

"Eve,"  Mark said, "Do you mind if I touch your leg there?"

"No, Mark.  You can touch my leg there."

Mark got up and walked to where Eve was standing, back toward him, and knelt down.  "I feel silly."  He looked closely at the mole and touched it.  "It's real,"  he said and got up.  "Just like yours, Sabrina."

Mark returned to the sofa frowning for a minute.  "What you are implying is very serious, Sabrina.  Maybe your mother had twins and the two of you were separated at birth.  I admit that the physical resemblance is totally uncanny.  Either you two are twins, or what you're saying is true.  And if it is true, Eve is not just the six million dollar bionic man.  She must be worth billions.  And she could be very dangerous to you, Sabrina.  Whoever made her, if it's truly true, will stop at nothing to get her back.  So it's time to see her accelerated healing and any other tricks she can perform to make absolutely certain."

"Mark,"  Sabrina said quietly, "don't you believe me?"

"I hope Eve is your twin.  The other alternative is too frightening to fool around with."

"I don't want her to cut herself again,"  Sabrina said stubbornly.

"We have to know.  I don't disbelieve you, but I want to be sure."

Eve got up, went to the kitchen and came back holding the knife.  What Mark was doing was, to her, an implied command.  She had been made to obey.

"I have to cut deep, the body heals quickly,"  Eve said.  She pushed up the sleeve of the coat.

"I don't want to make you hurt yourself, Eve,"  Mark frowned.

"I will cut the artery, so you know for sure."

Sabrina jumped up to stop her and Mark yelled, 'Wait!' but Eve had already slashed her wrist twice, once horizontally and once vertically.  They were both shocked at the violence of the self-destructive action, as she slashed deeply and very quickly.  She hit the artery and blood spurted out of the slashed wrist twice, in time to her pulse, and splashed on the table in front of the couch.  The blood sprayed over books and magazines and several crystal figurines.

Mark shuddered and jumped up to help Eve, but the blood stopped pumping from Eve's arm.  They watched as the skin flaps, which had been detached into four separate pieces, seemed to pull toward each other, then meet, and grow together before their eyes.

Sabrina felt tears running down her cheeks.

"You don't have to feel sad emotions.  I'm not hurt."

"Let's wash off the blood."  Sabrina walked with Eve into the kitchen.  On the way Eve staggered for a moment and almost fell.  Sabrina tried to grab her and help, but Eve straightened up and resumed moving stiffly to the sink.  When the blood was rinsed away there were only two small scars, which looked like they were being erased.  Mark had followed, and peered over their shoulders.

"I don't believe it,"  Mark said in wonder.

"It's about time you started believing."  Sabrina spoke tartly. 

"I'm sorry, Sabrina.  And Eve, I apologize.  Let's sit down and figure out what to do."

They all sat down silently at the kitchen table.  Eve got up and went to the refrigerator to drink syrup.  She appeared a little shaky.

"Eve, you said you could remember everything you read.  Will you start reciting from the dictionary?"  Sabrina asked.

Eve nodded.

"Wait.  Start from the letter Q."

Eve nodded and started reciting, almost too quickly to understand, "Q.  Seventeenth letter.  Qu pronounced as Kw.  First word.  Quack.  Duck sound.  False professional practitioner.  Quadrangle.  Figure with four sides....."

"Okay."  Mark said, interrupting her when she got to Quirk.  "You can stop.  I'm going to order us a pizza.  I have to make a phone call."

"The police?"  Sabrina asked.

Mark smiled, "No.  I'm going to cancel my plans for tonight."

Sabrina took Eve into her bedroom and gave her a pink running suit to wear.  She didn't want to hear Mark cancel his date.  Then she took Eve into the bathroom and showed her how to brush the tangles out of her hair. 

As Sabrina brushed her own hair, she noticed strange rusty flakes in the brush.  She leaned over the sink, threw her hair over it, and shook vigorously.  More brownish flakes.  Blood?

"You're not hurt,"  Eve said.  "Ferd did an EEG.  To test your brain waves."

"How?"

"Tiny electrodes were attached to the epidermis of your scalp.  It doesn't damage you."

"With needles?" 

"Yes.  Tiny needles."

Sabrina remembered her dream.  Evidently she had been partially awake, or at least conscious enough for her mind to incorporate a frightening occurrence into a dream.

When they went back into the living room, Mark had the pizza on the living room table and was watching a quiz show on television. 

As Eve took her first bite of pizza a look of total astonishment came over her face.  She closed her eyes and held the pizza in her mouth for a long time.  Sabrina heard her make a little noise from her throat, like she was supremely pleased.  She smiled at the pure look of bliss on Eve's face.

The extent of Eve's knowledge became apparent as they watched television.  She gravely answered questions on marine mammals, geography, physiology, playwrights and politics.  She was correct on every query except those dealing with modern language usage and the names of current rock groups.

