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  He remembered his brief chat with Stanley when he exited the simulation for the first time: “It’s not that I didn’t like it,” he’d said. “It was incredible, but... well, doing what I do now I... I just haven’t been back in.”

  It all made sense now.

  Connor had so many questions. There were so many gaps in his knowledge, only having skimmed the surface in a quick debrief with Mana, the leader of the resistance he met through his surprise entry into their world, most of which he either didn’t understand, or he’d forgotten. He was probably in danger, Mana had told him that much. His interrogation under Hans Richter had led him to give up, uncontrollably, the reference code of the world in which he lived, or at least part of it. “As soon as they piece the jigsaw together,” Mana had told him, “they’ll come for you.”

  He had work to do.

  He picked up his BlackBook. I can’t trust this anymore.

  “Message Matt,” he said, the BlackBook opening a blank text message screen with a blinking cursor, ready for his voice command. “Round to mine ASAP.”

  Two minutes later he replied, “I don’t know if I can be part of this, bro, it’s too big for me. Plus I need to get back to work, my rent is way overdue.”

  He sighed, remembering what Jacob had told him. “The problem is everyone is happy with their lives being made easier. No matter what problems or threats are lurking on the horizon, if it doesn’t affect a person directly, there and then, they won’t act upon it.”

  He needed Matt, and with a few swift taps on his BlackBook he did the only thing he could, and the only thing he needed to.

  “Reply,” he said, triggering a new message to Matt. “I’ve just transferred 150k to your account. Round to mine ASAP.”

  Aside from the odd hint, Matt had never directly asked for money from Connor in his life. This amount was a drop in the ocean for Connor, and he needed Matt, for moral support if nothing else. Who else do I have?

  “ARE YOU SERIOUS???” replied Matt almost instantly. “Soz bro I’m going to Barbarella’s right now instead.”

  Connor laughed. “Just get here. Buy two of the oldest cell phones you can on the way.”

  He looked at his BlackBook, then around the room. He felt vulnerable, naked, like HALO was watching and waiting for him to divulge important information. He got up swiftly and showered, dressing in his usual casual attire, and headed downstairs. With a glance around the room, it began to dawn on him what his house had become — what the world had become. His cell phone was Silk Corporation, the Replicator, the TV, the very system that governed and organized his apartment and his entire agenda. The windows he looked through while sat at his desk in his old office were made by Silk, as were the vehicles that took him there. The hospital that glued the back of his head together after being hit with a bottle once, and the painkillers he was prescribed afterward. Everything was Silk Corporation.

  He had to get out of there.

  “Good morning, Mr. Dickens.”

  Matt bundled through the door. “You just gave me a hundred and fifty grand.” He stood there, his normal homeless-looking self, his thick long hair seemingly like it had never been brushed. His glasses were barely even on straight, let alone his clothes, such was the rush he must have been in to get over to Connor’s apartment.

  “Hello,” said Connor with a wry smile.

  “What the hell are you playing at?”

  “I can’t do this on my own, and if all you’re gonna do is bitch about your rent then I’ll just pay it and we can get on with it.”

  “Could you not have given me that, like, fifteen years ago?”

  “You would’ve just spent it on hookers and drugs.”

  “That cuts deep, bro,” replied Matt with his hand on his heart. “Now, yes, definitely, but I was different back then.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah, it would’ve been pizza and gaming subscriptions.”

  “Mmhmm,” replied Connor, looking down at Matt’s chubby frame.

  “Oh, fat shaming now, are we?”

  He replied with a smirk. “Did you find the cell phones?”

  “Na, it’s all just BlackBooks, everywhere. Also, everything’s like maximum three months old. What are they for? I’ve got a Series Eight BlackBook you can use.”

  “No, you don’t understand,” replied Connor, glancing around. “We need to talk, but not here.”

  “My place?

  “Nowhere is safe. Nothing is safe.”

  Matt balked. “Don’t you think you’re being a bit too paranoid bro?” he asked. “I mean, they said they don’t even know what, I dunno, world you’re in. They’re not gonna come and get you.”

  “They’ll come and get us,” said Connor in an attempt to bring it home to him. “Can you disable all the GPS and communication stuff on my car?”

  “What?”

  “We need to go to a place where there aren’t so many eyes. I don’t like the thought of my car telling everyone where we’re going.”

  “The surveillance on the highways will tell them where you’re going without that,” replied Matt.

  “Well, it’s a chance we’ll have to take. Grab some clothes from your place.” He pointed to Matt’s BlackBook in his hand. “Leave that behind.”

  Matt looked down, then back up at Connor. “Wait, what?”

  “Look, I can’t say specifically right now, but that guy told us we need to find, you know, another guy, but that’s going to take work. We need to be able to talk openly and there’s only one place I can think of right now where we can do that.”

  Matt sighed. “I’ve probably got clothes here.”

  “OK, let’s go.”

  After thirty minutes of scrabbling around for clothes, they left the apartment and made their way down to the basement.

  Nearing the car, Matt stopped to take a look at it. “It’s a thing of beauty, bro.”

