The Bourgon File
Operation Replacement
by Auren Hoffman
Note: For the next few weeks, Summation will feature fictional pieces by Auren Hoffman
NOTE:
Each document of this file, save the fifteenth, was released to a committee of ten to twelve scientists five days after it was written. Each document was reviewed before being released to the committee by the Director of Operations (D.O.), the committee's chairman. All the documents were written in a five month span during the latter part of 1984 and the early part of 1985.
- Chicago P.D.
The Bourgon File - Operation Replacement
OPENED APRIL 17, 1984
------------------------------ TOP SECRET ------------------------------
DOCUMENT F1: Observations - September 15, 1984
Written and edited by Dr. Steven Brown and Dr. Charles Fitting
Laurence Bourgon lives in Morton, 20.4 miles from where we are in Chicago. He lives in a modest house on 539 Ginger Road. Laurence or Larry has a French background but only speaks English. He is a computer programmer at ChiefCo, where he does not communicate or come in contact with anybody except his immediate supervisor. He was married to Laura Block, who was killed in a car accident on March 19 of this year. Laurence is not over his wife's death and will not socialize with other women. Bourgon has no siblings and no close family either, he was an only child. His father and mother were both only children and both died of cancer: mother of lung cancer on October 6, 1980 and father of a brain tumor on May 17, 1981. He has a thin, round, full-colored face with no out-standing characteristics. He is five feet ten inches and weighed 159 pounds at his last physical on August 12, 1984. He has little muscular build with little fat, but is not noticeably skinny. He has wavy brown hair with a contemporary haircut and brown eyes. Laurence buys all his cloths and most of his items at Kall's. Every Tuesday at approximately 18:20 pm he purchases all his food and basic household needs in Clockmart; this regular routine has brought about a relationship with the grocer. He drives a compact car which has very good gas mileage.
Laurence Bourgon's typical weekday begins with the blasting of WQTZ, an oldies rock station, from his clock radio at 6:45. He immediately, without hesitation, takes off his cloths and runs to the shower (we were unable to extract the temperature he usually bathes in). He brushes his teeth and then dresses, usually in a brown or gray colored suit and a somber tie. He hurries downstairs to the kitchen and pours himself a cup of Clockmart brand coffee. 22.22 percent of the time Laurence spills the coffee either on his shirt or on the kitchen floor. After, Mr. Bourgon grabs his coat and leaves his house around 7:12. He hops in his car and takes the same route to work everyday (map with route is enclosed) and enters the ChiefCo parking lot by 7:45. He eats lunch in his office which is brought to him by his immediate supervisor at 12 noon punctually. Laurence leaves his office at 20:00 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and 18:00 on Tuesday to go shopping (previously mentioned).
Laurence Bourgon usually watches television, reads The Chicago Tribune, or reads a science-fiction book from Clockmart when he is not working. Bourgon has not taken a vacation for four years and only takes mornings off to go to the dentist or to the doctor who both report him to be very healthy. All this working has enabled Bourgon to build a sizable savings account and to pay off the mortgage to his house. His total savings amounted to $32,670 as of August 31, all in sound investments (CD accounts, savings account, and checking account). This money could be use to finance the experiment.*
*Please disregard the OPINIONATED comments of the last sentence.
- E.G.
DOCUMENT F2: Response to Observations - September 30, 1984
Written by Dr. Michael Nang
Laurence Bourgon cannot yet be a chief candidate for this operation. His observation time has not yet reached the required ten months and thus Document F1 most probably contains flaws, though I have not found any. Other candidates like Harrison, Stalley, and Stricken, which Dr. Fitting has also supervised the observation of, should too be considered.
[NOTE: (Pertaining to the last line of Document F1) Opinionated comments do not belong in the observations. Dr. Gould has enough capital to finance our venture, thus the line should be crossed out completely so it will not arise any unnecessary arguments.]
Bourgon's Good Points
1. Bourgon's facial and bodily characteristics are easily reproducible. His build and structure match those of four of our scientists (one of them being myself).
2. He has very little contact with the outside world.
3. He can be observed easily in case of any "malfunction" with the experiment.
4. Though not necessarily a good point of Bourgon's, the Voice Transcriber was proved on September 19 to be very effective, transcribing Dr. Gould's voice pattern into Dr. Brown.
Bourgon's Bad Points
1. He has not had enough observation time (as previously noted).
2. The supervisor is in contact with Bourgon too often and would be able to spot dissimilarities between the replacement and the real Bourgon.
3. He has too many responsibilities like a job, driving, shopping, etc. Our first candidate must be even less complex.
Repeating what I have said in my other responses, I strongly believe that we are not yet ready for replacement and that all equipment systems will not be operational to their full potential until at least six months from now.
