Read an Excerpt
Miles. Milo Mindbender. He’d taken the name from that guy in Catch-22. Tom should have known not to trust him but what could he do? He was lying here, as helpless as a monkey strapped to a table in a lab.
He heard him from way down the corridor, boot heels clicking on the floor. Swish of the door. Nothing wrong with his hearing; it was more acute, if anything. A displacement of the hospital air, the tang of fags and Ralph
Lauren aftershave added to hospital antiseptic. They say the other senses, the ones you’re left with, kick in, don’t they? He’d found that to be true.
The girl stopped reading. She was a friend of his sister’s,
part of a rota of people who came in to talk, read, play music, even sing songs to him. Anything to try and get through. That was the idea but Tom found most of them tedious, what they did pointless; he wanted them to go away as soon as they came through the door. She was different.
He couldn’t remember her name—there were a lot of things he couldn’t remember—but he liked it when she was here. Just her and him and the chunk, beep and chirp of the machines, as regular as heartbeats and breathing,
which was what they were there to monitor and do. He liked to hear her. It gave him a peaceful feeling. He was annoyed at the disruption that Milo would bring.
Milo was tall and skinny, dressed in a black suit: slimfit,
tailored with narrow trousers, narrow lapels, over a white shirt and narrow black tie. How did Tom know that? Because that was what he always wore.
He came close, casting an eye over the machines that were keeping Tom alive. He was a whizz at electronics.
Tom hoped he wouldn’t fiddle with anything, or think of making a few little adjustments…
Milo walked round the bed, hands in pockets, his fingers turning over coins.
He stopped. Spun around. He always moved like that.
Still, then quick and jerky. Each movement unexpected.
“Get us a coffee, love, would you?” The chink of coinage.
“There’s a machine down the corridor. White. Two sugars. Get one for yourself while you’re at it.”
“Why should I?” The girl’s voice was low and even,
but not because she was the mousy quiet type. There was a yawn at the back of it, as if she didn’t care a whole lot.
“Because I’m asking!” Milo didn’t like “No”, especially from girls. “Give us a bit of guy time. Boy talk, you know?”
“They’re not even sure he can hear anything,” she said.
“That right? So why are you here boring the arse off him with that book?”
The book snapped shut; the chair scraped on the floor.
“I’ve got money, thank you,” she said.
Milo pocketed his change.
The door opened. Closed.
There was just him and Milo.
“How ya doin’, Big Man? Not so good, from what I
hear. Natalie’s doing a great job on social media—thought you’d like to know. You’ve got a ton of followers. I mean,
Hashtag heroinacoma is going even better. She’s even raising funds. Not sure what they’re for. I’ve tried to get her to invest in MiloMindbender but so far, no dice. Here’s the thing…” he said, coming closer. Tom could smell the smoke on his clothes, the mint on his breath. There was a rustle as he took something out of his pocket. “You’re lying here not doing anything and I’ve got a little something that might fill those empty hours. It’s real small.
Practically invisible. It’s called Echeneis, named after some kind of magic fish. Made from this wonder substance. Even
I don’t understand the science. All you need to know is that it works like so…” He was very near. Tom felt something go into his ear. “At least, we think it does.” Tom heard the shrug in his voice. “We don’t really know.”
What is it? Tom wanted to yell at him. What do you mean, you don’t know how it works? What have you done?
But he couldn’t move, couldn’t even blink, and it was in there now.
Tom felt Milo step back, watching, as if he was waiting for something to happen.
“The potential is huge,” Milo went on when nothing did. “It will take gaming to a whole new level.” He carried on talking, filling the time, waiting to see what the result might be. “I mean, we’ve been gaming since we were little kids, right?” He laughed. “Xbox and all that.
I always won.”
Of course he did. He was a genuine genius. He passed
A level Maths and Computing when he was twelve. He didn’t play games any more—he wrote them. He was a bitcoin millionaire well on his way to becoming a real one. He ran his own software company from his garage,
MiloMindbender and Associates. There were no Associates.
He made a ton of money hosting sites where people buy and sell things, although he never said what exactly: “Oh,
you know, this and that.”
“Well, here’s the thing. What you’ve got in your ear,
it’s gonna make the gaming we’ve got right now look like old-style Atari ping-pong. You’re always on the outside,
right? Looking at your console, your computer, your tablet, or phone, or whatever. But what if you could be actually inside the game?” His voice went dreamy. “What if you could be living it? Not just hear and see but feel,
smell, taste it—just like in the real world. What if it can become your real world? VR headsets? Nowhere near this…
It will take you places, bro. Give you experiences…”
This thing in his ear, it was something to do with games and gaming. Milo’s new project.
“You know? I’m almost jealous…” Milo was saying.
Almost. Not quite.
“It’s, hmm, experimental. A prototype,” he was saying.
“Yeah. Not one hundred per cent certain what the effect might be but I figured you might as well do something useful while you’re lying here.” His voice lost its easy,
bantering tone, and dropped to a menacing purr. “Let’s face it, you’ve got nothing to lose, have you? Hey!” Tom heard the rustle of the shirt inside his sleeve as Milo reached across him. “I wonder what this does?”
Just then, the door opened.
Milo moved quickly away from the bed.
“Gotta go,” he said. “Things to do.”
“Your coffee?”
“Another time, maybe.”
Tom started fitting.
The coffee hit the deck.
Alarms went off.
“That’s very cool.” There was a laugh from Milo as the girl ran out to get help. “I like to know how things work. See you, bro.”
“You’ll have to leave now,” a female voice said—one of the nurses.
“No problem, darling. I’m off.”
A doctor came in. Adjustments were made to this,
to that, but Tom wasn’t there any more. He was somewhere else entirely. Somewhere he’d never been, never seen, never known. It was something to do with Milo,
he did know that. What had he done to him? And now
Tom was here—wherever “here” was—how was he going to get back?
