by Jamie Davis
“A rally for the Sapiens? Here, near the university?”
“Yes,” her father said. “Sterling wants us to become more visible and call out the dangerous subs lurking in and around that part of the city when we see them. There’s quite a large group of them around there, in case you hadn’t noticed. The liberals in the city’s government are creating a haven for the freaks. I know you’ve probably done your best to avoid that type of person, but you should be aware that they’re there. We’ve got some word of a subversive group rising there, too. We figured it was time to show our hand and let them know we’re on to them.”
Her father’s words brought back to mind some of the things Eric had talked about over lunch. Was he one of those subversives her father was talking about?
“Is something wrong, Cass? You have a pained look on your face.”
“Oh, no. Sorry, I was distracted by remembering an assignment I have to get done before Monday. I’m glad to hear you’re coming. I’ll have to thank Mom for making sure you didn’t surprise me.”
“She suggested that it would be a bad idea if I were to just drop in on you and Shelby. Mom seems to think I could catch you two in a compromising position.”
“Dad!” Cass said. Her face flushed at her father’s allusion to her relationship with Shelby. How did they know?
James laughed at Cass’s reaction, pointing through the screen at her. “Ha, your mother was right. She said she could tell from the way you talked about Shelby that there was something going on between you two. I’m happy you’ve found someone there at school. I definitely want to meet her this time when I come to visit. I can take the two of you out for a nice dinner.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Cass was glad she’d asked Shelby to remain in the dorm’s common area while she was on the call. “She’s super busy and isn’t here very often. Her school work keeps her away a lot in the school library and she works part-time, too.”
“Well, I hope she’s available when I come to town next week.”
“Next week? That’s so soon.” Cass tamped down her rising panic. She’d hoped to have more time to figure out a way to hide her implant in a more permanent way. The wig wouldn’t do during a face-to-face meeting.
“Yes, it is, but the planned demonstration is coming up at the end of the month and we wanted to make sure all the proper paperwork for the demonstration and march was filed with the city in plenty of time. That’s one of the reasons I’m coming, to smooth things over as Sterling’s representative to the city government.”
Cass’s mind raced as she tried to figure out how she was going to do all the things she needed to do to hide her new life from her father. A week provided her very little time to do so.
James continued without noticing how distracted Cass was. “Anyway, it’s good to see your face, Cassie. I can’t wait to give you a big hug when I see you next week. I should be getting in sometime Friday morning and once I’m done with my meetings with the city officials and lunch with the mayor, I’ll come by the university and pick you and Shelby up for dinner.
“Sounds good, Dad. Thanks for calling.”
Her father cut the connection from the other side and Cass let out a long sigh. Shelby’s voice caught her by surprise from the other side of the room. “He’s right, you know. You can’t hide me from your parents forever.”
Cass turned around. “How long have you been there?”
“I came in the room about halfway through the call. I didn’t want to interrupt you, but I needed to get something from my desk. Don’t worry, I made sure to stay out of the video pickup. I know how much hiding me from your parents means to you.”
“Shelby don’t be like that. You know I have a very good reason not to tell my parents about you, and about me, too.”
“Just because you have a reason, doesn’t make it a good reason. Your parents are going to find out eventually. You’re going to have to face the fact that they may not be the people you think they are.”
Cass didn’t answer. Shelby was right. She was deathly afraid of her father’s reaction to Shelby and her own implants.
Shelby continued. “Eric did a little digging on your dad. I wasn’t gonna say anything, but now that we’re talking about him, I think maybe you should know.”
“Know what?”
“You should know that your father is involved with the Sapiens First wing of the movement.”
“Sapiens First is a myth, Shelby. They don’t exist. They’re just the creation of people who want to paint us as terrorists and bigots.”
“So it’s us again, is it?” Shelby asked. “It doesn’t take much for you to slip back into the party line, does it?”
“Shelby, you’re twisting my words. I’m telling you that I would know if there was a secret, underground terrorist movement within my father’s political party. I promise you, there’s not. All the Sapiens movement is asking for are some simple changes to the law.”
“Those changes could make you an outlaw,” Shelby pointed out.
“I don’t agree with all of their positions anymore, but some of the things they want are very reasonable.”
“Cass, the fact that you still believe that makes me want to cry. There are so many things about you I care about and love deeply, but this side of you is so ugly, and it scares me.”
Shelby turned and stormed out of the room letting the door close behind her.
Cass’s shoulders sank and she bent forward to put her head down on the desk. She couldn’t understand how that conversation had gone so wrong so quickly.
Cass knew in some ways Shelby was right about how she was hiding things from her parents. She also knew Shelby was equally wrong in her assumptions about her dad and family and their belief system.
She sat and thought about what she needed to do to make it right with Shelby. Cass needed her help to find someone who could cover up her implant in some way, or at least give her the means to hide it while her father was in town.
Cass got up and headed out of the room after her girlfriend. She had to catch up to Shelby and apologize.
