Machine Man (serial)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“They asked if I’d heard from you.” Angelica reached across the table and speared a potato.

Lola froze, a forkful of lettuce halfway to her mouth. “Who?”

“Steve Molonovich.”

“Who’s Steve Molonovich?”

“He’s in Client Services.”

“Never heard of him.”

“Well,” Angelica said, “Steve Molonovich is going around the hospital asking if anyone’s heard from you.”

Hello? I said to my legs. Can you hear me?

Lola chewed her salad. “Because of Better Future?”

“Probably,” said Angelica. “He had this look on his face like he gets when a corporate client really wants something. Like he’s halfway through a bad hot dog.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I said I hadn’t heard from you.”

“He believed you?”

Angelica shrugged. “I don’t know.”

I think you can, I told them.

“I don’t like that.” Lola glanced at me. I remembered I was supposed to be eating, and stabbed a carrot. This entailed bending down a little, because even with the Contours lowered as far as possible, I sat a good foot higher than everyone else at the table. “I don’t know what we should do.”

“I’ve told you what you should do.” Angelica bent down and scooped up a dog that had been whining at her feet. Its bright eyes fixed on me across the table cloth. “Go to the Feds. Report that Better Future has built itself an unlicensed operating theater, and they’ll be raided within 24 hours, I guarantee it.”

Give me a sign. A twitch. A stretch.

“I bet half the stuff they’re doing in there is illegal.” Angelica stroked the dog’s ears. “The Feds get wind of it, I bet they seize a whole bunch of stuff nobody has permits for.” Her eyes flicked at me, at my Contours.

My right knee bounced up and hit the underside of the table. The entire setting jumped an inch into the air. Before it clattered back down, the dog bolted from Angelica’s lap. From the hallway it stared back at me.

“Charlie?” Lola reached for my hand. “You okay?”

“Yes. Sorry,” I said. “I’m fine.”

114.