Product

Dr. Albert Clarke and his lovely wife, Phyllis, have seventeen children. No twins. They have a three-bedroom house. They have a problem. Dr. Clarke has developed the science to "freeze-dry" a human being into its two basic elements: it's essence, or personality or "soul" if you prefer, and its physical component. When a human being is whole, he is a Person. When reduced to its two basic components, he is a Product. Products are shelved and rotated into activity periodically in the Clarke household to ensure that the number of Persons active at any given time is manageable. One day, Dr. Clarke is rotating his "stock" and manages to put the Essence of his seven-year old daughter, Katie, into the Physical body of her eight-year old brother, Larry. Dr. Clarke, up to this point, did not know that this was even possible. He would never have purposely tried to intermingle Essences and Physicalities. He was certain that the Persons involved in such a blunder would not survive the trauma. But they did. No negative effects were realized as a result of putting one person's Essence into another person's Physical Plant, or body. The ramifications of this successful transfer are enormous, and Dr. Clarke realizes it right away. His science means that sick or elderly rich people could take over the bodies of the healthy poor. Spies could shed identities and put on new ones like a pair of gloves. Armies could conscript bigger and stronger bodies for its ground troops.... The list of the potential misuses of his science went on and on. And unfortunately, word of his science leaked. It leaked to a man with a position and the authority to take possession of it and to misuse it to support not only the misguided national leaders who employed him, but also to satisfy his own nefarious purposes. Join the Clarke family as they unite to oppose the powers which rise to change the entire order of the human race. Who will win? Humanity? Or only selected humans?