  Connor’s car was a beautifully sleek two-seater sports car. It was low, no more than four feet from rubber to roof, and wide, almost as wide as it was long. The lines of the body were like a raindrop blown sideways in the wind, the deep metallic red paint glistening in the lights of the basement. The cool interior lights flicked on as they approached, showing off the luxurious faux white leather and chrome trim inside, which looked like a deluxe perfume counter, and the doors opened automatically with a hiss. Matt squeezed their two bags in the tight trunk at the front and climbed into the passenger seat, Connor’s old laptop held tightly in his hand.

  “What did you bring that for?”

  “I can’t hack Silk equipment with Silk equipment,” Matt replied.

  “Don’t you need a wire or something?”

  As he opened the laptop Matt looked at him with rolled eyes. “Leave it to me, bro.”

  After ten minutes of typing, he asked Connor to start the car. He pressed his thumb to the keypad and the car came to life.

  “OK, try calling my BlackBook.”

  “But it’s upstairs,” replied Connor.

  Matt stared at him frustrated. “Just call it.”

  Connor dialed and it began to ring, eventually going to voicemail. After a further few minutes of typing, Matt closed the laptop and nodded. “OK.”

  “What, that’s it?”

  “Try it again.”

  He swiped his finger on the main control screen on the dashboard and once again attempted to make a call, which threw up an error immediately.

  “Nice, what did you do?”

  Matt looked at him. “Do you actually want to know?”

  “Umm, sure.”

  “I installed some software that sniffs packages which are transmitted via the ECU. Then processed all the packages associated with your communication bus, dumped them and with a bit of analys—”

  “OK bored now,” said Connor, closing the doors. “Let’s go.”

  They set off quickly, heading out of the basement and onto the bright streets of Society Hill, Philadelphia. Connor pressed a button and
the windows, including the full glass roof, tinted on the outside of the car, while remaining clear and bright inside. Traffic was not too prohibitive in the city, with most people using the Gyro system, so they managed to escape the center in a few minutes on the way to the underground highway.

  “So where are we going?” asked Matt.

  “You’re sure we can talk in here?”

  “Should be good now.”

  “We’re going to see my dad,” Connor replied as he pulled off the city loop, the ambient white glow of the interior lights flickering on as they descended into the dark. “It’s the only place I can think of that doesn’t have any Silk equipment.”

  “None at all?”

  “I bought him a replicator but it’s somewhere in the basement I think,” he said, speeding up and joining the wide, six-lane highway. “AutoDrive still works, right? After you disabled everything?”

  “Umm, should do,” replied Matt. “You should try it.”

  Connor turned to him sharply. “What if it doesn’t?”

  “Just do it and stop crying,” he replied nonchalantly, pulling out a packet of tortilla chips and beginning to munch on them.

  Connor switched to AutoDrive and gingerly let go of the controls. Once it was clear the system was operational, he made himself comfortable.

  After a few silent minutes, Matt sniffed. “I think it’s time we talked about the elephant in the room, bro.”

  Connor looked at him blankly.

  “You know, that little thing about you having an alter ego in an infinite amount of alternate realities who took over the world and is now somehow controlling everyone?”

  “Oh yeah,” he replied. “That.”

  Mana had told them not to discuss anything, nothing at all until they were sure they were clear of Silk Corporation, and away from any Silk devices. The two of them had hardly spoken since they left Pure Reality, and had a lot to speak about.

  “So, is your name actually Connor Cooper?”

  Connor laughed calmly. “Yes, umm, no. I mean, well, it’s a long story.”

  “We’ve got a long drive.”

  “One for another day,” he replied.

  “I’ll add it to my list of questions.”

  “I have a lot of questions too,” said Connor. “Maybe Nolan can help answer them.”

  “Who is that guy anyway?”

  “Oh, you’ll like him. He’s a tech geek.”

  “I’m not a geek, I’m a hacker.”

  “That’s what I said, a geek.”

  Matt shrugged. “So he’s the same guy as you met in the other world, but lives here, right? Like his twin?”

  “Yeah, something like that. He said he’s met me before that too, but I’ve no idea what he meant.”

  “Met you before you…before you met…wait, this is confusing.”

  “I know, I haven’t even started to get my head around it.”

  Matt took a mouthful of chips, spilling half of his handful on the lush, white carpet. “What happens if you find him?”

  “I’ve no idea, I’m hoping he will be able to answer that.”

  “And do you have any other plan?”

  “Mana told me I have to find Nolan, so that’s step one. Step two I don’t know yet.”

  “Did that Mana guy say anything about how they control people?” he asked. “Like, is it some sort of brainwashing thing?”

  “He just said that nobody properly knows how they do it. There was this big event fifteen years ago, apparently. Silk supposedly saved the world from a nuclear war somehow, but there was more to it than that. He didn’t go into much detail about it but what he did say is that the U.S. military tried to take over Silk but couldn’t.”

  “What do you mean, couldn’t?”

  “Like, they weren’t able to. Physically.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “Yeah I know, maybe I’m not remembering it right,” replied Connor. “What I do know is that Hans guy made me break my own finger with his BlackBook.”

