Blair bit off another chunk of her nail, wincing when she drew blood.She forced her hands into her lap and put pressure on her pulsing nailbed.
“Holly.”She cleared her throat and sat up a little straighter.The hologram wasn’t a real person, but Blair didn’t trust that a conversation with Holly would always only be between the two ofthem.
“Yes, Ms.Scott?”Holly materialized in front of Blair’s onyx desk, her hair and clothes and smile all perfect where she stood on the plush throw rug.
A twinge of jealousy clawed at Blair’s chest.Envying a computer’s flawless,human-madeimage was illogical—Blair knew that—
but envy reared its green head nonetheless.“Call my brother.When he answers, put the call through to my office comm system.”
“Right away, Ms.Scott.”Holly’s eyelids fluttered as she contactedDenny.
It wasn’t that Blair was opposed to using her own personal comlink to reach her brother.Since the update, the tech was more user friendly than it had ever been.She just didn’t particularly like people talking in her head.She had enough to plot and sort through without the extra chatter.
Blair pressed her palms against the cold onyx slab and stood.Her shadow spilled onto the black surface of the desk, and the vase sitting on the edge, and pooled onto the rug and through Holly’s feet.Throughthem.Because, no matter how much Blair’s eyes tried to fool her, Holly’s being was nothing but ones and zeros.Her “mind,” however, all the secrets Holly held, that’s what Blair should trulyenvy.
Holly’s eyelids opened slowly, evenly.“Unfortunately, I’m unable to contact your brother.I’ve attempted to reach him three times and received an error message eachtime.”
Blair’s heart skipped and she lowered herself onto the edge of her chair.She stammered and pressed her hand against her chest.“What could cause this type of error message?”She released calm and steady breaths.Preston Darby couldn’t act without cause.Blair’s brother might not be as driven as she was, but he was no troublemaker.He was her sweet little Denny.Everyone who met him loved him.And if they didn’t, Blair Scott would burn them to the ground.
“The error is most likely a result of an incomplete chip update.”The ends of Holly’s perfectly styled hair brushed her chin as she spoke.“This malfunction has occurred in”—another rapid blink—“approximately four percent of Westfall’s citizens.Would you like me to submit a work order to the IT department on your brother’s behalf?”
Blair’s free hand slid limply into her lap, leaving the sweaty ghost of a handprint on the desk.She’d gotten herself worked up for no reason at all.Denny was at his job, safe and secure.He couldn’t be reached because technology, no matter howawe-inspiring, always possessed aflaw.
Blair leaned back in her chair and narrowed her gaze on Holly.“Leave me,” she said with a flick of herwrist.
Before she’d finished the gesture, Holly wasgone.
“Show off,” she muttered as she turned her attention back to more important things.A gray box formed to one side of her vision before her messaging inbox appeared.
Maxine—
She thought, and the characters appeared instantaneously.
My office, immediately.We’re going to make my brother a Key Corp soldier.
Blair paused and glanced down at her jagged nails before sending the message.
Oh, and get me everything you can on Preston Darby.
XV
The holoscreen activated, the floating rectangle blinking from sleeping gray to paper white as Dr.Normandy unlocked PatientNinety-Two’s chart.He stepped back a moment to take it all in.
What to look atfirst?
His weathered hands fell to the printed photos he’d lined up along the edge of the steel exam table under the translucent screen.His fingers blindly traced the edge of one of the photos.He liked the thinness of the printed pages, almost not there at all.It reminded him of his job—his world.Searching cells and sequences for the thinnest chance.A chance so small that anyone else would miss it.But not Normandy.Given enough time, he could find a single hair floating in a river the size of the Columbia.And he had been given all the time in the world.
Normandy openedNinety-Two’s most recent lab report before extending his arm to the holoscreen, pinching the digital paperwork that noted the previous day’s test results, and plopping them into the empty space next to it.It had only been three weeks, and already a universe of changes bloomed to life inside ofNinety-Two.Although, he shouldn’t be surprised.Didn’t Christians believe their god created the cosmos in merely six days?Normandy was no god, at least not by those standards, but he was in the process of creating salvation.A completelygerm-free,worry-freeexistence for all.
Squinting, he pressed his round glasses farther up the bridge of his thinnose.
Lieutenant Commander Sparkman let out a hiss of frustration as the door toNinety-Two’s room closed behind her and as she waited for the Violet Shield to complete its pass.“I thought you said the patient was stable.”
“She is.”Normandy flicked his bony fingers over the holoscreen and brought up the feed fromNinety-Two’s room.“See for yourself.”
The girl’s slim, unconscious frame lay like a toothpick in the middle of the gurney.Or perhaps nowNinety-Twowas no longer agirl.He would further dissect the tests Sparkman had conducted, but Normandy knew better than anyone that gender was more complex than genitalia.
Ninety-Twotwitched, thesweat-soakedsheets rumpled like waves beneath her.The rise and fall of her chest had finally steadied along with the rhythmic beep of the pulse monitor.It had taken six hours and seventeen different combinations of tranquilizers, but Normandy had eventually figured it out.He eventually figured everything out.
