Doppelganger (part I)

"Doppelgangers".

Ever heard of such legend? In some beliefs it is a second existence of yours (or anyone else's) which drains energy from the first. In most legends the original body gets very worn if you ever come across your doppelganger. In other beliefs it is a creature that takes the appearance of a person, and lives among humanity, as a second existence of that person. Which of these two legends is true? None of them

It's true that there are creatures, or rather: paranormal beings, which take on the physical appearance of people and exist as if they were a normal human being, which is abominable. But what SAD's classification of the ten risky races of interest calls doppelganger is in fact a well-known defect of human formation, the case of the siamese twins.

Sorry if you're one of those who can't stand to see such cases described as defects but honestly speaking? The difference between defect and particularity is a mere matter of nomenclature. The fact is that Siamese twins exist and don't happen so often, thus they are rare kind case. So why not say "defect of formation"?

Siamese twins come in many types: the most common is for both siblings to live after birth, sharing some parts of the body and others not. Less common, but existing, is a brother born inside the other, acting as a parasite of the last, staying alive until there aren't more conditions for survival, which usually happens pretty fast.

But the case of interest is what doesn't appear in the papers or in any article, the case that only specialists in paranormal beings are aware of: the case when the twins share the same brain but are born in different bodies.

Of course, not 'the same' brain in the literal sense of the word, not least because both bodies are separate, but the brains are identical in the sense that all cell formations are made the same way in both bodies: all alleles , the whole DNA sequence, everything. We find ourselves in the following philosophy: what differs one human being from another? Why are they different? Is it the way the DNA strand is written? because even such is done in the same way on both bodies of the siamese siblings in this special case.

The point is that because they are done in exactly the same way, their brains mix the senses received by one body and the other, as if everything happened at once. And it happens in both bodies. Basically they exist as two entities at once. They are a duality, like the holy trinity except that only two and without the holy part. There are two in one and one in two. They are both different and the same person.

This medical abnormality is then called doppelganger. There are two (or one) siamese twins born this way, living as one and two different people simultaneously.

To be classified as a SAD race of interest, doppelgangers should have physical advantages over normal humans, right? You wonder, how do they get it in this case? In many ways. I'll start with the sane: There is a possibility a brother can concentrate his energies to regenerate a body in much less time: he concentrates all his vitality on the regeneration while the other body concentrates on doing the other functions required for the organism's survival. So when a body is injured it can heal its wounds very quickly. Basically, to survive, it suffices that one of the brothers is perfectly fine. The other brother may be in a coma, as long as it lives, but because they are two in one, it's gonna be as if both of them are fine. This is because the brother in perfect condition can use his vitality to regenerate the one in a coma, and vice versa when necessary. They help each other as they need it.

It's a strange thing to think about, but it is far more advantageous than one would assume. At first glance it seems that he'd only regenerate twice as fast, but no: the speed is exorbitantly higher, because one of the brothers can concentrate 'all' (and not just part) of their effort in the regeneration, because as I said, it is enough that only one body fulfills the functions necessary for the survival of both, such as circulation, breathing, and etc... The other brother can focus on only one thing.

Similarly, the force of both bodies can be applied in a single attack, which would result in indarra. But it turns out that this added force is not just the force of two normal human beings summed up. Following the same principle, a body can become momentarily dysfunctional and use 'all' of its physical exertion at the moment of impact in order to assist the power of each stroke of that brother who is willing to carry out the attack. This detail makes a brother's blows - as long as he is fighting alone while his siamese brother is not in another fight - much stronger than usual.

Erectism and ductu are also present in the peculiar functioning of the doppelganger: to withstand pain received by one of the bodies simply transfer it completely to the sibling's body. If only one is involved in a fight then he can avoid physically feeling the pain of the attacks received by transferring them to the brother. As for the ductu it's believed that it must have come by evolutionary process. Which is strange, since it doesn't occur in the human organism in general. I think average humans may have a degree of ductu, but too derisive to be noticed, so when it accumulates doubly in only one of the brothers, it is large enough to be detected and also to detect the presence of other beings of equal danger.

Basically, this principle of a brother directing all his functionality into one thing only applies to all other body systems, which makes the doppelganger a race of interest.

Doppelgangers are nonetheless ordinary humans, though they are not treated as such. They are kept hidden by the government and most often used by large corporations for services which require physical strength beyond the ordinary or for dirty services that require the same person in two simultaneous places, such as espionage, for example.

To get rid of a doppelganger just kill the two brothers. Ironically, if one and only one of them dies, he never comes back to life, and the remaining brother keeps living on as a single doppelganger. However, contrary to what would be natural belief, his strength and other abilities do not fade, but remain with him until his death, that is, except the sane, since that needs both brothers to be fulfilled.

