Noini Atoll

Claire found herself walking a cold city block, just to get some relief from her claustrophobic apartment, and Greg. The startup they worked at was pretty small, with everyone fresh out of college and seeing a lot of each other in the long hours. So it hadn't raised any red flags when she started dating Greg. Yes, he was higher in the org chart, but it was a small chart, and the job titles were very much in flux. He said if she stuck around five years, she'd be at the director level too. In those five years, she imagined them getting married too, and starting a family.

That was all before she found Greg's phone unlocked for once, mistook it for her own at first, and came across a series of texts with another woman. They weren't even sexts, they weren't romantic, they were just logistics. Always sorting out the time and place, over and over again.

Things had spiraled quickly after that. It wasn't like she could work with him and be civil about it. Not when she saw his attention already starting to turn towards another woman in the office. And thus she found herself out of a job. She couldn't go on living with him, but she also couldn't afford to move out. About all she could afford was a complete stranger's spare bedroom, with a side of bedbugs and stalking. No thanks! But she didn't know what else to do.

She wasn't sure who to even talk to about this. She just felt so stupid about it all. About hitching her career to her relationship and vice versa. So many eggs in one flimsy basket, and the whole time, she'd felt smug about not being broke all the time like her old college friends. She could already imagine how her brother Kyle would make fun of her. And at age 18, it wasn't like he was in a position to do much to help. Nor would Uncle Theo, who basically only gave Kyle a place to crash long enough to finish high school. He wouldn't have even offered that, if mom hadn't written it into her will.

Claire noticed a flier taped to a light pole. "Research participants needed. One year commitment." It showed a sandy beach with turquoise water. A web address and QR code to find out more.

This kind of flier was such an old-fashioned thing. Anyone could easily get more eyes by posting online. But it also carried a little impression of legitimacy because it was local, and wasn't free. Someone paid for the photocopies, and the tape. Someone walked around and put the fliers up. If this were something truly nefarious, they wouldn't be drawing attention to it in broad daylight like this.

She scanned the QR code and skimmed the site. The info there was sparse too. A sociological study that would require relocation, and would last up to one year. Selected participants would be compensated.

Some parts of the website said $1 million, other parts said half that, which was a little confusing. Either way, that number made Claire's imagination run wild. Yes, she might spend a year of her life doing something--probably not manual labor, or they would've specified that--but it might not be anything all that bad, and at the end she'd have enough to live on for quite a while. It was a large sum, but not large enough to sound like a scam for sure.

She googled the research institute's name, and found a basic page, with faculty portraits. The kind of boring, uninformative page so many academic institutions seemed to have.

Claire didn't know enough about this to jump at the opportunity, but she also didn't know enough about it not to. Seeing that thinking it over wasn't going to lead anywhere, she paused on the sidewalk long enough to fill out the short sign-up form.

Afterwards, she felt right about doing it, even if it wasn't a sure thing. They did say "selected" participants, after all. But at least it was something. An alternative to letting this thing with Greg ruin the whole year. Even if this research study didn't come through, maybe she could find some other way to go somewhere far away and make a clean break.

***

Kyle knew he was behind on finding a summer job, but it felt like he was always behind on everything. Behind on studying for final exams. Behind on applying to college. Every time he sat down at the computer, he knew he needed to find a job, or he'd have to face another "tough love" lecture from Uncle Theo about personal responsibility, and boots with straps. Kyle had never seen boots with straps.

Maybe Uncle Theo would let him stay over the summer until he had a dorm room to move into, but his uncle would clearly rather not. It was especially doubtful if Kyle didn't line up a job, and couldn't contribute to household expenses like Theo expected him to. The stipulations in Mom's were running out, as of Kyle's high school graduation day.

"Can't you spend a summer with the forest service?" he'd suggest. Somewhere far from here, was always the subtext. And it wasn't as though Kyle wanted to stay somewhere he wasn't welcome.

On a jobs site, Kyle came across a listing that said, "Research participants needed. One year commitment."

In the salary field underneath, it said $500k. That had to be a typo, but Kyle clicked through, curious. It wasn't exactly what he was looking for, but for that kind of money, he could consider a change of plans.

