The Mortal Coil - an introduction

This introductory post is intended to explain our collaborative work, tentatively entitled "The Mortal Coil", and the plan for its creation. I will write the first chapter, and we will have a rotation in this order:
Clayton Campbell
Sam Van Eerden
Brandon Stallings
Luke Jones
Jeremy Bridgman
*Andy Herder
*Steve McNutt

*Denotes possible participation - these guys haven't decided yet whether to join in.

Each post should start with the title of the book - I expect that we might submit other work on this blog in the future. To keep it easy to track, let's use a naming format like this: "The Mortal Coil - Chapter 1" etc. Let's also try not to make the posts too long. If we write moderately short chapters and then post them, and we do three or four turns through the rotation, we'll have quite a story on our hands.

**SPOILER ALERT**
IF YOU ARE READING THIS BLOG AND AREN'T AN AUTHOR, AND YOU DON'T WANT TO SPOIL THE STORY FOR YOURSELF, SKIP THIS ENTRY AND MOVE RIGHT ON TO CHAPTER ONE
The basic plot that we decided on is summarized as follows:

The main character, Detective Bob Ludwick, is trying to track down a dangerous foreign crime syndicate leader and his henchmen. The syndicate is called "The Club", and has several extremely dangerous hitmen working for it. These hitmen frequently kill Ludwick, and they can't figure out how he keeps surviving the hits. His secret is that he's part of an experimental government cloning program that, from time to time, records his thoughts and memories via his wi-fi wristwatch onto a centralized server and, upon his frequent death, upload the memories to a clone "blank" made from his DNA.
Ludwick usually picks up his investigation at the scene of his own death, and tries to get clues from his body along the way.
The philosophical part of this story is Ludwick's clones' frequent struggle with their own eternity - they don't want to die, because they know the lights go out for good for them. Each clone also knows that he didn't really experience the thoughts and memories that are programmed into them upon respawn, and they wonder if they have their own souls or if several lives and deaths in identical DNA clones are part of the same continuing soul. Feel free to discuss these in the context of dialogue, monologue, narrative, or in the form of Ludwick's own thoughts.
Ok fellas, I'll start out with chapter one.

Clayton