The Human Pet: A Sci-Fi Romance

Part 42

Rigel and I had prepared for this moment. We had agreed that if this question came up, Rigel was to claim to have made these programs, except...

Rigel's wings flutter and his cheeks turn pink. To top it all off, I can hear his heart racing, which means so can Sirius. What is wrong with Rigel and why is he behaving like a prey animal?

Only now do I realize Rigel is not capable of this type of deceit.

Even Rigel's ears are pink. "I– I–..."

"I made it," I blurt.

"What?" says Rigel, his eyes jittering.

"My team could barely figure out what was done with Hydra's computer system, and we are having difficulty recreating it. So can you show me how you did it?" asks Sirius.

I had only preplanned the lie, not proving we could do it. My mouth is suddenly dry. "Show you?"

"Yes, maybe you can make a similar modification now. Do that thing where you send alerts to wrist and wall units," says Sirius.

I wave my arms. "Okay but first, I will need..."

"The keyboard," says Rigel, tossing it to me.

I catch the keyboard and balance it on my knee. How I wish I could change places with Rigel. Why had I thought this was a clever idea? "Wall unit, show me... Halazone."

When the Zon ordering page displays on the wall, Sirius blinks.

"Does Halazone provide you with tools you can use," asks Sirius.

Rigel's wings quiver, drawing Sirius' eyes away from the wall to Rigel. That stupid bird and all his tells will ruin everything. Neither I nor Rigel know how to do this. I can barely order supplies without Zon's assistance.

"Eating snacks helps me think...Wall unit, display preferred snacks." The unit complies, immediately displaying several leafy green vegetables on both walls. It takes effort for me not to cringe at these disgusting food options. "Where would I find my snacks..."

"I have some new behavioral tests that I believe would benefit the Pet Welfare Intelligence Agency to help identify pet abusers. May I show you?" Rigel asks Sirius.

Rigel and Sirius step into the lobby, but the door between the two rooms stays open.

Kayla leans forward and taps away at the keyboard, shutting down the Halazone page. New commands appear on the wall, although I don't recognize these.

She speaks to me in a faint voice, her fingers fluttering over the keyboard. "I'm making a simple program, but it should suffice. It will send alerts when snacks are delivered to Rigel's office."

I glance into the lobby. Rigel is pointing at something on the room's wall unit, but Sirius' eyes are on me and Kayla.

"I'm done," says Kayla. "Now you just need to place an order and the program will do its thing."

"Good Kayla," I say, ruffling her hair.

I tap random keys. The wall unit asks how it can assist me and I wonder if I'm fooling Sirius...

"Maybe... Halazone can help?" suggests Kayla and the wall unit immediately redisplays the previous Zon ordering information.

"This is useless. I can't use this," I tell Kayla, pointing at all the awful vegetables displayed on the wall.

Kayla rolls her eyes. "Show prefilled order," she commands and the Zon displays a ready-to-place order populated with ten of those horrible vegetables. "Place the order."