Page 283 of Claim Me
With quiet solemnity, I say,
"And Iclaim you, Gabriel. Forever."
ONE YEAR LATER
Blue
I walk into the Malden board meeting with something fluttering in my stomach. Butterflies, maybe. More likely stress. I rarely feel it, but this is one of those moments. I know I’m about to face massive resistance.
Gabriel walks beside me, and hidden inside my womb is our second child, due in six months.
"Gentlemen, today is a historic day, one that will permanently change the future of this company and the entire world…"
Silence fills the room. The only person who knows what I’m about to reveal is Adams, the head of my development department. He sits rigid in his chair, visibly stressed, worried about how this discovery will be received.
I continue.
"For years, all of us have worked toward finding a way to detect genetic compatibility between people. We had breakthrough after breakthrough, but we never found the holy grail of modern science: how to identify a True Mate remotely."
I take a deep breath.
"Until now. For the past two years, I’ve been working on this method… until I finally perfected it. And today, I want to present it to all of you."
I step toward a specialized scanner while Gabriel moves to the second one.
I raise my hand for the board members to see.
"This is just my hand. And this is all it takes to identify my True Mate. As long as he does the same."
I press my palm against the scanner. A glowing blue symbol appears on the screen, dense and intricate like a living fractal.
"This is what I call an electric fingerprint. In reality, it’s an energy profile… the entire electrical signature of my body translated into a visual pattern."
Gabriel places his hand against the second scanner, and beside my energy print, another appears on the screen.
Identical.
Beneath both patterns, green letters pulse across the display.
"Match!"
Then a special animation we created shows two images gradually overlaying one another and brightening in a burst of blue light, before ultimately merging into a single image.
"To find your True Mate, all you have to do is leave your imprint, and the other person has to do the same. Then the database I created, called Blue Base, links those two prints together and produces a precise match between fated mates."
A murmur spreads through the room. Directors exchange glances, and I can already see the emotions building inside them.
But I keep talking.
"Yes, it really is that simple. No blood tests. No full genetic sequencing. No expensive analyses. All we need are accesspoints where people can leave their energy prints, and suddenly all of this becomes possible—"
The oldest member of the board, Doctor Volkovic, speaks first.
"Do you understand the consequences of something like this, Mister Lowen?"
"Of course I do."
"This database would change the entire world, but in ways that would destroy enormous sectors of industry, especially medicine, but many others as well. Divorce attorneys. Surgeons. Pharmacies. Doctors treating chronic illness…"
