Long Division (11 page)

‘James! Stop!’ I jumped forward and grabbed his arm as he pulled it back to slam into the man’s face yet again.

Upon our contact, James whirled on me, eyes unrecognising, and bashed me in the nose. Hard. I reeled back against the opposite wall, head spinning, eyes watering. I looked up to him. Awareness of what he’d done crossed his face, like a dog that had just bitten its owner. He shied back guiltily. I tasted the metallic tang of blood in my mouth.

The other man saw his opening, and with an angry growl, dove for James. I managed to butt between them before they could go at it again.

‘Break it up! Enough!’

I pushed against James’s shoulders stubbornly, struggling to propel him back the way we’d come. At last, momentum and I were able to budge him.

He bristled at the man as I pulled him away. His shoes scraping against the gritty pavement in his reluctance to leave.

‘You
ever
come near me or those near me again, I’ll kill you!’ he snarled in a low, deadly voice which sent chills down my spine.

‘James!’ I snapped again, jerking him back in alarm.

The man, collapsed against the alley wall, face a bloody mess, actually managed to grin up at James. ‘Come back if you ever get curious. You know where to find us!’ He sketched a wave.

James growled and lurched back for the man but I was prepared this time and managed to shove him back onto the street. ‘No! Leave it! Just leave him be, okay? Settle down!’

I wasn’t sure if he was listening. His eyes were still fixed on the alley. His lip was broken, I noticed, trailing a thin line of blood down his chin.

Finally, he stilled, sniffed and wiped the back of his hand across his jaw, streaking the blood. For a moment, he just stood there, breathing hard.

‘I’m sorry I hit you,’ he muttered after a moment, raising his eyes to almost meet mine.

He reached out his hand and brushed his thumb across the skin beneath my nose, wiping the blood away. I was surprised by the contact of his action and pulled back as nonchalantly as I could—because something in the pit of my stomach didn’t want him to stop.

‘It’s all right,’ I muttered, feeling awkward. I ran a hand across my nose myself, trying to stop the blood. ‘You’ve got a hell of a punch, there.’

James grinned, a little too proudly.

People standing outside the pub, beers in hands, glanced towards us in mild curiosity. No doubt seeing two men emerge from a dark alleyway together, grinning and ruffled, was enough to raise eyebrows.

I ignored the stares and turned to James. ‘What the hell was that about? Who was that?’

James waved my question away, unconcerned. ‘Don’t bother yourself with it.’

‘But—’

He scowled, then, almost like he was reciting, ‘He was just a man I met in the pub.’

I shook my head in confusion. ‘But I was
with
you the whole time. You didn’t speak to anyone!’ I frowned. ‘Right up until the fight, of course.’

James gave me an irritated look.

I sighed, annoyed. ‘Fine. Whatever. But James, you
can’t
do that! You can’t just attack someone like that.’
Or threaten to kill them.
I felt like I was explaining this to a child.

And he clearly wasn’t listening.

‘James?’

He sighed deeply, peevishly. ‘Yes?’

‘Are you all right?’

He directed his eyes to the sky. ‘Yes, I’m fine.’

I looked up at him. ‘Was that man from…InVizion, by any chance?’

James, to my surprise, grinned. ‘You see me have a go at someone and automatically think it’s some agent from InVizion?’

I shuffled. ‘Well, considering the way you’ve been talking, yeah.’ Something nagged at me about the man. Something I couldn’t place. Somewhere lost in my head. Whatever it was, I wasn’t coming up with it.

He gave me a look. ‘You wouldn’t be too far off.’

I thought about all the other InVizion thugs I’d seen so far. The man in the pub had not been well dressed. Jeans, tshirt, trainers, from what I could see. Not exactly the black suits and ties of the InVizion employees I’d seen dogging James so far. He looked like any normal, young bloke who was just coming in for a drink.

‘Doesn’t seem the type,’ I said after a moment.

James laughed. ‘And I do?’

