The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year-Volume Four by Jonathan Strahan

scan could give you that answer. But it could tell us if you've changed: your data have been remarkably clear. Not like Cookie's. Susana's." He held the fMRI image up again, admired it some more, then put it back in the pile.
    "What do you mean?"
    "The data. Yours were perfectly consistent. Hers were . . . erratic."
    "Erratic." Her mind seemed to be working in another dimension. It took an age for the thought to form. "Like lying?"
    "She's lied about a lot of things."
    "But she could have been lying to me? About how she feels?"
    He shrugged. "How can we ever know?"
    She stared at him. "The literature," she said, trying to force her slippery brain to remember what she'd just read . "Its says love's a feedback loop, right?"
    "In terms of individual brain plasticity, yes."
    "So it's mutual. I can't love someone if she doesn't love me." If it was love.
    He gave her a look she couldn't interpret. "The data don't support interdependence." He paused, said more gently, "We don't know."
    Pity, she realized. He pities me. She felt the first flex and coil of something so far down she couldn't identify it. "What have you done to me? What else have you done to me?"
    "To you? For you."
    "You made me feel something for a woman who fucked for money. Who had her mind fucked for money."
    "So did you, if you think about. Just at one remove."
    "I didn't."
    "So, what, you did it for science?"
    Cody changed direction. "Does Susana know?"
    "I'm flying to Atlanta tomorrow."
    "Do you have her sound files with you?"
    "Of course."
    "Let me hear them."
    "That would be unethical."
    Unethical. "I think you might be a monster," she said, but without heat.
    "I have a strange way of showing it, then, wouldn't you say? For the price of a few embarrassing experimental sessions you won't ever remember, I won you a contract, a girlfriend and a night on the town."
    She stared at him. "You expect me to be grateful . . . "
    "Well, look at this place. Look at it. Bare walls. Fish, for god's sake."
    "Get out."
    "Oh, come on—"
    "Out."
    "By tomorrow it will all fall into perspective."
    "I swear to god, if you don't leave now I'll break your face." She sounded so weirdly calm. Was this shock, or was it just how people in love, or whatever, behaved? She had no idea. "And you can put those papers down. They're mine, my private thoughts. Leave them right there on the table. The thumbdrive, too."
    He pulled the drive, laid it on the papers, stowed his laptop and stood. She held the door open for him.
    He was halfway through the door when she said, "Richard. You can't tell Susana like this."
    "No?"
    "It's too much of a shock."
    "You seem to be coping admirably."
    "At least I already knew you. Or thought I did. You'll be a complete stranger to her. You can't. You just can't. It's . . . inhumane. And she's so young."
    "Young? Don't make me laugh. She makes you look like an infant." He walked away.
     
    Cookie danced. She didn't want to think about the phone call. Didn't want to think about any of it. Creep.
    But there was the money.
    The lights were hot, but the air conditioning cold. Her skin pebbled.
    "Yo, darlin', let's you and me go to the back room," the suit with the moustache and bad tie said. He was drunk. She knew the type. He'd slip his hands from the chair, try cop a feel, get pissed off when she called in Danny, refuse to pay.
    "Well, now," she said, in her special honey voice. "Let's see if you've got the green," and pushed her breasts together invitingly. He flicked a bill across her breasts. "A five won't buy you much, sweetie."
    "Five'll buy you, babydoll," he said, hamming for his table buddies. One of them giggled. Ugly sound in a man, Cookie thought. "Five'll buy you five times!"
    "And how long did it take you to come up with that, honey?"
    "The fuck?" He looked confused.
    "I said, your brain must be smaller than your dick which I'd guess is even smaller than your wallet, only I doubt that's possible," and she plucked the bill from his fingers,