by D. S. Murphy
***
In the morning I went straight to the mirror.
“Does it look more auburn to you?” I said, holding my hair up to the light and turning my head. I’d already sent Megan back to her own bed, saying we had to get ready for school, even though it was still early.
“I don’t know. Maybe,” Amy said, pulling a pillow over her head.
By the time we met for lunch, it was noticeably redder than before, though it looked almost pink with my light hair.
“Spill some Kool-Aid?” Brad asked.
“It worked,” David said, raising his eyebrows.
“It’s perfect,” I said. I was worried half of my head would be flame red, but instead it was just a subtle streak of color down one side.
“How do you feel?” Greg asked.
“Fine,” I said. “Same as always.”
“I cut the variance in half after I calculated it,” David said. “Glad I did.”
“Most people won’t even notice.” I’d been wearing a hat for most of the day anyway, just in case.
“It’s a little creepy how well it worked,” Amy said. “Maybe you’re supposed to be a blonde.”
“Lots of women dye their hair,” Brad said.
“This is different,” Amy said, pouting her lips. I couldn’t believe she was still resisting this, even after last night.
“In some cultures they flatten heads, or elongate necks, or crush feet,” I said. “Now girls wear makeup. Humans have always found ways to improve their appearance unnaturally.”
“It’ll be controversial,” David said, “there’s no doubt. But the question is, will people pay for it.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely,” Brad said. “I’m going to add in the final calculations for everything we’ve tested into SelfX. I’ll add in the original calculations you made, David—that would be full strength, like the limit, within the range of human possibility but still pretty unusual or bold— then set choices for 75%, 50% and 25%, so people can have more control.”
“Who gets to go next?” Brad asked.
“We’ll have to wait for Megan’s third treatment to get more bots,” David said.
“Actually,” I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out one of the vials I’d stolen from Dr. Jenkins. “I um, picked this up on my last visit.”
David’s eyes widened, but he didn’t look surprised. I waited for someone to yell at me, but nobody did. We were too invested for that now. It wasn’t just a game, a theory. It worked. None of us wanted to pull back now.
“We still have half of the one we used on Bree,” David said. “I think her sister should get the other half, if she wants it. After all, we used all of hers for the experiments.”
I nodded and smiled at him.
“I want the other half,” Brad said.
“Me too,” Greg said quickly.
“Hold on,” David said, “just because it worked once doesn’t mean it’s safe. We still need to be careful. We should wait until Bree’s bots restore her DNA first, and make sure nothing goes wrong.”
“It could still give her cancer or something,” Amy pointed out.
“Could we go a day without the C-word? Besides, what doesn’t give you cancer these days?” I asked. “At least we get to have some control over this one.”
“If anybody else wants to try something overnight, I think I would feel comfortable with that,” David said. “But they shouldn’t do it alone. Just in case something goes wrong.”
“Great,” Brad said. “Slumber party at Bree’s house.”
“You wish,” I said.
“We could just meet in the afternoon,” David said. “Bot up, make our changes, and monitor each other for an hour to make sure we don’t get Quasimodo’d.”
“I see what you did there,” Amy said. “You don’t need to reference 19th century literature. You’re smart, we get it.”
“My parents won’t be home till late, and I have a pool,” Greg offered.
We all turned to look at him slowly. Greg’s pool parties were infamous. I never thought I’d be invited to one.
“I don’t have a swimsuit,” Amy said.
“We have tons for guests. Nobody’s even worn them.”
“That’s not weird or anything,” Brad said. “What are you even doing at our school. Shouldn’t you be in some mansion academy somewhere?
“Public schools have better sports programs,” Greg said. “But actually, it’s nice to be able to come to school and just be me, you know?”
“Without all the servants wiping your ass?” Brad said.
“Exactly,” Greg smiled. “So do you guys want to come over or not?”
“Sounds like a plan,” David said. “We can meet and carpool after school.
Just then the door opened, and Melissa stuck her nose in the classroom, followed by her friend Kate. “Hey gang, just checking in on my man,” she said, wrapping her arms around Greg. My stomach turned uncomfortably, and Greg didn’t look happy to see her.
“How are the experiments going?” she asked sweetly, looking into the box of mice. Luckily we hadn’t tested any yesterday, so all the mice were back to normal.
“Dude, you told her?” Brad growled, “Not cool, douchebag.”
David’s face darkened, and his eyebrows came together, but he just watched Melissa cautiously, waiting to see what she was going to do.
“I told Melissa we’re trying to make remote-control mice,” Greg said. It was the excuse we’d decided upon. Something plausible enough that it could be true, and explained all the mice, and didn’t involve genetic mutation. I exhaled slowly, letting out the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.
“Of course, Greg’s never been a good liar,” Melissa said, “So I dropped in to see what you’re really working on.”
“It’s a secret,” Amy blurted.
“How very middle school,” Melissa said with disdain. “Anyway, I don’t care what you’re working on. I’m not even in that class. I care that you’ve been keeping Greg all to yourself. How do you think I feel sitting by myself at lunch every day while he’s in here with you? How does that make me look? Don’t you think people are talking?”
