Collateral

Ellie taps her metal fingers against her metal desk. The metal on metal makes a nice chiming sound. Ugh. Corporate economics is the most boring course ever. If they would learn actual economics, this would be interesting. But no, the teacher just goes on and on about how great corporations are.

“Ellie, are you listening to me?” the teacher asks.

Ellie looks up to her. The teacher is an old woman, with an eye implant that looks an awful lot like horned glasses, long grey hair in a ponytail, and a stern look on her face. Ellie still hasn’t figured out if she was always angry, or if her resting face just looked like that.

Ellie shakes her head. “Sorry miss Vargas, I wasn’t listening.”

The teacher sighs. “I was talking about market risk.”

Ellie rolls her eyes.

“Ellie Griffith, you are part of the Griffith family, right?”

Ellie shakes her head.

“Wasn’t Tyler Griffith your grandfather?”

Ellie shrugs. “He was, but I never met him. My Mom went no contact with him before I was born.”

The teacher taps the wooden bench. “You must know something about your family company. Even if you learned it from your syllabus. Can you tell the class why your family company went bankrupt?”

Ellie looks Miss Vargas in the eye. “Should I tell the reason that is in the syllabus or the real reason?”

Miss Vargas stares at her, and some other kids in the class make an “ooooh” sound.

“Do enlighten me, Ellie, do you disagree with what is in the syllabus?”

Ellie sighs. “The syllabus says they overspend while developing a new cybernetic implant, and after many tests, it failed. The doctor in charge of the new implant went into hiding because he was too ashamed of his failure. The company didn’t have enough liquid assets to cover the loss, its stock price plummeted and it went bankrupt.”

Miss Vargas smiles. “The syllabus does indeed say that. Do you disagree?”

Ellie nods. “Well, for starters, their implant did work.”

Miss Vargas says, “No, it didn’t work.”

Ellie laughs, “How can you be so sure.”

Miss Vargas sighs. “Do you understand the efficient market hypothesis?”

“Yes.”

“Companies could double or triple their profits if their employees didn’t need to sleep. Think about it, a world where employees could work twenty-four hours a day.”

Ellie rolls her eyes. “I am thinking about it and it fills me with dread.”

Miss Vargas ignores it and continues. “Many companies have tried to build one, and they all failed. If it was really possible to build such a thing, wouldn’t one of them have succeeded?”

Ellie shakes her head and smiles. “My Mom had a prototype implanted, and she hasn’t slept in two years.”

Miss Vargas shrugs. “Anecdotal, Ellie. Now if you are done with doubting the validity of the economic theory, can we please continue with the class.”

“So,” Ellie says to her friends. They are gathered around her. The first one is Lucas, a guy from her class. He is tall and has white hair and red eyes. His twin sister, Vicky, stands next to him. Her long white hair and red eyes really make her stand out. Both Lucas and Vicky are in the same class as her, and both are 15 years old, just like Ellie. The third person that is standing there is Sophia. She is two years older than the rest of the group.

“This is where I live.”

They are standing on the ground floor of an apartment building. Before them are the giant gates of a garage box.

“You live in a garage box?” Lucas asks.

“No, I live in two garage boxes, converted into an apartment,” Ellie says. “And also two storage rooms.”

“storage rooms?”

“ye, each of the garage boxes had a storage room in the back with a window, so my Mom converted one into a bathroom and the other into my bedroom, and we use one garage box as a living room/kitchen and the other as an actual garage box.”

“Doesn’t your Mom have a bedroom?”

“No, she doesn’t sleep. Ever. Like I said in class earlier.”

Ellie enters her apartment via the door on the side and the others follow. There is a small kitchen area, a table and three chairs, and a couch.

“Mom, I am home,” Ellie yells.

No answer.

“Guess Mom isn’t home,” Sophia says.

“That is strange. Usually, she texts me if she goes out.”

“Anyways, I am sure she will be back soon.”

“Now, make yourself at home,” Ellie says. “I am right back, I am going to take some immunosuppressants.”

“Wait,” Vicky asks. “you are taking immunosuppressants?”

Ellie rolls up her sleeve. “Yes, as you can see, I have a cybernetic arm. Hence the immunosuppressants. Otherwise, my immune system attacks the chrome.”

Ellie walks out of the living room and into the garage. The silver van is here. Weird. Is her Mom doing a job on foot? She usually takes the van.

The walks around the van, and sees someone lying on the ground. It takes her a moment to realise it is her Mom. Part of her face seems to be blown away by an explosion of some sort.

“Mom!” Ellie screams. She runs over and checks her pulse. She is still breathing and Ellie can feel a pulse. She is still alive, good.

Sophia’s head appears in the doorway. “Everything ok?”

“No.” Sophia, help me to carry my Mom in the van. You can drive, right? We are driving to the hospital.”

“Ellie, the car is self-driving.”

Ellie snaps at Sophia. “Just help me to get her in the car ok.”

Two hours later, Sophia and Ellie are sitting in the waiting room of the hospital. A doctor walks up to them.

“Are you Ellie Griffith?”

“Yes, that is me.”

The doctor sighs. “Your Mom is going to be ok. The surgery went well, but she has to stay in a sterile room overnight. You can visit her tomorrow in the morning.”

“Were you able to save her eye?”

“I am afraid not, but she has a cybernetic eye now. It will work as good, if not better than her original eye.”

“Thank you, doctor.”

Sophia turns at Ellie. “My dad texted back.”

“What did he say,” Ellie asks.

“That your Mom wasn’t even supposed to deliver the package. Another runner was. And the package was sealed with a tamper-proof device. She must have tried to open it while at home, and it exploded in her face.”

“My Mom would never try to open a package from a client, she was really discrete.”

“Seems to not be the case. My Dad is really mad. He says she is lucky he didn’t fire her.”

“So, he isn’t going to do anything?” Ellie asks.

“Seems like it. Wanna go on a road trip?”

“To where?”

Sophia smiles. “If my Dad doesn’t want to figure out who hurt your Mom, maybe we should go and investigate ourselves.”