You know that in general when I start explaining about one of the races it's because it appears somewhere in history. This is because I always choose to discuss the one that came last in the course of it. This time is no different.

It all started on Thursday morning, about forty-eight hours after Jim Sanford was brutally murdered in Meadow Park. Cole Chapman had (finally) showed his face on SAD, and I couldn't miss the opportunity to have a conversation with that shameless rascal.

We were in that corridor that existed behind the glass entrance door, that same corridor with the window through from which the three suspicious aliens climbed up on Saturday to get the invitation by illegal means.

"Where were you?" I asked dryly and authoritatively. Chapman was wearing the same weed-smelling jacket as usual. He answered me with his intrinsic indifference, as if it were a rhetorical question.

"Huh? Me? Investigating, Mr. Lieutenant... Investigating."

"Investigating what exactly, may I know?"

"I ... I was looking for something from Cooper's case... Hey! You're the lieutenant! Shouldn't you know where your detectives are?"

"I know where they should be. But apparently I don't know where they are."

I approached Chapman uncomfortably. Although I was no Sprohic I was bigger and stronger than him.

"I heard you didn't visit Crane. Did you hear what happened?"

He dodged me and tried to enter the room behind me as he answered:

"I did... What a pity, no? They sent the lassie poisoned chocolate."

"And even knowing you didn't come to see her? Your co-worker?"

"I had plenty stuff to do... And let's be clear: there was nothing I could do for her, and to tell the truth she doesn't even like me very much, every time she seems to be at that time of the month, you know? Hah hah" He let out an annoying laugh that failed mid-pronunciation. He turned his back and started walking toward the front door.

I held his arm. This time with indarra.

"Or maybe you didn't bother visiting her because you sent the poison yourself in the first place?"

Chapman finally changed his aloof attitude and stared at me with the most genuine expression of strangeness.

"Or maybe that Richard Galloway..."

"Galloway? Did Galloway send the chocolates?"

"You don't know who sent the presents that day?" I released him slowly.

"I don't know anything, Mr. Lieutenant. All I know is what I'm told here."

"Galloway is 'your' friend, though."

"Hey... Quick correction, Mr. Lieutenant: he's a colleague of mine. I did meet him on my Sproustown night journeys, Bbt even though Emma ended up liking him and even though I see him from time to time I wouldn't say in every word that we have a friendly relationship. But I still know Galloway enough. He wouldn't send anything like that to his girlfriend. He's in mad love..."

"Yeah but all indicates that it was like that." I crossed.

Chapman was going to reply something but he gave up.

I grabbed him by the jacket.

"The truth is... You did this! If there's anyone here who is most to blame for a poison who passed the inspection and reached her... That is you! You're lucky Crane is fine but don't think I'm not keeping an eye on you."

He broke free using force on his left arm, and then contradicted me:

"You crazy!? I already said: I don't even know the dude!"

After that he turned suddenly and entered the reception room once and for all. Before going through it he turned his head and gave me a last look. His carefree, arrogant expression had changed completely. It still carried the same look of strangeness.

It wasn't clear yet why Galloway would've tried to poison Crane. Based on that reaction, he might not even know it was Galloway who sent it. Maybe Crane's boyfriend was acting by himself? If so, he would be involved with some of Sproustown's top powerful traffickers, but which one? The same one who put his hands on the invitation? Did they poison her precisely because she fought her men? I dunno...

But I was going to know.

I went downstairs to get coffee from the machine. I needed to cool my head. The coffee was a little watery and I ended up pouring a lot of sugar, so I pushed it down my throat more than I appreciated it. Then I went to the hall window and smoked a cigarette. To show Ewalyn in case she asked, I had bought Tar Lights this time, these were much better than the Deck Techs.

Only after finishing the cigarette I went up to the reception room after Chapman. Inside there was a commotion. Crane was still recovering from the poisoning, so Joey was playing the role of secretary for the moment - which he turned out to be doing very well, by the way - Ewalyn was also in the doorway, as was Chapman. I heard Joey's voice as I approached:

"So you think they are going to be at the Filliard Summit hospital?"

"I don't 'think', Mr. Secretary," Chapman replied, "I'm sure they're gonna be there. All of Sproustown's mouths led to the same place."

Joey was holding some pictures in his hand and Ewalyn was checking them over his shoulder.

"What's this?" I asked as I entered the room.

Joey handed me the photos. Ewalyn explained:

"Chapman found the perpetrators of the attack at fake Cooper's residence... That pseudo-theft of Tuesday..."

