Chapter 4

OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS uniMIND engineers and technicians make more repairs to my damaged body. They cover my new knee with syntha-derm, but my new arm remains white plastic because they have to order brown syntha-derm that matches the rest of me from another uniMIND facility. They also run many tests on my brain. I spend a lot of time with my fingernails flipped up.

When they are not running tests or doing repairs, Nathan shows me around the uniMIND headquarters. Or as he calls it, the campus.

He takes me to a giant central room with a ceiling that soars hundreds of feet above. It is many times bigger than Giganto Food Super Mart. A great redwood tree trunk rises from the floor, disappearing through a hole in the ceiling. It is by far the largest tree I have ever seen. A door in the bark slides open, and Nathan gestures with a sweeping hand. “After you.”

“This is a tree,” I say. “We are entering a tree.”

He laughs. “It’s an elevator shaft. I mean, it used to be a redwood, but we had it cut down and hollowed out and converted to an elevator shaft. Pretty cool, huh? It’s won a bunch of design awards.”

“Where did the tree come from?”

“Don’t worry, it’s not from a national forest or anything like that. It came off uniMIND property.”

I knew one could own a block of cheese. I did not know one could own a tree. Already, I am learning.

The doors slide shut and we go up.

Through windows in the tree, I watch people move along open walkways that ring the vast room, and behind the walkways are glass-walled offices. Some of the rooms are larger, with long tables and groups of people talking and examining charts and graphs projected onto screens.

Nathan looks at me in a way that reminds me of Gina when she is about to teach me something important. “Cog, we’re doing very important work here at uniMIND. We’re pushing the frontiers of science and technology. And you are a crucial part of that work. We need your help with it. And my job is to make sure you’re taken care of. So, don’t you worry about a thing. Okay, partner?”

“Okay. I will try not to worry about all the things I am worried about. Okay.”

When the elevator stops, we exit the tree and I follow Nathan into another room.

“This is the Biomatonics Lab.” Rays of natural sunlight stream in through the windowed ceiling. Vines crawl up the walls, and the air smells of flowers. Birds chirp. Water gurgles over rocks. A butterfly lands on Nathan’s shoulder.

“Hold out your hand, Cog.”

After a moment of consideration, I do as Nathan says. The butterfly flutters over to my finger.