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Lasers stabbed out here and there, cauterizing, sealing.
 
The man had stopped yelling, instead jerking against the restraints as a nerve was burned away or attached.

“We don’t normally do these on adults, do we?” said Julian.

“No,” said the tech.
 
“Complications.”

“Fixable?”

“Usually,” said the tech.
 
“It’s almost done.
 
What do you want laid in first?”

Julian smiled.
 
“How about some English?
 
This asshole and I still need to have a good, long, honest talk.”

“Ok,” said the tech.
 
“Anything else?”

“See if you can put his teeth back in,” said Julian.
 
“I might need to pull them back out.
 
Ping my link when you’re done.”

⚔ ⚛ ⚔

The man was still clamped to the table, but had been turned back upright.
 
The back of his skull was painted with synthetic skin.
 
Good as new.

“How you feeling?”

“You will release me,” said the man, “or I will kill everyone you love.”

Julian smiled at him, offering him a cigarette.
 
The man didn’t move, and Julian shrugged, lighting his own.
 
He blew the smoke out.
 
“Sounds serious,” he said around the edges of the cigarette.

“Release me now.”

“I don’t think so,” said Julian.
 
“I’d like to talk to you about something.”

The man stared at him, naked hate in his eyes.

“Ok,” said Julian.
 
“I take it by your silence you’re happy for me to talk.
 
Back there, at the sphere.”

“Sphere?”
 
The word was out of the man’s mouth before he could stop himself.

Julian nodded.
 
“Ball of light.
 
About the size of a hotel lobby, give or take.
 
Lightning and shit coming off it.”
 
He pulled on the cigarette again.
 
“Know what I’m talking about?”

“The gate,” said the man.
 
He swallowed, something coming into his eyes, maybe the start of fear.

That’s right, asshole.
 
You’re saying things without wanting to.
 
Welcome to your new link.
 
“The gate?”

“I…”
 
The man struggled, then swallowed what he was going to say.

“It’s ok, fight it,” said Julian.
 
“It helps it map out your brain, makes it work better in the future.
 
So this thing?
 
It’s a gate, ok, I get that.
 
What’s on the other side?”

“Your destruction,” said the man.
 
“An end to everything you know.
 
We will come here and enslave you—”

Julian waved a hand in the air.
 
“Right, ok.
 
How’s that going for you so far?”

The man stayed silent.

“That’s what I thought,” said Julian.
 
“I’m going to step out on a limb here and say this shit was about as surprising for you as it was for me.”

The man pulled against his restraints, then relaxed.
 
“We came through.
 
After it.”

“Yeah.
 
With a girl and a boy.
 
No guns.”

“Guns,” said the man, turning the word around in his mouth.
 
“I know the word, but I don’t know…”

“Like this,” said Julian, pilling out his sidearm.
 
He held it up in front of the man, then released the safety.
 
“This is a gun.
 
It works like this.”

He pointed the gun at the man’s leg, clamped to the chair, and pulled the trigger.
 
The weapon barked, and the man screamed, thrashing against his restraints.
 
Julian held up the sidearm again, clicking the safety back on.
 
“That’s a gun.”
 
He holstered the weapon.

The man was panting in the chair, his face grey as blood leaked from his leg.
 
“You will pay for that,” he said.
 
“I will burn the memory of it on your children’s children’s minds.
 
They will never be free of it.”

“Right,” said Julian.
 
“But you can’t really do anything, can you?”
 
He tapped the side of his head.
 
“You need a meat body to work with.”

The man spat at him.
 
“What kind of man are you?”

Julian smiled.
 
“That’s the spirit.
 
Mutual understanding.
 
We can talk this through, find some common ground.
 
Me?
 
I’m a bit… special.”

“You’re not a man.
 
But you look like a man.”

“Yep,” said Julian.
 
“Anatomically correct.”

“No,” said the man.
 
“In your…
 
Inside you.
 
There are…”
 
He struggled with the words.
 
“There are meat parts.”

“A few,” said Julian.
 
“Not enough to fill a coffee cup with.
 
Not enough for you to make me bat shit crazy like you did to my team.”

“No,” said the man, “but enough for me to begin to see what you want.”

Julian felt a small chill go up his spine, and the sidearm came out of his holster, the lattice pulling it smooth and fast.
 
It centered on the man’s forehead.
 
“You can…
 
You can read my mind?”

“Not really,” said the man.
 
His face was losing more color, the pool of blood under the chair growing.
 
“But I know what you are, now.”

“Ok, asshole,” said Julian.
 
“What am I?”

“A slave,” said the man, his teeth pulling back into a bloody grin.
 
“Like all the rest.”

Julian looked down the sidearm at the man’s face, then holstered it.
 
“Shit,” he said, “you had me worried there for a second.”

“What?” said the man.

“We’re all slaves,” said Julian.
 
“I’m happy with that as long as I’m on a steady percentage.”

“Percentage,” said the man.
 
“So much of this is unfamiliar.
 
This world, this manner of speaking, of telling lies and truth at the same time.
 
These toys and fripperies you surround yourself with.
 
And none of you know about true power.”

“True power?”
 
Julian frowned.
 
“I’m not the one stapled to a chair.”

