Dr Jew

who finally looked up at Adam and Ueda. Ueda frowned and said, "I may live to regret it. Yes, I will help you. Swan too if he so wishes. He is a man now and can make his own decisions."
    Adam looked at Swan. "Well? You coming, Swan?"
    "I 'll help you, Adam. You guys are the only friends I have left. But… but I won't kill anyone."
    "Kill?" said Adam. "Of course not. Who said we'd kill anyone? No way. We're not killers."
    Swan nodded .
    Adam said, "So how about an hour? Let the food digest. Bring the gloves, camera."
    "You want to go tonight?" said Ueda.
    "We don't know when Dr. Jew will be back. This could be our only chance."
    "Okay," said Ueda. "I will bring my ninja gear."

    An hour later they were at Dr. Jew's building, which didn't look nearly as intimidating from the outside.
    "What a dump," said Eve.
    "Maybe it's bigger on the inside," said Adam. "That's how I remember it."
    Ueda s aid something but it was garbled because he wore a full ninja costume and the mask covered his mouth.
    "What?" said Adam.
    They went inside the building and found a door in the hall marked DR. JEW.
    "Yeah, this is it," said Eve.
    Swan slowly read the words, "Dr… Jew," like fiberglass underlining his life, always around him and never seen. What did it mean, Dr. Jew ? So alien and unlike Mississippi. The name glowed in his mind, gave off warm breath, radioactivity.
    "Do you know him, Swan?" said Eve. "What is it?"
    "No," he said. "I don't know him."
    "How do we open the door?" said Adam. "There's no keyhole."
    Ued a took out a sword and aimed at the door. Before he could swing, Eve reached for the handle and turned. The door opened.
    "Unlocked," she said.
    Ueda mumbled something.
    "Let 's go!" said Adam.
    Inside, the office was dark.
    "Eve, you take his bedroom and this office. Anything incriminating! Photograph it or bring it with us. And keep an eye out for anyone."
    Swan watched Adam and Ueda disappear down the hall. He watched Eve. She was very pretty, he decided. Yes, like his mother. She began to look through desk drawers and filing cabinets. He knew she couldn't read well, like him, and he saw her lips move as she went over the words. She was looking at some files now. She said aloud, "Adam and… Eve?"
    " Is that file about you?" said Swan.
    "I don 't know." She took it out and spread the file's contents on the desk. Swan could see pages of typed notes, but also blueprints and drawings of bodies, male and female. They weren't right , Swan thought. They looked like plans for a car or an airplane. Too mechanical and lacking the fluidity of the human body. Skin on the outside but inside like a windup clock. But they looked like the Adam and Eve he knew.
    "What are they?" said Swan.
    "They –" her voice left her. What they were – she could see: plans. What they meant, she didn't want to say. She took a step back. She would have screamed if she could pass it through understanding and accept it. She could not.
    Down the hall, Adam and Ueda entered Dr. Jew 's lab. They saw Arnie, repeatedly bumping into the wall. But what engulfed their senses was much worse than the robot.
    "That smell!" said Ada m. "Are all of the animals –"
    He and Ueda lo oked in the cages. Each creature was dead from thirst and inattention.
    "They have special diets," said Adam. "Arnie must be acting up. This is horrible. These poor animals."
    Arnie the robot continued to roll into the wall like a woodpecker.
    "Adam!"
    It was Eve's voice from down the hall.
    "Come on, Ueda!" said Adam.
    They ran to Eve and Swan.
    "Is it him?" said Adam.
    "No," she said. "No one's here. It's not that. It's what I found. Look."
    Adam looked at the plans and studied them.
    "Are they you and Eve?" said Ueda. "They look like you. But what is all this? It looks like some kind of operation. What does he want to do to you? Does he want to put this machinery inside you?"
    "A dam, look at the dates on these," said Eve. "2008. We weren't even here then, were we?"
    "I don 't know. I – no. But I think I see what this means."
    "What?" said Swan.
    "So many things. Things Eve and I wondered about so many times till we stopped asking so we didn't go crazy looking for an answer. Like why we can go without food and why we only remember a few years back."
    "Why? " said Swan.
    "This is us ," said Adam. "Right now. Inside us. This is us. He made us. Dr. Jew built us. Like Arnie and his other robots."
    "What are we, Adam?" said Eve. " What are we? "
    "It doesn 't change anything," said