“Prophecy? Nostradamus?”
“Doesn’t matter. Just something we say”.
Carlo tried to calm Anthony, who was still scowling and murmuring insults.
He ignored that Anthony was, in fact, in love with Julián; he had always been, ever since he had met him and had hidden the feeling from everyone, even from himself. For him, being by his side was enough; they worked together, lived together, spent twenty-four hours a day together. He had never spoken about it with his friend; he kept his feelings to himself. Anthony Somoza had never admitted his homosexuality. His siblings, with that fifth sense that children have, used to say it when they were just kids, and used the word insultingly: fag. Bothered by those comments, he found refuge in his studies and later in computers; they opened a door through which he could escape to communities that understood him; there, he would practice virtual sex in the intimacy of his screen. That was it. And now that Julián was going on a date with a top girl, Anthony felt jealous.
“Guys lose their minds over tits, you know that”, said Carlo as he clapped the programmer on the back.
Julián arrived at the restaurant almost at the same time as Ana, who came in an Uber. He was driving a small Chevrolet Onix that his parents had given him as a gift six years ago. She looked with surprise at the utilitarian car and he felt it was high time he bought himself a new vehicle. What’s more, now that he was going to earn a yearly salary of more than six zeros, seven with bonuses, he could afford to buy a luxury sports car just for show, an airplane even; the future held no limits. The valet took his utilitarian car and parked it as far from the door as was possible.
Julián stared at Ana, her extremely short dress, colorful, with an impressive cleavage, and six inches of high heels that revealed a body that worked out in the gym. He swallowed hard. He was wearing the Real Madrid t-shirt that she had liked so much when they first met.
As they walked in, she took hold of his hand. Julián realized that his companion attracted people’s attention, and that many looked at him with envy. At the table, they chose some salads and Ana ordered champagne to accompany them. ‘Anything she wants’, thought the new multimillionaire.
“So, tell me, Julián, what do you guys do at Synchro?” asked Ana with interest.
“Nothing, the idea is very simple…” Julián spotted a tiny mole on Ana’s chest. “Have you ever heard the term ‘synapsis’?”
“No, never. My thing is organic creams. But, I love all that stuff, it really turns me on…” Ana looked at him in the eyes and he responded with a long gulp of champagne. He took his thumb to his mouth, gave his hair a tug and pulled at his earlobe. He had reason to be nervous.
“I’ll explain; it’s the way in which hormones communicate. This communication takes place through the transmission of nervous impulses from one to the other; it’s the way they talk, with small shocks… but, once this nervous impulse reaches the hormone, it generates a type of chemical component, which is what they call neurotransmitters, these are the ones in charge of making us feel turned on, for example”.
Ana’s eyes continued fixed on him while he spoke.
“Incredible…”
“What we are doing at Synchro is tricking people’s brains with electric impulses to create controlled sensations”.
“Amazing!” she exclaimed, taking her hand to her cleavage.
Julián’s eyes followed her hands and paused there; with great effort, he lifted his gaze to meet the eyes of this woman who was completely out of his league.
“Scientists have found that an adult brain has around one hundred million neurons; each is in charge of processing its own information which it then sends to the others, receiving information from them in return. Every neuron may connect with another fifty thousand. Us, Anthony and I, have discovered mass synapsis and how to stimulate it with very low-intensity electric impulses.
“Can it provoke an orgasm?”
The woman at the table next to theirs moved her head slightly, pointing her ear in their direction, without looking; her neighbors’ conversation was way more interesting than the story her husband was telling her about a colleague at work.
“Yes, it’s easy, when you ingest a Synchro microchip what happens is that your neuronal system becomes dependent of those micro-impulses. Our brain is a computer that controls all our functions, and our nervous system is its network, sending information in both directions, from the brain to the different body parts. That’s where our chips come in, becoming the king of neuronal communications … They do so through the spinal cord, which, starting at the brain, runs down our backs”. As Julián spoke, he pictured Ana naked. “It contains nerves with the shape of filaments that branch out towards the other organs and parts of the body. But I don’t want to bore you with all this theory”.
“Julián, provoking an orgasm isn’t boring; I am very, very interested, both in the theory part and the practice”.
Ana was unleashing her full skills in the art of seduction and Julián, flattered, carried on talking.
“Well then, when a message originated at any part of the body reaches the brain, it tells the whole body or a part of it, how it must react. If you program the feeling and the App sends a stimulus in the shape of a wave that provokes an electric shock of a certain intensity… well, that’s how you provoke an org…”
“And is that just one, or could it be many?”
“They can be as many as you wish to have”, he replied timidly, and feeling a little awkward, added, “and if we both connect we could even feel the same thing simultaneously”.
“That would be fabulous. I can’t wait to try your invention and get synchronized with you”.
“That would be nice…”
Julián was about to start a new sequence of tics, but caught himself just as he was bringing his thumb to his mouth and stopped.
The woman on the neighboring table was sitting on the edge of her seat, nodding at her husband, who continued with his monologue about the trouble he was having with his colleague. Meanwhile, she was thinking about how much she would like to try that invention.
***
At State Attorney Eduardo Aster’s office ten people sat discussing the report on the Synchro case.
“At a preliminary hearing, we can’t prohibit something that does not contain any narcotic substances, or has no harmful effects for public health. According to the experts’ report we could call it a technological drug, since its effects are indeed narcotic, but if we ban them, it would be like banning video-games or Google’s search engine.
Another lawyer holding the open dossier pointed out that:
“On the report presented by the independent medical team, it confirms that it is addictive and of easy economic and technical access. It’s as easy as downloading an app, placing an order, paying and receiving it via drone”.
Carlo, who was taking notes at the other side of the assembly table, said:
“Its price is for every budget. You can enjoy it alone or share it with whoever you like. If you wish to, in the app you can synchronize a group to feel the same pleasurable sensations… there are more than twenty-five possible modes. I guarantee that it will suit any kind of fantasies… I have tri…”
The lawyer interrupted him, returning to his own speech:
“We would like to point out what we consider to be most problematic. The preliminary results do not show the presence of toxic substances or any side effects on the users tested”.
Carlo tried to bring the attention back to himself:
“The only positive effect would be its regulation and the taxes that it would earn the government if it was legalized. All these are positive side effects