Forget It (ONC 2024)

Chapter 2 - The Chip

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."