The next day they visited the head office of the Human Create.

“Do you have any appointment. The CEO won’t meet anyone without an appointment.”

Lisa felt a little irritated. A person who might be her mother was in very close place. But there was a step she had to climb up. Lisa hinted at some words and tried it.

“Please tell her an introduction by Dr. Brown of Cambridge.”

If she was a real Yasuko Satoh, she surely reacted to hear that.

“Dr. Brown of Cambridge, isn’t it?”

The receptionist took a phone and talked for a while.

“The CEO will meet you. Please use an elevator to third floor.”

They got it. They would meet Yasuko Satoh at last. What kind of person does she like? They knocked the door of her room.

“Please come in.”

They opened the door. One woman stood there turning her back to them. She faced to window to see outside.

“At last, you have come. I expected such day would come someday.”

“Are you really Yasuko Satoh? Lisa’s mother?”

Instead answering that question, she turned around slowly.

“Ah.”

Lisa and Yuichi had lost their word, looking at her face.

“Quite resemble. It just like looking a mirror.”

At a glance Yasuko and Lisa realized they were mother and child. But it was not so easy. They were too resemble to tell which is which. Lisa felt an extraordinary relation with her.

“I believe you are my real mother. Why did you abandon me?”

“Don’t ask that, please. It could be better for both of us.”

“Is that your answer? Terrible, devil.”

Lisa burst into tears

“Lisa’s residual lifespan is only 10 years. Her Telomere seems to be shorter than normal. We are now searching for the cause.”

“What? Really?”

Yasuko immediately realized the situation and was silent completely. After long silence, tears flooded down her cheek one after another.

“Please, please forgive me. It’s my fault, my selfishness.”

Long silence again. Yasuko finally started telling a story.

“It was 20 years ago. I joined with the Gene Technology Institution of the Cambridge University as an exchange researcher. It was my most brilliant period in my life. I had studied with many famous researchers from all over the world. Our main theme was “Human Life”. At that time we had already discovered the Telomere had a very important role for human lifespan. I tried to extend the lifespan by manipulating the Telomere. But failed again and again. I was over-hasting.”

She stopped her story once and poured a water into a cup.

“I never forget. It was spring of 33 years old. I had made an operation by myself.

I pricked a probe needle into my breast to remove a mammary glandular cell.”

When Lisa and Yuichi heard that word “Mammary Glandular Cell”, they soon realized what Yasuko had tried to do by that.

“I put the core of my mammary glandular cell into an egg cell kept for studies and gave an electrical stimulation. As I expected, the cell started division. One week later I injected the grown cells into my uterus and one month later confirmed my pregnancy.”

What cruel she had done? She challenged secretly to make a clone of herself by using her own mammary glandular cell and her own uterus. That means Lisa is the product of this cruel experiment. She was a complete copy of her mother.

She could never accept this cruel act.

“Unbelievable. Even if you make your clone, it is completely different individual. You are you and I am me. Never same.”

“Yes. As you said, we are different. But we have common DNA, completely same one. If the physical constitution is same, the mental and intelligent potential could be similar. If I gave you an appropriate education, you would grow up as such. Even if I die, my ability will be succeeded by you. And if you repeat a same thing, I will live inside you and your predecessors eternally.”

“Stop it. No more. You are insane, aren’t you?”

Lisa collapsed into tears.

“But the thing had not been so easy. The Ethical Committee of the Institution had a suspicion to my pregnancy. Because at that time I was a first runner about the Human cloning. Most of the scientists was against the human cloning. But I thought if we could give a complete cure for the patients of hereditary diseases by using the cloning technology, we should promote it. I believed it could be the benefit for all human beings. But they were different. They insisted to make a gene test of my embryo. It was Dr. Brown, my partner, who recommended to leave the Institution before testing. Then I had returned to Japan with huge disappointment. I had lost everything, brilliant careers as a scientist, and my hearty lover, Dr. Brown.”

At last Lisa knew her own hard-edged fate and continued to weep.

One week later.

Lisa was still in the deep blue mind. She stayed in her apartment and never went out. Yuichi sometimes visited her but nothing had changed.

And the morning of 10th day Lisa heard another shocking news from TV.

“Yesterday evening, a woman’s body was found under the Sandan Cliff of Wakayama. According to the police, her name was Yasuko Satoh, the CEO of the Human Create, the newly established venture business for manufacturing human organs. The police inspected as she committed suicide because no other suspicious injury was found.”

Lisa was shocked and lost her mind. At that time an entrance chime was rung.

“Miss Onodera. A registered mail for you.”

It was a postman. Lisa received an envelope whose sender was just Yasuko Satoh. Lisa opened it in great haste. There was three pages letter inside.

Dear Lisa

At the time you read this letter I would already be dead.

I should say my hearty apologies to you. I was wrong. Due to my selfishness I gave you an unrecoverable annoyance. Please for give me. I do now deeply regret my act.

It is likely that your Telomere is shorter than normal. Logically thinking your DNA is a complete copy of mine that means its Telomere could become short due to my lifespan. I believe it could be the cause of your illness. The same phenomenon had already been observed for that clone sheep Mary. Her lifespan was about half of normal adult. If it is true, I should apologize again I cannot give you enough lifespan.

But never give up. I believe there is a Miracle of God still existing.

And I would like to ask a favor. It is my last favor. I wish you would succeed my company, Human Create. I established the company to save people who have got an incurable disease. That company plans to open its stocks in public. According to the security company, its total opening price could be at least 1 billion dollars. I will succeed all stocks to you.

At last I should say my hearty apologies to you again. It is not permitted that there are two persons who have completely same DNA. It is my responsibility. Therefor I will go away first. You may think it selfish, but I have no choice other than that. Furthermore, to be honest I felt I have nothing to do in my life. Even if I am dying now, I have no regret.

Good by and Good luck.

Truly Yours to Dear Lisa

Lisa found a glass pendant inside the envelope which was same as hers. It was carved a name “Yasuko” and a number “R90156” which was one before her number. Probably Yasuko prepared two DNA arrays 20 years ago and put a drop pf her blood onto number 156 and Lisa’s blood onto another.

Lisa grasped two DNA arrays inside her right hand. Both DNA were completely same but she felt different. Yasuko was eventually a human not a devil but just a mother of herself. She understood the fact and wept down with sorrow she lost her most important and sole blood relative.

To be continued