Jasmine smiled and led the way through the narrow hall. There were doors on either side of them housing cells and blood, bone and hair and DNA samples from millions of people both living and dead now. Only used once every four decades, but Sam's wouldn't be among them. There was only one Sam and she would make sure that would remain a fact for as long as she was around. For Alois, really. She pushed through a set of double doors and they stopped in a very small, white area, with a set of locked doors in front of them. She swiped her keycard, punched in a number, and pressed her thumb against the reading pad. Immediately a gust of air met them through the door seams and they swung open.

They stood above the incubation chamber. It was a massive underground housing unit, with rows of men and women of varying age and body type. Most were blank palates of living sells kept suspended, waiting for someone to come choose their traits, their personalities, their likes and dislikes. Each tank was circular, like a womb, and their nutrition tubes resembled umbilical cords. They had already developed Sam, but they needed to replace his memories and rearrange his DNA to who and what Sam used to be. What he was. And they needed to fill the month-long hole in his memory.

Bernard came in through another door, leaving Adam on the floor with the replicants. "Alois, my boy." He smiled a tired smile that looked like it lost something he held dear so long ago. "I'm glad to see you. Do you have any ideas on what you want Sammy to have on his mind to fill in the gaps?" He would program them in, then, make them surreal, like memories should be. Surreal but very solid.