DOCUMENT F3: Response to the Actions of Dr. Steven Brown -
October 18, 1984
Written by Dr. Michael Nang
How dare Dr. Brown initiate his experiment without even a vote from the committee. I just learned yesterday that on October 3, before my response was even released to the committee, Dr. Brown killed Bourgon's supervisor. Then, on October 8, Brown's secretary and now his accomplice, Miss Clavan Bethmeyer, applied for the job of ChiefCo.'s supervisor and was instantly accepted because she was "overqualified." For the last ten days Miss Bethmeyer has been holding the 9:00 - 17:00 supervisor's job.
I call for Dr. Brown to be reprimanded by the committee and to be stripped of all powers. Brown has committed serious crimes behind the backs of the entire faculty. What else will Brown do without our knowledge and what else has he done?
DOCUMENT F4: Response to Dr. Michael Nang - November 6, 1984
Written by Dr. Steven Brown
Today, November 6, 1984, is Election Day. While the American people have to make the decision of who to vote for, I had to make a more important decision. On October 30 I made my decision, I shot Dr. Michael Nang twice in the forehead with my revolver at 20:32. Nang was a threat to our experiment, therefore I felt it was my duty to eliminate him. In every one of his responses, Dr. Nang revealed that he did not back the experiment. He informed us, in each case, that there was not enough time spent on observations and that the operations equipment have not yet reached their full potential. However, Dr. Fitting has done a thorough comprehensive job in observing each candidate and Dr. Tiller attests that all the equipment systems are operating to their maximum capacity.
Dr. Nang was a disbeliever and could have been the traitor which would have driven the experiment to a halt and driven all of us, devoted scientists, to jail. I ask the committee, in this time of need, that we support each other in our efforts to cross the boundaries that our predecessors never dared to encounter.
I would also like to assure the committee that Dr. Fitting and I made no flaws in our observations. I will present a detailed report on November 15 analyzing the possibilities of implementing Laurence Bourgon into Operation Replacement.
DOCUMENT F5: Director's Report - November 12, 1984
Written by Dr. Edward Gould, Director of Operations
Dr. Brown's response was released to the committee yesterday and caused an uproar and a cry for action among the members. Of course, Dr. Brown himself was not present, because if he were the meeting would have been very different. Most of the scientists are afraid of Brown and would not have reprimanded him if he were present at the meeting. I feel a man like this is a threat to me and the entire operation, therefore I ordered him killed. By the time this report is released to the committee Brown will be dead. I ordered my assistant, Soulhouse Drake, to kill Brown immediately after the doctor delivers his report on November 15.
Brown should never have killed Dr. Nang, not because of moral reasons but because of Nang's usefulness. Nang was a very intelligent scientist who portrayed Bourgon's characteristics extremely well and would have been my number one choice to replace Bourgon.
I am replacing Nang's seat on the committee with my longtime friend and money manager - Mark Thurmond. Mr. Thurmond is a knowledgeable and heralded administrator and an expert financial guide. I have not yet decided who will replace Dr. Brown's seat.
DOCUMENT F6: Director's Report - November 15, 1984
Written by Mr. Mark Thurmond, Director of Operations
Document F5 has not yet been presented to the committee and already tragedy has struck. Last night at approximately 20:15 Dr. Gould injected himself with dynamine-cyanide and died instantly. He left a suicide note pinned to his forehead explaining how he could not handle the pressure and how he felt that there was only one solution. Before he died Dr. Gould telephoned his assistant, Mr. Soulhouse Drake at 20:07. Drake, who described Gould's voice as "remorseful," said that the D.O. ordered him not to kill Dr. Brown and to terminate and destroy all the files (A-N) with the exclusion of F. At 20:10 I received a telephone call from Dr. Gould instructing me to give Dr. Brown and myself a pay bonus for the "excellent work we have been doing."
I have replaced Dr. Gould as the Director of Operations and my old seat will be replaced by Dr. Ingmar Zaar. Dr. Zaar is Dr. Stallmar's assistant in the psychiatry division and has made many contributions to this experiment. Dr. Zaar is also one of the three candidates named by Dr. Brown today to replace Bourgon.
Because Dr. Gould ordered the termination of all the other files, this file (F - The Bourgon File) will now also be used as an infrequent journal to record events.