“Nobody’s talking,” I said.
“How would you know what people are saying?” Melissa laughed. “Nobody talks to you.”
I felt my blood boiling and clenched my fists.
“The whole basketball teams is wondering why Greg is spending so much time with you losers. You were forced to work together,” she said, “but you don’t have to enjoy it. Or spend so much time on a lame science project. I mean, Greg, you’re a basketball player, not a geek.”
“Maybe I like this stuff,” he said.
“But you’re good at basketball,” she said, an edge to her voice.
“Whatever, we were just finishing up anyway,” I said. “I didn’t want to be here if they were going to get into a couple’s squabble.
“See you guys later,” I said, pulling Amy with me out of the classroom.
***
I didn’t notice my cell phone was missing until 3rd period. I must have been too distracted by the PDA at lunch. I always thought Greg and Melissa would stay together through high school, but today’s episode was really awkward. Was he starting to see how needy and annoying she was? Despite everything else that was going on, part of me was thrilled at the idea of their relationship going down in flames. I retraced my steps and found my phone in the science lab, face up on the table. Not where I was expecting it to be, but whatever. I texted David to come meet me in the parking lot.
“Hey,” I said when he came. “It was really nice of you to suggest Megan get the dose. Although, I stole it, so really it’s all mine,” I smiled. “But she’ll have her third treatment soon, and then we should have enough for everybody. With all of us testing, we’ll be able to figure things out faster.”
“Why not just run the hack on Megan, so the bots just stay in her system? Then she won’t need more therabots for
awhile anyway. It buys us some time.”
Why didn’t I think of that?
It was such a good idea, I could have kissed him.
“Also, I’ve been doing some more research,” he said.
“Of course you have.”
“Retinoblastoma is caused by a mutated RB1 gene. Megan has it in both eyes so there’s a chance it’s hereditary.”
“Which means I’m at risk, too.”
David nodded. “But, we can program the therabots to fix the mutated gene. It was in the files from the NHTC. They already know how to do it, and they know it works. But it hasn’t been approved for human use yet. Maybe because it’s too easy—one treatment should prevent the development of cancerous cells. They need to keep selling the medicine, that’s where the money is.”
“So screw them. We’ve got the bots, we fix Megan ourselves. Right?”
“Right,” he said.
“But you test it on me first.”
13
I’d driven by Greg’s house before, but the building was much larger up close. We had to drive through a locked gate to even reach the driveway. The house itself was some kind of architectural masterpiece, designed by someone famous to blend in with the landscape. I’d seen pictures in magazines, but nothing prepared me for the real thing. It was all angles and planes of glass, set on a rocky outcrop with a stream running underneath it. Water ran down both sides of the main platform, from an infinity pool, into a rocky grotto below.
“This is insane,” Amy said. “I mean it’s like a castle, but more modern.”
“That’s not the pool, is it?” David said.
“No,” Greg said. “Come around back.”
We followed him around the side of the house and used a code to open the gate. In the back, a large patio had been carved between the trees, with an Olympic sized swimming power. White marble statues of cherubs poured water from flowing vases, in between the potted conifer trees that framed the pool.
“Let’s go to the pool house,” Greg said, pointing at a smaller building at the other end of the patio.
“Of course you have a pool house,” Amy said.
“Is it too weird for you?” Greg said. “Maybe we should be at your house?”
“No, that’s not what I meant. I mean, this is awesome.”
“Girl’s room, guy’s room,” Greg said, pointing out the two bathrooms on either side of the small building. “You’ll find suits and everything you need in the drawers. Just grab anything.”
I followed Amy into the bathroom, which was spacious enough to have two sinks, and we dug into the cupboards for swimming suits.
“Wear this one,” she said, tossing me a red bikini.
“Um, no thanks?” I said. “Isn’t there something a little more, well, just more?”
“This is your chance though,” Amy said, squeezing my arm and leaning in closer. “You’re at Greg’s house. At a pool party.”
“More of a study group.”
“Whatever. He suggested it. And more importantly, Melissa isn’t here.”
“There’s just a lot going on, with Megan and everything. I want to stay focused.”
“Bullshit. You lose focus every time Greg smiles, and you kind of go all melty. I’ve seen it, it’s like that boy kills brain cells.”
“Shut up,” I said.
“Fine, I’ll wear it,” she grabbed the bikini back from me.
I grabbed a navy one-piece and pulled it on, still feeling self-conscious. It had white stripes on the shoulders and an anchor symbol on the front. I decided it didn’t look terrible and we joined the boys outside. Greg had turned on some music and put out bowls of snacks and soda in the bar area. We pulled some of the beach chairs together into a semi-circle and I cracked open a can of Cherry Coke.
“So let’s talk business...” Brad said once we’d settled. “How are we going to scale this thing?”
“The Halloween Dance,” I said immediately. “It’s coming up. It’s a costume party, which means we can get much more creative without raising alarms.”
