As she is in a taxi, checking on her phone with her silk-white blouse.

  She would check on her phone, with a bored face and that cascading-like smooth black hair that is like silk.

  The driver’s eyelids would look at the rearview monitor attached to the ceiling; he was a man in a blue worker-collar shirt with the ID that says ‘Taxi Driver Carl’ with brown trousers, and he was looking at the female in the back of the car through the rearview monitor.

  The man had rounded brown eyelids that seemed friendly yet awkward; his eyes stared at the rearview monitor before facing the view in front of his taxi hover vehicle, and then he sped up.

  The taxi vehicle resembles a normal classic 90’s vehicle in green-lime with the prop atop the middle of the vehicle with letters spelling ‘Taxi’ that brightens as a green light, except the wheels were replaced with hover pads mobilized through air.

  As the taxi vehicle approached near a certain point where the speakers said, “We are approaching the exit point; please prepare to leave to the air,” the driver’s eyelids slowly moved to the rearview monitor, reflecting the same view of Ava’s beautiful figure with her blouse and her navel skirt, who was holding her phone, her head arched down.

  Before the driver looked in front, and he started driving, he did some adjusting of the manual controls prior to engaging the air from the road he is in, prompting Ava to place the phone in her pocket as she placed her arm on the door, her head resting on the arm, eyelids staring out to the clean skies.

  The driver looked at the middle of the control and started pressing buttons to increase the threshold, where the vehicle moves even faster

  It went very far before sliding to a flat terrain with only grass, where a large box-looking building could be seen with only the sky and sun, alongside the clouds.

  It begins to slow down before being suspended into the air, where the driver speaks, “We are here, miss.”

  Ava then speaks with a rather bored, bland tone, “Thanks,” as she opens the door and exits without much elaboration.

  Ava closed the door the moment she exited.

  She resumed walking toward the door flanked by two security guards. Ava noticed the security guards are different in appearance—they aren’t receptive to her beauty. They noticed her beauty.

  The security guard, who is tall with a vest, asked, “ID? ”

  Ava held out her ID, which got scanned, after which the guards opened the door for Ava to proceed walking straight towards.

  She sat in her office and started turning on the monitors and entering her credentials, where she resumed maintaining and doing server-client updates. Typical software engineering activities.

  Hacking away at codes, and then using the keyboard to type a bunch of codes.

  She stood up and stormed out, outside of the software engineering department room.

  Outside the room were scientists or engineers doing their usual activities.

  She headed straight to the department of where people are at.

  She asked one person, with disappointment etched on her face, “Do you believe some of the data was hacked? ”

  The engineer looked at him and said, “No… Not at all. Why do you ask? ”

  Ava spoke, “I would feel that any research data regarding the experiments—did I say it correctly? ”

  The engineer waved his head, biting his lips with passive-aggressiveness. “Uhuh… So what do you want? ”

  Ava asked, “Do you have any idea, any idea, any way to find how to get that stolen duplicate data back? ”

  “Or maybe at least improve data integrity, so nothing like this happens? Because I have a feeling it’s not protected.”

  The engineer answered, pulling his head back in disgust, “Are you crazy? No way am I going to do that… You are not the authority of us, you b*tch.”

  Ava’s eyes turned cold, and her hand turned to a clenched fist before she waved her head. “Very well…”

  She turned to walk off with resignation, to avoid escalation.

  She slowly walked to her office and started looking at the line of codes in the programs.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Scientific computing, scientific computing. Let the data analysis turn proper.”

  She began coding on her computer.

  She scratched her head as she peered at multiple monitors typing away on the screen before going out to get tea and returning.

  She held the tea and drank it; slurping noises could be heard as she slid the cup by rotating the cup and lifting it, where all the liquid went in.

  She placed the cup back on her table, slid it using her hand, and then started focusing on the monitor itself—she would say ‘Hi’ with a smile and with a raise of her hand whose palm is open.

  Immediately, Ava would receive the proper but rather inconsistent reception that others were giving; they would talk about simple stuff.

  They nodded and even giggled before waving her hand and walking off; she then encountered a female.

  The female had brown hair that felt youthful; Ava would stare at her face as she was looking at the screen typing.

  There was something odd about the female. Ava approached slowly. “Hello there, what's your name? ”

  A young-looking female who had brown hair would rotate at her slowly, “Ohhh. Hey, I have been doing fine.”

  Ava looked at her and asked, “I see, good to hear. What are you doing? ”

  The female turned to the monitor and said, “Software engineering stuff.”

  “I need to care for my child… He needs me.”

  Ava reacted with perplexity, “You have a child? ”

  The young-looking female nodded, “Yesss, I do,” with a smile but pain in her eyes, as her hands would be on a keyboard.

  Before the girl paused her facial gesture, her eyebrows would raise up, and she then leaned her head forward.