DOCUMENT F7: Progress Report - November 28, 1984
Written by Dr. Steven Brown
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a time for thanks, and I thank all of you on the committee for your cooperation and your devotion to the experiment. By the time this report is released to the committee on Monday, the operation will be well underway. Tonight, while the real Bourgon is still at ChiefCo. we will bring Dr. Charles Dordeau (Bourgon's willing replacement) to Bourgon's house along with all of our equipment. [NOTE: Dordeau will hereby be referred to as Bourgon 1.] When the real Bourgon returns home we will induce him with a fatal dose of chloroform. Bourgon 1 will be given a heavy anesthesia and will be performed upon by Dr. Hubert Gentile, our chief plastic surgeon. At this time Dr. Ingmar Zaar and Dr. Charles Fitting will be seized and brought to the house. Zaar and Fitting, Bourgon 2 and Bourgon 3 respectively, will receive the same treatment as Bourgon 1 and will become our "safety Bourgons." [NOTE: None of the four Bourgons will ever come in contact with each other for this may cause severe mental damage.] Afterwards, the safety Bourgons will receive high doses of an assortment of drugs causing drowsiness for long periods of time and they will be brought back to headquarters, sealed off in different rooms. The real Bourgon will be given to Mr. Drake to dispose of while Bourgon 1 will be brainwashed by a series of memory blanks and memory programming into believing that he is actually the real Bourgon. He will be programmed further over the next three days and by Saturday night will be Laurence Bourgon. Bourgon 1 will then be put to bed and the experiment team will then move all the equipment out of the Bourgon house and into the house we rented across the street. Bourgon 1 will start his life at this moment.
Though brainwashing was not approved by the committee I felt it was a necessary (no matter how cruel) procedure for a successful experiment. I ask the committee to please bare with me and to stand behind me.
Dr. Zaar's and Dr. Fitting's duties pertaining to Operation Replacement were over and therefore had no value to the committee. I felt that these two men would serve their cause better as Bourgon instead of as themselves.
UPDATE: I have had my voice transcribed back to my original voice pattern.
DOCUMENT F8: Observations of Bourgon 1 - December 3, 1984
Written by Dr. Martin Stallmar
After over a week of observations, Bourgon 1 seems to have adopted very well. Comparing Bourgon 1 to the real Bourgon I have found only two contrasting points between the two: (1) Bourgon 1 does not have the ability to type at high speeds and (2) Bourgon 1 frequently stares in the mirror for a longer period of time than necessary; Bourgon 1 stared at his driver's license for several minutes while waiting for his car to warm up on Thursday morning. Except for these two minor incidents Bourgon 1 does everything he should be doing -- he even spills his coffee 20 percent of the time. Miss Bethmeyer reports that she finds no difference between the real Bourgon and Bourgon 1. Bourgon 1's cash count should at least supply him for another week before he has to go to the bank.
The safety Bourgons spend their day sleeping, eating, excreting, and staring at the walls of their bright blue room. Bourgons 2 and 3 are like zombies who never utter a word and sleep eighteen hours a day. Neither one of them has ever come in contact with any form of life. There food, which is given to them by a small portal, appears periodically throughout the day. Each item of food is induced with a different drug to keep the zombie effects constant.
DOCUMENT F9: President's Report - December 15, 1984
Written by Mark Thurmond, President
The infrastructure of the committee has been reorganized by Dr. Brown and
myself to produce a more effective machine. I have become the President of
the new ten member committee.
Around the table counter-clockwise from me:
a) Dr. Steven Brown - Director of Operations
b) Dr. Martin Stallmar - Director of Psychiatry, Director of Observations
c) Dr. Thomas Forte - Assistant Director of Psychiatry
d) Dr. Hubert Gentile - Chief Plastic Surgeon
e) Dr. Zachary Shullman - Chief Surgeon
f) Dr. Margaret String - Director of Medicine
g) Dr. Jonathan Tiller - Equipment Manager
h) Mr. Matthew Dexter - Director of Obedience
i) Mr. David Gleisman - Administration Manager, Lawyer
Other highly important members of the team: (1) Mr. Soulhouse Drake, Assistant to the Director of Operations (2) Miss Clavan Bethmeyer, pseudo-supervisor (3) Bourgon 1 (4) Bourgon 2 (5) Bourgon 3 (6) Mr. James McMillnan, Dr. Gould's old friend and our new financier.
DOCUMENT F10: Observations of Bourgon 1 - December 19, 1984
Written by Soulhouse Drake
Yesterday was my observation shift. Bourgon 1 went to Clockmart yesterday after work like he does every Tuesday. He picked out his groceries and then went to the cash register to pay. Bourgon 1 realized that he did not have enough cash to pay for his items so he decided to pay by check. The grocer, who is on semi-friendly terms with Laurence Bourgon, noticed that Bourgon 1 sign his name on the check with his right hand. The grocer said, "ummm, Mr. Bourgon, I thought you were a southpaw."
"What?!" Bourgon 1 exclaimed.
"I said I thought you wrote with your left hand," repeated the grocer.
No one observing the real Bourgon noticed that he was left-handed since Bourgon rarely writes anything! Bourgon 1 was taught to copy Bourgon's signature in his right hand.
