“Good doggies.” Saito smiled, then marched back toward the house.
She dumped the duffel into the blazing firepit and threw open the back doors.
Again Emmett followed and found himself standing in a living room lit by a single warm bulb. It was immaculately clean and decorated with stylish masculine furniture. The walls were white and the ceilings vaulted, like a temple converted into a high-class bachelor pad.
“Where are we?”
“Cecil’s house. One of them, anyway.” Saito adjusted the thermostat; the place was boiling. “You can stay as long as you need. You’ll be safe here.”
“What about Aaron’s body? Won’t someone find it?”
Air began to blow through the vents. “Coyotes took care of that problem.”
“They’ve taken care of a lot of problems for you, haven’t they?”
“You don’t think that’s a coincidence?” Saito said, turning on her heel. “A pack of man-eating coyotes running around San Diego the same time you developed a taste for human flesh?”
Disbelief punched Emmett in the gut. “You mean—”
“We needed some assurance in case participants continued to have negative side effects.”
“I take it you weren’t testing the coyotes’ saliva, then.”
“The Department of Fish and Wildlife thought so when they issued our collection permit. They didn’t realize that what we really wanted was to modify the animals’ DNA. Alter their dietary preferences, make them more aggressive toward humans, even predatory. The media helped spread the message. Everyone loves a scary story. When mutilated bodies started turning up all over town—”
“Everyone assumed they were eaten by coyotes.”
“At least until you came along. We couldn’t blame coyotes for bludgeoning a man to death and setting fire to his corpse, now could we?”
“But why?” Emmett said. “All these cover-ups—bribing Bautista, genetically modifying coyotes. Why not just fix the product? You have to know that even if the FDA approves Obexity, they’re just gonna pull it off the market again once its side effects come to light.”
“Ah, but by then it’ll be too late.”
“So you meant what you said in the car. You’re not trying to fix it. You want to turn us into monsters.”
“According to society, we’re already monsters,” Saito said. “I mean, that’s how they see us, right? Stupid. Mindless. Ugly. Dangerous.”
“And you want to prove them right?”
“I wantrevenge,” she growled. “For how they treated me. For the names they called me. For how to them, I only started to exist once men wanted to fuck me. That’s what Cecil doesn’t understand. What he’s never understood: Obexity isn’t just about getting thin; it’s about getting even.”
“He’s allowing you to kill people just to—?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. He thinks we’re doing everything we can to fix the product. And we will, eventually. Only a few percent of Obexity users will experience its more vengeful side effects. But sooner or later people will figure out what it’s doing to them, and when they do we’ll fix the issue, slap a new label on it, and push it back out, pretending it’s a whole new product. As long as it’s effective, people will buy it. But maybe there’s another issue we didn’t anticipate, another little side effect that didn’t show up in the clinical trial… another killing spree, but bigger this time.Hungrier.”
She laughed, apparently amused by the expression on Emmett’s face.
“Oh, don’t look so scandalized. Georgina Hodge? Justin Matthews? Clearly you’re not above getting your own back. Although I must say, the old lady in the mobility scooter was an interesting choice.”
“Another little side effect,” Emmett said, echoing Saito’s words. “Obexity turns us on everyone: not just our tormentors, but each other as well. Lizette…” He trailed off, remembering her look of shock when he’d thrown her obesity in her face. Calling her lazy—Lizette, who’d busted her ass to build a successful fashion brand all on her own while holding down a full-time job.
“I can live with that,” Saito said.
“Wait. Why are you helping me?”
She smiled. “Because I like you, Emmett.”
“Bullshit.”
