Page 65 of Starrily

Blackbody.

She picked up her phone and made a call. “Simon, you have to get here right away.”

“With that kind of urgency, I can only assume you found a solution,” Simon said as he met her in the lobby. Callie headed down the hallway, and he fell into step with her. “So, tell me, Phoenix. How are you going to fix me?”

She wished he didn’t sound so cheerful. Or maybe that was a good thing.Somebodyhad to be the optimist. “I didn’t find a solution yet. But I have an idea.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Blackbody radiation.”

Simon furrowed his eyebrows. “Should I be worried?”

“Not that kind of radiation. Blackbodies are objects that absorb all light. Like stars, although they’re not perfect blackbodies. They have high temperature, which is why you can see them, but if they had a much lower temperature, say that of a human body, they’d be in the infrared spectrum. Invisible to the human eye.”

“Never thought I’d hear a pick-up line like this.”

“Huh?”

He paused, leaned on the wall, and ran his hand through his hair. “Hey baby, are you a star at human body temperature, because I sure can’t see you?”

Callie put her hands on her hips. “I’m trying to tell you something!”

He pushed himself off the wall. “I know. You’re saying I could become invisible because I’m … stretching the light in weird ways?”

When her theory was thrown back at her, it did sound foolish. But it was the only thing she had. “Of course, blackbodies are inorganic, and a person can’t just become one, but … perhaps you’ve mutated, somehow.”

“I was still able to see the disappearing part of my body, though.”

“Maybe because it’s your body?” she tried.

“Mutant, huh?” He smiled. “Someone has been reading the X-Men comics too much.”

“Please.”

“So my superpower is invisibility?”

“It’s not a superpower.” She stopped and stared him down—or up, as their heights went. “It’s a medical condition to be fixed.”

“You know, that’s what some people said about the X-Men, too—”

“Simon!”

“All right, all right.” He raised his hands. “Fix me, doctor.”

She led him to another lab and opened the door into a small room—empty, with white walls and floor and a single window looking out into the hallway. “We use this for various experiments. It has an infrared and ultraviolet camera installed. If your arm is distorting the light, the camera will catch it.”

“But we’ll have to wait until my arm, or any other body part, actually does it.”

“Yes. You’ll have to remain here until it happens.”

“Here—” he looked into the room and back at her. “You mean to keep me in this little box?”

“If it’s true and a strange mutation has occurred, this could be an incredible breakthrough for scientific research—”

“I’m not one of your science experiments!” He let out a frustrated sigh.

What the hell was she saying? A breakthrough? “No, of course you’re not.” She went to him and cupped his face. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to help. I don’t know what else to do. There’s nothing left I can think of.”