‘Good point.’

I struggled to find something to say. Tried to grasp hold of one of the hundreds of questions swirling through my head. ‘Why don’t you go after the rest of them like that?’

James frowned in confusion. ‘What?’

‘I mean you didn’t even give that man time to order his drink before you laid in to him.’

James looked a little too chuffed and I gave him a look of admonishment, which he completely ignored, or didn’t catch. ‘He’s not exactly affiliated with them. He’s not affiliated with anyone, besides himself, as far as I know.’

‘So you
do
know him. And he just
happened
to be in this pub tonight, out of all places, completely by chance?’

‘Oh,’ James growled, ‘I never said that.’ He started off at a quick clip.

I hurried after him, not sure where he was going but not wanting to be left behind.

7:Symmetry

And thus our lives went on for the blurring months. My relationship with James grew into something deeper than I’d ever expected. And I could easily call him my best friend.

Ever since he brought me into his world, and InVizion, our conversations had begun to last long into the nights. I now followed the news for him, paid attention to gossip, watched for any stories on the tech front. News, and conspiracies.

For the most part, InVizion had been very quiet about the launch. Nothing exciting or shocking. Yet as the date drew nearer, the adverts began to appear, people grew more excited, and I grew more nervous.

And just three months ago, it was released.

I didn’t know what I was expecting when the technology came out. The world to end? It didn’t happen. There were no wild roaming gangs of telekinetic superhumans. Stories here and there popped up, but for the most part, nothing more than glowing reports of how fantastic the technology was. The disabled were finding a new lease on life, able to do things that they had up to this point, only dreamt about. Performances in school were increasing and even pub quizzes showed an improvement among the participants.

Most everyone I saw these days owned a device, or were queuing up for the headchip upgrades. That’s what
everyone
was waiting for. Integrated technology, the latest obsession of the world. I might have been the only person in London who wasn’t—besides the homeless person who always sat outside of my tube station on my ride home.

I had just gotten off work when my mobile rang. It was James. He’d memorised my schedule rather early on in our relationship.

‘Hello?’

‘I need to show you something tonight.’

I let out a breath. ‘Uh, okay. Do you want me to come over?’

‘Yes. Now.’

He had already hung up before I could respond. That was the way James worked. And I was always trapped into whatever he wanted. However, I couldn’t really complain. I had nothing better to do and I’d learnt by now that James wouldn’t call me unless it was something interesting. And it was always something interesting when it came to James.

I deviated from my normal route home and headed towards James’s flat, feeling more than a little anxious. What would he have for me this week? What new discovery had he made now? I wished, for once, it would be something nice.

I arrived at his flat and he threw open the door before I could even press the buzzer. He had a somewhat alarming wild look in his eyes; fag in the corner of his mouth.

‘Ah, Mark!’ He pulled the door open wider, speaking round his cigarette. ‘Do come in!’

I hesitated for the briefest of moments, asking myself if I really wanted to know, but the temptation was too great. With a wry grin I couldn’t help but have, I followed the trail of cigarette smoke into the darkness of his flat.

‘So, what’s this about?’ I asked cautiously, looking round at the gloomy, smog-filled interior.

James was already darting back across the room toward the sofa. I followed him and my eyes fell on to two spindly devices set on the table. By now I knew what they were: two Godlink headsets.

I sat down across from James, who was practically bursting with excitement. He looked to me and then down to the table before him.

‘Godlink,’ I said, ‘lovely. What about it?’

It was then that I noticed: the devices had been completely cannibalised.

James pointed to the two of them. ‘This one is mine. The prototype, the one I showed you when we first met.’

I nodded. ‘I’m well acquainted with it.’

James nodded curtly. ‘Good.’ He gestured to the other device. ‘And this is the new one.’

I, after a quizzical glance to James to make sure it was all right, picked it up. He was watching me sharply, making me feel a little self-conscious. I didn’t know much about technology.

