Human Error

BOOK 1 // SIX: An Improbable Encounter

With everything going on, City Hall didn't seem like the safest place for a high-profile launch, but maybe that was part of the government's confident façade. A heavy police presence had already cleared the crowd, leaving the area in front of the building almost empty, but the metal barriers still had their own sinister presence.

"Astrid."

As we headed up the steps, I was pulled from my thoughts by my mother's voice. She was holding up the bottom of her deep green gown, shooting me a stern look.

"Stay with us," she warned, which seemed kind of redundant, considering I'd barely fallen two paces behind. "Remember what we talked about."

Like it was even possible to forget. The instructions had been drilled into me with the same kind of severity as interview prep, and perhaps even worse consequences.

Stay close.

Don't talk to anybody that doesn't speak to you first.

Smile.

Still, it was kind of difficult to muster up any display of happiness: the dark green heels my mother had forced upon me were already digging into my toes, and the black lace collar of my dress was unbearably itchy against my neck. The whole image was unnatural – and wasn't that the kind of impression we were trying to avoid? For somebody supposed to be staying under the radar, I sure as hell felt like I was drawing a lot of attention.

"I am," I murmured, but quickened my steps all the same.

City Hall had been entirely transformed from its TV appearances. The pillared entrance was now lit up by soft green lighting, and reprints of the BioNeutral logo were plastered across everything in sight. It was on the back of the doorman's clipboard, projected onto the marble floor of the entrance hall – even stamped onto the back of my hand in deep green ink once we passed through security. I tried to tell myself nobody suspected a thing, but that wasn't enough to stop me feeling like cattle marked for slaughter.

The cartoon strands of DNA, twisted into the shape of a leaf, felt like they were burning their way into my skin. But since nobody else seemed to be paying attention to their hand, all I could do was ignore it.

Everything about City Hall was overwhelming, and we'd only made it into the entrance hall. Two twirling staircases ran up either side of the room, meeting in the middle to form an overhanging balcony. The ceiling felt like it was miles above us, and every light on the wall had been dimmed to soft colour, so the entire room was bathed in a dark green glow.

There were enough people milling around in the hall, all wearing suits and floor-length gowns that looked just as uncomfortable as mine, but the noise down the hall told us we had yet to walk into the thick of things. "Come on," my dad said. "Let's head in."

It was strange to see beads of sweat on his forehead. We'd attended plenty of his work events; invitations to the highest social functions had been flooding in since he sold the rights of the company's patent to the government. Work life was what he really understood, and there was hardly a time I saw him more comfortable than discussing potential expansion over a glass of champagne.

However, tonight, things had changed. For the first time, my dad actually looked apprehensive – but then again, it wasn't every day we had to walk around feeling like undercover criminals.

We barely made it inside the event space before someone called his name. Within seconds, his hand was being shaken by a tall, balding man who looked all too happy to see him.