The Vice President stood looking through a one-way mirror into a hall of broken men who were paraded about as doctors.

His jacket was discarded as soon as he was left to wait in the grayish observation room with an oval oak table mockingly sitting at the center of the otherwise plain room. A scotch had been placed at his place for him despite his reservations and now it was cradled in his right hand, the other wiping his brow with a handkerchief.

Pocketing it he forced himself to look away from the display and trudge to the table, his footsteps feeling as heavy as lead. The now-empty scotch glass was set on the table and the sound was consumed in the muffled room. Despite not being able to see the window the man shivered with what may be going on in the adjacent room. He would prefer to either not remember or wash his hands of the situation as soon as he could. He only needed to sign a document as he had done thousands of times before. But now it felt like he was about to etch a scar into a prisoner's back. It made him sick.

He wished he had asked for a taller glass.

He was not left to pity himself long. Soon enough the gaping silence of the room was cracked by the soft click of the door handle turning and the soft displacement of air as it swung open. The VP looked up with his brows brought together, the long creases forming craggy lines as he looked upon a face he wished he had never seen in the first place.

"Urchin." The name fit the scientist better than any other potential insult. His birth bore in onto him and was the only stain on the severe man's otherwise impeccable countenance and presence. The man preferred a pronunciation which was much closer to 'Urban' but that was generally ignored. Especially by those who were only temporarily forced under his thumb. "I was informed that you have your candidate. I assumed you would require my adjudication."

Argun Rhodes, head of the Second Exploratory Committee, smiled his sardonic smile. He was not phased by the blatant assumption he was somehow unable to use his own judicial manipulation to get his project passed. It proposed a certain amount of possible opposition which was impossible under current circumstance. He was careful as were his people in making sure that all potential roadblocks were foreseen and made trivial. He didn't need one of the most important men in the states here for this. But it was a useful fallback if someone or something does go amiss. The world is a strange place and when the unexpected happened Rhodes liked having political shielding.

"Of course." He said in an amused tone that at the same time managed to get across the tedium of interacting with the VP. He took his seat without offering a hand to shake while the assistant produced a glass for the scientist. When both were filled and the assistant excused himself Rhodes leaned back in his chair and looked down his nose at the frazzled man. "Your information is correct. We recently found the most promising candidate for the program and based on our models the best possible."

On cue the assistant re-entered and placed a briefcase in front of Rhodes who clicked it open. This time the assistant remained at his side, eyes peering off into nothing. After a short second a pair of photos was removed from the case and slid across the table to clink against the opposing glass. The VP looked down at it and then back to the pair before lifting the black-and-white photographs.

Both were in incredibly high detail and showed a woman in her mid-thirties. The context seemed someone irrelevant since she was doing menial things like walking and riding a bus. She was a woman of average height and weight with dark-and-light toned hair, nothing out of the ordinary in appearance. He set the photographs aside and spoke. "How are you certain that this woman is the one you have been looking for?" He slid the photos back to Rhodes who placed them in his case. "We have had two previous incidents involving you and improperly defined profiles of people who would fit this program. The Legislate Proxima was unwilling to back a further experimental set because of the most recent issue."

The scientist was unsurprised by this. The LP was prone to making decisions based on the momentary passing of ends not justifying means. That was why he was planning to wait a short while before coming to the court with his finding. This will expedite the process significantly. He though to himself, surprised that he was actually getting some use out of the executive branch.

"She has a direct blood relation to candidates three and nine and follows the order of descendants we have modeled for their family." Rhodes began as he pulled a remote from the case, plugged a cord into the case itself from the table, and a projection lit up the farthest wall from the two of them. A sizeable family tree going back four generations was displayed with markings and symbols strewn across it. Rhodes pressed a button and a few selections from the family tree lit up in red with a somewhat bizarre staggering pattern. Across all the arms there was a more or less diagonal stripe that began with the top left member across at an angle that would drop through an entire generation. in the first group there was a mother, an aunt, a daughter, a son, an uncle and another son lit with red, and as the generations descended the family tree grew rapidly more thin and the lines got more erratic. The lines which descended from those fist people were lineage lines. Anyone along the path by direct parentage had a chance of being selected."With our modeling it is clear that this woman is the last in the line. Her sister and brother-in-law are neither within the predictions nor have any predisposition for the condition."

"What of a child?" The VP had seen this presentation before and with other supposed candidates. Most his questions had been mollified though he still wished to make sure fewer lives than necessary were ended in this search for... Whatever this began as. "The woman's sister and brother in law are married here, meaning that a child may exist correct?"

Rhodes clicked his tongue. "We would not miss such a thing. As of right now, there is no child and thus no need to postulate about his effect. Beyond that he would not fit the pattern of succession and could be disregarded. The probability of him containing the necessary genetic and cellular makeup to be material is literally zero. He lacks any of the possible lines of lineage."

The VP nodded his head and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands before picking up his drink and downing the rest of it in a single go. Placing the glass down and waving away any potential refills he looked back to Rhodes from the screen. "Alright. We found her." He said that more so he could be far away from this place and never have to return to make such a decision again. He ignored Rhodes' comment about how his people had found her and pressed on. "What happens now?"

Rhodes let out a breath through his nose before unplugging the suitcase and packing it up, deliberately taking a few moments so that the Vice President could stew on his recent decision. He handed it to the assistant who left the room and closed the door behind him.

"We will take blood and spinal fluid samples from the woman and begin the creation of the exosphere. When it is complete the resilience of the brain will allow for us to isolate the Association Areas of her cortex and begin the process of naturalizing her abilities to our technology. Once she is able to process and cognate we will use artificial amnesia agents to 'bleach the brain'." Rhodes stood and silently smirked at the pallor of the VP's skin. "When she is blank we will be able to begin the process of finding our candidates. The naturalization will take years however the search for candidates can be done concurrently. Within two decades we should know just how effective the generations of exchange will be."

So one woman effectively murdered in the eyes of the state and myself, an unknowable figure of casualties in two decades. The old man only felt older as he pulled a pen out of his coat and popped the lid on it. He didn't have to say anything as a small stack of papers was put in front of him. He signed where an x lay to the left of a line and did so in silence. When he was finished he stood and placed the pen on the table. Saying nothing to the man he left the facility and never spoke of the experience again.

Unfortunately he would not die in the next two decades. In twenty four years he would be forced to see the results of his mistake.

In one hundred and twenty four years the rest of the world would.