Everyone In Silico | Page 2

she knew, so she waved and kept on
going. The Starbucks a block down looked clear, however, so she held her watch on the
rusty plate until the door buzz-clicked.
Breathing a silent relieved breath - she hadn't been positive she had enough for a coffee -
she threw her stuff at a table near the window and went up to the counter. As the machine
filled her cup, she watched the people bustling by. Spring was all over their faces, as
obvious and gleeful as strawberry jam.
Nicky put sugar and two Milkbuds into her coffee and watched the door. Mostly tourists,
since the kids from the Drive favoured the outlet she had passed by. The steam from her
cup curled around and coalesced briefly into the Starbucks logo, then dissipated.
An older masked couple came in and tentatively looked around the café. Nicky rifled
through her watch for something to read. She found an article on using EasyCut for
amphibious splicing and got her watch to project it on the table instead of her retina.
After a minute, she checked the couple out over the rim of her coffee cup. They were at
the counter, waiting for a couple of boys to finish filling their soup-tureen mugs. They
were as noisy as their clothes.
The boys finally touched their watches to the payplate, bouncing them off it in a
perfunctory way.
"Next time, ask him where's his body at!" the kid said on his way out the door, and his
red-capped friend exploded in a honk-laugh that made the masked man step back briefly,
place a hand to secure his mask, then square his shoulders and pretend he was rubbing his
face.
Nicky strained to hear what the man was saying to the woman in his quiet voice, noticed
that he touched his bare fingers to the payplate. Nicky smiled inside. Loaded. Only the
utterly destitute and the fabulously wealthy did without watches.
After casually pressing a black pellet onto the surface of the table next to her, Nicky
leaned away from it and absorbed herself in her article. The woman stood for a second

with the classic lattes, holding them well away from her white smock, and surveyed the
room before nodding the man towards the table next to Nicky. Good, Nicky thought,
tapping a protein DNA graphic in her article and pretending to watch it unravel.
There was a movement from her backpack, and Nicky's heart rate suddenly spiked.
Moving her legs slowly, she placed one of her feet on the opening of the bag, then the
other one. She could feel pushing against the side of her shoe. Settle down, you little shit,
Nicky thought, you're not the only one who's hungry. She nervously glanced at the couple
as they draped their coats over their chairs, but they seemed comfortable. The man even
took off his mask despite the woman's disapproving clucking. He had a square jaw and
full lips, which he pressed against her ivory fingers. She had had her nails coated in
mirror, and he pretended to stare at himself in them. She hit him and giggled.
Nicky, not looking up, lifted her foot. For a second, nothing, and then, just as she was
considering kicking the bag, a brown blur. It had crawled up the man's leg and launched
itself onto their table before the couple registered what was happening.
Luckily the woman's mask muffled her scream, because even then it bored into Nicky's
ears. Nicky snatched the brown animal to her chest and surreptitiously slipped a black
pellet into its mouth. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I don't know how it got out, my bag was
closed..."
The man's mask was back on his face, and a halo was starting to generate around the two
of them. Nicky stroked the head of the tiny pug-faced little bulldog with a single finger
and murmured reassurances to it. The animal, however, was fully pacified by the pellet
and stared at the couple with honey-liquid eyes.
"Oh, what a beautiful little... creature," the woman said, holding out her hand. "Turn off
that silly thing, Alex," she said.
The halo disappeared. "Sorry," Alex said, to both Nicky and the woman. "It's just..."
Nicky looked down, kept petting the bulldog.
"It's just nothing. He's paranoid," the woman said, reluctantly taking her eyes off the
bulldog to look at Nicky. "He's been watching the news too much. I apologize for his
rudeness." She looked back at the bulldog. "Can I..."
Nicky glanced at her. Go on, beg.
"May I... hold him?" she said.
"Her," Nicky stated firmly, as if she cared.
The woman leaned back, a little beaten. Nicky noticed the lines around her eyes and
worried she'd pushed too hard.
"May I hold... her?" she said, finally. Nicky paused