It was official. Arch Kenton was a sneaky, duplicitous bastard.

His gentle laughs in front of this oblivious audience masked his true evil nature. I wanted to tear that smarmy smile off his face and expose him for the thieving fraud he was.

Were any of his inventions his? We'd worked together for three years, enough time to determine he was brilliant, but if he stole ideas, perhaps his skills were all technical.

He rose to fame at eleven. Someone would have verified that, and you've seen his mind at work. Not every idea he developed was stolen, but this idea was yours.

The worst part was that he knew how much it meant to me. I'd chosen to work at Inno-Tech because they were the best, and I planned to rise through their ranks to build my reputation as an inventor. Then one day, I'd have the skills and influence to develop it. But that was impossible now.

How long had he been planning this? I hadn't mentioned my memory idea and research until after we got together, but perhaps he'd been lying in wait to see what I would develop. Had our entire year-long relationship been a ruse? His love had felt so real.

I had entered Inno-Tech as a strong candidate but hardly Arch-Kenton-level successful. It made little sense for someone like him to target me unless he saw my admiration for his work as a weakness to exploit.

My mind flashed to Ash. They'd warned me not to trust him and handed me the chip. Without waiting for the end of Arch's infuriating speech, I hit a button on the side of my dress to change the long gown into pants and got down on my hands and knees. I activated the floor lights in the section, and soon the coin-like object shone back at me.

My ears finally stopped tuning out Arch's words "—Selene Mintz, my girlfriend and inspiration. Selene?" A hint of uncertainty entered his voice.

The shuffle of bodies turning my way caused me to tense. What the hell was Arch playing at? If he thought he still had a girlfriend, he was tripping on hallu-gems. Calling me an inspiration was reductive when the entire concept was mine. He had no right to present it as his own and throw it to the Inno-Tech wolves when he felt like it.

I'd saved the idea because it had to be done when I had the authority not to be influenced into changing it into a more marketable product or giving it away to the highest bidder. Apprentices had very little control over what happened to their designs. Last year, a product designed to create water in drought-afflicted countries like the one the inventor grew up in was sold off to beverage companies for them to avoid paying water fees and taxes. Famine and devastation still plagued the inventor's country, and they resigned with no rights to their design and threats of a lawsuit if they were to reproduce the concept.

Arch's actions would destroy my idea and ruin any shot of helping my mom and countless others like her. Tears prickled in my eyes and bit on my lip hard enough to draw blood.

But I wouldn't sit here crying on the floor. No, I would take Arch Kenton down until he regretted ever glancing in my direction. I tucked the metal object in an inner pocket before transforming my wardrobe back to my dress.

As I returned to my seat, Arch smiled. "There she is."

The applause seared into my skin like robo-bees attacking predators. I forced a smile because not a soul would believe that Arch Kenton had stolen my idea, nor did it matter. It was Inno-Tech's now, and if he'd shared any of the research I'd done, my dreams were toast.

"She doesn't know this yet, but should you choose to support this revolutionary concept, she will work alongside me. Two brilliant minds crafting an invention society will never forget."

The audience's chuckling made me want to vomit, and if he thought I would help him with this, he was living in a holo-world. If I developed something to destroy memories, he couldn't use my ideas for his project. He'd never see that coming.

As he wrapped up, I sneaked out of the aisle and through the back doors.

Your speech does not begin for another 112 minutes. Please return to your seat.

I touched my temple to deactivate the comm-device. I needed a quiet space to see what Ash had left for me. Arch had been my main ally at Inno-Tech, but I suspected long before he landed here, he stepped on other toes.

My feet flew over the plush dark carpet running down the centre of the marble floors as I smiled at the guards and headed for the washrooms. After bypassing the signs advertising urinals or stalls, I found the single-stall door unlocked. Good.

Inside, I swapped out the dress again and picked the chip out of my pocket. While it was the size of a regular comm-chip, it was blue and had two letters engraved: A.M, which fit with Ash's initials.

Swapping it out for my regular chip would be dangerous since I didn't know them other than the possibility of Arch betraying another person. A mind was an intimate thing to share, although plenty were fine letting businesses access their thoughts for discounts. I only left mine on because Inno-Tech required it at work and for their events, and to communicate with Arch. During our training days, I used to love those looks we'd share and the sweet things he'd mind-whisper to me until the lecturers got wise and blocked all non-essential comm-messages during class. I shook away the thought that left a bitter taste in my mouth.

