Citizen Science No. 9 by Jamie Zvirzdin
The Flamingo Conspiracy: They’re Out To Get You
Vanessa, you need to hear this,” Matt whispered, clutching his phone tightly. The last 10 minutes had been the strangest of his life, and he didn’t know who else to turn to.
Vanessa groaned. “Matt, it’s 3 a.m., and we have work tomorrow.”
“Listen,” he said, “I woke up worried I’d forgotten my phone at the office, and I went out and found the phone in my car, but on my way back inside, I swear, the pink plastic flamingo—you know, the one you made me buy because you thought it was funny?—I heard it chirp.”
“A chirp? Really? Go back to bed, Matt.”
“No, Vanessa, listen to me. It was a digital chirp. Like a transmission of some sort.”
The next day, Vanessa couldn’t shake Matt’s early-morning call from her mind. Despite her skepticism, she valued her privacy, so she decided to take a closer look at her own flamingo when she got home from work. What she found made her blood run cold. The flamingo’s plastic beak had a tiny seam, almost invisible to the naked eye.
