100% Compatibility novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Coat Check

"Nine days," I said.

"Is that enough?"

"It's enough if the engine is the only thing she can't touch," said Ronan.

"It's a system I wrote, and she can only touch the screen."

We had two invitations by noon.

The first was from the Farnsworth Foundation, to a charity brunch at the Gardner hotel on Saturday.

The second was a card in my mailbox at the brownstone, in Odette's looping hand.

"Come as my guest, darling. Let's put this to rest."

"It's a trap," said Maeve on speaker.

"Obviously," I said.

"Then why are you going?"

"Because if I don't, she tells the donors I'm afraid."

On Saturday I stood in a gold ballroom in a borrowed navy dress, with my hand on Ronan's arm.

Two hundred donors in pastel suits stared at us over their eggs.

"Smile," he said, barely moving his lips.

"I am smiling."

"You look like you are about to testify."

"Be quiet and hold my waist, then."

He did, lightly.

I felt that light touch all the way down my spine, and it annoyed me.

Odette took the little stage at ten past eleven.

She wore cream and pearls, and the room settled around her.

"Friends, last week we had a regrettable display fault," she said.

"I'd like to put it right in front of you, today, with a corrected machine."

She nodded to a young man at a laptop on a stand.

"Jacqueline, dear, come up."

"We'll run you and Ronan together on the clean system, and let everyone see an ordinary number."

My stomach turned over.

She had brought her own machine, and the number on it would be forty or thirty or nine.

I opened my mouth.

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