“Not if they are being treated by us. It is reasonable to want to protect our reputation and to protect others if possible.”
“I don’t believe this.” Anger was licking at his body like flames. “We are making progress with our patients. We are rolling this out to a wider patient base and you want to suddenly use this to peep into people’s private lives?”
“People already have a lack of privacy due to smartphones.” Tonya interjected unhelpfully.
“That’s different.” Clive stood. “I do not agree with the direction you want to take this. I can’t get behind it.”
“While we respect your viewpoint, we weren’t asking permission. The vote has been taken. We had just hoped that you would be on board.”
The room filled with a heavy silence. Clive’s heart skipped a beat. All eyes were boring into his body creating holes for all the anger to escape and leaving despair behind. “You decided this before I got here today, didn’t you?” The truth of this was confirmed when the board chair averted her eyes.
“Clive…don’t.” Tonya warned.
“Will I be required to perform surgeries on people still knowing that their private thoughts are being collected?”
“No, of course not. We’re letting you go.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
HARMONY WAS ALLOWED to return home with no fanfare. She was simply informed that the property had been scoured for evidence and no clues of the girl’s location were discovered. She was deemed as still “missing” and possibly deceased. The authorities couldn’t give Harmony any more information to go off of and continued to avoid any questions about the girl’s parents.
When Harmony finally returned home, she did her own investigation around the yard. No matter how hard she looked, the impenetrable darkness was nowhere to be found. Harmony knew that her mental health was the best that it had been in years, so it was not possible that she was seeing hallucinations or burnt out. Besides, she had never had a history of seeing things.
In addition to her suspicions, she had a strong desire to see Lyric again. She had questions for him but, strangely enough, she missed him. Despite logic speaking loudly in her brain, she took extra time to doll herself up for her first day back at work. She also decided to wear her transparent face mask instead of one that would cover up her lips. When she passed the break room and received several compliments, she knew she had succeeded in going above and beyond her usual workplace attire.
Self-satisfied, she sat down at her desk and clocked in as she took a sip of her fake coffee drink. The screen came to life and took a moment to load all the applications. She could hear Romilda making a fuss about something a few cubicles over and somebody had decided this would be a good morning to warm up broccoli in the microwave. Harmony felt content despite the terrible food smell.
“Harmony?” Lyric had appeared behind her and, instead of the dread she usually felt, her heart lifted in anticipation.
As she spun her chair around, she looked into his beautiful face. “Good morning, Lyric.”
“How are you feeling?” He inquired warmly.
“Wonderful. I’m glad to be back.”
“What did they ever make of the incident?” He lowered his voice so that any nosy coworkers wouldn’t know precisely what they were discussing.
“They said it was nothing. No leads.” She said flatly.
“Well, that’s good.” Lyric smiled, unconcerned that there was no official resolution or answer about what had happened.
Harmony was disappointed. For some reason, she had expected Lyric to have some special knowledge that she didn’t. She had always been taught that her “whiteness” was a barrier to her having a complete understanding of certain deep truths. This is what made her pause. Perhaps this whole situation was something beyond what she was able to understand.
“I will let you get back to your work.” A smile tugged at the corners of Lyric’s perfect lips and fluttered in his eyes as he turned to disappear.
“Thanks.” Harmony whispered, certain he hadn’t heard.
When she went home later, her usual evening routine was not disrupted by visions of a horrific murder. However, when it was past 10 pm, Rufus began barking at the back door incessantly. This was unusual, so Harmony felt her stomach drop.
“Rufie, what is it, boy?” She asked as she tried to remain calm.
The dog bounced up and down and directed his barks at Harmony as if to say, “Let me out!”
Hoping he simply had to pee, Harmony slipped her feet into her shoes and pulled on a cardigan. She slid the sliding door open and stepped through. The air was cold and crisp, which was more reminiscent of winter than fall. She was dismayed to see Rufus sniffing at the spot where the girl had been.
“What is it, buddy?” His voice quivered as with each step she braced herself for blood and for the terror that might grip her. “Is it a squirrel?” She asked hopefully, knowing Rufus wouldn’t answer.
He continued to sniff and Harmony felt relief as she saw that nothing was there, but before she had time to bask in that feeling, Rufus’s head snapped up and he began to howl. Three long howls that pierced the night. In one quick motion, he turned to run left then corrected himself and ran right which was towards the fence.
“Rufus! Stop!” He went barreling through a weak point in the wood fence and was through to the other side. He usually was such a good-natured dog, but this Rufus seemed to have lost himself. “No! Come back!”
Harmony pulled herself through the hole he had made and ran after him as her curls bounced beside her ears and her cardigan flapped. Pins and needles began to prick her cheeks and her breaths came in sharp gasps. She had never been very athletic and was regretting passing up the workplace exercise accountability program. When she could no longer see Rufus in front of her, she slowed and collapsed onto her knees in breathless despair.
***
After Rufus had run off, Harmony didn’t know what to do and ended up calling her mom. Wendy asked for all the details and insisted she would handle it. As much as Harmony loved her dog, she was exhausted and very thankful that somebody else was taking the burden away from her. Even so, she still woke up more tired than she had been in a long time. This made a cup of coffee sound very appealing.
Harmony was thankful she already had an appointment lined up with her therapist. During this monthly visit, it usually was all about calibrating the chip and programming it to handle any new anxieties that had cropped up since the last time. This time she immediately began talking about what had happened with Rufus, the strange feelings for Lyric, the woman with the dreadlocks, and the girl she saw in her yard.
When Dr. Rigby had completed a scan of Harmony’s chip and its functionality, she looked up with concern on her face. “Have you been using, Harmony?”
Harmony’s face turned white and she said, “No, of course not.”
“There are traces of hacker codes on your chip. These codes are typically only used when people attempt to override the firewalls that protect them from becoming numb.”
“I would never do that. My treatment has been working. I haven’t needed anything extra.”
Dr. Rigby studied Harmony’s face for a moment then said, “I believe you, which makes this situation even more concerning.”
