Page 71 - TruthAboutLyingFinal

Nicholas Boothman
Chapter 5
The Pressure Cooker
For six weeks, they worked in Jinji’s apartment and slowly forgot what day it was.
The place was a cramped two-bedroom in a building that leaned toward condemned and seemed proud of it. Whiteboards covered the walls. Code filled three monitors. Coffee cups gathered on every surface like evidence.
Henry moved in after the first week.
Claire brought food every few days and asked questions no one wanted to answer.
Vincent came most evenings after the soup kitchen closed. He called it spiritual oversight. Jinji called it philosophical drag.
They tested Verax on themselves first.
That was the rule.
No one else would face the machine until they had.
The first test left Henry on the bathroom floor with his forehead against the tile, waiting for his stomach to stop turning.
The question had been simple. “Do you still love Rachel?”
He had said no.
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