The Research Room

Rebecca and I walked into the secure room and into what looked like the inside of a small bunker. There were no windows and the walls were completely devoid of any decoration. There were 2 small beds that looked like they'd been pulled from a doctor's office and installed into the middle of the room. In-between both beds was a small metal table. And, just like I'd suspected, the small purple microSD as well as several patches were arranged on the table, enticing us to take part and try them out. Looking at the wall that the door we'd just come through was, there was a monitor that showed what, or who, was directly outside of the room. I guess if things got ****, they expected us to lock ourselves in here and wait out whatever had us spooked.

"Oooookay, this room is kinda creepy," Rebecca noted while looking around the small room. "Is that the program?"

I walked over to the table and picked up the small chip. It looked like an average purple microSD chip with a Q on it. Must stand for Quanta Life Technologies. "I mean, I think it is. This is the chip that Mr. Draymond was showing me."

I took a look at the patches that were also laid on the table. "There was only one of these patches in his presentation to me, though."

Rebecca came over and inspected one of the patches. "It almost looks like a purple band-aid. Huh... any idea why there's more than one?"

"Well, look. They each have a different symbol on their back" I pointed out. The patch Rebecca was holding had a cross symbol that reminded me of the Red Cross logo. The remaining two patches had a symbol of a body in the T-pose and a symbol of a brain. "I guess that part of our job is to figure out what each one does. Maybe it's a cosmetic thing?"

Rebecca kept looking the patch over for a second before looking up at me and smiling mischievously. Without a word, she peeled off the adhesive on the back of the patch and stuck it on the back of her neck.

"Woah! Rebecca!" I said, shocked at her boldness.

Rebecca laughed at my concern. "Oh my god, it's fine. This is literally my job, isn't it?" She extended her arms and shook them looking for any immediate side effects, but nothing happened. "See? All good!" she said, excitedly.

I breathed a small sigh of relief. I didn't expect anything to happen, but it still surprised me a little. I looked at the chip in my hand and started to put it into my phone to load up the app. "So, what was your job for this assignment specifically? Glorified guinea pig?"

"Ha. Ha. Ass." she remarked sarcastically, sticking her tongue out. "I mean, kind of. I was told to assist you in testing the program out, but I'm not allowed to handle the app. I guess they want to keep the specifics of it's functions and what-not limited to a few people." She placed her hands on her hips in a scolding motion and put on a mock serious face. "You're not going to **** your privileges now, are you?"

I chuckled at this, but only half-heartedly. "I mean, I've never really had an assistant before, so this whole situation is pretty strange to me as well." The app finished installing and a pop-up allowed me to open it up. "Okay, let's check this thing out." Rebecca brightened up and sat down on one of the nearby doctor's office beds.

The app opened up and displayed the Quanta Life Technologies symbol before dissolving to the main screen.

"Oof, this is a pretty bland-looking app so far. They're definitely going to want to add some more character to this if they publish it," I noted. There was only two buttons to start with, one that said Load Profile and another that said Settings. I clicked Load Profile and a loading symbol popped up for a second before several menus and a search bar appeared on screen. The header had changed to read 'RebeccaGrafton. Weird...

"Woah!" Rebecca exclaimed, reaching for the patch on her neck. "This patch just got really cold all of a sudden."

I was too engrossed to notice Rebecca's surprise. Browsing between the different menus, I saw that just about every bodily function had its own section with extremely precise details. Too precise to be anything other than accurate. I opened up the Blood menu and could see her blood type, her cholesterol, even the precise amount of active white and red blood cells in her veins! Spooky...

"Uh, is it working?" Rebecca prodded curiously. "You're really engrossed in whatever you're looking at Brett..."

"This is amazing!" I said, standing up in excitement. "I can see your blood type! I can see your bone density. I.. I can see everything about your physical health. This thing... this app is incredible..."

"Bullshit!" She said sitting up interested. "Tell me something that only I'd know if you can 'see everything'".

I smirked and pondered what I'd look for before typing ALLERGIES into the search bar and instantly got a list of everything she was allergic to. "According to this thing, you're allergic to latex."

Rebecca's jaw dropped. "Damn, either you did your homework before we met or that program knows too much. I only just found that out myself a couple of years ago..."

I looked back down at the short list of allergies and continued. "Did you also know that you're allergic to spider bites, apparently?"

Rebecca blinked a few times before standing up from the bed and pacing a bit. "Wow... this could be life-changing. Imagine the uses that this app could be used for. Doctors could diagnose and treat a patient's health concerns almost instantly..."

As she paced the room muttering to herself and getting excited, the curiosity got the better of me. I looked up her boobs. Look, I'd been single for over a year and what else do you do to really test how in-depth something like this could be? So yeah, I opened up the menu labeled Bust and got.. quite a bit of detail. According to the patch, she was a small B-cup and measured 11.6cm. I could even see that her nipples-

"Ahem. What the fuck are you looking at Brett?"

"OH SHIT" I said, quickly backing out of the menu and trying to cover my ass. In my obsessive state, I hadn't noticed Rebecca move behind me to look over my shoulder. Now she was pissed.

"Oh shit is right, dude. I don't think I gave you permission to look at my fucking breasts."

"I-I'm sorry Rebecca, I got curious and opened up the wrong menu. I didn't think it would actually have the information in there, honest." I closed out of the app, put the phone back in my pocket, and raised my hands trying to look as innocent as possible. "It's not like I was actually looking at.... I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that."

Rebecca stood in place with her arms folded, clearly not pleased with my horny search actions. She tapped her foot in annoyance, but exhaled after a few moments, clearly not finding the situation worth throwing a huge fuss over. "Okay, okay. We're going to have to put some boundaries on what we do with this program, clearly. Let's just say rule number one, don't look up anything relating to my boobs, butt, or general female reproductive anatomy. Yeah?"

I sighed in relief. "Deal. I'm sorry, again, that was unprofessional as fuck."

She smiled, trying to ease the tension, but I knew that it wasn't as genuine as her previous smiles had been. "Let's call it a day and test these other patches tomorrow, okay?" With that, she easily peeled the patch off her neck and put it back on the table. The two of us returned to the living room and continued to finish off our pizza and beer, but the jovial mood from before was no longer present.

As I sat in my bed several hours later, I thought about the events that unfolded in the Research room. I was embarrassed for sure, but there was a certain kind of thrill to it too. I'd gotten some sort of 'forbidden knowledge' in a way, and the risk was exciting. Still, it was wrong to look at such private information... right?