I opened my eyes and gasped.
“It’s okay. It’s okay.” A tall blonde woman bent over me.
Except for my head, I was submerged in an ice bath. “It’s freezing!” My feet slipped against the inside of the tub.
“I know. Sorry.” Her voice was steady and soothing, and her hand over mine was comforting. “Try to relax.”
I stopped kicking.
“I’m Dr. Athena Fisher. The ice was to keep your body from burning up. You can get out now, but you’ll be groggy. Go slowly.”
On the other side of her, Harlan awoke in his own tub.
“What the hell?” he shouted.
The blonde woman stilled him with the same look and soothing voice she’d used on me. “Harlan, you are fine. Take a moment before you stand. Hold the sides of the tub when you do.”
I laid my head back and settled in. My body did indeed feel like a cooling fire on the inside. A little longer in cold water wouldn’t hurt.
I tossed a tired smile at my brother, and he returned it.
“Hey,” he said in a voice that was both exhausted and content.
“Hey,” I returned.
* * *
When I waved my wrist, the front door of our apartment clicked and shot open to one side, disappearing into the wall. Harlan and I led Lena and Dr. Fisher into our apartment. The scent of stale air and burnt food greeted us.
A month had passed since we first tested the computer-brain interface. Since that date, my hopes had alternately dived and soared a thousand times. Yet here we were. Finally.
The vid on the wall powered itself on, and the ads started. “Introducing the Micro-Dome, a revolutionary wristband that provides a personalized microclimate for its wearer . . .”
Lena marched straight to my father’s bed on the far side of the room, unbothered by the patched walls and mismatched furniture.
“You must be Mr. Mercer.” She squeezed his right hand as if by introduction. “I’m Lena Hayes, and this is Dr. Athena Fisher.”
In ten seconds, Lena had shown more respect to my dad than I’d ever seen from my stepmother. I let hope bloom in my stomach where dread had multiplied for years.
“Your kids brought us here to help you,” she continued. “We’re going to start by examining your equipment to ensure we understand how everything works.”
Dad didn’t move, but his machines kept beeping.
Dr. Fisher got to work inspecting all of Dad’s devices. She crawled under the bed to follow the wires from one machine to the next.
When she reappeared, Lena passed her a hand-screen. The two of them bent over it, swiping across the display. Every once in a while, one of them would point and murmur words I couldn’t hear.
The vid rambled in the background. “The patented wristband checks your temperature and heart rate and aligns your personal climate dome to deliver the most comfortable—”
“Vid off,” I said, with more smugness in my tone than I’d ever used while talking to an electronic device. We wouldn’t need those ads anymore.
Harlan and I settled on the couch.
Lena and Dr. Fisher finished prepping and came over to us. Lena sat on the coffee table facing us. Dr. Fisher stood at her side.
“We should chat before we begin,” Lena said, “since things went a bit sideways during our first test.”
Dr. Fisher guffawed.
Lena glared at her. “The data we gathered during that test and the later ones—not just from your feedback but also from the security loopholes—taught us a lot about improving the computer-brain interface. You taught us a lot, and—”
“You’re still going to do it, right?” Harlan sat on the edge of his cushion. “He’s in a vegetative state. You can’t make that worse. You might as well try.”
Lena held up a fist.
He shut his mouth.
“We’re going to install the device.” She opened her hand to reveal a small chip, barely larger than a micro-comm, in a clear box. “We used the body of our new embeddable micro-comm as a casing for the tech. The entire computer-brain interface is here.”
My hand trembled as stretched it out, palm up. Lena dropped the box into my palm. It was no heavier than a feather, but it held the weight of Dad’s future.
“Take it back,” I whispered.
She lifted it from my hand and held it out to Harlan.
He shook his head.
“Do you trust me?” Lena asked.
She had allowed a security loophole that almost got my brother and me killed. She’d also done everything in her power to save us. More importantly, she was the only one in the world offering to save our dad when every medical center had turned him away.
“With our lives,” I said.
Lena looked down at the device in her hand.
“Is there a problem?”
“I’m just not good at speeches.” She licked her lips. “When this works, it will be because of you. If we save one person or a million, it will be because you took a chance. Technology isn’t good or evil, but the people who wield it can change everything.”
A month ago, I would have disagreed. Technology had put Dad out of work and caused his condition. Technology kept Harlan and me from supporting this household. Yet technology was also going to save us.
“When this works,” Lena continued, “you are your dad’s heroes. Not me. Not this interface.”
Words of thanks choked in my throat, so I just nodded.
“One more thing.” She paused. “The team is trying to get permission for our second patient to be the Web Witch. I thought you should know.”
Harlan looked down at his hands.
“You have nothing to be ashamed of,” she said. “She’s in a vegetative state because you were defending yourself. It was my invention that broke her. It’s my responsibility to fix her so she can get the prison time she deserves.”
Lena and Dr. Fisher regrouped at our father’s bed. They moved with practiced precision. Lena entered commands into the hand-screen. Dr. Fisher pulled out her scalpel and cut into the back of Dad’s head with steady, focused fingers.
I squeezed Harlan’s hand.
The front door slid open, and Ellen breezed into the room.
Her self-satisfied grin withered on her painted lips. “What the hell is this?”
Harlan met her at the door. “Don’t interfere. Lena Hayes and Dr. Fisher are trying to wake Dad.”
“Lena …” She shoved him aside so she could see past him. “Hayes? From CyberCorp Technology?”
When she tried to move past him, he slid into her path. “Do not interfere.”
I usually separated them when things got heated because Ellen had controlled our fates. Today, I rooted for Harlan from my seat.
“Sit.” He gestured toward her bedroom. “Or go to your room, but stay out of this.”
Ellen chewed her lower lip. Then she raised her chin and flounced toward the main bedroom. “I have reading to do for work anyway. When I’m done, I’m making a smoothie in the kitchen whether you’re finished here or not.”
She disappeared into her room and slammed the door so hard the walls shook.
With Ellen out of sight, the tension in the room dropped. Lena and Dr. Fisher never paused their work. Busy and precise, the two moved around each other as if they’d done this a hundred times.
“Almost there.” With a soft click, Lena snapped the chip into place at the base of Dad’s skull.
Dr. Fisher dove in, executed a few quick stitches, and applied a healing balm to secure it.
Without looking down, Lena tapped a sequence on her hand-screen. “That should do it.”
The room held its breath. Even the beeping of my dad’s machines seemed to suspend in anticipation. Harlan’s grip on my hand tightened so hard his pulse beat against mine. Two hearts intertwined.
Our hopes hinged on this moment.
Our fate rested on this moment.
Our lives depended on this moment.
Dad opened his eyes.