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Under normal circumstances, Jeuley might have been peeved that her corner was quiet again. But not today.
Of the four guys she’d measured and suited, one of them was wearing his Blue Root, which asked to connect with her, prompting her to power hers down before he wondered if he’d crossed up with the display like Bradley March had done.
Another of the guys asked her more questions about the Blue Root than he did about suits. He bought two grey ones, but he seemed more interested in his Blue Root than anything else. Because of that, she hurried him through the checkout process while biting her tongue. There was no need to get into trouble with the Prixus censor board–especially over another cock-centered idiot who probably didn’t know a thing about the world outside of sexual escapades with himself.
Thankfully, one of the customers was a normal transaction. But that was probably because he was of the older generation who didn’t have a decent computer. Jeuley couldn’t function without high-speed access to information or entertainment. That’d be pure hell…or the clink again.
The last fellow bought a Blue Root for himself and his wife, and then started grabbing extra stimulator patches. Jeuley was tempted to give him Carnal Bacchanal or one of the new ones she’d been working on. But he’d interrupted before she’d gotten that far. He was so enthusiastic about sharing with his wife, Jeuley could hardly get in a word edgewise. It was probably better to keep her programs private for now anyway. Shareware didn’t bring in money.
Because of the lack of customers, she’d had the time to create eleven more Blue Root programs and test them throughout the day. Aside from being a little weak in the knees, testing wasn’t half bad. It could’ve been a lot better if Bradley March was helping, but–
Her Blue Root vibrated three times, breaking her short reverie. Only one more hour before closing. Maybe she could crank out another program mod. Then she’d really have a good arsenal to play with when she got home. It was hard enough not to let her imagination run wild with images of Brad’s torso, or ass, or eyes, or…
“Hey girl!” Rachel made her way through the racks. “That Carnal Bacchanal kicks ass. I sent it to all my sisters.”
Jeuley saved her work and looked up. “All your sisters have Blue Roots?”
Rachel laughed. “Well, they do now. Word travels fast.”
“I’m working on a bunch more programs, too. Maybe I really can replace the human male with a sex toy.”
“Oh come on, you don’t really wanna replace men. I mean, they’re still good for a few things other than sex…
“Such as?”
“Lifting heavy things for instance.” Rachel grinned.
“True. I know I’m just being horrible. But who says any of them are even good at sex?!” Jeuley grabbed her tablet and turned it so Rachel could see the program screen.
“Oh, don’t I know that.” Rachel chuckled. “What are you showing me?”
“See, this little console here can make my Blue Root with all of its patches outperform any man when it comes to fucking. I mean, he can have fifteen tongues if I wanted him to. He could last three strokes or three hours. Whatever I feel like.”
“Oh my God. That’s so cool.”
Jeuley scrolled through the programming and pointed to a command line. “See this? I found a synchro that allows audio. So, if you wanted to hear how great you are, a male voice, or female if you’d like, will be heard through the speakers on your tablet or your home stand-alones. The audio feature isn’t real easy to get to, but you can talk to your Blue Root, too. It accepts voice commands.”
“You’re kidding.” Rachel’s attention was glued to the screen.
“Check it out.” Jeuley pulled her sleeve back, revealing her controller, and started pressing the necessary menu and set-up buttons. “It’s buried, but you can turn on the voice stuff and tell it what to do. It can’t talk to you unless there are Bluetooth compatible speakers around, but think about it. I can fabricate everything except the flesh and blood.”
“Holy shit, Jeulmist has been busy today!”
“Yup. And it’s almost closing time. Tonight, I’m gonna hack in and see if I can hook up vid capability. I haven’t found anything that would suggest video linkage, but maybe I can build the right platform for it.” Jeuley saved her work again and closed out the screen.
“You are so it. Damn. Y’know, you should market this stuff. It wouldn’t be hard.” Oh no. Rachel had that look. That nutty-but-yet-supportive look. “Think about it. I mean, they’ve gotta be making a fortune off this thing with all of their accessories and stuff. You should cash in on some of that with your programs.”
“The problem is driving traffic to my commerce site while staying anonymous. I don’t know all the laws, but there’s gotta be one that says no one can hack this far into the Blue Root. They’ll want royalties or send a Guido.”
“Then, you’ll do like you always do and get smarter than the problem, Jeuls. Duh.” Rachel shook her head. “I gotta get back to the corner to help shut it down. You think on this for a while. I know tomorrow’s your break day. Oh, and by the way, I did a couple searches on Bradley March earlier today. All I can find is that he graduated top of our class, but then after that, he fell off the planet. All of his links were outdated and broken.”
“Yeah, I did a couple searches, too. You’d think a nerd like that would’ve done something with himself. Maybe he really is living in a shack somewhere. There weren’t even jail records.”
Rachel turned to leave the suit corner. “Funny, how things can change in the blink of an eye. A few years ago, all of your links were broken, too. Check ya later!”
“See ya.” Jeuley began her closing ritual. She’d forgotten that she’d fallen off the virtual planet. And more times than once. Too many fraud cases forced her into obscurity until it all blew over. That was how she’d come to work for Adrian the flamboyant freak with more money than sense. Well, that was harsh.
Adrian always meant well, but sometimes he went a bit too far over the top. Which is why there was no way in carrot juice Jeuley would even consider getting with him and his company to try a distribution of her Blue Root programs. Rachel was right. These programs could somehow be converted to money. But Adrian was not the person to trust with it.
Jeuley set out for a night of limited sleep and comprehensive programming. She would find a way of making it profitable even if she never slept again.