If his presentation was over, he was probably trying to do that now. Thankfully, I'd shut mine off. I examined the chip more closely. A card reader could pull information off it safely while preventing access to my mind, but I didn't have one on me. But there was one in the lab.

Would Inno-Tech have barred access for tonight? All the big-wigs were here, but some more lowly employees, like myself any other day, might be on the night shift. Even if it came with the risk of hearing from Arch, I turned on my comm to the Inno-Tech frequency to do a quick company scan of people working in the lab.

Javier, Link, and Gina. Perfect. Gina, who had two kids at home, took a break to talk to them before they went to bed each night around this time.

If I feigned needing to confirm a detail about my project, I could follow her up without scanning in and alerting Inno-Tech to my actions. Anomalies would alert them to what I was up to, and I suspected they were more interested in riding Arch Kenton's latest wave of success than giving proper credit for an invention. An Arch Kenton invention had far more value than a Selene Mintz one, considering few people beyond Inno-Tech knew me outside of being his partner.

His voice interrupted my thoughts.

Selene.

If rage could be communicated non-verbally through the comms, Arch Kenton would have just gotten a kick to the family jewels. Perhaps that would be my new invention, though in the wrong hands... no, best to bring him down in an individualized way.

I understand you're mad, but please let me explain. I promise you—

Arch's voice fizzled away as I turned off my comm before he tracked me. Time to move.

I zoomed down the halls, past the many business suites with gold-trimmed mahogany doors, the quiet cafeteria with a few people nursing drinks or watching holo-projection videos from their wrist devices, and the rest pods, where I contemplated hiding, though it would scan my company ID and compromise my plan to remain unnoticed. I didn't need Arch to find me.

The hall toward the service entrance of the building was quiet, so I sat in a blue checkered chair and waited. After five minutes, footsteps echoed from the staircase and the metal door opened, revealing Gina in her navy Inno-Tech uniform. She startled after spotting me.

After catching her breath, she smoothed her long red hair. "Selene! Aren't you and Arch presenting tonight?"

"I'm on in an hour, and the anticipation is eating away at me."

Gina sat in the seat on the opposite side of the small table. "You're going to be great. You're already a legend for being selected in your third year. I've been here seven, and they've never accepted my proposals."

"That's a shame, Gina. You have fantastic ideas." They wouldn't revolutionize the world, but they were useful and worth developing. "How's your family?"

Gina grinned as she recounted about her young kids creating their own modifications to their toys and household items to be inventors like their mom, keeping her and her wife busy with repairs. Her stories always made me smile as they reminded me of my mom's encouragement.

"If you're not too busy, I'd love your opinion on a potential idea I may include in my pitch."

She paused and stared off in the way people did when accessing their comm-network. Her pale face lit up with a smile. "Sure, I'd be honoured to help."

Soon I stood in a quiet section of the lab and pulled out an older prototype, briefly explaining how the fabric and material interchanging worked as well as the masking of the customized base designed for optimal comfort. I had her inspect the materials' integrity while I ran off with the chip reader. I found the soundproofed material testing booth empty, so I ducked inside the windowless room. Once I placed the card reader on the metal table and turned it on, the room's dark walls were basked in a blue glow. I set the chip on the reading disk and waited.

Ash's face projected from the device in startling clarity.

"Selene, you may not know me, but over the past three weeks, I've learned a lot about you. You are an only daughter and primary carer for your mother Gwendolen Mintz, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis twelve years ago, which developed into primary progressive MS nine years later."

That hit me right in the chest. Mom had fallen more often and narrowly missed severe head trauma. I'd found her on the ground after coming home from work. The next day, I applied to Inno-Tech to afford to hire someone to check on her while I worked. Ideally, I would have stayed to care for her, but we couldn't afford that.

"Many of your patent applications refer to the utility of your products for those affected by this condition. You have worked alongside Archibald Kenton, and based on the similarities between his initial patent application and your previous work, I suspect he has stolen your invention. I also believe that you may be in grave danger."

Word count: 1841