worth of creatures later, Patty found herself changing out of her last risible costume. Mentally, she activated the micro-liners in her ears, which started playing Paul Matchling’s Wurlitzer performance of Shostakovich’s “Tea for Two.” Leaving the changing room, she jumped as the documentary’s film editor took her by the shoulders violently.
“I would rather not have you touch me like that!” Patty pushed the man back.
“Miss Plattson, don’t you recognize me?” the editor, whose name was Aoto Frolov, seemed genuinely hurt by her reaction.
“Of course I do,” Patty responded harshly. “What do you want so badly?”
“I discov…” Aoto motioned for her to move closer, and he began to whisper. “I discovered something very…unsettling about an addition to a scene the studio threw in at the last minute.”
“Well why would you come to me about this?” Patty had just finished an exhausting shoot, and now she had to put up with this flaky member of the crew.
“I believe that there is a large conspiracy at Omniambience Entertainment, and you seemed like the last person to be involved.”
“First, you just made the big mistake. You used th ‘c’ word,” Patty shook her head. “Secondly, I’m not entirely sure if you just insulted me or not.”
As the charactor began to walk away from the man, he shouted “Do you know what’s in the popcorn.”
She turned to look at him, a smile of disbelief on her face. “You really are crazy!”
“I was talking to Matt at Sovereign Cinema’s concessions,” Aoto adjusted his horn-rimmed glasses. “You know that’s where opening night will be held. He said that a new type of butter came in, and he was asked to add it to the popcorn. I convinced him to let me take some butter home, for my own use. Well I was playing around with the scene with the new addition, and the light on my monitor; I use a traditional computer system by the way.”
“Charming,” Patty rolled her eyes.
“Anyway, the light on my monitor reflected onto the bread I had buttered with Matt’s…gift, and the butter started to move.”
“Mister, I think I’m going to have to report you,” Patty started to move towards the studio’s main door. “I don’t know if you’re tripping on drugs or just plain crazy, but I want you to stay away from me.”
“I analyzed the butter under a microscope. I also have really nice tech at my place,” Aoto said proudly.
“That’s very nice but…”
“There were nanoids in the butter,” Aoto found the shocked look on the charactor's face encouraging. “Now we both know that putting nano-machines into consumables is very, very illegal. I dissected one of the nanoids and discovered that it was carrying a mutated form of opsin, which it would deliver into the photoreceptors of the human eye.”
“Why do the eyes matter?” Patty felt more confused than afraid now.
“I went back to Sovereign Cinema the next day,” Aoto continued, “and I asked Matt if anything new had been happening around concessions. He pointed out that he had been asked to restock all the soft drinks with a new shipment. Apparently the high ups wanted ‘fresh’ drinks for everyone.”
“You think that they put something in the drinks too?”
“I know they did. Matt snuck me some. I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell people about my arrangement with Matt by the...”
“Deal,” Patty practically shouted in
Dayton Ward, Kevin Dilmore