Sharon’s night out with her husband and son was all because of me. I blackmailed the seafood restaurant’s manager into keeping one open reservation just for her and bribed her boss into giving her a day off. Through the eye of a drone, I watched her family point at the seagulls swooping off the coast. She dined on drugged seafood linguine. My intern passed me a tray of microwavable noodles. Sauce pooled in the corner.
“If the kid’s there, are you the third or fourth wheel?” he asked.
“I’m not paying for sarcasm, Cal.”
“Last I checked, you were paying me to help with optics research, which I’m starting to think doesn’t exist.”
I chugged the excess sauce while Sharon clutched her stomach and scrambled for the bathroom. Once the door to the ladies’ room was shut, two of my loyal henchmen sprayed anesthetic on Sharon’s loving family and slid the bodies out of sight. With one press of my keyboard, the drone’s hologram projector brought perfect replicas of her husband and son to life.
Sharon took her seat. She apologized for taking so long. She talked about the neighbor’s cat. A speaker planted in her chair played her son’s AI-generated response, and Sharon laughed at a randomly generated joke.
“You want an optics project? There you go,” I said. “She hasn’t noticed the switch.”
Sharon offered her boys a bite of key lime pie, but they were too stuffed. This gave her a bright idea; if everyone was so full, why didn’t they walk on the pier so the food could settle? Her husband and son enthusiastically agreed. The projector worked better outside.
“What did Sharon do to you?” Cal asked.
“Nothing.”
“Then what’s the point?”
“Unbiased testing. I have to know if I can make people from only light.”
“Ever hear of scientific ethics?”
“They’re a waste of time if you want results.”
Sharon watched her husband and son haggle over who was faster. A computer-generated conversation broadcasted over hidden speakers, yet the scene felt so natural she believed it. Sharon said her son would win, but her husband wouldn’t stand for such an assault on his pride. Talk was over; the boys took starting position.
“What are you going to do when she finds out?” Cal asked.
“She won’t.”
“She will. Let’s say she notices her husband’s intangible. She calls the cops, and it’s only a matter of time before they find the crazy drone lady.”
“Science is worth it.”
Her husband and son blazed down the pier. A seagull swooped in front of them; her son swirled around it.
“It’s not science. You’re just padding your ego,” Cal said. He set down a faded newspaper, and I’m plastered on the front cover, broken lenses slipping through my fingers. “Hologram Project Fades.”
“The projector’s more stable now. It can’t fail.”
Sharon cheered as her son reached the end of the pier and started running back. His father, a few seconds behind him, tried not to look winded.
“I admired you once,” Cal said.
“You still do, or you wouldn’t be here.”
“I think you need to step back from this.”
Cal kept yipping while Sharon’s son ducked and weaved around the women in red dresses flocking to the bachelorette party at the end of the pier. Her husband panted and wheezed and yanked at the front of his shirt to cool the sweat drenching his armpits. Her son jeered and ran faster. He couldn’t lose.
The camera blanked for a second before a seagull dropped on the deck, stunned after ramming full-force into the drone. Husband and son glitched and blurred before they vanished from Sharon’s life. She stood on the pier and didn’t move. A single tear rolled down her cheek as she reached out and waved her arms through the air in front of her.
The motors froze; the drone plummeted into the ocean. Saltwater flooded the circuits, and seconds later, all my monitors went black. I tried getting out of my chair, but my legs were too weak.
“She knows,” Cal said.
“She knows.”
“I should go.”
“No,” I said. “Stay a bit longer.”
I sat. My intern stood in front of me, and my drones rested on the table. I clenched my fists and stared at the ceiling. I had it painted black so I could better check the holograms for imperfections. Now, there was no light anywhere, and my eyes adjusted to the shadows.
This story was originally published in the Mangrove Review