CHAPTER TWO: WELLNESS CHECK

  Beatrice:

  Something about Jackie made my insides twist.

  Dusters are repulsive by nature, the rotted smell of sulfur and dirt-crusted bodies marking them as unclean. But there was something strange about this one.

  Under all that filth, she looked… familiar. Eerily similar to someone from my past, except for that odd red streak in her greasy midnight-blue hair. The resemblance was uncanny.

  “Tell me everything you know about Jackie Cooper.” I cracked my knuckles and sat back in my chair.

  Alpha read her file to me.

  “Clearance level one. Anti-social tendencies. Possible low-level Spectra.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Interesting. Flag that for the Institute.”

  “Flagging… Would you like me to continue reading her file?”

  “Please.”

  “She lives at 372 Wright Road with ten registered roommates. Her bank balance is below the poverty level. No felonies or misdemeanors. She has worked at Life Rite for three weeks. Her response time today was deplorable, I might add. Why did you offer her a bonus?”

  “Isn’t it obvious? We must keep her reporting for duty as usual,” I muttered through a clenched jaw.

  The drone hovered over my desk. “But why? My programming suggests I should mark her Universal DNA Identifier as Incapable.”

  “No, don’t do that. You’ll ruin my plan.” I touched my cheek to cool myself down.

  Alpha clicked, processing my direction. It went next level smart after I injected it with the Life Rite serum, but it still lacked nuance during critical moments.

  “What is your plan, Beatrice? Outlining the specific details will help my programming in future scenarios.”

  “I explain myself to no one. You know that, Alpha. Pull Jackie Cooper’s Wellness Check history.”

  “Assessing…” Alpha sourced the desired data.

  I wiped a drop of blood off my high heel from the lab incident, but it stained the leather.

  “Negative,” it replied.

  “Excuse me?” My nostrils flared.

  “Jackie Cooper has never gone through a Wellness Checkpoint.”

  Alpha’s answer sent a shockwave through me.

  “What? No. How can that be?” I shifted in my chair. “Explain this miscalculation. The Wellness Checks went into effect almost two decades ago. We should have scanned her several times by now.”

  “Evaluating…”

  I stood and walked to the window, peering out over my domain. My office was too high to see into the dusty streets. Maybe I was out of touch with my subjects.

  Dusters and I only had one thing in common; we all lived under the shadow of the red laser Grid in the sky. No doubt the Institute would solve the mystery of its origins soon enough, under my direction.

  “Well, Alpha? Spit it out.”

  “I have one theory why Jackie Cooper has never gone through a Wellness Check. The checkpoints are announced so people can coordinate their arrival times for work. Wellness Checks are not an excuse to be late.”

  “Obviously. Get to the point, Alpha.”

  “When someone tests positive, Life Rite personnel take them away for treatment.”

  My drone projected a surveillance video of a man testing positive at one of my yearly checkpoints.

  When told he had the PX virus, he lashed out, screaming and spitting. The man resisted, and my guards took him into custody using extreme force.

  “We’re only aggressive because they put up a fight.” I crossed my arms.

  Alpha cut the feed. “Life Rite never releases the people flagged at checkpoints.”

  “So what?” I walked to the well-stocked bar in the corner, poured myself a glass of crisp water, and took a sip to relieve my pained throat.

  “It’s statistically probable that Jackie stayed home during your yearly Wellness Checks due to a fear response.”

  Alpha projected a graph, but I didn’t bother to look at it.

  “Based on the average age of people scanned at every checkpoint, the data supports the conclusion that eighteen percent of the population leave their children at home during Wellness Checks to avoid detection.”

  I choked on my water and slammed the glass down on the bar. “What an oversight. How have we deemed these checkpoints a success if so many people avoid them?”

  Alpha hovered above my desk. “We consider the Wellness Checks a success because we meet the quota for Carriers taken into custody each year. Their genetic profile is rare, but the yearly checks have found enough to fill current demand.”

  I scoffed. “But we scale operations every year. We must scan everyone. Leave no stone unturned until we find exactly what I’ve been looking for all these years.”

