New York City, 2035. Human cloning has become commonplace in Eastern Europe, where a viral STD has rendered much of the population impotent and infertile, but is frowned upon by the United States, which has become increasingly conservative and anti-intellectual. The American people are terrified of the "barbaric" nature of cloning, and there is no federal funding for scientific and genetic research available. Sending your child to private school in one of the "anti-American" states, such as New York or California, is the only way to ensure he or she will be taught evolution rather than creationism and won't be forced to pray every day. Simply put, things are not good for science in America.
On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Hannah Lautenberg is an average teenage girl - albeit one who feels like an outsider in her country, as the daughter of two Nobel Prize-winning geneticists. She doesn't believe in cloning and is starting to push away from her parents' "anti-American" inclinations. Then they drop a bombshell on her: When Hannah was an infant, they sold her DNA to a Moscow cloning syndicate in order to pay off her father's medical bills. Now, as the United States prepares to invade Russia in order to put an end to what they call "grave human rights violations" and "liberate" its clone population, Hannah's presence is required in Washington. The military sequesters a group of four Genetic Sources (people whose DNA has been used to create mass numbers of clones in Eastern Europe) - consisting of Hannah, German supermodel Ilse whose replicants are among the most desirable designer clone babies on the market, former chess prodigy turned twentysomething recluse Leroy, and Olympic gold medalist and world-class athlete Andre - in DC in order to run medical tests and experiments on them versus their clones. It's not a terrible situation, truly, and Hannah begins to enjoy herself, until she meets the very first clone of herself, Hannah 2 (or, as is her real name, Kira). Hannah and Kira develop a dark friendship as Hannah begins to dig around and discovers government corruption deeper than she could have ever imagined. The US military isn't planning to "liberate" any clones in Russia - they're bombing and executing them in mass numbers. The war is truly just an excuse for defense contractors to profit.
Provides Examples Of:
- Action Girl: Teased but subverted with Hannah, who is mildly athletic but not particularly adept at fighting (or doing much other than running for her life).
- Alternate History: On 9/11, the Flight 93 hijackers succeeded in getting their plane to Washington and crashed it into the White House. This matters because... you'll see.
- Ambiguously Brown: Played with. Hannah definitively states that she is half black, half Russian Jewish, but other characters have trouble pinpointing exactly what her race is.
- Attending Your Own Funeral: A slight variant; Hannah hears about her own "suicide" on the news.
- Badass Normal: Hannah.
- Bad Future: It's 2035. The United States has taken a big swing to the right and has become a conservative Christian nation in which science and intellectualism are all but outlawed and prayer is enforced in schools and workplaces. Meanwhile, in Russia, a viral STD has rendered most of the country infertile, causing them to turn to cloning as a means of restoring the population.
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: The other three sources that aren't Hannah. Supermodel Ilse is the pretty one; former chess prodigy turned antigovernment recluse Leroy is the smart one; Olympic gold medalist sprinter Andre is the strong one.
- Big Bad: The United States military.
- Bittersweet Ending: Hannah survives (at Dr. Lenox's behest), but has to go on the run and can never see her family again.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Ilse and Nella, Hannah, Raleigh.
- Brainy Brunette: Subverted with Hannah. Despite having brilliantly intelligent (Nobel Prize-winning!) scientists for parents, she's actually not all that bright or logical herself; most of her discoveries and small gains are made through luck or just sheer balls.
- Broken Pedestal: Hannah's respect for the government is destroyed upon learning the truth about the war.
- Corrupt Politician: President Whitman. VP Donnelly. Both almost hinge on Strawman Political territory.
- Crapsaccharine World: The United States. Russia is more of just a plain old Crapsack World.
- Deadpan Snarker: Leroy. Hannah has her moments but falls more into Little Miss Snarker territory.
- Expendable Clone: All of the Replicants, according to the Army.
- Failure Is the Only Option: A 16-year-old girl trying to expose massive government corruption? Yeah, that's gonna be doomed from the beginning.
- Fantastic Racism: Replicants, otherwise known as "lab rats" and "tube babies."
- History Repeats: Basically it's The War on Terror, recycled in the future.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Dr. Lenox, explaining why you can't really expect to repopulate an entire country by basically cloning the same few people thousands of times.
- The Men in Black / Van in Black / Black Helicopter: Bix and Silver get the full treatment.
- Punch-Clock Villain / Minion with an F in Evil: Dr. Lenox
