Page 121 of The Restoration Program
Nicole flexed her hands by her sides, lab-created muscle and bone moving on her command. “I suppose the reality’s not very romantic. Hard for even Burman to put a cheery spin on a scene like that.”
The two of them stared in silence until Nicole reached for Carlos’ hand. “We should go,” she said.
Before he could answer, a pair of footsteps began pounding in their direction. Nicole’s heart skipped a beat at the thought of Ryan searching for her. Why did that frighten her so much? While she froze up, Carlos acted, pulling her into the corner to avoid getting caught.
They watched, holding their breath, as a human woman in a lab coat rounded the corner. She stared down at a tablet, swiping and jabbing at the screen. It unsettled Nicole to think that two entire people could go unnoticed while standing nearly in plain sight.
They just don’t expect NüPrints to be here,she soothed herself. Still, the fact that there were no accommodations in this area for the type of people that weremadehere didn’t sit well.
The lab tech walked right past them. The big glass doors opened for her, and Carlos tugged sharply on Nicole’s hand. They sprinted on the lab tech’s heels to make it through in time. The doors breezed shut behind them, and the woman disappeared through the next door without a clue she had been followed.
Alone in the short, glass hallway, Nicole and Carlos shared a breathless grin at their little adventure.
Nicole chuckled nervously. “Are they gonna fine us for trespassing?”
“I don’t see any signs that say so. Besides… you and I have already been here before.” Carlos squeezed her hand, then gravitated to the widened view through the glass wall of the hallway.
Nicole braced herself before peering at the lower, brightly-lit chamber. She stared hard at the substance that was being whisked. There was more than one vat with that milky, viscous liquid tumbling inside.
“What is it?” she murmured, though she already had an idea.
“That’s you,” Carlos said hollowly. “And me. And Holly. All of us.”
Sleek tubes were attached to the vats, connecting to high tech machines. The longer Nicole looked, the better she understood the layout. One side of the massive chamber appeared to be reserved for normal-sized 3D printing. Organ Hosts. There were at least three bodies there being inspected by lab techs.
On the other side… she glimpsed a tiny body slide out on a short conveyor belt. Two techs stood over it as the belt came to a stop. They inspected the NüPrint delicately. One of them paused and gestured to a leg. Nicole narrowed her eyes and saw the limb was twisted unnaturally. Printed wrong.
Gloved hands scooped up the body and carried it over to a metallic, covered bin. As the lid was lifted, she caught a glimpse of other bodies. Rejects. Misprints. The techs moved on to a neighboring machine, which delivered another little body.
“How many tries do you think it took for us?” Nicole whispered. She looked from the Organ Hosts to the NüPrints, wondering at which point the latter was injected with consciousness, memories, hopes, and dreams. For now, the bodies were only different in size. “Empty husks,” she said, shivering. “It’s hard to believe that’s how we started out. Even seeing it, I just…”
“They’re comfortable enough to tell us how we’re made. Butseeingthe process is a different monster,” Carlos said. “Guess that’s why only humans are allowed to work down there.”
“Carlos. Wearehuman.”
“Are we?” His eyes didn’t stray from the cold science below. He leaned his forehead against the glass. “I don’t know how much longer I can do this.”
She pulled on his hand to get him to look at her. “Do what?”
“Live like this,” he hissed. “They can tell us we’re human all they want, but look down there. It’s a doll factory, Zhou. I bet if we followed that reject box, we’d see those bodies undone at cellular level and dumped right back in there.” He pointed at the nearest vat of white liquid. “And even taking that away… the people who are supposed to behelpingus are treating us like a goddamn social experiment. You know I didn’t tell Burman about what Ryan did. You and I never said a word about it outside of our call.”
Nicole finally loosed the snarl she’d been holding in since Burman put her on the spot. “The fucking nerve! As if all the home visits and blood samples every other month isn’t enough for them.” Her frown deepened, reliving that awful moment, rooted in her chair. “I can’t believe Dr. Burman pulled that shit in front of everyone. I guess he really is balls-deep in the Kool Aid here, after all.”
Having expected an enthusiastic agreement to this, Carlos’ responding pause was unsettling. Nicole gave him a sidelong glance.
“What?” she said. “Aren’t you mad?”
“No, yeah, of course. I’m furious.” He shook his head, but that shadowed look on his face didn’t leave. “It’s fucked up that they’re listening in on us, but Burman actually had your guy on the hook for what he did. He was on your side.”
“We were ambushed,” Nicole reminded him in a hiss.
“And you shut him down. Why do you keep giving Ryan a free pass for all the shit he’s been putting you through lately?”
Nicole wrenched her hand away, glaring up at him as she put space between them. “You don’t get to point fingers at me just because you’ve given up on love.”
Even as it came out, she knew her anger was unjust. But Carlos watched her unflinchingly. Unwounded. Sighing, Nicole glanced back the way they’d come. The hallway was as silent as a museum, but she wondered how much longer until their absence was noticed.
She gave a small start as Carlos took her by the hand again, tugging her to face him. Nicole looked up and found his dark eyes searching hers with an urgency she’d never seen on him before.
