“Mr. Klein, my name is Xia Leung, there has been a change in assignments, and I will be monitoring you for this test instead of Mr. Granger.” She hadn’t realized Two-Step was tense until she saw the relief wash over him. “I know that you were interviewed by Mr. Granger, but I’d like to conduct a second interview since I’ll be your monitor. It will give us a chance to get to know each other a little better before the test, which will help me in my data gathering.”
She hoped that didn’t sound as forced as she felt it was. The subject with Two-Step didn’t seem to notice, so she guessed it sounded fine.
“Okay, that sounds good,” Two-Step said.
“We can go to an interview room down the hall,” Xia said.
Two-Step could barely contain himself long enough for her to shut the interview room door and sit down.
“God, I’m glad to see you,” he said quickly. “I thought the whole thing was going to fall apart with that Granger guy as my monitor. I thought about contacting you, but I had no way I could. The only electronics in my room are the bed and a media box. Granger’s such an ass, too. He never let me finish a sentence or get a word in edgewise.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, he would just go on and on.” He paused. “Like I am now.”
“It’s all right. How’s the room they have you in?”
“It’s nice. It’s nicer than any room I’ve ever stayed in.”
She smiled briefly, then said, “Look, we’re going to implant the new chip in a couple of hours. I’ll monitor you for a bit before you go to bed and in the morning before we start the test. What we have planned for you is going to be a little painful. Are you ready for that?”
Two-Step rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not going to lie, I’m a little nervous. I’ve only had code one time, and that was just the other day, but I’m ready. Or I will be when the time comes.”
“Good,” Xia said. “I better make some notes while we’re in here. It has to look official.”
While she made notes, Two-Step strummed his fingers on the table. “So what’s this overload going to be like?”
“It’s going to look and sound a lot worse than it feels, I promise. I’m going to program it to last long enough for the med team to get you out of here and to the infirmary. When you come out of it, it will feel like nothing happened. Well, mostly. You know what to do when you come out of it?”
He nodded. “I do. Hopefully, everything else goes right so I can.”
“It will,” Xia said. It has too, or we’re all in serious trouble, she thought.
Chapter 49
Kat and Sandy spent most of the weekend modifying the bank of security monitors at Retro Media. It took some creative thinking, but they finally got them to accept a video feed from the net glasses Sandy and Jacob would wear while they were in the Your Better Life building. Sandy would also tap into the security system in the building and send the feed to Kat’s monitors. An in-ear receiver would allow them to communicate with Kat, who would stay behind at Retro Media and monitor the feed from the glasses and help them coordinate. However, Kat would not be able to monitor Xia and Two-Step. They were on their own in the research lab. Sandy could tell Kat didn’t like that, but there was nothing they could do, they just had to hope everything went as planned.
The job of programming the ID cards was left to Sandy, her skills with digital imaging making her the obvious choice. Creating everyone’s animated image offered no problem at all, but mimicking the blockchain code the government used to track the use of the cards was a challenge. The code didn’t have to work, but it had to trick the scanner at Your Better Life into thinking it was working. After she finished the first card, she tried it on the credit scanner at Retro Media. The scanner denied the transaction because of a lack of credits on the account, but it recognized the card as legitimate. Fortunately, that was all she needed it to do.
The night before they were to put the plan into action, she and Jacob went with Kat to see a showing of National Treasure at the church. Kat had requested a special showing of the movie because she thought it would be motivating, even though Sandy and Jacob had watched it recently. It was motivating, but they all wished Xia and Two-Step had gotten a chance to see it before they checked into the research lab.
Early the next morning, after a quick test of the glasses and the monitors, Sandy headed out for the Your Better Life building. Jacob left an hour before her, following a different route than she would. She started by taking an air taxi to the Rice Village area. From there she took the light rail downtown, where she got on a bus to the central transport hub. After the transport hub, she took another bus, getting off eight blocks away from the Your Better Life Corporate Zone, and walking the rest of the way.
High rise apartments lined both sides of the street, their mirror-like windows and image projectors creating the illusion they dissolved as they rose from the street. These were corporate apartments for Your Better Life employees and their families. Xia lived here. Jacob used to, Sandy imagined she would have if her life had taken a different path. The only life evident in the area was at the street level of each building. Coffee shops, bars, grocery stores, restaurants, and anything else an employee would need to live in and never
