Cheat, page 12
That got everyone else in the room to chuckle, as if it were funny. He smiled too, and then shook her off, gently.
The tale of Hunter the twelve-year-old was too close in time for him to really bother enjoying Tara the fifteen-year-old, or whoever she was, rubbing up against him.
That got a chuckle too, for some reason, if only from Adam.
Chapter eight
Mason worked, through the early part of the day. The programming took a little bit of time, and George had an off brand, but powerful, inskin, instead of a Selecta, like most of the others had. That meant switching operating systems so that it could be synched correctly. That issue took about two hours, and no one really bothered him, though people kept coming. It was a slow trickle, so was easy to ignore at first, but at about six someone practically sat on him, getting his attention.
It was a drunken woman, wearing a nice shiny dress. Other than that, and that the woman was pretty, he had no clue who she was.
“Oops. Sorry, not trying to get fresh. This place is a bit small. Cozy. Better than my place in town here, so I’m not complaining, but normally the parties are held at larger places.” For all she sounded apologetic, the woman, who wasn’t very big physically, didn’t get off his lap. Instead she tried to squirm onto it more. That would be due to the lack of other places to sit, he realized. Some of the people were on the floor, but in the dress this woman had on, that wasn’t going to be comfortable.
There were five people on the sofa, which at best was designed for three, and his single chair had three bodies in it. The rest of the people were either on the bare floor, chatting and eating snacks off napkins, or were standing around, looking muscular and edgy. Those were the assistants, no doubt.
Thankfully a thinner looking man had taken over printing food out in the kitchen. There should have been plenty of raw material for it, though it was clear the man didn’t know how to do more than basic things with the machine. He kept making the same few items. Mainly crackers with cheese.
Mason knew that he should go help, since it was his party, apparently. How it had happened, he wasn’t certain. Except of course, he wasn’t a complete moron and figured out that it would be down to the famous people inviting other notables over, to try and get in on the free imbeds. Since he was, currently, the only provider of the Bio-bafflers, that seemed like a good plan.
Straining a bit, he looked at the woman in his lap, and faked a smile.
“Um, hey, why don’t you take my seat here? I need to go and make sure George gets his imbed.” He waved to the man, who was sitting in his only chair, with two girls on his lap. One of them was actually a child too. The other was Tara. The littler one was, however, well away from any part of George that would require Watch to be alerted, thankfully. If she was nine, then someone had forgotten to tell her to age that year.
That probably meant she was someone’s kid. Hopefully George, because otherwise that scene was pretty creepy, even if it wasn’t morally wrong.
“You’re up, George. This way?” There were people in the other rooms. The VR chamber door was open, and people were just sitting there, having made the space project some benches for them to lounge on. It was a good use of space, really.
The bathroom door was closed, and three people stood outside of his workroom door. In line. None of them were anyone he recognized.
“Hello? We need in. I…” Mason was about to ask if they needed the restroom, which was across the hallway, but a man that looked to be about fifty or so slapped at his arm.
“You the one doing the magic imbeds? I haven’t been able to get the stalkers off my ass for months now. My girlfriend is going to leave me if they don’t stop, so I was hoping to get in on this? Adam said that not everyone could?”
Looking at the man, he could feel a bit of desperation coming from him.
“Right. Go get with John. The, uh, white muscle guy? John Williams, in the other room. Have him walk you through how to use it, and if he thinks you can do it without messing up too much, he’ll put you on a list. He doesn’t know he’s in charge yet, so you should all go and ambush him with that.” Smiling, he waved in the right direction.
“The same for everyone out there who wants in on it. If they can’t make it… Well, then they go on a different list and I’ll try to figure something out for them. It isn’t hard to manage this, but if you don’t do it right, it will ruin the whole thing, for everyone. So, George?”
The older man slapped him on the arm again, and didn’t smile, heading to the other room directly. The two other people, a man and a woman that actually looked a lot alike, moved away then too.
Thankfully no one had been in there messing with his things. George’s imbed set was ready, and his larger assembler, the one that didn’t do nano work directly, was printing out more roller bottles for him. He’d set it up for ten, but didn’t doubt that he’d need more than that by the end of the night.
It wasn’t even late and he already felt wiped out. That was thanks to getting up at four. He was normally an early riser, but that was ridiculous.
If John was going to whine about being put to work at a party, the man very kindly didn’t do it to him directly. That was good, since George needed help getting his back covered. The funny thing was that he seemed shocked when Mason waved for him to do the rest himself.
“Really? Normally the shop does that part. You mean I can just smooth it in place myself? With my hand?”
“Yep. Don’t be shy about getting it, um, up inside yourself. We should have worked out a better system for this. I can’t just send you out into the other room like this. You need to dry first. People will need the bathroom. Well, I can set up the next few sets, and work on that while it sinks in. You should be fine now. Work it into your scalp a little better maybe?” The naked man complied, as if him standing there with no clothing was just natural to him.