Both photos were taken on the street, the sidewalks were wide, the track was narrow, and the ugliness of the ramshackle houses infested the landscape. The architecture was awful, which suggested that the photos were taken either downtown, at the Filliard Summit or outside of Sproustown. But judging from what I heard from the conversation just then it was Filliard Summit.

"And why do you believe they're gonna be in that hospital?"

"These photos, Mr. Lieutenant... I took them during my journey between Monday and Wednesday. I spent time listening to the mouths of all the streets of Fillia.."

"Get straight to the point."

"...Now then... The short version is that as the Summit is a small and dangerous neighborhood, so the night passers-by get to know even if only from the sight all the weird types, and about those there," he nodded at the photos, "there are two of them. I first went to the junkyard and had to bribe the old man to open his mouth about who had smashed and sold a Blend 1.8 van, so he described their faces and their clothes and I just wondered if someone had seen the guys on monday... Then the pals around told me. But it's some hard work until they get motivated to remember. It's not something a detective like you who demands the answers on time and barks authoritatively would get. You have to disguise yourself, sit down, drink some sips... It takes time."

"And there's no doubt these two guys of the photo are the same ones who took apart the Blend that was used for the theft?"

Chapman confirmed with a nod.

"More than that, Mr. Lieutenant. After I casually described the two of them at the bar, the people around started talking other rumors about interesting things these guys did... Breaking walls with a single punch, surviving bullet holes, you know... That guy of rumors nobody believes at first..."

Stopping to examine the photo I recognized that street. It really was near the hospital.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," said Ewalyn, "but the Summit Community Center is closed, isn't it?"

"Sheesh! It's been a long time, Madam Detective" Chapman replied "It's basically a bunch of weeds growing on rocks which are now falling apart. This town hall... I'll tell ya. They don't do nothing about the abandoned buildings... They don't do nothing about the illicit sales of Deluxes... Almost seems like it's all on purpose..."

I examined Chapman from the corner of my eye. It looked like he had done the job right this time, but if he reallyhad anything to do with trying to poison Crane it might be the case that he was setting some trap. I know it sounds like a storm in a teacup, but a lot of people died and a lot of special cases are being investigated at the same time this month, if it was as I suspected and Chapman really had some illegal involvement on his part, and if in particular one of these cases was to reveal something about him that was hidden until then... What would be the natural reaction? So far I never objectively doubted Chapman on a work, but if I wanted to be consistent with my suspicions, this was a hypothesis to consider. Chapman could be setting a trap as measure of desperation.

"And how do you know exactly where they are?"

"Hah hah! Looks like they're involved in the Deluxes traffic, you know, Lieutenant? The way the captain imagined... So I snooped and snooped around 'til I found someone who buys them both, and then I pretended to be know... A Deluxe addict..."

And he does look like an addict, always wearing the same clothes, stinking and walking loose and all ragged like that.

"And then I made an appointment with them both: 'I'm gonna buy some swag tonight!' And then I came to warn ya guys."

"What are we gonna do?" Asked Joey.

"Well..." Ewalyn took a chance, "there's not much to do but go, is there?"

"That's what we're gonna do... But we'll do it right this time. All the three of us are going."

"What? And the head office?"

"Chapman can stay here."

"Hey... Me? Playing secretary? Isn't that why we have Secretary Joey right here? Dressed in character?"

One thing I didn't want was Chapman on our side, on the chance that I was right and he was really up to something. For the same reason I wanted everybody together, so it would be harder to fall into any ambush. And on the chance that he was just telling the truth, then it would be even easier to capture the two thieves.

Since Chapman had gone through all the trouble of arranging the meeting, instead of exposing the real reason behind my decision, I came up with a convenient excuse at that moment:

"If you are spending all of your working time to earn the trust of people involved in the Deluxes' drug trade, it'd be good if you were not seen in that area as a police officer. The right thing to do is let the three of us handle the case and then you give anybody a convenient excuse if they think you've let the information slip somehow."

"I guess that makes sense." Ewalyn agreed.

"Yeah. You've done enough. Very good work," Joey said looking at the pictures, "now we are in the catbird seat, just gotta enjoy the view."

Thank God Joey said that. Chapman can't resist a thank you. He couldn't insist on going along after genuine gratitude.

"Ok, ok... It's fine. I'll play the secretary, since you insist. But Joey, my comrade... You're gonna have to teach me how to be secretary until it's time for you to leave, hah."

"Rest calm," Joey answered, "no one's gonna call at night. And like Sarah said... Just say 'no' to anything they ask."

Yeah... It seems we've been doing a lot of that lately.