HASH: Human Alien Species Hybrid Read Free Page A

this.”
    “Perhaps not.” Professor Ahern walked up to me and reached out and lifted my braid, huffed and then dropped it with a look of disgust.
    I wasn’t sure that I liked Professor Ahern. I tried to like all the scientists I encountered, but the truth was that I inevitably liked some more than others. Some were stern or standoffish. Some seemed to care more about their research projects than about the possibility of helping me ever live a normal life again.
    She’d obviously caught Em’s attention, or rather, something in her pocket had. I saw Em take the phone out and start poking at it. At least, that’s how I saw it. I knew that the phone hadn’t actually left the professor’s pocket. But I also knew that Em was doing something that she shouldn’t have because of the tingling in my back.
    “Em, stop that. You can’t just grab people’s phones.”
    Dr. Stevens looked at me in surprise, then over at Professor Ahern much more sharply. “A cell phone? You brought a cell phone in here? Didn’t you even read the protocols?”
    “Of course I read them.”
    Even I could tell that Professor Ahern said it automatically.
    “So, you thought that they didn’t apply to you? That the Faraday cage around the room was just for show? You’re just lucky that will stop the implant from getting a signal out. As it is, it’s probably downloading everything you’ve got on there.”
    I looked over at Em. She was still happily reading the contents of Professor Ahern’s phone and the tingle in my back was still there but less annoying. “Em, stop please.”
    Professor Ahern looked around us. “The assessment team was right, Stevens. You don’t have adequate control here.”
    “I would if people didn’t bring their phones inside a highly restricted area.”
    Professor Ahern wasn’t listening, though. She was too busy running for the door. Her phone, or rather my impression of it, disappeared from Em’s hand as soon as she was out of the room.
    Dr. Stevens looked back at me. “I’m sorry, Jade. I need to go after her. Her employers…well, they’ve put a lot of funding into the Institute recently, and we can’t afford to risk it. I’ll tell you the news later.”
    She left. Em stood there with her hands on her hips, glaring theatrically at me. “You didn’t have to tell Zara that I had her phone.”
    “Zara?”
    “Professor Zara Benita Ahern, of Harvard, working for something called Startech. According to her email, they’ve bought the Institute. Something like that, anyway. She’s Miriam’s boss now.” Em paused for a moment or two. “I don’t think I like her. Or you.”
    I sighed. I got this every time I asked how I could disconnect the implant from me. “You’re being childish.”
    Em sat down against the wall. “Oh, shut up. You’re just trying to provoke me into telling you all about what Miriam has planned.”
    “Do you know what the news from Dr. Stevens is?” There was only one way she could possibly know. “It was on that phone?”
    Em smiled to herself, obviously enjoying the moment of power. “Yes, and I’m not telling you, even though…oh, we’re going to love this one.”
    I sighed. “You know, there are days when you sound about twelve years old.”
    “What do you expect, when I’m stuck here with just you for company? And you’ve been trying to get rid of me again.”
    This was what this was really about, of course. She got this way every time I mentioned the possibility of a cure to Dr. Stevens. That was Em through and through: my imaginary friend, my annoying not-quite sister, my invisible helper. My implant. Or the mental manifestation caused by it.
    It was hard to think, some days, that Em was no more than a silvery organism of metal on my back. “Look, I’m sorry. Now, are you going to tell me this news, or not?”
    She stayed silent, at least until I picked up a book and threw it at her. The fact that it passed straight through her and hit the wall didn’t really