I was lost and confused. I wanted to get out of the car and go for a walk to clear my head but we didn't have time, it was now or never. No, that wasn't right. I was being forced into a decision, guided towards a binary choice. I was being manipulated...

A spark of anger flared as I realized what was going on. The cool fog of confusion lifted. It burned away and was replaced by the seething rage and hatred of a body that had been taken over against its will and a mind that had been forced into an impossible decision when a parachute didn't open all those years ago.

I wanted to punch Gershwin. I wanted to smash his fucking face against the window for what he had done and what he was trying to do. Instead I shook my head and laughed.

"You're a fucking idiot." I said, causing Gershwin to flinch as if struck. "This plan of yours is so awful that the only reason you would choose it over something much simpler and safer is because you don't trust me to actually do what you want without coercion."

He blinked with surprise. "My son…"

"No no," I cut him off. "I love you, but that doesn't mean I have to put up with your shit. I may be your son, but I'm also a Döbian jagdkommando. That means I am trained to infiltrate, manipulate, and destroy. So it may take me a while, but I eventually realize when I'm being fucked with. I recognize the technique."

I should have stopped there but I was so angry. I wanted to lash out, to hurt him for violating my mind and my trust. "In fact, all I have to do to see through you is ask what I would have done in your shoes, if I was a lying manipulative sociopath."

Gershwin looked at me with barely contained rage. I could smell his anger in the air. "Fuck you." He said, finally losing patience and showing the cracks in his facade. "I've dragged you kicking and screaming towards greatness your whole life. I wish I could tell you what to do and have you do it, but unfortunately you would rather dig your heels in and fight me than work with me like a good son would. So yes, I will lie and manipulate if I have to because as much as I dislike it, as much as I wish I didn't have to, you make it necessary."

"You sabotaged my fucking parachute and forced me to imprint myself onto my teammate or die. How was that necessary?" I asked.

"I wish I knew." Gershwin said, "Unfortunately I was made before that happened. So maybe Gershwin Prime did it for a good reason. Actually, if you're so smart maybe you can tell me why someone who loved you more than anything would push you out of the nest in such a spectacular fashion."

"No." I locked down my mind before it could pursue that train of thought. It was an old trick, ask the subject a question then let them convince themselves. "My walls are up, I won't fall for your shit."

Gershwin looked at me with a mixture of annoyance and pride. To my surprise it was Sally who spoke next.

"You're both being fucking idiots." She said, "Gershwin didn't sabotage your parachute, Edel did. Your sister tried to murder you because she was jealous. The very fucking cornerstone of your father's being is that he loves you, he wouldn't risk your life on untested software. Kerner, stop being such a spoiled brat and start thinking like a police officer. Gershwin, stop pretending that you know everything. You're a genius, but you're not omniscient."

Gershwin and I shared a moment of confusion. "No, I must have done it." Gershwin said, "It was necessary for Kerner to… no… there are much safer ways for me to have tricked him into copying himself. I believe you may be correct."

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I looked at Sally with suspicion. "That's a very big leap of intuition."

"Not really." Sally unclipped her racing harness and turned to face me. "Edel had both means and motive. She just didn't know that Gershwin had put a little something extra into your head. You're blaming a copy of your father for something that he had nothing to do with."

"How do you know so much about our family?" I asked.

Sally looked at Gershwin as if asking permission. He sighed and shrugged. "I have completely lost control of whatever this is and for whatever reason my memories of you are limited so if you have something to say, just say it. I'm too fucking tired and angry to care."

"Fine," Sally said, turning back towards me. "For starters, Gershwin is the way that he is because Sacher murdered you, your sister, and your mother by accident. So cut him some fucking slack."

I felt my blood run cold as I processed this information. But before I could reply Sally continued. "Your father was fucking broken after you died. I found him washed up on the bank near a bridge here in Möhi, more dead than alive. He had jumped into the water, mad from grief, unable to move on from his loss. I thought he was a corpse, something for me to eat."

She let that hang in the air. "I was fucking starving, but when I went to cut his throat this pathetic husk of a hund didn't try and fight me, he didn't try and stop me. Instead he held me and called out the names of his dead family and cried like a pup as he begged for forgiveness."

Sally snarled. "I loved Gershwin Prime, but I am not his child. I am the one who put him back together after Sacher killed his family. Both of you might not remember, but I do. It's a fucking mercy that Gershwin Prime chose not to pass on that grief and horror to either of you."

My mind was reeling. "Sacher murdered me? How?"

Gershwin clenched his jaw until something popped. "Chocolate." He said through clenched teeth, his rage barely contained. "I remember now, he had a house on the lake near us. He moved there after he lost his arm and leg fighting the mob back in Döbi. I was so proud to have a hero as a neighbor that I invited him over and we became friends."

His eyes stared off into the distance as he unlocked the forbidden memories. "You got into his desk one day when you were visiting and stole some chocolate. You shared it with your mother and sister. But not me, I was away in Möhi at a conference when I got the news."

"Sacher noticed the chocolate was missing but didn't tell anyone because he didn't want to get into trouble. Or maybe he thought it was too late. Or maybe he just didn't care." Gershwin shook his head. "I can't help but believe that if he had just done the right thing none of this would have happened, and I hate him for it."

Now I understood why Sacher had known that I was a copy. I told him that Gershwin was my father and he had made the correct assumption that I was a copy of the child he had allowed to die. And he hadn't shown a single drop of remorse or shame. In fact he had hand fed me treats, his own private joke.

It was around then that I noticed something was wrong with Gershwin. His eye was twitching and small spasms ran though his body. It was over in a few seconds but something was different about him afterwards.

"Are you alright?" I asked, concern taking the edge off of my anger.

"Never better, my son." Gershwin said happily. "What were we talking about? I believe we were going somewhere?"

I would later learn that Gershwin had triggered a failsafe and reverted himself back to a previous state. Whether it was voluntary or something built into his code I would never know.

Sally reached over and patted him on the shoulder. "Yeah, we just stopped for a moment to talk." She gave me a look that very clearly said to not bring up our previous topic of conversation. "But we're going to go now."

"Yeah, sure." I replied, reaching a decision. "But there's something I need to do first in case this doesn't work out the way we need it to. Sally, can you please take us to the closest police precinct? There should be one down the street."

Sally was suspicious, but she did as I asked. I left my weapons in the car and walked into the precinct in my gray handi-hund overalls. Nobody paid me much attention. I was just another Döbian menial worker not worthy of interest.

"I here to fix toilet." I said to the desk Sergeant in thickly accented Möhin. Even though we had met many times before he didn't even bat an eye as he waved me past the checkpoint.

As I walked through the precinct I said words underneath my breath that could not be taken back, words that would change the world.

"Ich bin der blitz. Ich bin krieg. Ich bin eisen." I whispered.