Two or One

Prologue

19th February 1996

In the basement of a secluded hometown of Mineva, a scientist, Dr. Jacobi is engrossed in his work in the wee hours of the morning. The only sounds are the keystrokes on his computer keyboard. “Subject XX1 and XX2 are fully functional, motor and sensory responses are fully functional, and all parameters of human functioning are normal, with normal ranges. It is time to release subjects XX1 and XX2 to their natural habitat and monitor their adaptation”

Dr. Jacobi looked at the report on his screen and he couldn’t have been prouder of himself. He wished his judgmental father was here to witness his success. He would have laughed at his face with pride, just to prove to him that his research had amounted to something and his scientific brain wasn’t cursed but fully functioning and normal. His request to be allowed to research if the human fetus could grow outside the human womb was rejected by the National Research Institute. But he could not allow their rejection to stop him so he conducted his research in his own basement using his own sperm and ovum from his dying girlfriend, Daisy. Its sad Daisy wasn’t here to see the product of their scientific collaboration, two, healthy, identical, girl twins.

The following morning, he was going to give them up for adoption at the Mineva Children’s Home. He wasn’t going to walk up to the reception with two babies at hand, no, he could not bear the judgmental stare from the nuns at the orphanage. He was going to wrap them well in a baby basket and leave them at the door and watch them from a distance. However, his scientific instincts would not allow him to leave them there alone, he wanted more. So he applied for a job at the home as a janitor and watched as the children were named by the nuns as Zia and Zelda. Zia had a tiny mole at the back of her neck that was barely noticeable until you looked closely but otherwise both children were a true copy of each other. Zia was the first to be adopted by a couple whose man was a lawyer and his wife, a teacher. Zelda was later adopted by a couple who were martial art enthusiasts.

Jacobi left his job at the Children's home immediately after Zelda was adopted so that he could be making inconspicuous visits to the different homes of the twins so that he could continue collecting data for his research.

Present-day

Zia was busy preparing herself for her job interview at Maslow Limited for a personal assistant position and to say that she wasn’t panicking was an understatement. Her nerves were all over the place, from sweating, her chest pounding, and butterflies in her stomach. The previous night, she had looked up the company and the first thing she found was the picture of the handsome CEO, Jason Maslow, and damn, he was everything she would have wanted in a man but she was sure he had so many ladies at his beck and call and she did not want to be any of his toys. Her focus was not going to be derailed by the handsome CEO, she was going to go for the interview and hopefully nail it, otherwise, her bills were going to choke her to death and she could not think of herself asking for help from her overachieving father who would not let her pursue what she loved. Every time she had a conversation with her father, he would bring up his disappointment about Zia’s choice of career. Everything was never good enough for him and in these moments she missed her mother most.

She pushed her thoughts away as she hailed a cab and boarded. She drifted into her thoughts as she stared outside the window of the cab watching the buildings drift away. Her thoughts were halted by the voice of the cab driver, “Ma’am we are here”

Elsewhere

Zelda was graduating top of her class today at the FBI. Her specialty was her exceptional ability to complete undercover missions without being discovered. She had completed three missions successfully and was being given a badge of honor today for bringing down the largest world human trafficking cartel. Another interesting about her was her impeccable martial art movies courtesy of lengthy practices from the time she learned how to walk.

However, nothing would lift up her spirits today as she had noticed recently that someone might be following her or tracking down her moves. For a moment she thought she was being paranoid but in the course of her career she has pissed off lots of people in major ways and they all would definitely want to see her dead. So what’s her plan? The plan is to investigate whoever is trying to kill her but for now, she has a badge of honor to receive.