  Alpha blinked, thinking. “Employment is the only thing that makes the checkpoints mandatory. It’s the general population's only motivation to comply. Jackie Cooper has never been employed until recently.”

  “Exactly why we need her to keep reporting for duty,” I pointed out.

  “Understood.” Alpha clicked.

  I sat in my chair, fuming. “What’s the average employment age these days, anyway?”

  “The average employment age in Twin Flames is twelve years-old.” Alpha spat out another graph I didn’t look at.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “How old is Jackie?”

  “Seventeen,” Alpha replied.

  “Then it doesn’t make sense. How has Jackie survived so long without work? She must have someone watching out for her… Who are her parents?”

  “Assessing…”

  I licked my finger to scrub the blood stain off my heel while Alpha checked the database.

  “Her birth certificate appears to be blank. Scrubbed from the system.”

  I pounded my fist on the desk, but Alpha didn’t react. I typically saved the theatrics for my human minions, but the rage had to come out.

  Sure, Wellness Checks were good for business, but my decades-long, desperate search that spawned them had always come up short.

  Maybe this was why.

  “Make a note in your log, Alpha. This whole situation was an egregious oversight.”

  “Recording…”

  “Get it through your thick wires. Every man, woman, and child in Twin Flames must be scanned, especially Jackie Cooper.”

  “Recalibrating…”

  “I don’t have time to train you on the job. Aren’t we past that process?”

  I rubbed my throbbing temples, wishing Mark were still alive. He’d whip up a whole new program for Alpha to make it do whatever my heart desired. Mark was brilliant like that. Not to mention handsome as hell.

  “We must scan every man, woman, and child in Twin Flames,” Alpha repeated, “especially Jackie Cooper. I will calculate new parameters to decrease this error by ninety-nine percent, to be successfully implemented by the next checkpoint season.”

  “No. I refuse to wait until then. The new parameter is crystal clear.”

  Alpha blinked, processing.

  High-level problems still needed human solutions, so I spelled it out for the drone.

  “Alpha, implement a surprise Wellness Check tomorrow.”

  If Alpha could gasp, it would have.

  “Beatrice, I do not recommend surprising the citizens of Twin Flames with an unexpected Wellness Check. This may cause civil unrest. As you know, Project One Life is already spreading unwanted rumors about Life Rite.”

  “Let them. A lion doesn’t fear sheep.”

  “Are animals also required to go through the checkpoints?”

  I sighed. “No. Leave the politics to me, Alpha. Get the President on the line.”

  “Calling.” My drone projected a video call with the highest official I appointed.

  Of course, my lapdog answered immediately. I ensured his reelection.

  Alpha projected Dan Witman’s smug face in front of me. His pearly whites were two sizes too big for his face, but the old man didn’t have any wrinkles, thanks to Life Rite.

  “Mrs. Claudi, what a pleasant surprise. What can I do for you today?” He faked a smile.

  I feigned a frown. “Dan, bad news. We have a new PX outbreak on our hands. The symptoms are worse than ever before. We need to run the Wellness Checks early this year.”

  “Already?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “Did the virus mutate?”

  I nodded. “Unfortunately, it did.”

  “In what way?” Dan’s shoulders slumped.

  My eyes narrowed. “Would you like to pour through the data personally, Dan?”

  His cheeks flushed like a scolded child. “No, but…”

  I doubled down. “By all means, I’ll send a full report of all three thousand clinical trials done this week.”

  “That won’t be necessary, Mrs. Claudi.”

  “Good. The checkpoints will open first thing tomorrow morning. Got it?”

  “Tomorrow?” He looked like he had seen a ghost.

  What a coward.

  “We have to stop the spread, Dan.”

  “But dissent has already been on the rise since the cost of bread tripled.”

  I shrugged. “Let them eat cake?”

  “Not to mention, I’ve got these Project One Life freaks to contend with. They’re a dangerous group.”

  “Add the deadly PX virus to the mix, and you’ll surely lose the next election.”

