Focus
Brent looked up at the nurse, her name badge said Tammy. He noticed her long eyelashes, wondered if they were real. “The Doctor told you this is dangerous right?” she asked him. “Is it legal?”, he retorted, defensive, nervous. She stopped and stared into his eyes, “You a cop?”. “Not today” was the best he could come up with. The mind wipe had taken out half his team and left him with a missing week and a nagging sense of dread. They’d been onto something big, only explanation for the group amnesia.
She tightened the straps that held his body to the Xreality machine and gave him two pills. He’d already take three military grade blockers in the waiting room. All he could think of was vodka and cigarettes.
Xreality let you share a mindspace with other users. Mind sharing was common practice across a range of industries and had recently become extremely popular recreationally. It was safe, since either user could choose to leave the simulation at any time. Brent was going to mindshare with a duplicate of his own self. The danger was, with two copies of his mind running concurrently, he could double down on his own psychosis and fry his amygdala. As the machine spooled up, he felt his body lighten, the swirling pixelated lights behind his closed eyes forming the familiar patterns.
Something was wrong. The interrogation room was as he remembered, but he wasn’t supposed to be in the chair. He was supposed to be in the corridor getting a coffee and letting the suspect sweat. He definitely wasn’t supposed to be wearing the cuffs.
A different Brent walked into the interview room, steaming mug of tea in one hand, a fat battered dosier in the other. Kicking the door shut, he flopped down into the opposite chair and gave seated Brent his meanest cop stare. It was going to be a long night.
Mrs Yamamoto hit freeze and popped her headset up. She loved her cop dramas almost as much as her bonsai trees. She walked out onto the deck to examine her prized Pinus sylvestris. Scot’s pine was extinct in its native Europe. A victim of climate change and unchecked economic growth. She leaned forward and breathed in the smell of pine resin and fresh pure dirt.
Sandy popped her headset off and looked out of the window at the blasted Martian landscape, she wondered if she would ever see a tree.
Brent’s right eye twitched again. It meant he was still alive.
She tightened the straps that held his body to the Xreality machine and gave him two pills. He’d already take three military grade blockers in the waiting room. All he could think of was vodka and cigarettes.
Xreality let you share a mindspace with other users. Mind sharing was common practice across a range of industries and had recently become extremely popular recreationally. It was safe, since either user could choose to leave the simulation at any time. Brent was going to mindshare with a duplicate of his own self. The danger was, with two copies of his mind running concurrently, he could double down on his own psychosis and fry his amygdala. As the machine spooled up, he felt his body lighten, the swirling pixelated lights behind his closed eyes forming the familiar patterns.
Something was wrong. The interrogation room was as he remembered, but he wasn’t supposed to be in the chair. He was supposed to be in the corridor getting a coffee and letting the suspect sweat. He definitely wasn’t supposed to be wearing the cuffs.
A different Brent walked into the interview room, steaming mug of tea in one hand, a fat battered dosier in the other. Kicking the door shut, he flopped down into the opposite chair and gave seated Brent his meanest cop stare. It was going to be a long night.
Mrs Yamamoto hit freeze and popped her headset up. She loved her cop dramas almost as much as her bonsai trees. She walked out onto the deck to examine her prized Pinus sylvestris. Scot’s pine was extinct in its native Europe. A victim of climate change and unchecked economic growth. She leaned forward and breathed in the smell of pine resin and fresh pure dirt.
Sandy popped her headset off and looked out of the window at the blasted Martian landscape, she wondered if she would ever see a tree.
Brent’s right eye twitched again. It meant he was still alive.