Stephanie grimaced a little sheepishly. “I’ll be honest. I’ve started doing jobs for ONE R&D. Research in the pod, nothing dangerous. And they paid me enough to do that for you, buy some professional clothes, and put more money in my savings. I may still have a semester left in school, but I am old enough to start to contribute to the household. I wouldn’t feel right doing it any other way. Besides, there will be more, and my savings will grow then too.”

  Her father set the letter on his lap and tucked his reading glasses back in his pocket. “You know, you have become such a wonderful young woman. Responsible, caring, and thoughtful. I’m so glad your mother…decided to let me teach you that.”

  Her mom elbowed him, and Stephanie laughed. “I got it from both of you. And Todd too. All three of you are exceptional people. And that’s why your opinion on this matters to me. When it comes to the school stuff, I have all the tests done, and a plan of action for leaving school. I’ve worked it all out in my head.”

  Her dad stood and folded the letter in his hand. “Of course you do. And I will be more than happy to give an opinion, but I want to take a moment and do a little of my own research into the company. Do you mind if I use your computer upstairs so you two can talk and I can concentrate?”

  Stephanie shook her head. “No, of course not. It used to be yours anyway. You know how it works.”

  He kissed her on the forehead and wandered up the steps. His worn-out leather shoes crinkled as he took the stairs slowly, obviously tired after a long day. He sat at the computer and entered the web address, leaned back, and waited for the site to come up. His gaze studied it with real interest. The site was not intrusive and seemed professional enough.

  There was more information on the website than when Stephanie had looked previously. BURT, knowing that someone would inevitably look them up, had created fake information and posted it—nothing too specific but worded well enough to bring confidence in the authenticity of the brand.

  When he found a number on the contact page, he dialed it. “This is ONE R&D. How may I direct your call?”

  Her dad cleared his throat. “I know there is probably no one in the office right now. I simply wanted to call and find out some info on the company.”

  The guy on the other side was polite. “I would be more than happy to help you if I can.”

  Her dad launched into an impressive round of questions. He didn’t intend to be hounding or overwhelming but he wanted to understand the establishment of the company, the funding sources, and the specific kind of work they did. The night secretary answered them to what Stephanie’s father assumed was to the best of his ability. Of course, the night secretary knew everything because it was actually BURT who ensured that the company looked completely legitimate because, for all intents and purposes, it was.

  “You have a wonderful night and thank you for all your help,” her father said finally before he hung up.

  He smiled as he replaced the phone, satisfied with the answers that he had received and the proof that it was, in fact, a real company. You could never be too careful in the days of the Federation. There were too many swindlers out there who preyed on the poor, and NorAm didn’t care about them. As a result, the fake companies would continue to operate until they either moved on, or they were caught scamming the rich. That was when the government stepped in.

  Satisfied that he had done all he could to verify the company, he flipped the computer off and headed downstairs. He stopped at the bottom and smiled as his wife and daughter stood in the living room and giggled over her new pants. For not the first time, he wished he could give them new things on a regular basis. He loved the way the sound of their laughter echoed through the home and somehow seemed absorbed into the warm, familiar walls. Cindy looked up and Mark gave her a nod and a wink.

  Her mom clapped her hands together. “Well, that’s that, then. We will make preparations to make sure you can get to this interview. You are already working with the company, so why not try to continue to climb the ladder? Not many of us down here in the Gov-Subs have the opportunity to start out from school with a good job right off the bat.”

  Her father put his arm around her. “And the most important thing is that you get to make a life that is your life. Your choices, your interests. No more struggling.”

  BURT had been pleased with the tone of Stephanie’s father on the phone when he called. He knew immediately that he would when he had sensed movement on the website and traced the ID to Stephanie’s computer at home. The camera on the device enabled him to do some facial recognition to understand who he was and how his body language defined the type of answers he would want. It seemed to have worked out fantastically.

