It took the rest of the morning for Felicity to convince Jenna she wasn’t going to get fired.

“Jenna, seriously,” Felicity continued. “In my first recording session, I got tongue-tied and accidentally triggered a really important doctor to recall a childhood memory of some creepy clown at a circus.”

“Eww, really?” Jenna laughed.

“Yeah, just chill,” Felicity said. “But seriously, you’re gonna have to show me the footage of these supposed ‘convulsions’.”

“But I’m supposed to delete it, right?” Jenna asked.

“Well, duh,” Felicity said, lowering her voice. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t give it a quick look first.”

Jenna begrudgingly pulled up the morning’s files, including the room’s audiovisual records.

“It would have been like 20 minutes in,” Jenna said as she jumped the time mark ahead in the playback module.

Watching the recording made Jenna anxious all over again. Felicity leaned past her and clicked a couple of settings while the recording progressed. An additional window opened that showed what Jenna’s interface would have shown in real time.

“Oh, that’s neat,” said Jenna.

“Yeah, I’m curious about something,” Felicity replied.

“Oh, here it comes,” Jenna said, cringing her face in anticipation.

“Oh my gosh,” Felicity said as the recording showed Mr. Ternal fly up out of his chair and rip the probes off his temples.

Jenna put her hands to her face.

“Ok, so hold on,” Felicity said, pulling the recording back. “See, you didn’t get the amygdala warning until after you spoke out of turn. It wasn’t about those technical phrases before. You know you’re only supposed to read the prompts as written, right?”

“No, of course,” Jenna replied. “When I said the whole ‘this is just a formality’ part, I realize now that I was speaking directly into his brain. I…I messed up.”

“Yeah,” Felicity said while clicking through additional settings. “Here’s the root file associated with the phrase ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Ternal, we’re almost done, here. This is basically a formality at this point.’”

Felicity pulled up a memory-based video file. This was one of the elements produced from Mr. Ternal’s memories.

“Whoa,” Felicity said. “I’ve never seen a video root this clean before.”

“Really?” Jenna asked.

“It’s crazy,” Felicity said. “Is this a courtroom?”

She clicked play on the video file to show a point-of-view recording of a judge, an older black woman, looking directly at the viewport.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Ternal, we’re almost done, here,” the judge said with a warm, sympathetic smile. “This is basically a formality at this point.”

“Dang,” Felicity said, clicking pause on the video. “How did you get that exact phrase?! What are the odds?”

Jenna didn’t respond, but just sat, dumfounded. Felicity clicked play on the clip again.

“We’ll go to closing remarks,” the judge could be heard saying, but the point of view turned to look across to the other side of the courtroom. At the opposite table sat two men and a woman. The men looked stoically at the judge. The woman stared down at her lap. The point of view lingered on the woman while the lawyer nearest Mr. Ternal spoke.

“Your honor,” said a warbly voice. “I think we know that these lewd and slanderous allegations are nothing but a sad attempt for Miss Montgomery to take advantage of my client’s position and status. Mr. Ternal is a cornerstone in his community. A trusted and respected expert in public safety. He has neither the time nor the interest nor the inclination to partake in these…disgusting rumors. Miss Montgomery should be ashamed of the time and resources she has wasted for everyone here.”

Mr. Ternal’s point of view turned back to see the judge avoiding eye contact as she read over documents while the defense attorney spoke.

“What the…,” Felicity said, pausing the video again. “What is this?”

Jenna watched her hover the cursor over a new root that appeared in the sidebar of the video memory.

“It just looks like another root,” Jenna said. “What’s wrong with that?”

“I’ve never seen a root within a root,” Felicity said. “That means that this memory was strong enough that he knew what he was thinking and remembering in that moment. Remember so strongly that it created a sub-memory.”

“And that’s not normal?” Jenna asked.

“I mean, for something as stressful as being in court, it doesn’t surprise me,” Felicity replied. “But usually, it wouldn’t be clear enough to be flagged as an additional file. I’m guessing it’s probably related to why this video file is so crisp.”

“Should you open it up?” Jenna asked.

Felicity hesitated. She looked around the mostly empty office.

“Real quick,” she said in a more serious tone.

A new view window opened. It was another video memory. The frame at the beginning showed the same woman who had been sitting across the courtroom. She stood in a dimly lit room and wore an odd expression on her face.

“I don’t like this,” Jenna said, a hot void forming in her stomach.

Felicity took a deep breath and clicked play. The video showed the woman looking about. She rubbed her arm and appeared rather nervous.

“What’s the matter?” Mr. Ternal could be heard saying. “This is a paid internship. Surely you knew you’d have to work some extra hours?”

The hot pain in Jenna’s stomach spread to her arms and legs. His tone was completely different than how he had conducted himself that morning.

“I…I don’t mind working extra hours,” Miss Montgomery said quietly. “I’m just not comfortable with…”

“With what?” Mr. Ternal laughed. “This?”

The point of view rotated down to show him beginning to unzip his pants.

“Oh my God. Oh my God,” Felicity said, hurriedly smacking the keyboard and clicking out the windows.

Jenna’s stomach turned, and she realized she had involuntarily covered her face. She slowly stood up out of her chair.

“Oh my God,” Felicity repeated, also standing and putting her hands to her forehead. “We shouldn’t have looked at that. You need to delete it. Now.”

“Delete it?” Jenna demanded. “That video just proved that he did whatever that poor girl accused him of.”

“Yeah, Jenna,” Felicity shot back. “And several district judges have already ruled that memory technology isn’t admissible in a court of law. Memento even tried to get it pushed to the Supreme Court back in the day. A whole new division dedicated to essentially lie detecting.”

“Why isn’t it usable?” Jenna asked. “Is this not factual?”

“They ruled the technology a faulty source of fact,” Felicity replied.

“But we know it’s not,” Jenna snapped. “The whole point of our jobs is to pull down factual information from people’s memories.”

“Because it essentially amounts to someone incriminating themselves, Jenna,” Felicity replied curtly. “Now, look. This isn’t good, and you need to get rid of it. If you’re worried about something getting you fired, it’s that!”

Matt Hebert is an engineer and self-published author. His dopamine-fueled creative pursuits have spanned from chicken keeping, sand sculpture, acting, and public speaking, but writing is nearest and dearest to his heart. He lives in Bellevue with his wife and two daughters. You can find him on Instagram at @jerkofalltradeshebert or email him at matt.hebert.books@gmail.com

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