“Well, right now Terri’s tired and hurting.”
“So take your pills. It’ll kill the pain so you can get some sleep and tackle the problem when you feel better.”
Teresa stared at him for a moment before turning her attention to the pills in her hand. A smile spread across her face and she gave Dennis a big hug. “I’m feeling better already. ”
Dennis stepped back slightly and folded his arms across his chest. “OK, Terri. I’ve seen that look before. What are you plotting now?”
“A small modification to the sym-bracelet. One that sends a false signal. We can drop a neural transceiver into both the symbiont and the host. When the host is full, the bracelet transmits a signal to the symbiont’s brain that tells him that he’s also full.”
He laughed. “For a second, I thought you were serious. Take your pills, you’re becoming delirious. The side effects for that kind of modification would—”
“Give all the third world nations an opportunity to catch up with their neighbors.”
“Now I know you’re hallucinating.”
Teresa leaned forward and fixed a hard stare on him.“Not at all.” She took a deep breath. “It’s no great secret that your main interest in this place is the tax write-off. That’s a real upscale practice you’ve got back home and I bet your portfolio reeks of money.”
Dennis shrugged noncommittally. “There’s nothing wrong with enjoying the rewards of one’s work. Not ever/one’s a bleeding-heart liberal like you.”
“And what if I could show you a way we could both have what we want most? Would we have a deal?” Dennis leaned back and stared at her before speaking slowly and softly. “If it was anyone else I’d tell them to take a hike. Let’s take one together and you can fill me in on the details. ”
Teresa smiled and tossed the pain pills over her shoulder as they walked away.
John Anderson hesitated a second as he noticed a Hungry Warrior restaurant had moved into one of the old, abandoned restaurants near their condominium.
He didn’t know why, but lately he found hamburgers rather bland and his body seemed to crave new, exotic food. African food.
His dad said it had something to do with a feedback loop in the new sym-bracelet linkup and some people were upset about it. The company that made the sym-bracelets offered to remove them free of charge but who’d want to accept that kind of offer? They’d get fat without the symbiont constantly siphoning the calories away.
John walked under the crossed spears that had replaced the golden arches in front of the restaurant, and opened the door. On the wall next to the menu was a holographic image of the company’s founders, Dennis Ciurej and Teresa Milner, accepting the Nobel peace prize for their work in Africa.
He stepped up to the counter as a woman smiled and said, “May I take your order?” John didn’t know why, but he had a real craving for a double order of banana mash.