Something is beeping. I slip an arm from the covers to hit the desk and it doesn’t stop, so it’s not my alarm. I look around, and slowly recognize my room in the dorms. Somehow everything seems not quite right. I look back at my notes to myself from yesterday. That’s right, I haven’t slept here lately. But none of that explains why there’s still a beeping. Why is there beeping?
I reach out with my bots. Someone made an alarm just outside my door. I turn on the overlay and see that those are Andrea’s bots out there. Why is Andrea waking me up? I search back further. The hotel in Hawaii. The boat. Exercises.
Dammit. I guess she’s decided that I’m on a regular exercise program with her forever now. I consider whether it’s worth it to fight her on it, but part of me is just glad that she’s talking to me again. Well, not talking exactly, but as close as Andrea gets. I grab some sweats and shoes and stumble out to the commons, letting my bots tie my laces as I go. She’s waiting for me there with a big smile. How can she be this happy this early?
The rhythm and melody she’s producing are as unrelentingly cheerful as she is. I stretch and pose and work under Andrea’s watchful eyes as I finish catching up on my reading and start to figure out what I need to get done today. Where’s Evan? How come Andrea’s not pulling him into this morning torture like she did on the boat. Maybe I’m her new pet project. I can almost see the thoughts in her head. If you take your pet Noah out on walks every morning, and make sure he gets plenty of exercise and sunshine, he won’t try to kill himself anymore.
I’m still not at all sure what’s up with Lin, or Miss Liu, or however I’m supposed to think of that name. I’ll just go with Lin. I didn’t have time to sync up with Louise yesterday, since she was doing her tour of the labs with our guests for most of the day. I need to get with her soon, but she’s still sleeping.
I let her stay asleep like a decent human being. Not like Andrea, that monster. I’m pretty sure I can’t take any more yoga when she finally lets the music die out so that I can collapse on the grass. She waits a few seconds then nudges me with her foot and makes me start jogging around the commons. At least it’s better than the yoga workout. I don’t think this will make any of my joints permanently reverse themselves.
Three laps around the grassy field. Five. Eight. How is it this hot already? I peel my sweat-drenched shirt off and use it to wipe my forehead before tossing it to the side as I run another lap. Twelve laps. How is Andrea not totally exhausted yet?
I see a bald head looking out through one of the Residence windows, watching us run. I give Lin a friendly wave and she smiles and waves back. I hope she doesn’t think that I’m a wimp with as much as I’m struggling under Andrea’s merciless coaching.
Around and around we go. Every lap, I hope Andrea will let me stop, but every time I slow down, I feel her invisible hand on my back pushing me forward. Finally, after an hour and at least a liter of sweat, she lets me go. I flop down, forming a mattress of bots just in time to catch me before my face hits the sidewalk. I let them carry me into the dorms and to the shower in my room. I pull a change of clothes from my closet and lay it out on the bed while I let cool water stream down over me. Eventually, my heart rate stabilizes and the sweat stops flowing. I turn the water warmer to actually wash up. Once I’ve shaved and dressed, I feel nearly human again. I’m mentally energized despite being physically sore and tired. Maybe I can cut some deal with Andrea to only do this every other day or something. Probably not, knowing her.
Look Mom, I’m getting healthy now.
I reach out to see where Louise is and sense her in the cafeteria. Perfect, I’m starving. I get over there, grab a stack of waffles and a couple strips of bacon, and head to the table where Louise is eating with Evan.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“So what’s going on with our Chinese delegation?” I ask.
“Don’t you have something you want to talk about first?” Louise asks sternly.
“No, not a thing,” I tell her. I know that I’ll need to talk to her about my suicide attempt at some point, but definitely not here and now. “I don’t know what he’s been telling you, but Evan must have misinterpreted my desire for some extra nighttime swimming practice.”
“Still too soon, man,” Evan says around his mouth full of waffles.
“I’m good Louise, I promise,” I say as sincerely as I can. “I’m just working through some things.”
She looks at me for a long time then sighs.
“I only found out that they were coming about an hour before they arrived,” Louise answers, getting back to my question. “From what I can gather, her father, the General, made the decision at the last minute to include us on a whole tour of American desperation treatment options for her. That works out pretty well for us, because it means we’re getting independent scans right before we treat her from the folks at Stanford, where they were the day before yesterday. Then the doctors at Huntsman Cancer Institute, where they’re going for their next stop, will provide another set of independent scans. It should be pretty easy to convince her father that it was us that cured her when she shows up there with no tumor.”
“Great, how can I help? It’s super important for the Asia trip both that this works and that we get the credit.”
“I’m going to need someone to hold her perfectly still. I’ve been practicing the procedure for the last couple of weeks while you guys were having your boating party, but the dummies I used don’t breathe or move at all. Can you handle that for us? I want Evan to focus on monitoring vitals and handling the anesthesia.”
“Sure, that part should be easy.”
“Thanks. I think they’re still sleeping, so we’ll get started whenever they’re ready.”
“I don’t know about the translator,” I tell her, “but Lin is already up.”
“Want to check on Yang Song then?” Louise asks.
I reach out to the Residence and break my regular rule of stopping at bedroom doors. Yeah, Lin is up and dressed and working on a laptop at the desk in her room. Is that some C++ code I see her playing with? She’s a programmer? Who knew she was into that? It isn’t in her file at all. I make a note to use that as a conversation point later if I talk to her. Yang Song is still asleep in her room.
We take a leisurely breakfast, filling in Louise on our Disney fun until I feel Yang Song get up. My task list reminds me that I need to talk to Louise more about Dorothy and our pirated bots at some point, but today I just want her focused on the surgery so I defer that for later. I retract my bots to their doors and we get up to walk over to the Residence so we can greet them when they emerge. I take a second to scribble “Loco Moco” on the meal request board on the wall near the door as we leave the cafeteria. We could use some Hawaiian food around here.
Alan has arranged all the souvenirs and presents in the Residence’s huge foyer. Andrea is already there, starting to pass them out, so Evan and I help her to hand out wooden carvings and colorful shirts from Kauai along with plushies from Disneyland to the nursery kids. I glance at the bottom of one of the wooden turtles from the island and chuckle at the “Made in China” label. Figures. The toddlers squeal with joy at the novelties anyway. I wonder if this is the first time they’ve had presents handed out like this. The bigger ones make a big deal out of choosing between shark-tooth necklaces and wooden carvings, while the smaller ones just grab whatever they see first. The nannies help us keep it to two presents per kid.
We’re just wrapping up when Lin comes down the hallway with Yang Song right behind her. She still has that same tortured look to her. She looks around at the children and gives them a pained smile, looking a little skeletal as she does it.
“Good morning. Thank you for your tour yesterday. I have spoken to my father, and we are interested to see what you can do for me.” Yang Song translates for her when Lin addresses Louise.
“Please, come this way. We’ll show you,” Louise tells her and beckons her out towards the Research Center.