Not that it really bugged Mason. He saw naked people all the time. In virt. Ducking out, his float in front of him, about three feet away, he found a corner that hadn’t been taken yet, and sank down, working the whole time.
Names and current bio-marker profiles popped up on the screen, and he took care of them one at a time. Most of them got easier as he went on. The little girl was actually the hardest though, so far. It would be really difficult to convince anyone that what they were seeing wasn’t a small child, after all.
An adult that looked like George might just be some person with a good eye for makeup and a square jaw line, after all. Possibly even a woman, dressing up. In the right outfit anyone could be gender-neutral, too.
So with that in mind, Mason set to work, and designed an imbed for a tiny girl that would, on demand, make her look like both a boy to sensors, several different girls, and Max. A gen-neu little person. Who was twenty-seven. That would take some props to really sell, but should work if no one was actively stalking the kid. The problem there was that at least some people were.
It wasn’t lost on him that John had put her data through, but about half the others were just milling and looking miserable. Too stupid, or more likely, too high on something, to pass even the most basic of tests. That made them the kind of person who was a risk to the new set up. They’d leave it on at the wrong time, and people would just record all of the different markers that meant it was them.
It was, clearly, a programming problem. He’d have to work out how to give them new markers that would control their own deployment. That was really hard to do however. It would be easier to hire someone to do it for them that wasn’t high all the time.
Smiling he absently waved John over.
“Thanks for the help. The, um, the people that need help, how many of them have assistants that can do it for them? I think I can transfer the control key to them? It’s not the same, but-”
The big fellow smiled.
“Right. I’ll get that going. Good thinking. Otherwise half of them would probably have called the stalkers to complain about not getting in on it, too.” There didn’t seem to be a lot of doubt in his tone about it. “You good? Do you need food, or something to drink? Water?” He seemed to be pushing that one, for some reason.
Then, someone had brought other things in. Colored bottles that sat on his single two person table.
“Water, and maybe something to eat, if that’s possible? I forgot earlier, since I had a late breakfast.”
There was no indication it would really be coming directly, the man just left, and returned with a half filled plate and one of the big pink composite tumblers a bit later. Mason drained it and nibbled at the crackers.
”’Kay. I have the next six imbeds ready. We can sort them, so that people who might not mind being in at the same time are together? I don’t know who’s-who that way. Mellissa will need a helper and a private room. Non-negotiable.” She was a kid after all. The adults weren’t picky though, and when asked none of them balked at being shoved into a little room and rubbed down by him. Especially after George announced that Mason wasn’t going to go all anal probe on them.
That got a laugh.
The five people in with him were a mixed bunch. Shiny silver dress woman, who had red hair and a dazzling white smile was one of the three women, an older man, the one with a girlfriend that was going to leave him if he didn’t fix professional stalking for all time was there, too. They all stripped down without being asked, but when he mentioned that they couldn’t have makeup on, three of them needed to shower.
It wouldn’t have been an issue, but someone had locked themselves inside. Apparently to have sex. That, or, the older guy informed him, simply turning off his imbedded makeup with a thought, to do drugs.
“Let’s hope it’s that last one? Otherwise this could take forever.”
After enough pounding that he was worried about disturbing the peace, two people came out. Both were women, and one was Tara, from earlier. She still needed her imbed, but it would take a bit to finish assembling. It was in the next batch though, so Mason waved at her.
“After this group?”
“Sprong.” She said it with a half dead tone to her voice, which could have been exhaustion, but it wasn’t that late yet. Her eyes were glassy too, which probably meant drugs that she shouldn’t have been on. Especially in his home.
Plus, he had no clue what sprong meant. Hopefully it was a good thing.
Mason ended up painting the backs of all five naked people, but only with the rollers, not needing, as the man had pointed out, to insert anything inside of them. Shiny dress woman, who was currently naked perky breast lady, smiled at him.
“Professional, too? Can I get other things done? I was thinking of getting a makeup imbed. Doing the real thing three times a day takes too long.”
Doing the math in his head, he nodded.
“Can you come by tomorrow? I ran up the specs for one today. Adam said I should get one, so it won’t be too big of a thing to print out two of them. Call it noon?” He was going to sleep, in there somewhere, and for some reason he didn’t think it was going to be in the next eight hours.
Shiny dress tilted her head.
“Would four be all right? I tend to sleep late. I can…” She stopped as he agreed with her. This woman was obviously a pro at this kind of stuff.
“Here at four? You can help me get my back. That’s the hardest part to do well, alone.” It was why he didn’t really have any all over imbeds, most of the time.
They were all left there, drying, as he finally managed to get a break. He even got to use the bathroom, and took a moment to clean it up. Someone had vomited already, and made a mess. All his towels had been used. The ones that were out. He had a full set, for some reason. This exact situation, it seemed. It wasn’t like he was a family of six, but they were tucked into the cupboard along with a full set of wash clothes, so he put them all out, figuring someone would need them. Sooner or later.
