Subject 009 had a good life, although most of it was within four clinically white walls. People wearing lab coats and smiles brought him food and games, and he got to play sometimes when he wasn't busy working.

His work was very important, they said. He was Subject 009, which meant that he was among the first to be doing this kind of work. He could be well on the way to changing the world for the better, that was what they said to him, that was what they filled his mind with. They told him that he was very special, and that he would save the world someday.

Subject 009 had never seen the world, but he loved the idea that he would be so important to it.

Sometimes he was taken out to the courtyard, where the other subjects played, each with their primary care manager. None of the subjects were allowed to interact with each other.