by Tia Siren
“For two months, that bonus better be fatter than Garfield.”
“You hungry?” Patrick asked. He offered me the sandwich he’d bitten into and looked surprised when I refused it. “Well, suit yourself. I’ll make you something and put it in the fridge in case you get hungry later.”
“You’re impossible,” I groaned.
I sat at my desk to look up the company while Patrick headed out the door with his food. We didn’t really take an interest in what each other did—mostly because I thought his job was boring, and he thought mine was tedious—but we always made a point to get together whenever we could. I mostly worked from home, so I could live close to him, especially after our parents died in a car wreck. With no other family to rely on, we could sometimes be a bit overprotective of each other, and this situation wasn’t proving any different. If he wasn’t mad enough for himself, I’d fill those shoes for him.
“Wallace Technologies.” I pulled up the company’s official website and started clicking through. I went to the employee directory to surf through the important figureheads of the company, and that’s when I came across Obi. Huge muscles, haircut that faded up the sides—obviously had been in the military at some point—and looked rough around the edges. He had a scar down the left side of his face and veins bulging from his neck.
If that man had come up to me and threatened my job unless I did something, he wouldn’t need a gun pointed at me.
“Fucking scary-ass dude,” I sighed.
I kept reading and finally came upon the bio page for the company. Of course, the owner would have his own page dedicated to him, and he looked just as pompous as having his own page made him sound.
“Leo Wallace, CEO of Wallace Technologies,” I read aloud, “founded the company when he was only twenty-two years old and built it from the ground up in his small apartment on the outskirts of Miami. Born and raised in the Sunshine State, Leo Wallace made Miami the permanent home of his company headquarters on the day he turned thirty. He has since grown the company into a multibillion-dollar corporation.”
I typed his name into the search engine and thousands upon thousands of articles popped up. Interviews in Forbes when he made his first billion and an interview he did with Time Magazine this past year when he made—
“Five billion dollars?”
The man was loaded. I kept reading the article and the interviewer asked about the implants. Apparently, it was cutting-edge technology that he wanted to see implanted into everyone. It helped find missing persons, and it could provide medical history to medical personnel treating incapacitated patients.
“That’s actually not too bad.”
He talked about preventing people from losing anyone else to kidnappings and how this could potentially end the crimes of child trafficking and selling adults into modern-day slavery. Little by little, I began to see the incredible benefits to this thing.
But, I could also see the downsides. The technology could eventually be hacked. Someone could go in and change the information on the chip or overwrite it altogether. Identity theft could possibly become easier, and people on the run could use those chips to try and sell new identities. If someone really wanted you to lose that chip, all they had to do was carve it out of their arm.
I shivered at my desk simply thinking about it.
I found a video interview of him talking about the implant and clicked it to watch. I couldn’t lie and say I wasn’t entranced by him. He was a good-looking man. Every picture on the magazine covers showed off his compelling, bright hazel eyes and a neat five o’clock shadow on his chin and along his strong jawline. Not one rich mahogany hair was out of place, and he seemed to tower over everyone he stood by.
He was, without a doubt, a panty-dropper, but his excitement put him up to ungodly on the attractiveness scale. His eyes lit up with pride when he talked about this chip he’d designed, and before I knew it, I’d watched four separate interviews with him before I closed my laptop.
Sure, I could see the appeal of something like this. But every piece of technology had its downsides, and this piece would be no different.
And I had a sinking feeling that Patrick was in for more than he realized.
3
Leo
One month later
Well, I didn’t fuck up my new coffee joint even though the thick-bodied barista had been a disappointing lay. I hadn’t seen her at all in the mornings after our little tryst whenever I came in, and part of me breathed easier knowing I wouldn’t have to encounter her. At least I could say I blew her mind. I felt the number of orgasms that rolled over my dick that night, but maybe she was just looking to blow off steam like I was.
And lord, did I blow it everywhere for her.
“Leo!”
My body pulled taut and the smile fell from my face when I heard that voice. Mandy, my fucking ex, was in my damn coffee shop. Her wavy brown hair was shorter, but her petite frame, pristine designer wardrobe, and whiny voice were the same as I remembered.
“A man’s morning is precious time, Mandy.”
“Then good thing I’ll only be a minute,” she huffed. “How the hell could you do that to me?”
“Do what?”
“Walk out on me the way you did and act like I didn’t fucking exist! I’ve been calling you.”
“I know. It’s why I changed my number.”
Some of the baristas behind the bar snickered, but all it did was throw fuel on a raging fire.
“I should have your head for that. You promised me the world, Wallace. You remember that?”
“Yes, I believe I remember saying you were my world when you were on your knees with my dick in your mouth.”
“How dare you speak to me like that in public!”
“It’s no different than the way you’re addressing me.” I smiled tightly.
“I deserved better from you.”
“You deserved exactly what you got,” I said.
