Chapter 6
When Zi got on her bike again, the stars were not to be seen. There was an easterly squall coming in. There was a hint of lightning in the horizon. She wanted to be home when it rained. This time she started functioning in power mode but not without a plan.
She waited for the traffic lights to turn the right color and started moving at a speed just enough to miss all the reds. When she reached her apartment the night security guard had arrived and he nodded in her direction. She returned the gesture as she entered. She locked her bike in the rack and took the stairs again.
As she took the keys out of her backpack she recalled a mouse near one of the storm drains vents, below the curbing, on the way back. This happened often. Sometimes they came out even when there was traffic if they wanted to drag in something of interest.
She returned the contents of the bag to their appropriate places and decided to take a look at the laptop. It had nicely dried up. She picked off the black tape on the webcam and cleaned the stickiness off it with alcohol from her toolkit. She was not sure if that was the right thing to use but that is what she had. It is not going to look any worse than her poor hand-me-down mobile phone.
Just then the phone rang. "Bo calling."
"Hey, Bo."
"How did it go?"
"It worked like you said it would."
"You mean the side effects?"
"Let's be real," Zi joked.
"Any surprises?"
"My phone cams have scratches on them. They won't be recording anything useful until I get them fixed."
"Interesting..."
"Did you get any footage?"
"I took the advice of a dear friend and didn't do that."
"So you black taped it. Good girl." Bo was relieved. "Hey, just be vague in the report, OK?"
"Of course."
"Do you want in for the next phase?"
"Let me know a week before. I will decide then."
"Don't do it."
"I hope I won't have to."
"Alright then. Send in something by the morning, yeah?", Bo reminded her.
"I will do it right away. Goodnight, Bo."
"Goodnight."
Zi powered up her laptop and started filling up the drug trial report online. Took her a good thirty minutes. Did she have a footage to avail the extra benefits? "No." The penultimate field asked her to describe her experience in her own words. She kept it very simple. "All the side effects mentioned were felt. There has been no anxiety for 24 hours. I seem to be returning to normal by the minute." The last question was: will you participate in the next phase? "Maybe." She submitted the form and the screen informed her that her payout will be processed within an hour.
Ten minutes later she was richer.
Twenty minutes later, she had spent most of it on monthly payments and she had added some to her savings.
It started to rain. She reread the bits about long term side effects of the medication. When she went to the restroom, the mirror showed a drool stain on her chin. She replayed the events in her head. Only the counter waitress could have noticed it. She might have had her helmet on even then and the strap might have hidden it a bit. Optimistic. She went to the whiteboard hanging on her front door and added a new item to the check list.
By the time the sky had finished roaring and flashing in the early hours of the next day, Zi was drooling again on the laptop.
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