7
Madeline
I didn’t remember the drive. I remembered the sound of Vince barking instructions. Ordering the medics. Telling someone to unlock the elevator.
He carried me. Until he sat me down gently on a bed. Everything else blurred. But his voice didn’t.
“She’s not to be moved for the next hour unlessIsay so. I want that noted. Call Dr. Keller.”
I heard the beep of a phone. Another voice answered. People asking a question I couldn’t catch.
“No,” Vince’s voice was clipped in a way I hadn’t heard before. “You’re notaskingrestaurants to list it. You’retellingthem peanuts are banned. If anyone has a problem with it?—”
He paused. I turned slightly, opening my eyes, just enough to see him, sleeves pushed up, phone to his ear. He was standing at floor to ceiling windows. I didn’t recognize the room.
“—they can leave. I’m not risking her.”
I tried to sit up, to tell him he didn’t have to do all that, it wasn’t his fault, but my body betrayed me. My throat still itched. My chest ached with every shallow breath. In the end I gave up, trying to move.
“I want epinephrine pens issued to all staff. Front line, back line, chefs, security. I don’t care if they never use it. It’s not optional.”
Eventually he came over. Sat beside me. One hand brushed the hair from my temple. While his thumb gently moved over my wrist.
“You’re alright,” he murmured. “Just sleep I’ve got you.”
I didn’t answer. Part of me didn’t believe this was real to begin with. I don’t remember drifting off.
Slowly I was waking up, again. He was lightly tracing my arm.
“…why wouldn’t she have enhancements?” someone said in a low voice, across the room. “Allergies are optional. It’s stupid not to?—”
“So Madeline should change her blood so you don’t have to change your menu?” Vince kept stroking my arm. No one answered immediately.
“She’s dynasty. You think her blood gets to be pumped full of synthetics? That it’s interchangeable? You think tech runs deeper than legacy?”
Someone else spoke. “It’s just…it would’ve avoided this. If she had the right mods?—”
“Say it again.” His voice dipped to that low threatening tone. I had never heard him use before.
“You want to know why she doesn’t have enhancements? Because once you change one thing, where does it stop? You fix a gene, then a reflex, a flaw, traits. Until what’s left? You can’t track a lineage if you’ve overwritten it.”
A long silence followed.
“She doesn’t change. The world around her does.That’s dynasty, and bloodlines.”
No one dared interrupt.
“Dynasties don’t think like you. We don’t fix things to survive the day. We preserve things to survive thecentury.Track blood through generations.”
I let my eyes flutter open.
He exhaled through his nose.
“Whoever built the enhancements you pump into your veins, they own the patents, updates. The moment you let someone change your DNA, your body, you give them control of your inheritance. Of your children’s inheritance. And once they own your blood, they ownyou.”
Someone shifted awkwardly.
“That’s not how it works—” someone started to speak.