There weren't many details to be found, but the $500k number was repeated elsewhere. And there weren't any requirements or qualifications listed either.

He filled out the form without a doubt. Maybe it'd go nowhere, but Kyle was taking a "spray and pray" approach to this job search. Why self-reject, when you can make other people do it for you?

The form was just about who he was, and how to contact him. It wasn't even harvesting any sensitive data. At worst, they could sell his data to telemarketers or something.

Kyle didn't even count this as one of his job applications for the day--it was such a vague and uncertain prospect--but it got his momentum rolling, and he ended up applying to a dozen other jobs that day, and feeling pretty good about his progress. At least until Uncle Theo came home and belittled it.

The next morning, his cellphone buzzed. Uncle Theo, on his way out the door, gave him an annoyed look. Kyle couldn't believe that. How could he be annoyed, when this might be any of those dozen companies calling him back?

"Kyle Schaumburg, I'm with the Nokini Institute. We have some screening questions to go through, if you don't mind?"

"Sure," Kyle said, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

"If selected, would you be able to relocate to the institute for the duration of your participation in the study?"

"Yeah," he said at first. "Sorry, I guess I forgot. Where?"

The voice on the other end waited a moment, and added, "Is that a yes or a no, Mr. Schaumburg?"

How bad could it be, he wondered? He hadn't gotten to travel much, but he'd always enjoyed it when he had.

"Yeah, it's cool," he said. "Yes."

"And would you be able to spend up to one full year participating in the study?"

"Look, I'll have to defer my college admission, but I'm pretty sure I'd be able to do that," Kyle said, and the half million dollar figure loomed in his mind again. He might go for it whether or not the college would let him defer. "You can put me down as a Yes."

"Can you list your family members for me, Mr. Schaumburg?" the voice said. "Briefly please, we've got lots of calls to make today."

"Okay, there's mom and dad. Shit. No. They're...passed. There's my sister Claire, and Uncle Theo, and...I dunno, second cousins or some--"

"Thank you. We'll be in touch soon."

***

Claire packed her bag. A duffel's worth of clothes was all she had left; the rest was already packed away in a self-storage cubby.

"Hey," Greg said from the doorway. "I said 'hey'. What's th--where are you going?"

"You know I can't just keep staying here," she said, not bothering to turn towards him. Not when tears threatened to fall. "I can't keep paying half the rent, I can't keep getting in the way of you and Theresa--don't deny it--and I can't keep sleeping in a bed that you might slip into if you get drunk and nostalgic."

"But where--"

"I don't even know," she said, zipping up the duffel. "Some scientific study. But they're picking me up shortly, and it's none of your business anyway."

She hated that, even now, he was the one she was tempted to lean on with her tears and uncertainty. She'd done it before, many times, when they were together, and she knew exactly how comforting his embrace could be. How easy it was to entrust herself to someone a bit older and more experienced with the world. At least that temptation wouldn't last.

"Can I at least--" he began.

"No," she said, not even knowing what he was about to ask, or offer. Whatever it was, she couldn't let herself accept. Couldn't even risk letting him say it. There was no redeeming this, no putting them back together. "Sorry, but...no."

A gray rental SUV picked her up out front of the building. The driver didn't know anything more than she did. She was brought to the kind of airport she'd never been to before. There were no lines, no gates. Private planes only.

Her driver took her right to the jet, and she climbed the steps up to the cabin, feeling like Taylor Swift or something. The inside was smaller than any of the consumer-grade planes she'd been on, but there were still rows of seats, and one in particular for her.

The seat next to hers was occupied. "Kyle?"

He turned to her. It really as him, and his face went through a number of expressions.

"Claire, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I signed up for this year-long research--" she began, eager to skip over the part where she broke up with her boyfriend and lost her job in a most spectacular train-wreck fashion.

"Me too," he said.

"This is me," she said, eager to get seated. The plane's crew weren't hurrying them yet, but they were shutting the overhead bins, and the engines were coming to life.

It felt stupidly cramped, to squeeze in next to her brother on a long-haul private jet, but it was also unexpectedly comforting. She'd spent so much time trapped with Greg lately that she'd been touch-deprived. Not that she could ever bring a guy home.