After the grocer repeated himself Bourgon 1 started yelling and screaming unintelligible sounds and running around the store like a wild man. I was about to kill the grocer when Bourgon 1 ran out of the store. I grabbed the wallet, which was dropped near the dumbfounded grocer and darted after Bourgon 1. I found Bourgon 1 three minutes later in an alleyway hunched against a brick wall and a garbage can. He kept repeating in a low tone "Am I really myself?" I responded "yes" and I told him it didn't matter if he died because he will not die. Then I strangled Bourgon 1.
Afterwards I threw Bourgon 1's body in my car and drove back to headquarters. There I telephoned Dexter to pick up the Bourgon-mobile and I telephoned Miss Bethmeyer to schedule Bourgon absent for the next three days. Then I threw Bourgon in the incinerator to mash his body into wine, Bourgondy wine.
Bourgon 1 is being replaced by Bourgon 2 who is receiving extensive brain-washing and is being converted to be left-handed at this moment.
An emergency meeting for all staff, including Miss Bethmeyer, has been called for 20:00 tonight. Afterwards, I will see to it that the grocer does not cause us trouble again.
DOCUMENT F13: Director's Report - January 4, 1985
Written by Dr. Steven Brown, Director of Operations
Document F4 (my response to Dr. Nang), Document F11 (minutes from the crucial December 19 staff meeting), and Document F12 (observations of Bourgon 2) are missing and I believe are stolen. The Bourgon File has been passed around the staff so frequently that anyone could have taken these documents. A search has been underway to find the documents and to find the culprit(s). Security has tripled causing an inconvenience upon the work of many. Unless the file is in my safe it must be accompanied by Mr. Drake to assure that no other documents are stolen. No one may leave or enter headquarters without a complete search of their possessions by Mr. Dexter, a man Mr. Drake assured me was trustworthy.
Bourgon 2, as noted in the previous document, has responded very well. The ChiefCo. New Year's party was a great success. Bourgon 2 socialized with many people, men and women, and even recalled and explained his wife's tragic death three times. Through Operation Replacement we have made Laurence Bourgon into a better person, we have changed him for the good of himself and the good of mankind. Bourgon 2 socializes, gives to charity, and inputs work ideas to his supervisor, all things he previously never did. Tonight we have planned for Bourgon 2 to have a sexual encounter with Miss Bethmeyer.
I am making a request to the President to give Mr. Soulhouse Drake and Miss Clavan Bethmeyer a raise for their excellent work.
DOCUMENT F14: President's Report - January 15, 1985
Written by Mark Thurmond, President
I have decided to give Mr. Soulhouse Drake, Miss Clavan Bethmeyer, and Dr. Brown a pay bonus for their excellent contributions to Operation Replacement.
At the request of our financier, Mr. James McMillnan, we have implemented a rotation policy between Bourgon 2 and Bourgon 3. Every three to four days during Bourgon's sleep we will switch the two Bourgon's. The replacement Bourgon will have his memory programmed so it will seem like he never missed an hour while the replaced Bourgon would be programmed to recall all the events of the days past on tape recorder.
Mr. McMillnan believes that this process would interest most governments of the world's nation's. He believes that this rotation policy could be implemented upon a high ranking foreign official who could then be programmed to tell his government's innermost secrets. The profit that could be made using this process is unimaginable.
DOCUMENT F15: Untitled - 16:00 January 21, 1985
Written by Soulhouse Drake
Last night I found Document F4 taped to the back of a painting hanging in Gleisman's room. I waited for Gleisman there and when he arrived he told me, while suspended upside down from a rotating fan, that he had just sent photocopies to the Chicago Police Department. He also told me that he did not know where Documents F11 and F12 are. Hence, I killed him with my knife, I Gleised him up.
I set up explosives all around headquarters and the rented house. My devices will be triggered simultaneously at 22:00 tonight. Dr. Brown and Miss Bethmeyer have already left the country. I will follow them later on with the Bourgon File.
March 17, 1985
Mr. Soulhouse Drake was apprehended by FBI agents on January 25, 1985 at John F. Kennedy Airport. Found on his possession was a one-way ticket to Bonn, a dog whistle, an encrypted microchip, and the Bourgon File without Document F11 or Document F12. Miss Clavan Bethmeyer was found two days later, dead, along an inland bank of the Amazon River. Dr. Steven Brown and Mr. James McMillnan are still at large and are believed to be negotiating with many nations for financial backing of a diplomatic replacement operation. Other individuals involved in this incident may also be at large. Bourgon 2 or Bourgon 3 (we are not sure which) is now a vice-president at ChiefCo. and lives happily in his Morton house where he frequently entertains guests of fifteen or more.
- Chicago P.D.
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