  “You broke your finger with his BlackBook?”

  “No, he pressed something on his BlackBook and I reached across and broke my own finger.”

  Matt looked stunned.

  “At the time I figured he could do it because it was a simulation, like software. Now I just can’t get my head around it.”

  “They controlled your body remotely?”

  “Yeah, they shot something into my back and after that it was like I was just a passenger in my own body. I could see and talk and everything but my arms and legs I couldn’t use, they did that for me.”

  “That’s off the scale, bro.”

  By now they were traveling at speeds upward of 220mph, the glass-like road surface as smooth as if they were standing still, the computer-guided AutoDrive keeping them safely in their lane and away from nearby vehicles.

  “So this happened fifteen years ago in their world?”

  “So he says.”

  “Why didn’t it happen here?” asked Matt.

  “No idea, that’s on my list of questions too,” replied Connor. “Right, I’m going to get some sleep. You?”

  “Snacks.”

  3

  Connor laughed as Matt snorted, waking violently to a bump as they entered Jacob’s driveway. Even though it had not been too long since he last saw him, Connor was excited to see his surrogate father once again. Gone were the days, the years when Connor would neglect to visit. He had suddenly realized the importance of their relationship, even more than before, and was desperate to make up for lost time.

  Matt had slept most of the way, head back, mouth agape, hand still in the chip packet, with Connor pawing over his memory and making notes of everything he could remember from his time with Mana. He had scribbled the basics the moment he entered his apartment the night before, but now he needed to piece everything together. As he stepped out of the car onto the rough gravel of Jacob’s driveway, into the crisp cool air of the Colorado Mountains, the man who would help him do just that, opened his front door with a beaming smile.

  “I only just got bloody rid of you!” he shouted. “I was looking forward to at least another ten years of boredom and solitude.”

  Connor laughed nervously and scratched his head. “Should I laugh at that?” he asked with a half-smile.

  “Definitely not,” said Jacob, stepping down from the porch and approaching him, arms outstretched. They embraced tenderly, Jacob just as happy to see him now as he was every time he visited.

  The other car door opened and out stumbled Matt, his long matted hair sticking out as though he had been wrestling, the chip packet still attached to his arm like a large biodegradable plastic mitten. He looked across to the pair of them with a vacant expression. “Hello,” he said. “Need to piss.”

  Jacob laughed. Connor knew he and Matt would get along great — Jacob loved a person with a strong personality, someone who spoke their mind and didn’t skirt around the subject. Despite being close to forty years of age, long rid of any of this kind of playground jealousy, there was still a niggling worry in the back of his mind Jacob would take to Matt’s personality in such a way it would highlight the flaws in his own. I guess that asshole therapist was right, he thought, remembering how he had scoffed at the previous suggestion he may be envious of Matt’s carefree attitude toward life.

  The sun was beginning to set behind the snow caps of the distant mountains, the chorus of insects and amphibians accompanying them as they walked to the house. As they stepped inside Matt gazed around the beautiful lounge area like a kid in a huge candy shop. Connor smiled. Hipster’s paradise.

  “So, to what do I owe this dubious honor?” asked Jacob as he took their jackets.

  “I’ve, umm...” he began, glancing around the room for any Silk Corporation electronics. “We have a lot to talk about.”

  “Whiskey?”

  “Perfect,” he replied, taking a seat on the soft cream sofa.

  “That’s all he drink
s now,” said Matt, slumping down next to him.

  “Do you have any Silk Corporation things here?”

  “Only that dusty replication thingy you bought me. I can’t get the packs of baby shit you have to put in it so it’s just down in the basement somewhere.” As Jacob approached he smiled as he noticed Matt nodding off. “So, how are those ‘same old same olds’?”

  Connor took a sip of whiskey. “They went away.”

  “That’s good,” he replied. He paused as he noticed Connor’s serious expression. “Right?”

  “I need your advice.”

  “You’re thinking of getting married?” he replied excitedly, almost spilling his drink.

  Connor smirked. “What do you know about the multiverse theory?” jumping straight to the point.

  Jacob looked perplexed. “OK, I was not expecting that to come next.” He took a gulp of his drink and sat back. “To answer your question, quite a lot.” When Connor didn’t respond he asked, “Do you want me to tell you what I know?”

  Connor nodded.

  “OK, so the multiverse theory suggests there is an infinite number of universes all existing alongside each other, each with their own laws of physics, each independent of the others. If you were to be able to travel to one of these alternate universes they could either be, to the naked eye, identical to this one, or so batshit crazy that you immediately have a seizure.”

  “What if I were to tell you that they do exist?”

  “I know they exist.”

  What? “You already know?”

  “Of course. The guys at the Calvin Laboratory proved it years ago.”

  “And you know we can travel to these places?”

  “Not that I was aware of. They made some sort of discovery but it wasn’t like a portal or some such that you could jump through, it was just the fact they exist. I haven’t heard about it since.”

  “Do you remember me telling you about Pure Reality?”

  “That mind game?”

  He nodded, then paused as he watched Jacob’s expression gradually change to one of concerned confusion. “You were right, dad.”