The two of them quickly exchanged notes, about what little they knew.

"Was the question about family weird?" Kyle asked.

"I don't know," Claire said. "Maybe they were after an emergency contact. Or--"

"With both of us on this plane together? Either they picked us because we're related, or it's the biggest coincidence ever."

"We could ask the other passengers, but I get the sense they can't or won't tell us much," Claire said.

She'd noticed that the others on the plane looked like they belonged to a particular ethnic group--based on their skin tone, their clothes, and what little they said to each other, in a language she didn't recognize. She wished she knew enough that these could be clues about their destination.

It was an extremely long flight. The crew periodically came around with meals, and eventually Kyle slumped over against her shoulder, unable to keep his head up. Claire envied his ability to sleep wherever, and resigned herself to resting her eyes until they landed. But the feeling of her brother against her, it reminded her how nice it could be to just sleep with someone. Not in a sexual way, just catching z's together. Without even deciding to, she drifted off as well.

***

Kyle's excitement about this adventure had somehow turned to trepidation when he boarded the plane. It was only then that he started running through worst-case scenarios. Maybe he was flying his organs overseas to be harvested, he had no idea.

When Claire showed up, it cast everything in a new light. On one hand, it took some excitement out of the adventure if he wasn't leaving behind everyone he knew. So whatever he was in for, it wasn't what he had initially imagined, and somehow that made it an even bigger unknown. On the other hand, they would be safer together.

After the flight came a drive to a dock, and then a boat ride, blindfolded. This was even more mysterious, and he wondered again if they were going to just be taken somewhere and killed. But where or not the half-million payout was real, the Nokini Institute had clearly invested a lot in them already, just in travel expenses alone. And it helped that even blindfolded, he could feel Claire's warmth next to him.

The boat's engine quieted down, and the pilot removed their blindfolds as the boat idled into another dock.

On the dock stood a man in a lab coat. "Sorry about that, Mr. and Miss Schaumburg. It's just a precaution so that no one unauthorized can interrupt our work here."

Kyle climbed up on the dock first, but lost his footing and stumbled. When he was stable on his sea-legs, he reached down and helped Claire haul herself up. That was when he recognized her duffel bag from her time on the swim team years ago.

"I'm Dr. Harald Flavius," the man in the lab coat said. "Or perhaps not? Who knows. Follow me this way, please."

Kyle exchanged a look with Claire, about how strange this all was. She reacted the same way back at him.

They followed the doctor to a building away from the shore. Dr. Flavius said, "We must perform separate orientation interviews. I hope you lovebirds don't mind being apart for a few minutes."

It almost didn't register with Kyle at first, as he followed Dr. Flavius into one room, and a female doctor directed Claire into another. The room was completely silent when the door shut.

Kyle took a seat across the desk from Dr. Flavius. The latter began, "Firstly and most importantly, I need you to sign this NDA. I'm sorry, non-disclosure agreement. It is internationally binding."

"Why?" Kyle asked.

"It's a standard thing, Mr. Schaumburg," the doctor said reassuringly. "If study participants were to go public about what this study is about, it would have a tainting effect. Future participants would know more than they should when they arrive. Future participants might choose to participate or not, based on that additional information. It would very much compromise the scientific method, I'm afraid."

Kyle wasn't entirely sure about that, but he got the point, and signed.

"Good. Now, I have a series of questions I have to ask you. Every question I'm about to ask you is the same set of questions we ask all participants. Please answer honestly. First, are you sexually active?"

"Um, can you be more specific?" Kyle asked, sweating already.

"Let me see. Have you had sex?"

Kyle was half-tempted to ask for further clarification, but then he decided that whatever the doctor's idea of sex was, Kyle had done something that ought to fall into that category. "Yes."

"How many sexual partners have you had?" the doctor quickly moved on.

"Three. No wait, four."

"How often do you masturbate?"

Kyle felt like a frog in a boiling pot, wondering how it'd gotten to this point. Whatever, he thought. This could be a medical baseline question.

"I'd say once every two or three days," he said, and that was only because he'd been living with Uncle Theo, and opportunities had been few.

