Chapter 6: Chainlink Fences
Location: GIG/Apex Agonwood Research Facility
I grinned, momentarily forgetting that I was standing in a room full of billionaires and geniuses while wearing a t-shirt that declared my emotional state was powered by a vacuum state.
"Fine," I groaned, turning back toward the stairs. "But only because my legs might get sunburned. Not because of societal norms." I handed Nephy (in carrier) to Marcus, ran back upstairs, and hopped into the yoga pants I had discarded earlier.
Marcus was waiting by the door when I returned, holding a key card in one hand and Nephy's carrier in the other and we headed out of the front door. I
In the bright afternoon sun, the five identical rowhouses were beige with brown accents. What would have been a lawn back east was dry ground under wood chips with some bushes that were clearly just planted by a landscape company in the past few days.
Marcus tapped the key card against the lock of the door labeled Unit 3. A soft chirp sounded, and the deadbolt slid back with a mechanical hum.
"Welcome home, Lon."
I stepped inside, and the lights ramped up slowly—not startlingly bright, but a gentle fade-in that matched the ambient light coming from the window.
"Whoa."
If Marcus's place was a furniture showroom, mine was… oddly specific? I walked into the living room and dropped my backpack. The couch was a deep, soft fabric sectional—the kind you could lose a remote or a small child in. And in the corner, where a sterile reading chair should have been, there was a massive bean bag.
"Did you do this?" I asked, spinning around to look at Marcus.
He shook his head. "Julian had the interior design team pull your browsing history and social media likes. He calls it 'predictive staging.'"
"That is… borderline stalker-ish," I said, though I couldn't help but walk over and poke the bean bag. It was perfect.
Marcus shrugged. "He wants you to be comfortable so you can focus on the project without distractions."
I set Nephy's carrier down and opened the latch. She hesitated for a moment, her nose twitching as she sampled the new air, before slinking out low to the ground. She immediately bee-lined for the bean bag and began kneading it.
"I can't tell if she approves of it, or intends to shred it," I said to Marcus.
"Come on, I'll show you the best part." Marcus waved me toward the kitchen.
"The thermostat?"
"Julian had the rowhouses set up with a lot of the same tech as test houses in the cul-de-sac. The house tracks your biometrics—thermal signature, heart rate variability via remote photoplethysmography sensors in the mirrors, even your gait. It adjusts the ambient temperature and lighting to keep you in your optimal physiological zone."
I stared at the little digital readout. 68°F.
"It knows I run cold?"
"It knows you're stressed," Marcus said gently. "So it warmed the room up a degree to help your muscles relax."
I crossed my arms. "I don't know if I like being lived at by my house. And do I get to see my own data?"
"Should've known that would be your first question," Marcus said, backing toward the door. "I'll leave you and Nephy to get settled. And you know where I am if you need anything. There's food in the fridge. Real food, not just bachelor chow. Julian's instructions were: 'Feed the physicist, get results.'"
"That guy is too intense."
Marcus paused at the door, his expression softening. "He's brilliant. And you should know how quirky brilliant people can be, Lon. Just… keep him on his toes. He likes that."
"Seems more like me on mine."
Marcus smirked, less than thrilled. "Take a look around, Lon. See if anything you need is missing or if you want to replace anything."
I nodded.
"And… let's have dinner together," he said quickly as the door clicked shut.
Another hit-and-run, Marc?
I stood in the silence of my new smart home. Nephy had already curled up into a cinnamon-roll shape on the bean bag.
"Well, Nephy," I sighed, looking around at the modern, pristine white walls that were listening to my every heartbeat. "We're not in West Virginia anymore."
I decided to investigate the kitchen. I opened the stainless steel refrigerator. It was stocked with an unsettling degree of accuracy: Greek yogurt, sparkling water, those expensive little cheese wheels I only bought when I was celebrating, and a case of Black Forest dark ale—my favorite craft beer.
I grabbed a bottle and stared at it. Predictive staging.
It was impressive. Certainly convenient.
"And why do I feel like he somehow managed to control me at home, too."
I twisted the cap off and took a sip, leaning against the counter. I pulled my phone out. I still hadn't texted Ellie or Dan since the "I'm leaving" message.
I tapped out a new message:
[Lon] Alive. House is smarter than me. It knows I like
cheese. Send help.