Then he dashed to the kitchen, and started to print out some better food. The thin man that was working it, and had been, seemed happy enough for the help.
“Finally, someone that knows what they’re doing. I know just enough to see that this is a very high end machine, but using it for anything other than store bought crackers, and cheese spread is beyond me. It’s a shame too, since we should be able to make almost anything with this thing.” He waved at the box, which just sat there for the moment. The tubes that fed in the raw working material were all black, but hidden from view, leaving a plain composite box, with a door in the side, about the size of an old fashioned microwave.
He called the float screen over, hovering it high enough so that no drunken people would easily walk into it, and as soon as it was in place, called up his recipe list.
“It’s listed under primary foods, on the index, which should show on your inskin. That way you won’t have to keep paying the copyright fees for everything printed out, since these are all proprietary. Or, I guess, so I won’t have to pay? Anyway, these are all better. Here, fish fingers…. Tartar sauce… and some coleslaw?” It was showing off, really, since he’d worked forever to get that last one down. The slaw was nearly impossible to get right, since it required hundreds of little fake cabbage pieces not to seem incredibly bland. Each had a different shape, and there were fifteen differently shaped bits of carrot with it. It looked, and as importantly smelled, real, when it came out. Mason handed it to the man, who gave a slightly pained grin, and took a bite, his eyes closing as he did. Then he tried a bit of each.
“Well, fuck me with a fish. I’ve been serving people crap all night, haven’t I? That’s going to look great tomorrow on the news. Master chef sinks to new low, printing food not fit for dogs because he sucks. I don’t suppose we could keep this just between us?” The man didn’t seem too upset, really.
Though he did take another bite of fish.
“I’ve made better, using the real thing. I’ve never had better printed though. Not anywhere. Can you do lemon zest on this? We could tinker with things a bit…” The man got lost in his description, so Mason alternated between taking notes and running out some ice cream. After tasting it, the man shook his head a bit.
“It’s… Fine, I suppose. Can we make some changes?” As soon as Mason nodded in response the whole gallon went into the sink, so no one would eat it. Then for nearly an hour they made various dishes, and changed the recipes on it, until the man, Ben, decided it was good enough. Then he went to work on other things, until John came to pull him away again.
“Right, Tara’s turn. Who else?” That turned out to be the look alike couple, Ben, and a rather ugly man that seemed amused by the whole thing. He wasn’t old, or young, being directly in-between those two states of being. If he was famous at all, it was lost on Mason, but that was hardly news to him.
The man stopped him in the door, his hand going out professionally.
“Hello. I’m Daryl Keens. The Canadian Ambassador to Bahrain. It was suggested that I try to get in on this, since a similar system has been in use in various Middle Eastern Countries. I will, of course, understand if you wish to decline? I certainly can’t afford to pay whatever the going rate is. Not if you have to run in this crowd to afford it.” There was a polite smile then, as he waited.
Because everything ran on money. Even as most people didn’t have enough to do more than barely survive anymore. That fact was probably why Sam had never whined about losing her own fortune if their plan worked. Fifty years before, people had complained about the upper one percent owning half the world’s wealth. Now the argument was that the upper one percent of that group had forty percent, and the one percenters that were left had most of the rest. Ninety percent of the world lived on about seven percent of the wealth generated each year.
Even people with good sounding jobs seemed to be struggling. At least enough so million dollar purchases seemed out of reach. That was true for him too, so he hadn’t really thought about it. He could be rich, if he wanted, just off the backs of the people in the other room.
That was one option.
The other was to screw the entire system and make things a good bit more fair. It might end up being more work for him, but he’d make it. If they did it right, they all would. Even those rich fuckers that thought they should own everything. The really rich ones. The people that ran the world.
He smiled, realizing that those particular people were probably going to want him to be really, really dead, soon.
“It’s free. As long as you can pass the test. It will only last until you get an imbed taken out. You know how that works. Have your people get in touch with me and I’ll send the specs over to them. Don’t let any stupid people get control over it though? Please? They’ll screw it up for everyone.”
The man didn’t laugh, but let himself be led into the other room. He at least, was a bit embarrassed, and spent the whole time not looking at Tara. Not that she would have cared. She was so high that it was unlikely she was going to remember anything the next day. Still, with a little help from the look alike couple she managed to get the job done. Ben was pretty comfortable with it all too, but the poor ambassador looked like he was going to pass out.
The man didn’t have a perfect body, but that just meant no one was staring at him too closely. At the twenty-minute mark, they were all released. It was late now, for him, being ten at night, but he had a strange feeling that no one was going to just leave because he yawned a few times. Not even if he stretched and made a dramatic production of it, patting his hand over his mouth the whole time.
There were more people coming, though several others slipped out, keeping the numbers about the same the whole time. Ben had gone back to making things, and called him over more than once, to help him with some problem or another.
The guy was good. The quality of the food being put out went up several times, and he was leaving the recipes in the box, which meant Mason could have some of them later. He was full from his nibbling, but everything was suddenly finding a home with someone.
