Brave New Worlds

'

'But you think you can get access? the job's in the right division?'

'Close enough. Marketing's always looking over R&D's shoulder. It won't seem strange for me to be poking around. '

'What should I tell our counter-formula development contact?'

'Well, assuming I get the job, and assuming I can start right away, three weeks. Maybe four. It'll depend on their security. '

She seems satisfied with this answer. 'What about Plan B? How's the Mata Hari routine working on our favorite evil genius?'

'He's not evil — he's just oblivious. '

She raises an eyebrow at this. 'Dangerously oblivious. '

'Yes, I know. ' I concentrate on picking cat hair off my clothes. 'It's going fine. Fourth date tonight. Expensive place. I should get going, actually. ' I rise and head for the door. She stops me and stares pointedly at my forehead.

'Alex, don't forget — he's the enemy. ' I consciously abort an eye-roll and substitute a smile.

'Dangerously oblivious genius equals enemy. Check. ' I give her a little wave as I step outside.

'Which restaurant are you going to?' Sandra asks from the doorway.

'Prima. '

Her brow furrows. 'Don't they serve real meat?'

'Oh yes — and I'll be ordering a steak,' I say, taking a moment to enjoy her disapproving look.

'I'll have the porterhouse. Rare, please. '

'Make that two,' Tom says. 'Mine medium. '

'Very good,' the server says. 'I'll be back with the first course shortly. ' He gives us each a prim little four- star nod as he leaves.

I put my elbows on the white linen tablecloth and rest my chin on my interlaced fingers. 'I'm not sure I can ever love a man who would ruin a perfectly good steak. '

Tom leans into the candlelight, too. 'And I'm not sure I can trust a woman who likes her meat nearly raw. '

'I guess we'll just have to stay together for the sex. '

'And the children. ' He raises his glass to his lips.

'I'm not having sex with children, you pervert. '

He chokes on his wine and grabs his napkin. I have to give him points for not looking around to make sure we haven't been overheard.

'If I'd known you'd be shooting wine out of your nose I'd have suggested a Merlot,' I say as innocently as I can manage.

'How,' he coughs, 'did I ever end up in such hazardous company?'

We met accidentally at a Better Living through Chemistry Expo sponsored by Dow-DuPont-Bristol-Myers- Squibb-Pepsi Co six weeks ago.

Actually, we met at a hotel bar during the expo.

I was running my report through my head, thinking about the companies that had the most bad news for humanity in the works. He sat down a couple of bar-stools away. We traded a little eye contact and a few shy smiles in the dim light.

'So which of these evil bastards are you representing?'

He laughed. 'CraveTech. '

'Ooh, a startup. Exciting. '

'Yeah. What about you?'

'Me? I'm with an underground group whose goal is to liberate people from the tyranny of corporate chemical dependence. '

'Huh. Underground, you said?'

'Yeah, we're not very good at that part. ' I was already starting to like his laugh, especially since it came so easily. 'Actually, I freelance in marketing. '

'Anything I might have seen?'

'Maybe the Junior Chemical Engineer campaign. '

'‘Big Molecules for Little Hands. ''

'That's the one,' I said, suddenly aware I was twisting a lock of my hair around my finger. I reached for my drink.

'Wasn't there a massive judgment against them in one of the last big class action suits?'

'No, that was Union-Pfizer's My First Exothermic Reaction. Ours were just repackaged Make Your Own Cologne! kits left over from the last Queer Eye reunion tour. '

'Clever. ' He got up and closed the barstool gap between us.

'Despicable. So what do you do at CraveTech?'

'I run the place. '

'That's funny,' I said, laughing until he slid the nearest candle closer. I squinted at a face I almost recognized from the cover of Time-Newsweek.

'Where are your glasses?'

'Contacts tonight. '

'You lose the glasses when you don't want to be recognized. '

'Yeah, sort of a—'

'Reverse Clark Kent thing. '

He smiled. 'Yeah,' and I could feel his geeky little heart reaching out for mine.

Tonight he's wearing his glasses. He looks cute in them.

'Of course, the really exciting work is in BeMod,' he says, slicing into his steak.

'BeMod?' this seems like a good time to play dumb.

'Behavior Modification. The current dart formulas can make you want to ingest something — food, smoke, whatever. That's easy. '

'Easy for you,' I say, raising my eyebrows toward the bump that's only just beginning to subside.

At least he has the grace to look embarrassed. 'Yeah, uh, sorry about that. But once we ship the darts to the providers, it's pretty much out of CraveTech's hands. I get Stuck sometimes, too, you know. '

I spell the word oblivious in my head over and over, until I lose the urge to punch him. It takes four this time, so I miss hearing yet another version of the 'If It Wasn't CraveTech It Would Be Someone Else' speech.

'. anyway, it's all just using the chemistry of cravings,' he's saying when I'm calm enough to tune back in. 'the fact that you have to buy whatever it is you're craving is an indirect consequence. '

'An awfully profitable indirect consequence. ' I stab at a carrot.

'Yes, but see, that's the thing: the next big leap in the field is to skip straight to the buying part. We've been doing some promising work with what happens to brain chemistry when avid consumers watch successful commercials. '

'So you're trying to synthesize a drug that will make people go out and buy MaxWhite toothpaste. '

'Or a pair of NeoNikes. Or an H5. '

'Oh my God. '

He unleashes his Boy Genius grin. 'Yeah. Pretty cool, huh?'

I report for my first day at CraveTech two weeks later. No one mentions that I'm dating the CEO, so I assume it hasn't gotten out. Still, I make a point of flirting back — and being overheard — when the cute young thing from Amazon-FedEx Kinko's makes her rounds.

I'd told Tom up front that I was applying for the job. He was encouraging, but made it clear he would keep his nose out of it and leave things to Avery. I never see Tom around the marketing department — he seems more interested in making things than selling them, which I find endearing. If only he weren't making such awful things.