  “Could your name be Ava? ”

  Ava’s face lit up as she stared at the female.

  She then asked, “You know my name? ”

  The girl smiled, her eyes closed before opening them. “Yes, I do know your name, especially from that time when you played with those two kids in the laboratory.”

  The girl turned, placed her hand on her chin, and asked, “What were their names? Thea…..”

  “Hmmm, who was the other one, the one with the black hair…”

  “Brian?”

  “Ah.”

  Ava just stared at the female coworker; her eyelids looked up before back at the lady.

  She could recall Thea being the platinum-haired girl and Brian having dark hair with a rounded face.

  Ava looked at the female. “Oh, those kids, yeah. Long story short, I played with them.”

  “So why the curiosity? ”

  The girl with brown hair and actual natural blue irises said, “Well, I found the situation amusing… I watched as you three played hide and seek.”

  Ava nodded, showing acknowledgment. “I see, but why the interest? ”

  The girl demurely rotates her torso left and right.

  “Because… I have a child, I work very hard for the one whom I am bringing birth to.”

  “And it has been hard; I have been losing hope.”

  Ava’s face turned to confusion. “In what relevance does that hold to my question? Could you elaborate? ”

  The female disclosed, “Because…” She began to stutter.

  “I have a hard time supporting my child; I had to work really hard—the father is away trying to do his best.”

  “Supporting our child, I am also doing my part.”

  The girl then slowly turned to her and said, “There is a part of me that wants me to surrender the child here, have her adopted here just for his own good.” The tone felt tired, her blue eyes felt manic-sad and jaded, and the eyebrows looked like they had already shown their lifeless color.

  The girl then twitched her fingers, “Maybe… Maybe.”

  “If I just do that and offer my child at least. I would like to spend time here and see my child while saving us the trouble of caring for him. He’s a very sweet boy.”

  “But it’s feeling rather difficult.”

  Ava then asked, “How old are you? What is your name? ”

  The girl answered, while her eyelids were staring up before they faced Ava, “My name…. My name is Beatrice, my age is twenty-four, and I work as a junior software engineer here. I was recommended here for my grades. I worked so hard for Manga Cum Laude.”

  “I didn’t necessarily have the best grades initially… until he came.”

  “I was too reckless; he and I decided to get married anyway and support each other. Of course it wasn’t rainbows, but I have been debating whether to give our child up here.”

  Ava, in all her seriousness, instinctually touched the shoulders. “No, just don’t. Don’t ever think of this facility as a proper adoption center; you are doing him a disfavor, please.

  Beatrice became defensive; nervousness struck her down. “What? Why? What do you know about this place that I don’t?”

  “I heard people can become gifted and well adjusted for the future? What are any reasons for you to deny me the life of my child ”

  Ava bit her teeth. “Please, find a proper adoption center. Somewhere else, but not this. Look at the equipment; look at the costumes the children are wearing. Do they look like children being joyful?”

  Ava watched Beatrice’s reaction, clearly knowing that she was hesitating.

  Beatrice then nodded, “Alright… I will follow your advice.”

  “What about you? What is your story? ”

  Ava froze, unable to answer her question, before concocting a simple deflection; her eyes looked sideways. “Well. I have daddy issues? Is that clarifying? ”

  Beatrice’s face turned to confusion before acknowledging, “Oh, I see,” with a soft nod.

  Ava grabbed her own arm; as she walked off back to her office awkwardly, she sat on her chair and started looking at lines of code on her monitors; these texts would have colors.

  Ava would drag a GUI representing a black surface with hexagon backdrops, seeing a network of nodes, before summoning a terminal with short keys.

  She started typing, and she would see a terminal showing texts with colors outlining the output.

  She then resumed, looking at the code.

  “Time to take some time to compile.”

  Ava brought out her device, her contraption allowing her to intercept traffic in the network. As she operates the device, the device outputs an error.

  Ava’s face tensed up, looking at her device—she waved her head.

  She sat on her chair, contemplating her life.

  Her eyes turned a little tired and jaded; her eyes would look straight at the wall of plain sleekness.

  Hands to the back of her head, she blinked twice as they began to feel hollow.

  “Why, why did I become such degraded garbage? Why do I not feel like a teenager anymore?”

  Slowly her forehead was starting to show sweat. Ava would notice it, but she wouldn’t have any idea how to tackle it except to stay idle.

  “If there is someone, I could hug.” Ava waved her head and excused herself to her own face and eyes with words like, “Never mind.”

  Where she continued, “I was just being experimental.”

  Ava resumed staring at the code, punching keycaps, and moving the mouse, so she forwent training, knowing she would be reprimanded for this while confident she could make time.

  Soon, it was past afternoon, the sun was descending, and Ava turned off the computer and left.