Braji

3,312 juvenile prisoners and 508 adult guards were sent to the Brajilliana Experimental Maximum Security Juvenile Detention and Rehabilitation Facility. 313 prisoners returned.

“Heard of the blind mice? Some scientists wanted to study blindness in mice, this was in the seventies and eighties. They wanted to breed genetically identical mice for the purpose, perfect laboratory controls. But breeding implies a random mixing of genes. Am I boring you? Well to make a long story short, they cloned them.”

“You’re saying Rober is Frenchi’s clone? So how does that differ from identicals in nature?”

“It wouldn’t. Oh, it wouldn’t Andrew. Have some cookies. But the Vontours are not identical, are they? Do you know what happens when a child is born with an extra chromosome?”

“It dies.”

“Or is retarded or deformed, yes. And what happens if instead of giving it an extra one, you simply alter the pattern, suppress one that would be dominant, switch them with chromosomes from a different clone?”

“Neapolitan girls?”

“Can you see the possibilities? Whole populations of identical subjects, tailored to the needs of the researcher. Someone wants to study alcoholism. You find one with the trait, clone him, seven, eight even a hundred identical alcoholics. You can put them in different socioeconomic situations, different home environments, move them a continent apart if necessary. You can tailor them for other purposes as well. Everyone wants the most beautiful, most talented, smartest, most well behaved kids. You can select for those things. Pick and choose.”

When a consortium of private investors builds the first ever maximum security prison specifically for the offspring of participants in the Brajilliana project, governments worldwide are happy to send their young recidivist criminals off to be rehabilitated. But the Brajilliana Commission has entrusted their facility to the wrong man. Corruption, fraud, incompetence, greed and brutality turn the prison into an armed death camp. F. James Vontour and Andrew Duke do not believe promises of "three years and out." While Duke conspires with the charismatic Rober Vontour to take over the camp by sedition and armed rebellion, F. James Vontour secretly collects evidence for the Head Technician. Kraut is repeatedly reminded of how aptly the guards have named them "rat kids" as his little family of pickpockets and con artists slowly disintegrates. And Punk Olivia may have the best evidence of all...if she can keep him alive. Will an investigation save them before the Director and Sub-Director can complete their plans to sacrifice the subjects of this experiment?