Artificial

02 | X4T9F

He'll be lucky if his liver doesn't give out by the end of the decade, is what I think while I stare at the drunk senator rambling political secrets without a care. He's in his late thirties, salt and pepper hair framing a mouth too big for his face.

"-and I told him it wasn't his better interest to sponsor me, but then again, how could I turn down the offer? I mean it was a lot of-"

I circle the rim of my wine cup again, nodding along emphatically while I widen my eyes for good measure. He downs his drink, and I pour him another.

Information speaking, I've gathered everything I need to get up and leave mid conversation. But I keep listening, letting him prattle on for another minute for good measure. The small blinking red light in the corner of my vision goes dark, and I mentally upload the audio recording into the cloud for my father to review.

I push back my chair, ignoring his confused exclamations as I push past him to exit the bar. Theres no car waiting for me this time, so I hail a taxi. It arrives in mere minutes, doors clicking open automatically.

"Where to?" says the feminine robotic voice.

I tap the address into the computer screen, and the car lurches forward. I'm removing my heels when an incoming call lights up the center of my vision. I don't need to check the number to see who called me. Only one person has direct access to my call center. I double tap my temple.

"I received your recording."

The unfortunate Senator, who I've already forgotten the name of, had long been a target of my father, and it had taken four months of carefully curated interactions to finally pull the information I needed out of him.

"Any other reason you're calling me?" I try to keep my annoyance out of my voice, while I rub the red marks the stilettos left into the heel of my foot. My small dress feels too tight, my earrings too heavy.

"An emergency came up. I need you to head off-planet. Now. Reroute your taxi to Asgate Airport."

My body goes numb, and I suddenly forget about the friction burns on my heel. My hands move without thought, and I do as I'm told.

"Go to gate 48, and enter the private pod I've prepared for you."

"Wait," I say, raising my hands up. My father's holographic image flickers in front of me. "I need to go back and grab my things if I'm going off-planet. You need to tell me why I'm going off-planet to begin with."

My throat closes up with panic, and for a second, I believe that my deepest fears have come alive. That my usefulness has finally come to a close, and I'll be ejected into the sky like space junk. I hate how desperate my voice sounds, but I can't help it.

"I need you to exterminate Elias X4T9F."

Relief floods my system, and I let my body relax. Yet still, I can't stop the feeling of uneasiness in my chest. Not once in my nineteen years, had father ever sent me off planet.

Too risky, he had told me once when I asked. I could never recover your body if something went wrong.

"Exterminate?" I repeat with a tilt of my head. My father had no issue using words like "kill" and "assassinate" and his change in wording struck me the wrong way.

In response, my Father pulls up charts of his stocks, as well as other graphs detailing his trades and profits. There's a huge dip in all of them.

It only takes me a few seconds to evaluate the data. In the span of four days, my father had lost over half his fortune.

It suddenly all makes sense, why my father's willing to risk me going off planet, and his urgency in doing so.

He ends the call, and I exit the taxi barefoot, carrying my stilettos by their straps while I speed walk. I curse my outfit choice for not the first time today, as rocks dig into my bare feet.