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I take a breath. I find my earbuds—they’ve fallen to the tile floor. I plug them in and stick them in my ears.
The video is of Solo. He’s standing, kind of bouncing back and forth with energy. He’s nervous.
“Eve. It’ me, Solo.”
I smile a little, in spite of myself. Like I wouldn’t know that without him telling me.
“I don’t know if you’re going to watch this. I don’t know what your reaction is going to be. You were never part of the plan. But … well, here you are. And I guess you’re involved now. Now.”
He seems to be losing his way. He starts to reach for the camera, as if he’s going to turn it off. Changes his mind.
“Anyway, you’re part of this because you are who you are. It’s just that before, I didn’t know you. I mean, I knew you existed. I knew about you, but then you became a real person. A person I liked.”
He looks down at his feet. “A person I like a lot.” Pause. Shuffle. “A lot.”
I glance nervously toward the locked door, as if someone might overhear. But I’m the only one hearing. The only one feeling.
“So, anyway, you’re Spiker as much as she is, I guess. So I’m laying this out for you.” Long pause. I sense he’s arguing with himself, regretting this. “I feel like you deserve to know everything.”
Solo clears his throat. He reaches toward the camera and the video ends.
I’m in this deep. I click on the first file.
There are a dozen individual documents in the file. The first ones I open look like budget spreadsheets.
I don’t really have any interest in budgets and I don’t really know how to read a spreadsheet. Maybe they’re incredibly meaningful, but I’m not the person to figure that out.
I’m disappointed.
But I keep looking. The next thing I open is a description of Project 88715.
PROJECT 88715, PHASE ONE: WE WILL UNIFY SEVERAL NEW AND MATURING TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPED WITHIN SPIKER AND OTHERS FROM OUTSIDE THE COMPANY. THE GOAL WILL BE TO DEVISE A SIMPLIFIED USER INTERFACE THAT REDUCES THE EXTREME COMPLEXITY OF GENETIC ENGINEERING TO SUCH A LEVEL THAT ANY MODERATELY BRIGHT OPERATOR CAN CONSTRUCT A FULLY DEVELOPED HUMAN.
PROJECT 88715, PHASE TWO: WE WILL LINK THE USER INTERFACE PERFECTED ABOVE TO BEGIN ENGINEERING HUMANS.
I stare at the page. This is about the program I’ve been using, the one I am using to create Adam.
A program to allow the creation of simulated humans.
Except for one thing: It doesn’t say anything about “simulated.”
I open the remaining file. The pictures come spilling out.
There’s a picture of a pig. Its flesh is green.
There’s a picture of a pu
ppy with ears, human ears.
There’s a picture of a man with vacant eyes and folds of skin hanging from his chest like sails made of flesh.
There’s, oh God, there’s a girl with a face on …
There’s a row of giant tubes, each with some living thing.
There’s …
I’m sick to my stomach.
