Page 21 of Neon Flux

I whipped out my mechanical keyboard and got to work, skipping around the POM internal message boards. I needed some way to snare them, something I could use as bait. Nothing was coming up, and I had already lingered inside their network too long, so I had to make something up. I wrote the post and flagged it to POM Security before clearing my cache and logging out.

“Oh, the keyboard is out. You must be up to something naughty.” Dev teased, coming out of the back room, a grin across his face as his pair of golden nose rings caught the overhead lights. His wavy black hair was pushed back out of his face, and it curled at the nape of his neck. He leaned on my shoulder, trying to spy on what I was doing on my Vysor.

“You’re going to get in trouble for cyberrunning on the job,” he quipped.

“Luckily, the boss doesn’t seem to care,” I retorted, giving him a playful shove and closing down my screen.

“That’s true.” Dev chuckled. “So, what sort of trouble are you getting into today?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” We quarreled lightheartedly. He even rubbed his dark stubble over the side of my face, trying to see my very empty screen.

“Did you download those episodes ofFlux Bondedlike I asked?”

I let out a long sigh. “You can torrent shows on your own. You don’t need me to do it for you.” I shoved him off, but he just gave me a cheeky grin.

“Yeah, but I’m lazy and you’re the tech wiz. That’s why I hired you.”

“It’s downloading files, Dev. You literally operate on people.”

He shrugged.

I rolled my eyes but flicked my fingers along the side of my Vysor toward him, and the files transferred over.

“I don’t know how you can watch such trash,” I said.

“It’s nottrash,” Dev grumbled with false annoyance. “It’s romantic. Finding someone you’re meant to be with. You’re just a nuller, probably going on forums to talk about how Flux bonds are propaganda to further divide up society.”

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t you think I have better things to do?”

“No way. I can see you moderating a whole conspiracy forum. Bet it’s about how POM set this whole show up as breeder propaganda.” He winked at me.

“You think so lowly of me,” I said with overdramatic hurt. I spun the chair I was in around once, before continuing quieter. “People used to believe in soulmates too. Just another false hope to distract the masses.”

“Sounds like something someone who hasn’t been on a date in three months would say,” Dev retorted with his sarcastic smile.

I flipped him off but couldn’t help mirroring his smile. “Watch it, Doc—better no dates than a date with a guy with no sheets on his bed.”

“That was one time! He was just a minimalist.”

We both laughed, and it felt good. Not as good as other things, but it was enough, at least for now.

The TV in the corner flipped to a news program of protests outside the capital.

Vocal minority continues to fight for their right to marry their AI companions.

“See, at least I’m not that desperate,” I huffed, waving at the screen.

Dev looked me up and down. “Didn’t you program an AI for yourself?”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to marry her!”

“I’m hurt, E,” DITA chimed in my ear. “After all the nights we’ve spent together.”

My cheeks flushed. I was not about to discuss those activities with Dev.

He continued to eye me, about to say something, when Beaufort Renard, the CTO of POM Enterprises, appeared on screen.

“It is the continued stance of POM and myself that these supposed ‘digital beings’ are nothing more than fictional constructs. Programmed by humans to act like humans, they can appear real, but they are not. Giving them rights would only be a slippery slope to the infringement of rights of actual human beings.”