"Would you say your sister...Claire is attractive?" the doctor asked, consulting his notes to fill in the name.

"I guess so. Sure," Kyle said. Claire was a little much for guys to handle sometimes, but Kyle recognized that she was curvy and had a contagious smile. He wasn't too prudish to acknowledge that his sister was the kind of woman who could get male attention, and deserved it.

"Have you ever been attracted to her?"

Kyle's throat was getting dry now. His mind flashed back to a time he'd seen her doing laps in the pool, her head down, and he hadn't recognized her at first. Almost mistook her for a girl his age, not someone five years his elder. The way her hips glided through the water, the way her buttocks flexed when she kicked.

"No," he said.

"Have you ever had any sexual contact with your sister?" Dr. Flavius asked, as if this were part of his medical history.

"I just said..." Kyle began. Although you could have sexual contact with someone you weren't attracted to. Like that girl Lisa at that party. His number four. The night of the car crash. "No. Never."

The doctor set down his pen with an audible thud. "We're willing to accept you into the study, Kyle. The two of you. Which means I can now share with you what this study is about..."

Kyle had lost the thread a bit, but he tried to focus on what was coming next.

"Genetic studies have determined that incest has occurred amongst our ancestors at a rate higher than was previously identified via other methods of research, and here at the Nokini Institute, we are conducting a study to better understand this phenomenon," Dr. Flavius went on. "We've brought you here to this remote location to study and observe the behavior of sibling pairs. Upon completion of the study, you'll be well compensated, because of the considerable challenge we've had in finding qualified participants like you: a brother and sister who can put their normal lives aside for up to an entire year."

"Doctor, what exactly are you asking us to do?" Kyle asked, worriedly.

"Nothing," Dr. Flavius replied with good humor. "As much 'nothing' as you like! You and your sister will simply be living alone for one year, under experimental conditions. We'll observe and periodically gather data."

"You're saying, we can just chill for a year, and collect a quarter million each?" Kyle asked. This wasn't sounding like a challenge at all. Kind of a weird way to spend a year, maybe not something he'd ever want to tell anyone about, but it'd more than pay for itself. This was a free ride to college, and then some. "What's the catch?"

"Half a million each," the doctor corrected. "No catch. You must abide by the NDA, which you already signed. You can choose to leave at any time and end your participation in the study, but if you leave early, your stipend would be forfeit."

"But you said 'up to a year', right?" Kyle said. "Does it always take a year, or no?"

"There are certain circumstances under which we might agree to release you early," the doctor said. "Sorry, let me use consistent terminology. We might agree to release you from your participation early. Mainly that might occur if one of you needs medical care, such as a cancer or pregnancy..."

Given the purpose of the study, it grossed Kyle out to think about the possibility of pregnancy. It must happen, for the doctor to mention it. But that wouldn't happen to them, Kyle thought. As long as Claire wasn't pregnant already.

"Any other questions?" the doctor said, getting up. "If not, you may wait for Claire outside. In order to participate, you must both agree."

Kyle sat on the edge of the concrete building foundation. It was warm, even under an overcast sky. Small lizards crawled around quickly. Over the sound of the ocean surf, he didn't hear Claire approach. She sat down next to him, a nearness that he found himself second-guessing now.

"I had no idea it was going to be something like this," she said.

"You couldn't have known," Kyle said.

She took out her cellphone. It had no signal. "Want to waste a year here?"

"It's an easy half mil each," he said, for the sake of argument, not fully convinced. "I don't see what the challenge is."

She looked at him inquisitively. "Me neither, I guess. But we can never, ever talk about it. And I'm not just talking about the NDA."

"Are you pregnant, by any chance?" he asked.

"What??"

Kyle immediately regretted asking. "Just...something they said. Could've gotten the money quicker if you were."

"Well, no. I am definitely NOT pregnant right now. And glad of it," she said. "Not that it's any of your business."

"Hang on," Kyle said. "You're saying when I become an uncle, it won't be any of my business? Fuck that. If you ever have kids, I'm gonna be there for them no matter what." Not like Uncle Theo, he thought.