Page 100 of The Restoration Program

3:04am saraG: anyone else consider that the CIA is using these things to essentially wiretap the whole country? Just me??? The fact that they’re shoving this propaganda down our throats is proof enough to me...

8:00am DarkAppleCore: this is clearly edited, lmao. Still kinda creepy though. Gonna sage my house now thx, eggs.

8:39am 9isacolor: KINDA creepy?? Those scientist freaks knew exactly what they were doing, making their androids tiny enough to seem harmless

9:12am imaginarygecko: stfu NüPrints arent robots, their clearly the first victims of the new world order. this is just the beginning, watch. before you know it the govt is gonna target people for “accidents” and put them into these tiny helpless bodies. its all about control

10:49am p4lenite: Sounds like the only way to settle this is to rip open a NüPrint and check for guts or wires. Lol. I’ll keep you all posted.

The last message was posted less than ten minutes ago. Hand trembling, Nicole swept the cursor up and closed the tab. Every nerve in her body cried out to post a message of her own and set the record straight, but she agonized at the thought of some nutjob tracing her IP address. She absently rubbed her thighs, a seed of doubt taking root at the back of her mind. Say there were wires running somewhere inside her. Wouldsheeven be able to tell?

She promptly closed all the other conspiracy theory threads waiting for her, clicking instead on the bookmarked app she used to communicate with her support group.

The half-dozen unread marriage congratulations messages tempted her to shut down the laptop entirely.

A new message pinged at the top of the list, stopping her. She opened her chat history with Carlos, surprised he was the one to initiate a conversation. He had been noticeably less forthcoming since her uncomfortably public engagement.

“How’s married life?” his message read. “The people wanna know.”

Not long after starting the arduous task of typing a response, she huffed and clicked on the video call button instead. She scooted back to be visible on camera, swiftly smoothing her hair down and trying to look marginally less dead inside.

“Zhou,” Carlos greeted with a half-smile when he finally answered. Judging by the direct angle, he must have been using his propped-up phone. He looked bigger on screen than he was in real life.

She nearly corrected him on her last name, but two things stopped her. One, she wasn’t sure if a legally dead person could have their last name updated in light of an unofficial marriage. Two, something shifted in Carlos’ background. She caught a glimpse of sheets, locks of bright red hair, and a limp hand. A groggy girl’s mumble confirmed Nicole’s guess.

Nicole sputtered. “Sorry! I wouldn’t have called if I’d be waking Becca.”

“Take it easy,” Carlos chuckled, amusement not quite reaching his eyes as he leaned back to pat his girlfriend’s wrist. “She’s a heavy sleeper on the best days. She’ll be out of it for another few hours, at least.”

Nicole arched an eyebrow at him accusingly, mimicking the face he loved to pull at her. “Wild night?”

Carlos’ head tipped back. “Sí, sí…I was up till early hours of the morning making sweet, sweet love to my woman. Nothing ladies love more than a dick the size of a thumbtack.”

Nicole’s smile flickered.

He dismissed her with a chuckle, but he couldn’t quite look in the camera lens, either. “She went clubbing last night with some girlfriends downtown. I don’t know where.”

“Geez, she didn’t at least tell you?”

“I didn’t ask.”

Nicole moistened her lips, mouth suddenly dry. “Are you okay? No bullshit.”

His shoulders tensed under his sleeveless tee. Finally, like he was lifting the weight of the world, he raised his head. Carlos’ dark eyes bored through the screen, swimming with conflict.

“I can’t kid myself, Zhou. Becca and I just don’t work anymore. If I were human, I’d have broken it off with her weeks ago.”

“You—youarehuman,” Nicole said softly.

“Right. Sure.”

Her brows knit, but she pressed on. “I just—did something happen? You guys always seemed so solid.”

He smiled distantly, pushing a hand back through his unkempt black hair. “She’s still an angel. Things are just weird, and they’re going to stay weird no matter what Burman says. Like… Little things I used to think were cute drive me fuckingloconow. The other night she was swishing her mouthwash, I wanted to jump out the window. Perks of living with a giant.”

Carlos’ video shifted slightly as he moved the phone with him to the pillow. Nicole felt cemented in place, hanging on his every word with an ache in her chest.

“I can’t bring myself to say anything though,” he went on. “Not after all she’s done for me. And besides, where would I go? NüPrints can’t live alone. I hear the Facility has rooms they offer for those displaced but…” Carlos trailed off, pulling a hopeless face.