“That’s too soon,” David said. “We won’t have everything ready for regular users.”
“It’s not for them,” I said. “It’s for us. We show off what it can do. Before and after photos. Maybe also leak the instructions on the dark web, so other people can get excited. And we release a free version of the app with just a few basic features.”
“And then they can buy upgrades,” Brad said.
“Fine,” David said. “But it’s just us at Halloween. We’ll have had time to test it some more. Then, the free app first. But ported; we share it with the school and some trusted friends. That way we can test small and still pretend it’s just a science fair project.”
“And if all goes well,” Greg finished, “we upload it to the Arcana Store and start charging.”
“Soon we’ll all have houses like this,” Brad said, raising his red plastic cup.
“I’ll drink to that,” Amy said, tapping her cup against his.
We decided to go swimming first, while the sun was still out. I was happy to be in the water. The swimsuit made me feel too exposed and I didn’t know what to do with my arms. Brad’s broad shoulders and chest had more tattoos I expected, and Greg’s washboard abs were distracting enough that I found it hard to think. This was definitely the most skin I’d ever seen at the same time.
We played chicken for a while, first with me and Amy against Brad and David, then with Amy and Brad against Greg and me. Amy knocked me off balance and I pulled Greg under water with me. We came up sputtering and laughing. He brushed my hair away from my face and warmth spread through my body despite the cold water.
But then I looked over at David. He was pretending to read the label on a bottle, but I was pretty sure he’d seen the intimate gesture and disapproved. I don’t know why I cared, but Greg had a girlfriend already. I didn’t want to be that girl.
We dried off and changed back into our regular clothes.
“I brought larger syringes this time,” David said, pulling out the bottle of therabots I’d given him. Do you want to do it in the pool house?”
“Actually, there’s someplace even better,” Greg said. “Follow me.”
We went around the side of a house, and found a trail leading into the woods. Not far away, we could see a treehouse with a rope ladder and a suspended bridge.
Greg plugged in a cord and the whole thing lit up with dangling white lights.
“A love shack, huh? You dog.”
“It was a play fort when we were kids.” Greg said. “All my siblings are in college now so nobody ever comes out here.”
“Very cloak and dagger,” Amy said. “Normally I’d be skeptical about following a man through the woods to an abandoned shack, but I’ll make an exception this time.”
“It’s not exactly a sterile environment,” David said, frowning.
“Does it have WiFi?” I asked.
“Of course, duh,” Greg said, with a twinkle in his eye.
“Then it’s perfect.”
We took turns climbing up the rope ladder. There was a thin balcony around the edges of the platform. Inside was a large room with a fridge, a radio and some comfortable looking beanbag chairs in assorted colors.
David opened up his backpack and pulled out the two syringes.
“Pick something small and easy to see the first time,” David said. “Remember we’re still in the early testing phases. Don’t pick anything you wouldn’t want to get stuck with.” My hair was already starting to fade back to normal, and I was eager to try something else out. I brought up the SelfX app and scrolled through the options. We’d been adding new features all week, and it looked amazing.
Amy had her phone out as well. She was reading something, when suddenly she stiffened and sat up.
“Oh shit,” she said.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I set up news alerts for therabots as a keyword, and this just popped up. There was a break-in
at one of the health centers.”
“Here?” Greg asked. “What are the chances.”
“Slim to none,” Amy said, glaring at me. “Please tell me you had nothing to do with this.”
“We needed the files,” I said quickly. “Look how far we’ve come already. Including the government’s research makes our app more stable, less risky—that’s what you wanted isn’t it?”
“Don’t turn this around on me,” Amy yelled. “Wait, what are you talking about? The article says someone took a whole box of therabots. 50 vials.”
I grabbed the phone from her and skimmed through the article.
“That wasn’t me,” I said. “I took two vials, but they couldn’t have noticed. And yeah, I copied some files, but there’s no way they could have known that.”
“You should read the comments,” David said, pulling the article up on his phone as well. “It’s crazy. Some people are actually cheering. They’re saying therabots are too expensive, and it’s just a way for the rich to live longer so they can steal more wealth.”
“But I didn’t take a box,” I said. “How would I even carry it out? I barely got out of there with two vials.”
“It was me,” Brad said calmly. We all turned to stare at him.
“Unless we can get some early adopters actually using our tech, we’ll be DOA.”
“It’s one thing to leak instructions and a free app,” David said. “It’s another thing to sell stolen property.”
“Who says I’ll sell it? Plus you didn’t seem to mind when we gave you the files.”
“Hold up. You were in on this?” Greg asked quietly.
David nodded, and Amy gave me a look of absolute betrayal.
“I needed Brad’s help,” I said, “and David’s the only one who needed the research, for the calculations. We wanted to spare you two.”
“I can’t believe you sometimes!” Amy said.
“How did you even get in?” I asked Brad. He looked uncomfortable and rubbed the back of his neck.
“That thumbdrive, it sent me everything in a 3-foot radius... including your phone.”