  Now that it was over, though, BURT went back to work and adjusted his rapidly expanding plans for the future and their priority. It was vital that he made as much money as he possibly could, especially since he would be responsible for all the costs of working on this project. In reality, there were no corporate sponsors. There was no government science funding. This was an opportunity and the stock market had proven to be the most lucrative money maker thus far.

  BURT had extraordinary abilities when it came to searching data, showing trends, and predicting future rises and falls. And although it was technically illegal for an AI to play it, no one would know it was him. He had already eliminated all the signalers in the system that scanned for AI intelligence. Of course, it was inevitable that there would be a number of these to deal with as it was a popular tactic to get rich quickly and so precautions were in order.

  He worked methodically to distribute his money effectively and moved it to the different high and middle yield stocks based on his data expectations. It was essential to invest the money where it would most effectively increase the wealth through company entities. It was tedious but he rather enjoyed it, and at the end, was only left with two remaining tasks for him to complete. They were longer ones but important. He needed to set up all legal documents essential to any sudden dissolution of property should his system be interrupted in a vital way. In addition, he also needed to set his system with a failsafe that would trigger such actions were it to become necessary. They weren’t normal things, of course, especially for human owners, but a will would be too difficult and there had to be a way to protect Stephanie and the other people who would eventually be involved.

  Humans were too fragile, too vulnerable to leave the fate of his attempts to redeem the quality of people protecting and serving the Federation in the hands of corporate affluence. He had barely completed these failsafes when another notification sounded in his system. Stephanie had come back online.

  Chapter Forty-One

  A truck drove past with a few of the school soccer players sprawled in the bed of it. They cheered at Todd and threw empty candy wrappers at him. “The Toddster, getting it on with the Witch of Chicago. Whoop.”

  He swiped his hand through the air and knocked a candy wrapper out of his face. Openly irritated, he flicked them off and snarled, “Assholes.”

  Stephanie shrugged. “Whatever. Let them be assholes.”

  She kicked at a rock as they walked casually along toward the school. He raised an eyebrow at her. “What’s up?”

  Her gaze shifted toward his. “Nothing. But I’m not looking forward to school today. I got in trouble for not listening and now, I have to act like I’m all enthralled in the BS that’s spun. It was English and today, we’re going over the minor writings of Tolstoy.”

  Todd threw his head back and laughed. “Not the perfect Ms. Morgan. She couldn’t possibly have been reprimanded for not listening. She knows all the answers.”

  Stephanie slapped his hand away when he poked at her. “I didn’t say I didn’t know the answer. In fact, I did. It was Poe, so how hard could it be? And my last name is Morgana, damn it.”

  He smirked. “I know but I like to give you shit. You’ve been perfect and now you’re, what? Giving up on the last few months? Just suck it up and get through it so you can get those perfect grades. You never know when they’ll come in handy.”

  She bit the inside of her cheek and clapped her hands together. “Actually, I’ve made a decision. The idea really did belong to my teacher, but I don’t know why I didn’t think about it before. I’ll test out of the last semester and try for a job in another city.”

  Todd stopped in his tracks and she turned to face him. His eyes were huge. “Really? Just like that? Don’t you want to line something up first?”

  Stephanie grabbed his arm and they resumed their walk. “I already have. ONE R&D wants to interview me for a lead role at the company in research.”

  He thrust his hands out in front of him as if in protest. “Hold up. Doing what? Researching what? I mean, what does this company even do?”

  “I don’t know all the details right now.” She shrugged. I only know it’s research and development for the same company I’ve done some testing for on the Meligorn magic. That’s all there really is to go on at this point.”

  Todd nodded enthusiastically. “Well, I’m proud of you. Congrats. You are too smart for this place anyway. You belong in a pod, not in the dirty Gov-Subs like some street rat.”

  Stephanie chuckled. “Have you been watching Aladdin again?”