"We could put you on the game shows and make a mint,"  Mark commented.

Or put her in a food eating contest, Sabrina thought, watching Eve daintily devour her seventh piece of pizza. 

"Can I have more?"  Eve asked Sabrina.

Sabrina nodded and Mark mentioned that he could order another.  He had purchased a giant and it was rapidly disappearing.  They exchanged quizzical looks.

"I have a fast metabolism, identical to yours Sabrina, which requires lots of food.  I also have other biochemical processes, such as the healing, that require an abundance of calories.  In fact, Ferd said I might never grow up.  I mean age.  Get old.  So he was looking for a copy specimen that would not be aging."

Sabrina had never considered herself a specimen and thought she had aged quite a bit in the last few years, but maybe someone as old as Ferd would not have noticed.  He had looked like he was in his early seventies.  Sabrina was twenty-eight, although she usually appeared younger than her chronological age.  And Eve, in Sabrina's opinion, looked even younger because she did not have the little wrinkles one acquires through life.

"Either we have to pass you off as twins,"  Mark said, "or make you look as different as possible.  Until the men who threatened to kill Sabrina have been dealt with."

"Plastic surgery on Eve would be impossible.  She would heal as quickly as they tried to change her."

"Safer to change Sabrina,"  Eve said after as she swallowed a bite.  "If they tried to kill her, they would really be killing me, and that's not so easy."

"Maybe keeping us alike would be best,"  Sabrina said.  "They would be afraid of terminating the wrong one."

"No.  Too dangerous.  I would survive.  You wouldn't, Sabrina.  I don't know about bullets, though.  If enough damage was done, the body might not recuperate fast enough to live.  But that's not important."

"Yes it is, Eve,"  Sabrina said.

"What do you want to do, Eve?"  Mark asked.  He took the T.V.  remote and turned off the sound.

"I don't have wants."

"What did Ferd tell you to do?"  Sabrina asked.

"Take care of the body.  Obey him.  Learn to act like a female human.  Don't hurt any creature unless I am threatened."

"Do you know if the things he told you were programmed into your brain?"  Mark asked.

"I don't know if that's possible,"  Eve said.

"I don't understand about Ferd's connection to the men who wanted to kill me,"  Sabrina said.

"He was angry at them for their intention to kill you.  They helped Ferd by furnishing the raw material to make me."

"Could you recognize them?"  Mark asked.

"Yes.  By their voice prints.  I see them in my mind.  Like a pattern on a graph.  Those two men came and saw me once, but I didn't look anything like Sabrina then.  And I didn't bother to look at them."

Mark was silent for a moment.  "Well, we'll have to talk to Ferd right away.  Make him promise to protect Sabrina."

"I really liked Ferd,"  Sabrina commented.  "I never would have conceived he would dope me up, and keep me all day to make Eve."

"I'll go speak to him, right now,"  Mark said.

Sabrina nodded and smiled at Mark, but she was thinking that her life would never be the same again.  People already wanted to kill her.  And even if the killers were neutralized somehow, Ferd would want to take her and Eve to scientific meetings all over the world.  Probably want blood and tissue samples from each of them.  They would be on constant scientific display. 

"Take me with you,"  Eve said as she finished the last piece of pizza.  "I'll be able to hear if Ferd is alone from the street.  Also, I can protect you.  The gun men might try to hurt you to find Sabrina and me.  I could physically render them incapable of violence.  Beat them up."

Sabrina and Mark glanced at each other and cracked up at Eve's obvious seriousness.  She looked very fragile.  The idea that Eve could hurt anyone seemed preposterous. 

Eve watched their laughter with interest.  She was not blinking.

Mark got himself under control first and looked at Eve, "You mentioned you watched a lot of television?"

"I'm much stronger than I look.  I need not hurt them badly.  Put them out of commission for a while,"  Eve wiped her hands daintily on a napkin.  "Then we would have time to figure out how to save Sabrina.  I know Ferd wants Sabrina alive, to prove scientifically that I'm copied to her and have a computer.  Since the other two men want her dead, they want me for another purpose.  Possibly something illegal."

Mark got up and gave Sabrina a hug.  "Lock the door and bolt it, Sabrina.  Don't let anyone in."

Sabrina watched Mark and Eve walk to the elevators, staying behind the almost closed door, thinking, That's what Mark and I look like together.  Pretty nice, even if I am taller.  Mark's dark coloring, with his black curly hair and slightly hooked nose set off Eve's delicate blond looks in an interesting contrast.  It set Sabrina's mind to thinking that they would have beautiful babies.  She and Mark.  Not Eve and Mark.  She wondered if Eve could have children.  She would ask.  She didn't think anything could embarrass Eve. 

Sabrina sighed and closed the door, feeling wistful and a little lonesome.  It was fun having someone around who looked like her and seemed to know what she was thinking.  Almost like having a real relative.  Ferd would probably want to take Eve back immediately.