  “Of course…” He bit his lip with his oversized teeth and shook his head. “I don’t like it, but okay. We’ll issue the Wellness Check tomorrow. I’ll let the news stations know so we can give folks advance notice.”

  “No. That won’t do.”

  Dan flinched at the power of my voice.

  “The Wellness Checks will be a surprise this year.”

  “But…”

  “It’s come to my attention that the dirty Dusters keep their children home to avoid detection.”

  “Well, yeah. Sure…”

  “So you knew about this oversight?”

  Dan’s mouth hung open like an idiot. Just like Jackie back in the lab.

  “Tell me, Dan. Has your darling daughter ever gone through a checkpoint?”

  “Well, I mean… Uh…” He fumbled his answer, telling me everything I needed to know.

  “How can we effectively manage and contain an ongoing virus if we don’t scan everybody?”

  “You’re absolutely right.” His tight face turned beet red.

  “Kids are super spreaders, Dan. We’ll only catch the unemployed if we implement surprise checks. We begin first thing tomorrow morning, without warning. Got it?”

  He nodded solemnly, the consequences of my request sinking in.

  Testing positive for PX was a death sentence, but the ends would justify the means.

  “They will riot if their children are...”

  I cut Dan off with a wave of my hand. “I hear you. To help smooth things over, tell the news stations that we detected a deadly case of PX early this year, but we’ve had a major breakthrough for the vaccine. That’s it. No more information is needed. Not a word about the checkpoints. Got it?”

  He tried to cover his objection with another fake smile. “Yes, but…”

  “Dan, you may leave your child at home tomorrow, but I will scan her myself if you botch this surprise. Understood?”

  My direct threat wiped that smile off his face, but his tight upper lip still didn’t cover his teeth.

  “Understood.”

  “Good. See to it, Dan.”

  Alpha cut the feed.

  I sat back in my chair, the tightness in my chest lifting. “See Alpha? I feel better already. Ensure everything runs smoothly.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And pull Feraz’s treatments. He’s in breach of contract for the stunt he pulled in the lab.”

  “Updating his intake form in the client database.”

  I stood with a renewed sense of purpose.

  “Beatrice, do you expect the number of Life Rite clients to change significantly in the coming months?”

  “Why do you ask, Alpha?”

  “You mentioned scaling operations. I must calculate the total resources needed to sustain Life Rite clients now and into the foreseeable future. My Resource Redistribution Program was part of Mark’s core directive.”

  “My clever Mark is still watching out for me. Now and always.” I kissed my hand and put it to my heart, offering my deceased husband a moment of silence.

  Then I directed my gaze to Alpha. “You’ll be the first to know when I close the next round of contracts, but assume we’ll eventually take every Flyer on the waitlist. We’ll be able to double onboarding, not to mention profits, if my surprise Wellness Check proves as successful as I hope tomorrow.”

  Alpha blinked four times fast. “Your response has been recorded.”

  “Excellent. Let’s see what Jackie Cooper is doing, shall we? Time to find out how well she can keep a secret.” I sauntered to the bookshelf.

  Alpha hovered behind me. “Do you think she will break her NDA and tell someone about Feraz’s rebirth?”

  “She has to be pretty smart to fly under my radar for all these years, but let’s see how resourceful she really is.”

  I pulled out my favorite book, Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus, from the bookcase.

  The shelf moved on cue, revealing my top-secret security room.

  Monitors covered the walls. Nothing went on in Twin Flames I wasn’t privy to. My horde of patrol and delivery drones gave me eyes and ears everywhere.

  “Where is Jackie Cooper? Is she still on the premises?”

  Alpha scanned the feeds. “Yes. She is attempting to get back to work by grabbing fresh janitorial supplies.”

  “Show me.”

  Alpha enlarged the surveillance footage of Jackie pushing a cart in the dark dungeon. She looked behind her nervously.

  “Is she being followed?”

  “Yes,” Alpha said. “I assigned Striker to monitor her every move.”

  “My best contract killer. Good. Don’t let her out of sight.”

  Discord community to stay up to date with key releases, discuss the mystery, and enter contests.