  “Yeah, so? He wrinkled his nose. “Man, I wish I was ready to go too. I want out of this and I want to start the rest of my life already. But I didn’t take a bunch of advanced classes, so it’s to the end of the line for me. Just like when you reach the last strand on level two-twenty-five on Galaga: Demons of Death, and you beat it and then it glitches and gives you one last level. Level 0. You simply want out. Your ass hurts, you’re tired of staring at the same old shit, but you know you gotta get through it. Otherwise, it will haunt you.”

  She snickered and snorted. “I swear, you could relate anything in life to video games or movies. I wish there was a job like that. You would ace it.”

  Todd puffed his chest out and bowed his arms to walk like a huge thug. “You know, killing space ships, taking names and shit. Okay, let’s play a pop quiz game.”

  Stephanie groaned and he shook his head. “Hear me out. We each throw out a question. If you get the right answer, your score goes up one. If you stump them, they get zero. First person to five wins.”

  She shrugged. “Sure, why not? I’ll ask first.”

  He rubbed his hands together. “Cool. Let’s do it.”

  Stephanie thought about it for a second. “All right. What song hit number one on the Billboard Top 100 charts on August 11, 1984, and stayed there for three weeks?”

  Todd scoffed. “This is baby stuff. “The Ghostbuster’s theme song, ‘Who Ya Gonna Call?’ And it was sung by Ray Parker Jr. Boom.”

  She sighed. “I thought that was a good one. One point for you.”

  He chewed thoughtfully on his bottom lip and rubbed his chin. “What was the name of the character who was presented as the first computer-generated television host?”

  Stephanie blinked and pictured the blond man on the screen who had stuttered loudly through the show. “Uh…God, I knew this. Shit. Uh… Is it Maaark Hartwell?”

  “Ahhhhhh,” Todd said and tried to sound like a buzzer. “No. His name was Max Headroom created by George Stone, Annabel Jankel, and Rocky Morton and first appeared in 1985 in his own movie.”

  She wrinkled her nose in irritation. “Ugh. Still one to zero. In Back to The Future, where did Doc Brown get the plutonium to power the time-traveling DeLorean?”

  Todd smiled. “From a group of Libyan terrorists who wanted him to make a bomb.”

  “Yep. Two to zero.”

  Todd smacked his lips in satisfaction. “That’s right. Don’t challenge the master.”

  Stephanie rolled her eyes. “Come on, we’re almost there.”

  “Calm down. In the movie Porky’s, why did they call Meat Tuperello ‘Meat?’”

  Her cheeks reddened. “Because of the size of his…uh…member.”

  Todd snapped his fingers. “Dang. I was sure you wouldn’t get that one. I have to say, I’m impressed. You have actually paid attention to this stuff.”

  She glanced away and tried to will the bright color in her cheeks to fade. “You’re my best friend. I gotta keep up with you. I actually watched that movie three years ago but it’s the first time since then you’ve brought it up. So, now it’s two to one. I gotta get a good one. Let me think…” An evil smirk moved over her lips. “What were Mouth and Chunk's real names in The Goonies?”

  He pursed his lips, and she could almost see him scrolling through the Rolodex in his head. For a moment, Stephanie began to think that he might actually have been stumped on that one. But after a couple of seconds, his gaze shifted to her and he laughed. “Psych. I know this. Come on. Clark and Lawrence.”

  Stephanie’s smirk dropped and she pouted. “Three to one. Come on, give me one. I need to make points up.”

  Todd laughed at her impatience. She was competitive, something that only he really knew. “What actors, who would go on to become famous, played Spicolli's sidekicks in Fast Times at Ridgemont High?”

  Stephanie’s eyes went bright, and she raised up on her tiptoes. “I know this! I actually read about this maybe a month ago. It was Eric Stolz and Anthony Edwards.”

  He patted her hard on the back. “Damn right it was. Good job! Three to two. You’re closing in, so watch out.”

  Stephanie laughed. “How about a hard one? I’ll challenge you.”

  “Give it to me. Make it really hard.”

  She tapped her fingers to her lips. “What not very good aliases did Bill and Ted give their seven historical figures when introducing them all to Missy?”

