Hensley felt his phone vibrate in the pocket of his jeans. He pulled it out to see that it was Shimada. He looked over at Dodger, his brother Larry and Peterson all having drinks at Larry’s personal bar. He accepted the call to answer;

“Hey there sir. What’s up?”

“We had a… Minor complication regarding Soul Cage. One of the volunteers went mad. Broke out of his pod. Stabbed a scientist in the eye with a syringe. The doctor managed to sedate him and now he’s been restrained.”

Shimada explained the report he received and Hensley felt his heart sink.

“Excuse me?? When did this happen??”

“Roughly ten minutes ago. You have your laptop with you, yes?”

“Of course. Never leave anywhere without it.”

“Retreat to a room by yourself please. We must speak in private. Your lovely assistant Jennifer has the full report for you to examine.”

“Oh. Uh, right away sir.”

Hensley hung up and left to go into the guest bedroom, shutting the door and locking it. He grabbed the laptop from out of a carrying bag and opened it up, starting up a video call between himself, Shimada and Jennifer.

“Jennifer. Hey.” Hensley said.

“H-hello Hensley. Um… So, here’s the full report. I’m putting it up on screen. It accounts everything that happened from when the microchip was implanted into the new body of the volunteer. Read it for yourself please.” Jennifer replied.

On her screen the report popped up. It detailed everything and included footage from the building’s security cameras. Hensley watched the footage first and was bewildered. From the moment the man started spasming inside the pod to stabbing the scientist to finally being sedated by the doctor. He closed the footage to examine the report. Not only did he recognize the burly man in the footage, but he knew the name too. Jackie Esperenzo.

“Well? What do you think happened?” Shimada asked.

“S-sir please. Let him focus.” Jennifer pleaded.

Hensley carefully scanned the report down to the last word. He bit his bottom lip. His foot tapped rapidly on the floor. Taking a deep breath, he wiped the sweat from his brow and took a sip of bottled water.

“Fuck… Okay. From what I gather, it seems that Jackie’s memories were scrambled once the neurons in his brain connected to the data. He became overwhelmed to the point where his subconscious fried and couldn’t handle being inside a new body with a new brain. So, he started to freak out. Spiking heart-rate. Unusual brainwave patterns. Reckless behavior. To boil it down… The data transfer was corrupted. Caused his mind to have an existential breakdown. Instead of smoothy transferring all his memories and personality, they didn’t fully integrate into the new chip.” Hensley explained.

“What?!” Jennifer gasped.

Shimada crossed his arms and shook his head.

“How could this have happened? Jackie is the only one that this has happened to out of the sixteen volunteers we’ve worked with.” He stated.

Hensley dug into the files for Project Soul Cage. He scrolled down to the section listing parameters of a potential failure.

“I specifically wrote down the one-percent chance that a transfer could result in a failure. The human psyche is a complex machine. There are one of two variables at play here that could’ve caused this catastrophe. Either the construct data transfer had a hiccup in the very delicate and intricate process… Or the man’s mind was so damaged that it simply could not handle the process and retaliated as a result which means he’s completely fucked.”

Both Shimada and Jennifer were silent for a moment. Hensley had to breathe after rambling on, taking another sip of water. The situation seems bad at first but the more he examined this the more he started to see it as something positive.

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The gears were turning inside of his head. Hensley started typing down what he was thinking. His fingertips flickering against the keys like firecrackers going off inside of his nerves. Shimada was puzzled and Jennifer seemed very confused. They both decided to give him faith in whatever he was constructing. Once finished typing he put his hands together and faced the camera directly.

“At the expense of Jackie’s mental stability… This is actually something beneficial for us and Project Soul Cage as a whole.” Hensley stated.

“Huh?” Both Jennifer and Shimada spoke at the same time.

“Jackie is a variable we had not yet encountered. See, thanks to this little incident… We now know the consequences of incompatibility with Soul Cage. The design is foolproof so I cut out the possibility that it happened on the constructs end. I believe, Jackie’s mind wasn’t able to handle the process. This is why we got detailed reports of every volunteer’s backstory that lead up to… Well lead up to their initiation into Soul Cage. Jackie just proved that a troubled past of drug addiction and alcohol consumption meant that the complex process of switching the microchip into a new body proved to be too much to handle. Hence why he had a mental breakdown. You see what I’m getting at?”

Jennifer was at a loss for words by this point. Shimada scratched his chin.

“I see. If this is truly the case… Then not everyone who is chipped is necessarily ready for Soul Cage. This will be useful for future candidates then. Send me your official report Hensley and I’ll send this out to the science team tasked with Project Soul Cage. Make sure Jennifer here gets that report too.”

“Of course, sir.”

Hensley saved his document then sent it directly to Shimada’s and Jennifer’s inboxes. With that done, he finished his bottle of water and tossed it aside.

“I-I guess it does make sense. D-do you think the last batch will be safe then??” Jennifer stammered. “We don’t want a repeat of this incident.”

“We should double check their notes. I’ll be returning tomorrow so we can go from there. After the last batch is done, we finalize the results and Soul Cage will be ready for the public.” Hensley replied.

“Understood.”

“Indeed. Shimada signing off.”

“Jennifer signing off.”

Both Shimada and Jennifer ended the call on their ends. Hensley hung up and shut the laptop. A twinkle in his eye, the Jackie incident proved to be an unexpected event that will aid Hensley moving forward with his project. He went to go rejoin with Dodger and company, feeling proud of himself.

Melissa sat down with Shimada in the oval office to conduct a final meeting before he would green-light the replicant deal with the country’s military. He carefully examined the papers explaining the deal itself in every aspect.

“Mm. I see. Sending replicants to their death in the heat of combat just so we don’t have to lose more men and women with actual lives and families who care about them. I must admit I’m impressed you convinced them to go through with this.” Shimada chuckled.

“They’re just replicants. They can be replaced but human lives cannot. Why the hell should good soldiers die for these stupid conflicts and bring grief to others… When replicants can be specifically trained and programmed to do the dirty work without the risk androids run into?” Melissa explained.

“Great minds think alike ma’am. I approve. They’ll get their replicants and BioMed gets more funding. And I get to pocket a little extra change into my salary.”

“It’s a win-win for both sides, Shimada. You would’ve been a fool to turn this proposal down.”

“Replicants truly are the future. Soul Cage is the future. We… Are the future. Those in our society who despise our work and craft conspiracies will learn their place and see the great things we’re doing for the good of the people.”

“Indeed. As I remain in office, the people will realize that this is the only way forward. Lot of the country has gone to shit anyway and we need to focus our efforts on rebuilding what’s been lost and cleaning up the trash littering every pocket of society.”

“I one-hundred-percent agree. Cheers… To a bright future ahead of us.”

Shimada and Melissa took their teacups and lightly tapped them against each other. Shimada signed the papers with no hesitation. Melissa shuffled them into a folder to prep for sending off to the military. Once the tea was finished, they both left the oval office with smiles on their faces.

Jackie was kept in isolation under constant surveillance to see if he would adjust to the change. Days went by without any progress. With no further options, Hensley approved for him to be put down humanely. The doctor filled a syringe with a chemical mixture designed to stop the heart from beating. Jackie was sedated once again so he wouldn’t cause any problems. The doctor flicked the tip of the needle, then slowly inserted it into the man’s veins. Within a few minutes, the vitals on the heart monitor showed the wavelengths dip to a single strand. The chirping changed to a single extensive beep. Jackie was pronounced dead and his body was covered up. The doctor sighed. He pulled out his phone to dial someone;

“Yes, coroner? I have someone for you.” The doctor said.