I hit send, but the message bar turned red. Not Delivered.
I frowned and checked my signal bars. Zero.
"Right," I muttered. "Security protocols."
I looked for a Wi-Fi network. There was only one available: APEX_GUEST. I clicked it.
A browser window popped up immediately. But instead of a password prompt, it was a black screen with white text:
WELCOME, DR. PATRICKS.
DEVICE RECOGNIZED.
PENDING AUTHORIZATION FROM: ADMIN (VANE).
"Dr. Patricks?" I whispered. "I haven't even defended my thesis yet."
As if on cue, the text on the screen changed.
AUTHORIZATION GRANTED.
NOTE: DON'T STAY UP TOO LATE. - J
I nearly dropped the phone.
I looked up at the ceiling, scanning for cameras. "Okay, that is definitely creepy!" I shouted at the empty room.
The lights in the kitchen dimmed slightly, shifting to a warmer, amber hue. The house was literally trying to calm me down.
I groaned and took another sip of beer. If I was going to survive Julian Vane, I was going to need to figure out how to turn this house off.
But first, I needed to find where they hid the coffee maker for the morning.
Chapter 6, Part 2: Morning Run
Location: Agonwood Research Facility - Staff Rowhouses
I found the coffee maker. It was hidden behind a cabinet panel that opened when I waved my hand near it, revealing a machine that looked more expensive than my entire graduate education. It also had a sticky note on it:
Top button. Don't overthink it. - M
I drank the coffee—which was annoyingly perfect—while standing at the window. The "bright afternoon sun" from yesterday had been replaced by the morning marine layer, a thick gray blanket that muffled the world.
Of course. Now that Marc told me not to overthink it, that's all I can do.
I needed to move. I dug through my suitcase and found my running gear: a pair of beat-up leggings and a faded WVU hoodie. I tied my sneakers, grabbed my key card, and stepped out of Unit 3.
The layout of Agonwood was deceptive. The rowhouses were clustered together like high-end dorms, situated on a ridge overlooking the main campus. As I jogged down the winding path that connected our housing to the lower grounds, I got my first real look.
To my left, down the hill, was the main facility—a series of sleek, low-profile buildings where I assumed the labs and offices were. To my right, separated by a heavy security fence and a dense line of trees, was something else entirely.
I slowed to a jog, peering through the slats of the fence. Through the mist, I could make out a perfect circle of six large, two-story houses. They were egregiously traditional with white picket fences and manicured lawns that were impossibly green compared to the drought-tolerant landscaping around the staff rowhouses. Close to that was an enormous hangar-like building.
I'd like to see how they test external environments.
"You're staring."
"I could say the same about you."
Julian was standing at the junction of the path, wearing high-performance running gear that looked brand new. He wasn't even winded, though a light sheen of sweat suggested he'd been at it for a while.
"I'm observing," he corrected.
He jogged in place, keeping his heart rate up. "That area is restricted. You need special clearance to go past this fence."
"Why?" I asked, looking back at the idyllic houses. "They look like standard suburban builds. Nothing like the high-tech cluster I'm sleeping in."
"That's the point," Julian said, stopping his jog to stretch a calf muscle. "They are where things get their start. We built them to test our 'invisible tech' suite. Smart paint, biometric sensors in the floorboards, seamless IoT integration. We wanted to create the ultimate frictionless living experience for the consumer market."
He looked up at me, his grey eyes sharp.
"We were trying to build a better Smart Home, Lonna. We weren't trying to break physics."
"But you did?"
"We thought it was a bug in the code. We spent months trying to figure out what was causing it. But the sensors weren't wrong. The data was arriving late because… well, that's why you're here."
"We built a neighborhood to sell testing services in a controlled environment," Julian said with a rogue grin. "Wouldn't it be funny if it turns out we accidentally zoned it on a fault line of reality? Now, are you running away back to West Virginia?"
"Is that something else you are ordering me to do?
Julian stepped toward me and I stepped back until I heard the chained fence rattle and my back was against it. "Orientation is in ninety minutes," he whispered in my ear. "Building B. Don't be late, Lonna. I have something you'll want to see."
He grinned and took off down the path toward the main facility, his stride long and effortless.
I turned and sprinted back up the hill to Unit 3. I had ninety minutes to shower, change, and figure out how to interpret data that had stumped a room full of geniuses.