K8’s heart skips a beat. She keeps reading.
My account is flagged with a note that says vendor transactions may take an extra 10 days to process due to the review.
K8, why aren’t you answering my messages?
I got myself a GROW for Holiday, by the way.
This can’t be legal. It says we can still receive payments and use our existing and some pending funds. I’m looking into it now.
K8, aren’t you concerned about paying James’s lease?
Jett told me you were counting on a few returns to cover it. Did you already pay it?
There is an hour between messages. Then:
K8, I’m coming over.
K8 is standing at her desk, stunned, when Lessa returns from the bathroom. Offhandedly, she asks, “Is there something they can do for the vomiting?”
Lessa shakes their head. “Nothing they’ve given me is working.” Crossing the space, they plop down onto the couch and scan the living room. “Where’s James?”
K8 shakes her head. “I don’t know. He was gone when I woke up. Probably at the Sports Center with Oro1.” Panic hits her all at once. “Does this mean my account is being reviewed too? My returns! If they take longer to process—we’re counting on them to pay James’s lease!”
Lessa rubs their temples, and K8 is aware she’s shrieking.
“That’s why I came over. You should check your account,” they say. “And pay the lease as soon as possible. If NHOS is investigating GROW, you want to have as long of an extension as you can afford covered. GROW won’t want to refund the longer leases, so they’ll have their legalese team work something out with the officials. The more you can pay, the better.”
If only she had a way to pay more. Quickly, K8 logs into her Worldbank account, finding the same note tagged on her account. James’s transfer and two of the twelve returns are showing as pending, which is a relief. She may not have enough to pay one month if her remaining returns take an additional ten days. She needs to have this uncomfortable discussion with James—which would make him proud of her growing relationship acumen. If only he were here.
She’s about to message him when her device chimes. Ah, it’s probably James. She glances at the email. It’s from the Birthing Agency. Her heart backflips. Despite her rising panic at James’s undisclosed whereabouts, she clicks the message. She’s never received an email from the Birthing Agency, and there’s only one reason they’d contact her.
It reads:
Congratulations, C-K8lyn-MSP-00023468!
The NHOS Sector MSP Birthing Agency has identified you as a citizen candidate for reproduction. Please use this unique registration code to set up your appointment with a representative from the Agency.
MSP-BA-CC-K8lyn-00023468-9EJ0753
While you are preparing for your visit, it is important to consider the method of copulation a candidate may utilize. Many candidates choose to select a DNA donor from the Birthing Agency’s registry list and implant the zygote medically. However, if the candidate can provide a suitable genetically approved donor or partner to copulate with, the candidate must provide this information to their assigned representative at the registration meeting.
At your visit, your representative will collect a blood sample. Once the candidate’s identity is confirmed, your representative will remove your Reproduction Prevention Implantation Chip. Once the candidate’s chip is successfully removed and your ability to conceive is confirmed by our highly specialized—
There are several paragraphs left, but K8 quits reading. She’s been selected. Against all odds, she’s been selected. After Lessa, she never thought she’d get the chance. Tried to put it out of her mind, but being a citizen candidate of the Birthing Agency has been her dream for aslong as she can remember. It’s the only plausible hope she had for finding a real partner. But then she got James.
She’s too stunned and worried to feel any excitement. She needs James. She thinks the command to call him.Answer, she mentally decrees. There is a buzzing coming from his old room. When she enters, the first thing she sees is his device is lying abandoned in the center of the neatly made bed. Her dread carves out a pit in the depths of her stomach. It isn’t like him to forget it. “Oh, James, what have you done?”
Lessa comes to stand beside her, glancing from the device to K8.
Her body feels cold as she sits down on the bed, cradling the black-market device in her lap. If only she knew the code to get in. But because of the nature of these devices, they’re notoriously difficult to hack into. Perhaps Oro1 could do it in a few hours, but she has a sinking feeling that tells her she’s too late. Something’s amiss.
The bed creaks beside her as Lessa sits down. Then in an uncharacteristic move, Lessa puts her arm around her shoulders. K8 holds up James’s device. “What does this mean?”
“I don’t know,” they say.
Tears spring forth in K8’s eyes, falling unhindered.
K8 sniffs. “What? No jokes about wrinkles?”
