I pull the wallet Aether Corp provided out of my backpack and count out the money. There’s $1,000 in there, so I have just enough to cover it. I try to give it to the cashier, but she looks at my hand like I’m offering her a live snake.

“I’m sorry. We don’t take cash here.” She sounds horrified. She glances at the salesman I talked to earlier, as though looking for help.

He walks over and smiles at me. “Is there a problem?”

“No.” I shove the money back in the wallet and stuff it in my backpack. What kind of place doesn’t take cash? And how am I supposed to pay for this stuff? Aether didn’t give us credit cards, probably because there was no guarantee they’d work in the future. The way she looked at the money makes me wonder if the future has some new form of currency. “So, um, what do you take?”

The girl stares at me and the man frowns. I realize my question makes me look like a complete idiot, but what else can I do?

“We only accept fingerprint IDs with DNA scans,” she says slowly, like I’m stupid or something. She gestures to a smooth, black surface on the counter. “You place your hand here.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Don’t mind her. She just needs more coffee,” Adam says behind me, but they don’t look convinced.

I place my hand on the black surface. The fingerprints and DNA must link to a bank or something. Maybe that’s how Adam paid for the food earlier. Will my future self be charged for this? If so, I’m sure I’ll be understanding. After all, I’ll remember this moment. Although this seems dangerously close to connecting with my future self.

The surface under me flashes red, and I jerk my hand back. The woman frowns. “That’s odd.” She presses something on the other side of the counter, her eyebrows pinched together.

“What is it?” the salesman asks.

“There was some sort of error. I reset the scanner.” She glances up at me. “Sorry, could you try that again?”

I place my hand on the surface, and again it flashes red. Dread creeps through my gut.

“I’m sorry,” the girl says, her eyes wide. “But it says you’re not in the system.”

“What does that mean?” I ask, heart pounding. How can I not be in the system?

“I’m not sure. I’ve never seen this before. It could be a glitch or something.”

But somehow I know it’s not a glitch. It’s me.

Something is wrong with my future.

02:09

02:09

“The scanner seems to be working fine.” The salesman looks up at me, and I see suspicion in his eyes. The other customers are starting to stare.

“There must be something wrong with the software,” the girl says.