Page 76 of Jinxed

I do as she says, but I can’t hold my questions in any longer. ‘What’s going on? Where are we? Why are you here?’

Monica sips her tea. Then, she frowns. ‘I did something... bad.’

I drop out of my chair, so that I’m almost sittingat her feet. ‘Do you know what Eric is doing to your company in your absence? He wants to destroy Jinx, you know. His son tried to steal him away from me.’

Her eyes darken. ‘Yes, well, the Smith family seems to have made a habit of trying to take things that don’t belong to them. I should have acted sooner.’ She levels her gaze at me. ‘If you’re a companioneer, then you know something about themagic of building. Of creating. I wanted to keep challenging myself. Keep pushing the envelope.

‘But I was so focused on my race to invent, that I forgot about my responsibility to the company that bears my own name. I’m not a natural CEO. I’m a creator. An inventor.’

‘A companioneer,’ I say, quietly.

‘Exactly. You understand that impulse to work. That’s when I was happiest. Jinx was my petproject. You must know that feeling, as an inventor... there’s the work you’re supposed to be doing, and then there’s that secret project that sets your heart on fire, the one you don’t share with anyone, the one that consumes you... that was this idea, for me – this question I wanted to answer. I’d created a perfect companion. But could I go a step further?

‘Could I create something thatchoseto be my friend? Not a slave – but a true friend? I spent every waking hour working on him, refining every component and aspect of his design, tinkering with his code, inching closer to perfection with every step.

‘The closer I got, the more protective I became. I didn’t want to share what I was working on with Eric. He begged and cajoled me, but nothing worked. I could tell he was gettingfrustrated, but also I knew he would wait. His frustration stemmed from the fact that he knew whatever I came up with would be a game changer for the company. So many of the updates I’d made – had they come to light – would have triggered a jump in Moncha’s shares. But I wasn’t ready to share him yet.I wasn’t ready for him to belong to anyone but me.’

‘And did it work?’ I ask.

Monica laughs,scratching between Jinx’s ears. ‘What do you think? No. I ended up with scratches up and down my arms, having to use the black marks to keep him powered down – every time I leashed him up, he would rebel and act like an out-of-control wildcat. Nothing I tried made himwantto be leashed up to me, apart from to use me as a power source. And with advances in piezoelectricity and solar energy, hedidn’t even need me for that. You’ve noticed that, haven’t you? That he doesn’t need to be leashed to you to keep his charge?’

I nod, biting down on my lip.

‘That was justoneof the breakthroughs I’d made creating Jinx. He is the culmination of all my hard work... I thought maybe my code was the only thing not up to scratch. That was always my biggest weakness, when it came to building thebakus. So I decided it was time to share with Eric what I had created.’

She pauses then, her eyes staring off into the middle distance.

‘What happened then?’ I prompt.

She sighs, her shoulders collapsing down. ‘He freaked out. He couldn’t understand what I was playing at – trying to create something that didn’t obey. It didn’t make any sense. He tried to alter the code I’d already written,but it backfired. The baku rejected the update – he wouldn’t accept Eric’s code! Even more than that, it startedrewritingEric’s code, infecting and dismantling it. We had to wipe the entire project to stop the baku from destroyingeverythingon the Moncha cloud. It would have been chaos.

‘I couldn’t tell if Eric was angry or amazed. He called my baku a monster. A virus. He wanted to destroythe baku then and there – he tried to! But I grabbed him and ran. This was my baby that Eric was trying to mess with. I triggered an old alarm that I’d set up a long time ago, in case something like this would ever happen. A mutual promise with an old university friend of mine who worked at BRIGHTSPRK to offer each other sanctuary, no questions asked. But Eric sent security after me. They took medown, and that’s when I lost the baku down into the ravine.

‘Next thing I knew, I woke up here. Leashed up to Pardem here. And curiously... happy.’ She gestures over to her sloth baku, who gives her a sleepy smile.

‘But Monica – how can you be happy knowing what Eric is still trying to do? That he’s taken over the running of your company. He’s told everyone you’re away on business! When you’vebeen stuck down here all along.’

She doesn’t immediately reply, but she cocks her head to one side. ‘You have to get out of here,’ she says, softly. There’s no sense of urgency in her voice, even though her words quicken the beating of my heart. ‘If they find you... then he will arrest you.’

‘I can’t leave you here!’

‘You must.’

>>And what about me?

Well, Jinx? It’s up to you. You can come with me and I will promise to do anything I can to stop Eric getting to you.

Monica looks up at me. ‘You two... you’re communicating, aren’t you?’

I nod.

She smiles, her face lighting up with the wideness of her grin. ‘Don’t you see, Lacey? You’ve done what I couldn’t. You don’t need a leash to be attached to Jinx. To know what he’s thinking, to communicate with him. You’re not leashedto him right now. You’re leashed to that beetle.’

I stare down at my shoulder, where Slick is sitting. I can’t believe I didn’t realize it before. Jinx and Iarecommunicating without officially being leashed.

‘Because you two choose each other. That’s what true friendship is. That’s what life is. Being presented with options and choosing your own path. Maybe not every choice makes you happier.Maybe not every decision will be the right one. But if you think carefully, I know you will know what to do.’

My eyes fill up with tears. ‘But Monica, I can’t just leave you...’

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