Speak No Evil

But he didn’t move. He had to hear more. And it was a good thing he did.

‘I’m looking forward to observing the procedures tomorrow,’ the male voice said.

‘Actually, I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ Dr Paley told him. ‘I haven’t requested approval for the procedure from the Harmony House administrators.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because it’s quite possible they would have refused. It’s still a highly experimental surgery. My appointments with the two students are on the books, and it might look peculiar if I have all of you here too.’

‘That’s a shame,’ the other man said. ‘I wanted to see if there would be immediate results. And any possible side effects.’

‘You will,’ Dr Paley said. ‘That’s what we’re going to find out right now. I’ll do the procedure on Paul.’

‘Does he want to lose his gift?’ the woman asked.

‘He doesn’t know what he wants,’ Dr Paley replied. ‘I don’t think he has any sense of what his gift really entails. Don’t worry, he won’t give us any problems. If he shifts, I’ll have a tranquillizer gun ready to knock him out, whatever he becomes.’

‘But what about the others?’ the woman asked. ‘You said that two of the students are coming for the procedure voluntarily tomorrow, but what about the other six students?’

‘What about them?’ Dr Paley countered.

‘Maybe they don’t want to lose their gifts,’ the woman said. ‘What if they refuse to have the procedure?’

There was a moment of silence before Dr Paley replied. His tone was grim.

‘Then the subjects themselves must be eliminated.’

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

‘NINA?’

Amanda-Nina blinked rapidly. It always took her a minute or so to adjust to being in another body. ‘What?’

‘Are you OK?’ Ken asked.

‘Sure. Anyway, let’s see, what were we talking about?’ She did what she hoped sounded like a typical Nina giggle. ‘I’m such a ditz sometimes!’

‘About how you might have to go to summer school.’

Could he really be interested in this, Amanda wondered? ‘Yeah, isn’t that lame? What am I going to do? Maybe I can bribe someone to write the next essay for me. And there’s this really nerdy girl in the class. I’ll bet she’d let me cheat off her if I let her sit with my group at lunch one time.’

She watched Ken carefully as she spoke. He was pretty much the honourable type — he’d rather fail an exam than cheat to pass it. And he’d never approved of the snobbishness of some cliques and the way the girls acted like they were superior to other people. This had to be turning him off Nina.

He got up. ‘I’m going to the bathroom. If the waitress comes, could you order me a chocolate milkshake?’

‘Okey-dokey!’ Amanda-Nina said brightly.

She took advantage of Ken’s absence to check on her own body. Robot-Amanda had taken out her make-up bag and she was filing her nails. Why was she always doing that? Amanda wondered. Real Amanda didn’t file her nails that much. And what if that disgusting bug had crawled over the file? Amanda-Nina shuddered.

It occurred to her that she’d never spoken to her robot-self before. She tried now.

‘A cockroach was on that nail file,’ she informed her.

‘Ick!’ robot-Amanda exclaimed, and she dropped the file.

Not bad, Amanda-Nina thought. That was pretty much what she would have done in the same circumstances. And now what would the robot do?

Exactly what real Amanda would have done. ‘I have to wash my hands!’ she cried out. She left the booth and practically ran towards the bathroom. Amanda watched with interest. She’d never had such a good view of that dress from the back. Maybe she’d ask her mother to hem it, make it a little shorter.

A waitress came to the booth. ‘Hi. What can I get for you?’

‘My friend wants a chocolate milkshake. I’ll have. .’ She was about to ask for a diet soda, but thought better of it. ‘A hot fudge sundae.’ After all, she’d be packing the calories on Nina’s body, not her own.

‘And the other person?’

‘Water.’ It wasn’t like robot-Amanda could really taste anything. And she began to wonder if maybe she should continue occupying Nina through the next day. Dr Paley had said the procedure wouldn’t hurt, but Amanda wouldn’t mind letting the robot endure it instead of her. But no, the last time Ken had been with robot-Amanda, the thing had completely turned him off. Besides, this was something they had to do together.

Which brought her back to the immediate situation. She had to hold on to Ken’s attention now so he wouldn’t realize that the person he thought was Amanda had become the robot. This would not be easy, to keep his attention and turn him off simultaneously.

He was returning to the table now, followed closely behind by robot-Amanda. They both got into the booth.

‘Nina, I was thinking,’ Ken said. ‘I’ve got Jones for history too, and I’m doing pretty well in his class. Maybe I could help you. We could study together.’

Amanda-Nina tried very hard not to let Nina’s face show what she, Amanda, was feeling. It was worse than she thought. Ken wanted to get close to Nina! This made no sense at all to her. Nina was everything Ken didn’t like — snotty, shallow and selfish. She forced herself to giggle.

‘Study? Ick! Who has time to study? I’d rather go to the mall after school.’

‘In the evenings,’ Ken suggested.

The waitress appeared with their orders. She put the glass of water down in front of robot-Amanda, who reached into her handbag, pulled out her iPod, and stuck the phones into her ears. Then she dropped a straw into the glass and started to sip. Amanda-Nina wouldn’t have to worry about her.

Ken barely glanced at his milkshake. The hot fudge sundae in front of Amanda-Nina looked delicious, but she couldn’t waste time on it.

‘In the evenings? And miss all my favourite TV shows?’ She started ticking them off on her fingers. ‘America’s Next Top Model. Real World. American Idol. The Real Housewives of New Jersey.’

Finally, a glimmer of distaste crossed Ken’s face. ‘You like those reality shows?’

‘Love them! Don’t you?’

‘Well. . I guess I’ve never actually seen any of them,’ Ken said. ‘Maybe we can watch them together.’

Amanda-Nina stared at him in disbelief. Ken hated reality TV — he’d told her that before. He thought these shows were stupid, and he couldn’t understand why so many of his classmates liked them.

And that was when it hit her. Their classmates. . Their ordinary, normal classmates who did ordinary, normal things, like go to the mall and watch TV. Who didn’t go around snatching other people’s bodies or talking to dead people. Nina was one of those ordinary, normal people, and Ken wanted to be one too. That was why he wanted to connect with Nina.

An enormous wave of sadness came over her. Nina might be ordinary, but Ken deserved so much better. He deserved her, Amanda. Not the robot, who was now sitting placidly in her seat, sipping her water and listening to her iPod. Real Amanda. She amended that. Real un-gifted Amanda. And if he could just hold on till they had their procedures, they’d both be normal and they could be normal together.

She was desperate. ‘Do you really want to hang out with me, Ken? I’m not that smart, you know. I don’t read at all. I’m not interested in current events. All I ever want to do is shop, and, and style my hair, and stuff like that. I don’t really think we’re right for each other.’