Page 57 of Invasive Species
His lip curls at me. “Whatever’s going on here, I will find out. Your weird cowboy outfit, doing illegal work for backhanders, it’s all going to fall to pieces. I’m going to tell the council.”
My vision tunnels. He’s not a physical threat, but he is a risk to us remaining under the radar of the authorities.
Terr-ee turns on his heel and leaves, shoes crunching on the gravel stones like a death knell. I can’t run after him and stop him, that would make the situation worse. If only Ilia were here to advise me.
I shut the door. “Is he a significant threat?”
She’s pale but she manages a scowl, shaking out her auburn hair. “A significant pain in the ass, yeah. Laura’ll sort all of that planning permission rubbish.”
“Rubbish? He seemed to think it was important.”
“It is, sort of.”
Her prevarication makes the ice slide deeper into my stomach. “He said he was going to tell your government, is that correct?”
“Yeah, but they’re busy, they won’t care.” She gnaws at a section of her curls. “Laura will help, you don’t have to worry.”
That’s the exact phrase which does make me worry. “How did he find out? He said a… post, something about a photo, what’s that?”
She stills. Arra-bellah is never still. “A photograph, a visual record.”
My nanites translate that. “A scan of some sort. How did that get to him? Does this unpleasant insipid human have spy drones?”
“No, I, uh… I posted it.” She whips out her personal device. It’s smaller than my pad or the electric reading device she leant me, with a cracked front and case.
Her jaw drops. “Ooh, five hundred new followers! Score.”
Dread lines my stomach like I've been presented with a host of battlefield wounded. “You want these followers? Stalkers?” How many will I need to fight now?
“No, no, these ones are only online.” She moves into my reach to show me her device. “Thousands of comments too.”
She scrolls them quickly but I read fast now my nanites have adjusted. “He's so gorgeous. Wow want to f him. Who's the hottie?”I read.
She puts her phone on the counter slowly and looks over her shoulder at me, face pale. “Um. So. I used a picture of the barn coming together. To advertise it.”
She squirms, and while it's delicious, I know her enough to realize she's embarrassed about something. “A photo of the barn… is that how Terr-ee knew about the, what did he call it, extension?”
“Yeah,” she says, eyes cutting away. “It’s online now.”
“It doesn’t seem prudent to post something that needs to be hidden,” I point out.
“I didn’t think Terry Fassbender the developer would see it. And Ellen needs this business to work, I have to rev up some interest.”
The comments keep pinging on that image. “Well, Isuppose it’s worked. I didn’t know a barn was referred to as ‘he,’ though.”
Now her freckles nearly vanish as her cheeks flame red. “They, uh, aren’t referring to the barn.”
She passes me her device, and behind the cracked screen I see…
Me.
My scales are colored an unnatural yellow as they are now, with harder lines I know are drawn over the top, but it’s me. She’s changed me to be more human, hiding my true nature, but also putting me on display.
“Thousands of comments,” I repeat her words from earlier.
“Y… yeah.”
“You used my image.”