‘I’m assuming there is something different about this new one, besides what’s on the surface.’

‘You would be correct.’

I glanced up to him questioningly. ‘Care to help me out a bit?’

James sighed, as if I were asking an incredibly stupid, tiring question, and swept it back from me. ‘Here, come, look.’

Obediently, I leant in closer. James spread his fingers wide and slid them from the other end of the table to in front of me. Against the glass table what he’d accessed glowed to life in drawings. It was blueprints.

‘This is my design for the Godlink.’

I had studied the plans before. ‘Yes, I recognise them.’

James pulled over another piece of electronic “paper”. ‘I’ve spent the last few weeks attempting to dissect the damn thing. It has not exactly been easy. They don’t want people seeing what is inside it.’

‘No, I’d imagine not.’

James tapped the new sheet with his stylus. ‘I haven’t completed my research yet, but so far, this is what I’ve discovered.’

I figured that James wasn’t going to tell me. He wanted me to understand on my own, so I obediently began to compare the two. It didn’t take me long to spot what James wanted me to see.

‘Ah, yes. I see.’

‘What?’

‘Well, as I said, they’re different, aren’t they?’

James beamed, clearly proud of me. ‘Very good work, Mark.’ His face became serious. ‘Yes, the released device has completely new parts in it, here, here and here.’ He pointed to several spots on the blueprint.

I shrugged. ‘Well, that’s probably normal, isn’t it? I mean, your device was just the prototype. Surely they would have altered things since when you were there to make it work better.’

James was shaking his head the entire time I spoke. ‘No, no, no. Alterations, I can accept, improvements, yes, of course that is to be expected, but not completely new parts! We designed this to work…perfectly the way it was.’

I once again looked the device over. It was much sleeker than James’s model, thinner, more attractive, but apparently InVizion had seen it fit to change something other than its aesthetic appearance. ‘I suppose you have a reason for being upset other than them altering your
perfect
designs? Do you have any idea what these new pieces do?’

James nodded. ‘Unfortunately, yes.’

I raised my brows. ‘I don’t like the sound of that. What is it?’

‘A receiver of some sort.’

I looked up at him sharply. ‘What?’

He nodded. ‘In fact, it’s working right now. Not just when you’re wearing it. At all times.’

I set the Godlink back down delicately. ‘W—what is it receiving?’

James spread his hands. ‘Haven’t the foggiest. But it has no reason to be there. We know it has a transmitter. That is what works with the brainwaves, helps the user manipulate the world around him more effectively. But a
receiver
, now, that is interesting. That would suggest that there is something coming
in
from an outside source, wouldn’t it?’

That familiar uncomfortable feeling in my gut was back. It always seemed to arise whenever we talked about InVizion, which was distressingly often these days.

James didn’t notice the discomfort spread across my face. In the months I’d known him, I’d come to suspect that he did in fact, have Asperger’s, which would explain his obsession with maths. It also explained how he never seemed to catch my sarcasm, or facial expressions. I had to spell things out fairly plainly for him. I’d eventually caught on, even if it had taken longer than it should have done.

I let out a deep breath. ‘All right, so, we don’t know what this thing does. If it’s receiving, do you think we’re in any sort of danger from…hell, I don’t know, radiation?’

James didn’t answer.

I sat back in my chair. ‘Okay, I think,’ I looked James in the eyes as much as he’d let me, ‘that we need to
not
use that thing. Don’t put it on. Not till we know exactly—’

There was an uncomfortable look on his face. I swore.

‘God! James! Tell me you haven’t been playing around with it!’

He almost looked sheepish.

‘James! We don’t know what this thing does. And you better than anyone knows that!’

He threw up his hands. ‘I haven’t used it!’

To say the least, I didn’t believe him. But by the frown on his face he didn’t quite catch that. I glanced back down to the device. If he wanted to lie to me, fine. I didn’t like it, but he had his reasons, whatever the hell they were.

‘Okay,’ I said wearily, ‘let’s just keep it that way.’