Shelby was already across the street from the dorm, heading towards the center of campus when Cass ran outside.
Cass called out to her as she ran to catch up. “Shelby, stop. Please, I’m sorry.”
Shelby turned around. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “What are you sorry about, Cass?”
“I’m sorry about what I said. I know you only want the best for me. I shouldn’t have said what I did.”
“Whether you like it or not, you’re in this just like my brother and me. I know it wasn’t your fault but you have to come to grips with who you are now. I can’t do that for you. If you’re not comfortable being who you are with that implant, you’re never going to be able to stand up to your father.”
Cass knew deep inside everything Shelby said was true. She had a hard time admitting it to herself aloud, though.
“I need your help, Shelby. My father is coming here and I can’t let him see me like this. Now is not the time to confront him about what’s happened to me. You have to believe me, he’ll be far angrier than you could ever believe or understand.”
Shelby paused and didn’t say anything for several long seconds. “You know covering it up isn’t going to make it go away, right?”
“That’s not it. I need more time to get ready to tell them about it.”
Shelby sighed. “All right, we’ll go tomorrow after our morning classes. There’s a guy at the Bizarre that can help us out with this. He used to do cosmetic work for the people who wanted enhancements but didn’t want anyone to know they had them. I think he can probably do something that’ll work for you, at least temporarily.”
“That would be perfect,” Cass said.
“It really won’t be, Cass. Lying about who you are isn’t ever perfect.” Shelby reached out and took her hand. “Don’t worry, love. I’ve got your back, even when you’re being stubborn.”
Cass gave a half smile
and pulled Shelby’s metal hand up in hers and kissed the warm metal skin. As long as they were together, Cass felt like she could do anything.
Chapter 16
The next day, Cass spotted Shelby waiting for her outside the Liberal Arts building when she got out of class. Cass smiled at her girlfriend sitting on a stone bench in the sunlight outside the building. She was gorgeous and Cass realized all over again how lucky she was to have Shelby in her life.
Shelby stood up as Cass approached. “Ready to go?”
“Yeah. I wanted to thank you again for not staying angry with me over this.”
Shelby shrugged. “Staying mad at you is never something I’m going to do, Cass. We’re going to get in fights, but I also believe we’ll get through them. Come on, I just dialed up an auto cab. It’s on its way.”
The couple headed across the broad grassy area between the buildings towards the city street nearby. The auto cab waited for them when they got there. Cass opened the door and held it for Shelby, then climbed in behind her. The car pulled away from the curb and headed back downtown towards the Bizarre.
Fifteen minutes later, Cass once again descended the metal stairs to the underground garage. There were fewer people and vendors in the vast open space this time around. Most of the vendors probably had day jobs during the week.
“I hope he’s here,” Shelby said. “I didn’t have any way to get in touch with him so I left a bunch of messages with folks I knew in case they ran into him. I only know about him by reputation.”
“You said he does cosmetic work for the wealthy?”
“Yes, he helps those people hide their implant systems in such a way that they can cover up so that no one knows they’re there.”
It was common knowledge among people in the Sapiens community that more people were covering up implants than ever before. Her father had always told her that the people with implants were secretly converting others to be like them. He believed the Mantle eventually would take over the world and rule humanity if they weren’t stopped. He called it an inevitable occurrence.
“I’ve heard of people getting secret implants,” Cass said. “That creates a lot of fear in some people.”
“People such as your family?”
“Yes,” Cass admitted.
“Most of the enhancements people get are made in such a way they can be serviced from the outside if there’s ever a problem. The challenge this provides is that they often make it hard to hide their presence. For those of us who opted for enhancements, we wear that visible evidence as a badge of honor and individuality.”
Shelby nodded at a woman nearby who had a set of plastic fairy wings jutting out from between her shoulder blades. They waved slowly behind her in a sort of flapping motion from the point where they connected to an implant in the middle of her back.
“Many of us like to show off our individual preferences and aspirations for something different in ourselves,” Shelby continued. “For some among the wealthy, though, they don’t wish to be so overt. I guess they consider it crass or something. For those people, they have special miniature implants designed so that they can be entirely internal. It creates a problem because there’s still the issue of accessing the implants for repair and upgrades. They accomplish this through specialists in the medical field who help them cover up. It’s super expensive and is one of the things that separates them from others like you and me.”
Shelby smiled at Cass. “If you had been injured here in the States, it is likely your insurance would have covered most of the cost of an implant that was entirely internal, if you or your family had wanted to pay the extra fee for it. Then your implant would’ve been hidden from view except for a small port that could be easily covered up. In the Caribbean, with fewer modern resources, they had to use off-the-shelf modifications to save your life and restore you.”
“This guy can help me, though, right? He can make it so that no one knows I have the implant.”
Shelby nodded. “I haven’t seen his work personally but I know of several people who needed help getting jobs where having an implant would’ve been a problem. They used what they got from this guy to cover up their enhancements while they’re at work. Then they show them off on the weekends they’re home.”