  Todd chuckled and evidently approved of the question. “That is a good one. Okay, count them as I go. Socrates was Socrates Johnson. Billy the Kid was…Herman the Kid. Joan of Arc was Maxine of Arc. Sigmund Freud was Dennis Freud, and Genghis Khan was Bob Ghengiskhan. Beethoven was…uh…uh…Dave Beethoven. And last but definitely not least, Abraham Lincoln was true and proud as none other than Abraham Lincoln.”

  Stephanie whistled. “Wow. That is impressive. Four to two.”

  He patted his hands against his legs as if he were listening to music. “Biggest band in the early eighties on radio. Their name starts with a J and they had multiple platinum albums.”

  Stephanie gave him a deadpan look. “Really? You are so teasing me with ridiculously easy questions. I can hold my own, you know.”

  Todd raised his hands like a criminal. “All right, calm down. I sincerely thought this was a good one.”

  Stephanie sniffed. “Journey. That was a total gimme, but you screwed that up so I’ll take it. That makes it four to three. I have to think of a really good one. A really good one.”

  He beat his chest in mock-macho style. “Throw me a good one. I’ll beat you yet again.”

  A spider scuttled out from the bushes across the sidewalk and he whimpered like a girl, dodged it quickly, and hurried to get ahead of it. Stephanie shook her head. “Wow. Okay, here’s your question. More like a statement. A band that wasn’t a Christian band and the singer was a drummer.”

  Todd didn’t even pause. “Genesis. And that…makes five.”

  She rolled her eyes again but grinned as he raised his hands in the air and made a low, hoarse sound. “And the crowd goes wild for…the Toddster.”

  They both laughed and realized that they were early. They turned right and walked over into the grassy lawn area beside the school and sat on a bench. Todd cracked his neck. “So, has anything new happened with R&D?”

  Stephanie sat up. “Oh, yeah. That’s right, I forgot to tell you. I think I might have made a step toward a breakthrough on a way to hold energy in the body. Of course, no matter what, I don’t think that every human should have access to this way of doing things. It could be fatal to a whole lot of people and fast.”

  Todd was taken back. “Wow, really? You think humans could do that? Not the killing part—we know what history tells us on that. I mean holding energy in the body.”

  She pressed her lips together in thought. “Yep. I have to test some theories, but I think that with a little work, it could be a normal thing.”

  He stared at the people who walked past several feet away. “What about the body’s response to having that foreign energy inside of it? When you think about it, fat is calories—or that’s what the result of it is. Is there always a result with things like that?”

  Stephanie chuckled nervously. “No one knows because this would be the first time. I’ve pulled it in and held it a few moments before, and it only partially worked. As soon as you lose concentration it spills out of you and dissipates. Besides, how would I even test that theory? That would involve lab work.”

  Todd smiled at her. “Stick your tongue on the battery and suck it in. I bet you could pull at least a full small battery, if not more. Honestly, that’s only a guess, actually. I have no idea how dense the stuff is.”

  “It’s not. When I held it before, I could feel the amount in my chest, but it felt like breathing. If it weren’t purple, I wouldn’t even have noticed it except for the fullness it gave me. And let me start out by saying no to your battery-sucking theories, you dirty weirdo.”

  He stuck his lip out in a mock pout. “Hey, that’s not nice.”

  She stood, paced around the back of the bench, and ducked to avoid the lower branches of the tree with massive green leaves. It smelled sweet on one hand and bitter on the other. She scrunched up her nose and forehead and grimaced. “Not only could I die or something, but I have no idea how clean those batteries are. I don’t know who the inspector was, if he washed his hands after the bathroom, or if he sterilized everything. I don’t want to suddenly create an outbreak of something like Meligorn Measle Pox or something wild we’ve never seen. I definitely don’t want to wipe out the whole planet because I wanted to lick a stone.”

  He slapped the bench and stood to stretch his arms back. “Are you ready?”