James shifted unhappily.

‘All right?’ I gestured back to the device. ‘We don’t know what this thing does, and I think, until we do, we had better just leave it alone.’

He nodded, bleakly.

I gazed down at the papers, wishing more than anything I knew
what
I was looking at. ‘Is there any way we can…I don’t know, measure what it’s receiving? Figure out what it is, or where it’s going or…’ I swore, ‘I don’t know.’

He let out a heavy breath. ‘I can’t do that.’

I was out of ideas. I didn’t know what to do. How to deal with this. And if James didn’t know, we were both screwed.

‘I need to see Fox,’ he said suddenly.

I frowned at him. ‘What?’

James stood. ‘You coming?’

I obediently jumped to my feet. ‘Where are we going?’

James nodded his head to the devices on the table; he was already at the door with is jacket on. ‘To the only person who will know anything about this, God help us. Now grab those and let’s be off!’

I did as I was told, and hurried after James, back to the streets of London.

James didn’t explain. I followed him out of a blind trust that I’d seemed to have developed over the months. And as I stood outside a block of flats, I couldn’t help but think that that probably was something I should be concerned about.

I didn’t like the neighbourhood we were in. It wasn’t a good part of the city.

‘Care to fill me in on why we’re here?’ I asked finally as James hit the door buzzer for the third time.

‘We’re here to meet the only outsider who possibly knows more about InVizion than I do.’

I blinked in surprise. ‘Wait, you mean there’s more than one person who knows what InVizion is up to?’

James rolled his eyes. ‘Of course there is more than one person! Fox’s father worked for the company. Fox is a genius hacker, probably the best in England. If there is something wrong about this device, he would know.’

Wrong? I looked up at him. ‘Can you trust him?’

He smirked. ‘Of course not. If it weren’t for him, InVizion would still consider me their darling. The last time I saw him I wanted to kill him.’

My next question was lost on my lips as the door was swung open and a slightly dazed face blinked out in the light to meet ours. ‘Hullo?’

I noted he had a strong Irish accent and a second later, with a jolt, I recognised him. He was the man that James had tried to beat to a pulp when I’d taken him to the pub!

The man took just a second longer to identify James. He swore rather eloquently.

‘Ah, piss off!’ He tried to slam the door but James threw his hand against it, stopping the man.

Fox’s eyes widened.

‘I need to talk to you about InVizion!’ James growled.

Fox gave James a longsuffering look. ‘Oh, do you now?
Really
? I seem to remember the last time I tried to bring up that subject with you you tried to bash my head in!’

James shoved his way past the door. Fox complained half-heartedly, and then gave me a look. He smirked a little.

I suddenly was hit with the memory I’d been struggling with. He’d been camped outside of my flat the day it had been broken into, all those months ago.

‘Hey—’

Fox gave me an innocent wink, then shrugged his scrawny shoulders. ‘So, he does remember, does he? I’m flattered.’

‘You—you—’

James was staring.

Fox rolled his eyes. ‘No, I didn’t bloody break into your place. Bloody hell you certainly can hold a grudge. Saw a few of our friends in black showing an interest in you. Figured I might as well get a glimpse of your face meself.’

James was scowling. ‘Can we please move on to more pressing issues?’

Fox huffed his breath. ‘Oh, come in, then.’

I wrinkled my nose, growing incredibly weary of this subterfuge and followed James inside.

Fox’s flat was much smaller than James’s. And, unlike James’s spartan flat which almost seemed he didn’t truly live there, Fox’s was crowded. Every inch of wall space, and much of the floor was cluttered, leaving only a narrow trail for me to follow. Every thinkable type of technology was shoved to the sides of the path of carpet I walked. Cables and old discs, screens, transmitters and hundreds of other bits and bobs I couldn’t begin to guess at were strewn everywhere. Blinking lights from wobbly towers and a low blue glow lit my way as I followed Fox and James down the way.