Shelby pointed across the underground garage. “I think he’s at that table over there. That’s where Eric told me he usually sets up. Come on. Let’s see if it’s him.”
Cass followed Shelby across the room and down one of the nearly empty rows of vendor stalls until they reached the far wall. There were only a few tables occupied here. One of them had a man with a sort of old-school leather padded exam chair set up behind the table. He had shelves and racks of various bins and what looked like some sort of a 3-D printer set up, too. He stood up as the two women approached. “Hello, ladies. What can I help you two with today?”
“Hi, I’m Shelby and this is my girlfriend, Cass. My brother, Eric Moore, told me to look you up. Cass here has a sort of problem that we hope you can help her with.”
“Helping people is what I do.” He reached out with one hand to Cass’s chin, tilting her head to the left. He nodded. “Are you looking for a permanent cover up or one that you can remove when needed?”
Cass thought about it for a second. She hadn’t considered the option of getting a permanent solution to her problem. “What’s the difference?”
“Permanent is pricey. It’s more than most kids your age can afford but I don’t want to make assumptions. I always offer both options.”
“I’ll go ahead and get one I can take on and off,” Cass said. “Is that possible?”
“It shouldn’t be a problem,” the man said, glancing at the side of Cass’s face again. He held out a hand. “I’m Frederick. Some call me the skin doctor, though.”
“That’s an interesting name,” Shelby said.
“It’s appropriate though. I am sort of a wizard at this and used to be a doctor before I lost my license.”
His revelation startled Cass and she wondered if maybe she should talk to someone else about this.
Frederick noticed her reaction. “The people in the medical community didn’t like that I came down here on the weekends and offered my services to people who didn’t have access to the funds to get it done in the hospital. They said I was ignoring patient safety but it was really because I was undercutting their profits.”
Frederick waved a hand in the air and continued. “I realized I was tired of taking care of the rich and the privileged at the expense of those who really needed my help. Believe me, I’m much happier now.”
Cass nodded. His explanation made her feel a little better. “So, what can you do for me?”
“Come on around the table and sit in my chair. Your friend can watch, but she’ll need to stay back so that we don’t have any problems with infection.”
Cass had started around the table but stopped when she heard what he said. “Infection? Are you going to cut into me or something?”
“No, but I do need to fuss with the interface between your skin and the implant a little bit. It’s necessary to make the cover-up stay in place. I need to create a sterile field around you. It’ll help if your friend stays over there where she can watch but not be close enough to cough or sneeze in this direction.”
“Hey, I cover my mouth.”
“Not everybody does and it’s better if we just be one hundred percent sure just in case one catches you by surprise. Sneezes are like that sometimes,” he finished with a wink at Cass.
She smiled. She liked this guy. Continuing around the table, Cass sat in the chair, leaning back and resting her head against the circular headrest.
Frederick pressed the button on the arm of the chair and tilted the back down so that he could get a better look at Cass’s face. He sat down on a stool, rolling around on wheels beside the exam chair. Frederick slid up right next to her and leaned over. His hands were warm as he reached out to touch her face. “This is good, clean work. I
’m guessing it was a medical implant?”
Cass nodded. “I had an accident recently. This was necessary to help manage my head injury.”
“Well, whoever did this is good at what they do. That always makes my job a little easier. All right, let me see what I have here and we’ll get you hooked up.”
Cass sat in the chair for more than a half hour as Frederick fiddled and tugged on the side of her face. It didn’t hurt, though there were a few times where she felt a strange pulling on her cheek. When he was finished, he sat back and looked over at Shelby. “What do you think?”
“Looks pretty good,” Shelby said. “If I didn’t know the implant was there, I wouldn’t be able to tell. It looks a little raised on that side of her face compared to the other, but I guess you have to do that to cover up things.”
“Can I see?” Cass asked.
“Of course,” Frederick said. He produced a large mirror and held it up in front of Cass. “Let me know what you think.”
Cass grabbed the mirror with her right hand and held it up as she turned her face so she could see the right side where the implant was. Her fingers reached out to touch what looked like normal skin there.
She could see what Shelby meant as she examined the patch of synthetic skin. It looked like that side of her face was a little swollen. It wasn’t much, but she could tell. Cass marveled at how it felt like normal skin under fingertips. If she pressed down a little bit, she could feel the curved ridge where the implant ran along her cheekbone all the way back to her ear.
“This is wonderful. As long as I wear my hair down on the side, I don’t think my family will notice at all. Over time, they’ll get used to the slight difference between the two sides.”
“That should work, Cass,” Shelby said, nodding.
“How much do I owe you, Frederick?”
“That’ll be five hundred dollars. You can wire it to me through your credit chip or use your Mantle connection to hook into my account and make a deposit.”
It was expensive, but Cass didn’t complain about the price. It was actually a little less than she expected it to be, especially given the quality of the work.