‘They didn’t used to mind getting arrested,’ Charlie said. ‘But they know they’ll get shipped to a reversal centre now.’

‘Three times my neighbour’s boy has been reversed,’ Gwen said, tutting. ‘Every time they reverse his z-mods, he cries and says he wants to kill himself. His poor ma is at her wits end.’

‘Awful seeing kids like that,’ Charlie agreed. She glanced at her watch. ‘Can I grab a flat white, and a couple of the cinnamon chocolate sticks to take up to the office while I do the accounts?’

‘Synthetic coffee?’ Gwen asked.

‘I’ll go mad,’ Charlie laughed. ‘What’s the point owning a coffee shop if you can’t have a real one every now and then?’

58 PEER PRESSURE

Charlie had copied Mango’s business model, doing genetic editing on clients who came by word-of-mouth recommendation and were happy to pay for quality work. While Mango had used Radical Cakes to launder the profits from her lab, Charlie used her income to buy up cheap leases and reopen bankrupt coffee shops.

After taking her real coffee upstairs to an office, and spending two hours doing bookkeeping and payroll for her employees, Charlie took a taxi to The Strip and used cash to rent one of the Algarve Casino’s meeting rooms.

Her clients were fifteen minutes late. An apologetic woman, with greying hair and a formidable bust, accompanied by her thirteen-year-old grandson, Judah. He was a serious boy with a slender build and the type of curled black hair that always looks a mess.

Charlie tried to seem older than her twenty years when she met patients. Besides her sober outfit, she adopted a deeper voice as she went through the ritual of hellos, seat taking and offers of bottled water from the little bar at the back of the room.

‘So, Judah, how’s life?’ Charlie said, reading anxiety in the boy’s face and remembering how awkward being thirteen felt.

‘Good,’ he spat.

‘Your general health?’

‘Fine.’

The grandmother spoke. ‘He had a temperature a couple of weeks back, after our first meeting. There were some weird modified ants around in the lockers at his school. Nobody quite knows what they were, but a few kids got sick.’

‘Oh dear,’ Charlie said. ‘When did you last record an elevated temperature?’

‘Seven days ago,’ Judah said. ‘The quarantine box at school rejected me and I had to go home.’

‘I wouldn’t start treatment if you’re under the weather, but seven days is fine,’ Charlie said as she pulled the cooler bag out and placed it on the oval meeting table. ‘So I’ve done all your lab work. The bad news is we discussed thirteen modifications, but I could only do twelve.

‘When I checked your DNA, I found that you have a fairly common genetic mutation that can cause complications with the memory enhancement you requested. The side effect is uncommon, but I always urge a conservative approach.’