Joke.

“Do you want me to say you’re beautiful?” he asks. He seems concerned.

“Who doesn’t like flattery?” I ask.

“But it’s not flattery. It’s what I feel. I feel that you are the most beautiful—”

And that’s when the bus lurches as it heads onto the Golden Gate Bridge and oh I’m even closer now and he doesn’t pull away and I start to but I don’t. It’s not possible to pull away.

I kiss him.

He does not kiss me.

His lips are the lips I gave him.

I slip my hand beneath his arm and around his body, the body I made for him, the hard muscles I programmed him for.

Adam pulls back, gasping for air. His eyes are clouded. “I don’t know what to do.”

Of course, I know exactly what he should do. Biology, folks. Evolution. We’re all just animals, right? Right?

Right?

I touch his chin. It’s perfect. Chiseled, with a slight cleft. Sculpted-by-Michelangelo perfect.

Just the way I ordered it.

“Kissing’s easy,” I say, and I’m suddenly glad Aislin is asleep so she can’t hear me. “Whatever you do, it’ll be perfect.”

We kiss.

It’s just the way I ordered it.

When we come up for air, I turn to see if Aislin’s still asleep.

My face burns when I realize she’s wide awake and watching us.

I wait for the applause or the sarcastic, leering remark. But all she does is nod. Her smile is almost wistful.

Adam turns. He blushes, too. I must have programmed him with that gentle self-consciousness. “Hello, Aislin,” he says.

“Hello,” she says back.

“Lovely weather we are having,” Adam says, and before you can say “what the hell is going on here?” they are having an awkward, first-date kind of chat.

I suddenly feel like a fifth wheel, so I retreat to a seat near the front. When Adam starts to follow me, I tell him to stay and talk with Aislin.

I don’t know why. It just seems right.

There was something about that kiss. It was like a beautifully executed guitar riff, played without any feeling.

It was … not perfect.

– 41 –

SOLO

“Terra!” Tommy says.

“You think…” Dr. Chen says with a gasp. “You think she knows?”

“Who else would decant Adam?” Tommy rages.

“But why would she do such a thing?” Dr. Gold asks. “She doesn’t even know he exists.”

“Clearly she knows he exists, Doctor,” Martinez says with a slight sneer on the word “doctor.” “How else could she decant him?”

Dr. Anapura sees the anger in Tommy’s face—mostly beneath the tattoo that says “Pixies”—and says defensively, “I checked! She hasn’t been down here since the Plisskens died! And there are no cameras except the one we used to show the supposed simulation!”

“Wait a minute,” I say. No one pays attention.

“Oh my God, she knows,” Dr. Chen cries. He’s dancing from foot to foot like a child scared of visiting the dentist.

“We’ll deal with her,” Tommy snarls.

“Deal with her? Deal with her?” Dr. Chen is nearly weeping. And I can see the fear beginning to infect the others.

Sullivan from accounting has gone pale. “I’m the one who’s on the hook for moving funds around. I’m the one who has been moving money out of Level One budgets into the Adam Project.” He’s panting like a hunted animal. “I’m going to go to jail. I’m going to prison! What am I supposed to tell my wife?”

“I can’t handle prison!” Dr. Chen wails. “I’m an intellectual!”

“Shut up, all of you,” Tommy snaps. “You’re scared of one middle-aged woman?”

The consensus seems to be that yes, yes they are very scared of Terra Spiker.

“Hey!” I yell. “Hey! What is this, some puppet show you’re putting on for my benefit? Like Terra Spiker isn’t the one behind all of this?”

Tommy turns on me, his eyes blazing. “You know, you’re really not as smart as your parents, are you? Your parents? They were geniuses! Maybe when we put you in the tank we can raise your IQ a few points so you can keep up.”

In the tank? I’m not sure what that means, but I can guess. Even with my limited IQ. But that’s not the point. That’s not why I meet Tommy’s gaze and say, “Listen, Dr. Holyfield. You have to tell me.”

“Yeah, so you got into my computer, good for you, kid. But you didn’t learn much, did you?”

“We have to run!” Dr. Chen cries. “I have family in Guangdong Province!”

Tommy leans close, his expression cruel. “You stupid little nobody. Your parents were gods to me. Terra Spiker threatened to have them arrested. Terra Spiker forced them out of the company. You’d be worth billions, kid. Billions!”

“Why did she threaten them?” I ask, but I’ve already guessed.

“You think Adam was the first human we made? Before there can be perfection there has to be experimentation. The Plisskens made a baby boy. We named him Golem. He died. Because of a slight flaw in his genetic makeup.”

“His sphincter was on his forehead,” Dr. Anapura says.

“He didn’t suffer,” Dr. Gold reassures me. “He was basically stillborn.”