“I loved you. Every single part of you. The workaholic part and the overly-obsessed with technology part. The part of you that would stand me up on dates for meetings you forgot to tell me about and for the part of you that took vacations only to bail on me last minute.” She turned to the eavesdropping baristas. “Don’t you think for one second that he’s innocent, any of you!”
“I don’t know,” one of the barista’s spoke up, “I think I’d like to travel to Bora Bora on my own.”
“Oh, Bora Bora, huh?” I said. She handed me my coffee, and I leaned against the counter, looking deep into the eyes of a woman twice my age just to piss off the little twerp acting half my age, bitching me out in my sacred coffee shop. “How about we plan a trip, and then I could have a last-minute meeting, and you go pamper yourself.”
“Oh, honey, I’m way too old for you,” she said as she patted my arm.
“I like a woman with experience.” I winked.
“Are you kidding me? Flirting with this woman while I’m talking to you?” Mandy said.
“First, it’s not your business what I do anymore, and second, don’t pretend you haven’t done much worse than flirt.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Her brows drew together as she frowned, but I always could tell when she was nervous.
“For all the calling and yelling and voicemails you’ve left on some poor idiot’s phone, you never asked why I sent you a note while you were sitting in that restaurant in the first place.” I turned and whispered to the cougar barista, “I sent her a note breaking up with her in a restaurant.”
“How the hell could you do that to me after I loved you the way I did?”
“Because you can’t really love a man when you’ve got some other dude’s dick shoved down your throat.”
The entire coffee shop fell silent, and I watched Mandy’s jaw unhinge.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t know? I own a tech software company, Amanda. You didn’t make it very hard for me to figure out.”
A flush of r
ed cascaded down her neck, and her jaw clenched. I had no idea what type of shit she was about to unleash, so I took my coffee and walked out. At least if she followed me, the café staff would no longer be subjected to her bullshit.
“I’ll ruin you, Wallace. Your company is probably illegally spying somewhere. I bet you’re stealing designs and pawning basic shit off to gain a buck. I bet all your tech is shit.”
“Go tell someone who cares,” I murmured to myself.
She stopped following after a few steps outside the café and called after me, “You’ll see, Leo! When you can’t find another woman, you’ll come back to me, and this time, I won’t take you back.”
Shit, she liked to slather on the fiction. I didn’t bother looking back. “There wasn’t even a first time, Mandy!”
I headed to work with my blood pressure elevated and probably quite lucky to make it safely without a speeding ticket. Everything about my morning had been thrown off, and I had no idea how I was gonna get back on track. I needed to record and go over everyone’s one-month check-in with the implants, and then I needed to make sure the research got sorted out and sent to the right hands. We were halfway through this study, and if the results kept going the way they were, we’d be in full production by the end of the year. That meant we could make our way into all the major companies by March of next year, and by next summer, there was the potential to be in every country in some form across the globe. If those tests went well, I had someone in DC on speed dial who would begin lobbying this as protocol for all governmental and private sector workers, which meant the world would be safer, and I’d be the richest fuck on the planet.
“That would fucking turn this day around,” I murmured.
At my office, Obi was sitting on my couch. He got up, a massive smile on his face, and I relaxed for the first time since I’d rolled out of bed. Obi rarely smiled, and the three times I’d seen him smile since we started this company together, he’d always had incredible news.
“You really should’ve been here this morning.” Obi chuckled. “Everything is going fantastic. We’ve got three more people to track down and get records from, but everything their doctors have sent over has been astounding. They’re working just like they should, and the microchip actually saved one of our employees’ life a week ago.”
“Holy shit. What the hell happened?”
“Apparently, he’s an epileptic and had a grand mal seizure on the sidewalk. The hospital scanned the microchip, saw his medical history, and had him stable within the hour.”
“How’d the hospital have the tech to scan it?”
“Fucking really?” Obi said.
“What?”
“I sent the tech along with training in advance to the local hospitals so we could get their feedback. Needless to say, that hospital sent in a glowing recommendation for the software for our one-month turn in.”
“That’s fucking fantastic.” I chuckled. “Now, where are the three individuals we still need to track down?”
“I’ve located two, but we’re still trying to find the third one,” Obi said.
“Well, let me know when you find them and get all the results recorded. I wanna personally take them where they all need to be.”
“Not a problem, Leo. Listen, do you know what this means?”
“I do.” I smirked. “It means production by the end of the year.”
“It means production before the end of the year. Companies are already interested, dude! I’ve been fielding calls all morning.”
“You’ve been answering my desk calls?” I asked.
He shrugged. “You weren’t fucking here to do it.”
“Seriously? People are interested?” It finally started sinking in that the blood, sweat, and tears we’d shed to get this done was paying off.
“Beyond interested.” Obi smiled.
My door flew open and clean-cut man in a long coat pushed past my assistant. What the fuck was this? I barely had time to glimpse the shape of a badge hanging from a lanyard around his neck before Obi reflexively stepped between me and the intruder.
“It’s okay, Obi.” I set my coffee down onto my desk and my mind began to whirl. Something told me this day was about to get a hell of a lot shittier than running into my cheating ex.
“Gentlemen, if you could come with me, I’ve got some questions I’d like to ask you.”
“With all due respect,” Obi said, not budging from his protective stance, “we aren’t going anywhere until we know what’s going on.”
“We need you to answer some questions about one of your employees, Patrick Danes.”
“What about him? Did he do something?” Obi asked.
“Yes, he did. He tried to remove your test implant on his own. He’s dead.”
4
Claire
“Have you guys seen the news about this implant thing?” I asked.
“The one that tech billionaire guy’s got goin’ on?” Marty asked.
“Man, that boy is a good-lookin’ thang. I’d hit that shit any day.” Rhonda smirked.
“You would,” I quipped.
“Hey. I don’t like them white boys, but I’d sit on any part of his body in a heartbeat.” Rhonda laughed, though I’d bet she was only half-joking.
“So, what do you guys think about it?”
I really wanted to know what they thought. Patrick had been walking around with that thing in his arm for a month now, and besides the occasional itch, I didn’t see the purpose it served in his life. I mean, he had this little device no bigger than his finger that he could scan and insert into his computer, and he could put in a password and alter his information. He showed me how it worked and how he could update his own personal information if he switched his phone number or changed his address, and the only thing I saw was more hackable software that could lead to bad things.
“I mean, I could see the purpose of it for kids and such,” Marty began. “Did you know that a hundred thousand kids every single year are trafficked around the world? Think of how we could save those kids.”
“Or some thug could just dig it outta their arm after they take ‘em and throw it in a dumpster or somethin’. It ain’t gonna stop child-nappers, it’s just gon’ make them smarter,” Rhonda said.
“See, I think she had a good point,” I said.
“And I think she watches too many cop shows.”
We typed more paperwork into the system to be processed, and then we made it back to our desks after filing everything in the vaults. Lunch time was approaching, and I was ready to get off my shift. The girls thought it’d be nice to order in some pizza. We were on the floor of the hospital that dealt with all the admissions and paperwork processing, so we were stuck in offices in the back of the building most of the day. Sometimes we’d “accidentally” order too much food and take it to the hospice wing.
“What should we do for lunch, ladies? I know I’ve got a short day, but I can stick around for our monthly treat,” I smiled.
“Girl, if I had a short day, I’d be gone,” Rhonda said.
“Plus, you haven’t told us why you’re so interested in this arm chip mess,” Marty prodded.
“Yeah, girl. I mean, you know why I’m interested.”
“Yes, Rhonda. We all know you would sit on his face.” I sighed.
“And ride that man off into the sunset, baby!”
We threw our heads back and laughed, but I knew they would hold me to the information they wanted. They were curious why I was so interested in this chip implant mess, but I honestly wasn’t sure if I could talk with them about it. I mean, I didn’t even know if Patrick could show me half the things he had up until this point, so who was I to go and blab about it?
“Well, I might know someone who is test-driving one,” I said.
“Girl, we all know he’s testin’ it on the employees of his company, and we all know Patrick has sucked off enough dick in that place to work where he does now,” Rhonda said.
�
�Patrick’s got an implant?” Marty asked.
“I don’t even know why I tell you guys anything.” I giggled.
“Girl, does he like it? Does it tingle? Where it is? Is it in his arm? His thigh? His balls? Where’d they put it?”
“You really think they’d stick a microchip in Patrick’s balls, Rhonda?” Marty asked.
“I don’t know! Claire ain’t givin’ us nothin’, so I’m just throwin’ out ideas.”
“Jesus,” I sighed. “Yes, Patrick has the chip. It’s in his upper arm. You can’t see it underneath the skin, and besides being kind of itchy, it’s been pointless. I’m just wondering what in the world microchipping the entire planet would be good for.”
“Sounds like one of those sci-fi movies, when you say it like that,” Marty said.
“What happened to all the ‘save the children’ shit you were spoutin’ earlier?”
Marty squirmed a bit. “Well, I didn’t know he was gonna microchip the entire planet!”
“I would. I’d be rich as hell if I did that,” Rhonda said.
“You two are no help.” I giggled.
“Well, I can be when it comes to food. We ain’t done pizza in a while, so that’s what we’re doing. The place up the road’s got a nice two-for-one special goin’ on, so we might as well hop on it.”
“Sounds fine to me,” Marty said.
“Sure. Just let me know what to chip in. You know what kind of pizza I like.”
“Pepperoni and mushroom, comin’ up!” Rhonda exclaimed.
Rhonda typed away at her computer while Marty officially clocked the three of us out. I told her to sign me out completely for the rest of the day, and when she did, a weight lifted from my shoulders. I was taking a few days off from work just to lounge around and be me for a while, and I was looking forward to a week of absolutely nothing but television, pajamas, and no underwear.
“Claire Danes?”
There was a knock that came at the main desk window, and Marty turned around before her attention landed on two police officers.