“No,” said the man, “you’re a puppet.
 
But I can give you what you want, Julian Oldham.
 
I can give you everything.”

Julian stared at the man.
 
“How did you know my name?”
 
He checked the link, trying to find a feedback loop, something he’d missed.
 
“How did you know my name?”

The man smiled at him.
 
“There’s enough space in a cup of coffee for many things, Julian Oldham.
 
Your name.
 
Your heart’s desire.
 
It’s the same thing.”

Julian nodded, looking at the man’s clamped hands and wrists.
 
“Do you even know what a cup of coffee looks like?”

“No,” said the man.
 
“It’s as unfamiliar as… a percentage.”

Julian smiled.
 
“This thing you can do.”
 
He pulled another cigarette from his pack, lighting it up.
 
His words were softened around the cigarette as he lit it.
 
“Read minds.
 
Shit like that.”

The man looked at Julian, then said, “Yes.”

“What sort of technology is it?”

“It’s not a… technology.”
 
The man seemed to chew on the word.
 
“Technology.
 
Like the thing that lets me speak your words.”

“Yeah, the link,” said Julian.
 
“Technology.”

“It’s not a technology,” said the man.

“Ok,” said Julian.
 
“What is it?”

“It’s the right to rule,” said the man.
 
“It’s a gift from the spirits.”

“Spirits,” said Julian.
 
He took another pull on his cigarette.
 
“Fuck off.”

“It’s what I came here for,” said the man.

“Like some kind of spirit animal?”
 
Julian wiggled his fingers in the air, the cigarette trailing smoke.
 
“A wolf, or a coyote?
 
You didn’t seem to need it back at
The Hole
.”

“The what?”

“The bar,” said Julian, his cigarette leaving a lazy trail in the air.
 
“The gate.
 
It was at a place called
The Hole
.”

“Ah,” said the man.
 
“It’s not an animal.
 
The spirit and I are… joined.
 
Each separate has power, but together…”
 
He trailed off.

“Together?” said Julian.
 
“What happens when we get both of you together?”

The man looked down at his bloody leg.
 
“I don’t think you’ll get to find out.
 
I think you intend to kill me here, in this room.”

Julian laughed.
 
“You really aren’t from around here, are you?” he said.
 
“Why do you think we put the teeth back in your head?”

“I’m not sure,” said the man.
 
“The reason I would do it is so that I could pull them back out again.”

Julian nodded.
 
“Do you know where you are?”

“I am in a room, in a strange place, on another world,” said the man.

“No,” said Julian.
 
“I mean, where
here
is.”

“No,” said the man.

“Reed Interactive,” said Julian.
 
“Our business is dreams.
 
Do you think that we might do business together?”

“Business,” said the man.
 
“Spineless work for the lower castes.
 
Commerce is a game for the weak minded, the slaves, the bearers of burdens.”

“Sure,” said Julian, “when you put it like that.
 
But here?
 
Business is the way your ass is getting out of that chair.
 
The
only
way.”

The man swallowed.
 
“You are proposing an alliance.”

“If you like,” said Julian.

“You know what I think?” said the man.

“No.”

“I think that when you learn how I do what I do, when you capture my spirit, and tether it to this Earth, you will kill me.”

“Not at all,” said Julian, meaning
yes, of course
.

The man thought for a minute, then said, “We may be able to do business.
 
Will you do something for me?”

“You’re not in much position to ask for favors,” said Julian.

“It’s a small thing,” said the man, his eyes flicking to his leg.
 
“Can you… can your technology fix this?”

“Well, shit,” said Julian.
 
“Of course.
 
It’ll do other things too.”

“Like what?”

“Let’s see if we can get you a cup of coffee, for a start,” said Julian.
 
“A point of reference is always good.”
 
He smiled.

“Tell me, Julian Oldham,” said the man.
 
“Does the rain usually make people see things in your world?
 
That might be a good point of reference.”

“I know a place,” said Carter.

“I was thinking downtown somewhere,” said Mason.
 
“Get into a love hotel or something.”
 
He slipped the van out of the station’s lot, easing into the traffic.
 
The rain lashed at the windscreen, the amber wireframes standing out against the darkness.

“A love hotel?”

“Yeah, like one of the ones that does circus sex,” said Mason.
 
“Room for four?
 
No problem.”

“There’s a small problem,” said Carter.
 
“I don’t think you’ve thought it through.
 
Like I said, I know a place.”

“What problem?” said Mason.
 
“It’s off the grid.”

“It’s not really,” she said.
 
“I could find you there.
 
Also, it’s not credible.”

“What’s not credible?”

“You, servicing three women in one night.
 
Night after night.”
 
Carter sighed.
 
“You’re …
 
Well.”

“I’m what?”

“One night?
 
Maybe,” she said.
 
“Three nights?
 
A week?
 
A month?
 
And one of them’s a teenage girl.”

“You can buy anything,” said Mason.
 
“What if I’m not a very nice guy?
 
What if I like underage sex?
 
It’s good cover.”

“Do you want to hear about the place I know about?” she said.
 
“Anytime at all?”

Mason drove through the rain, steering the van around traffic.
 
“What do you mean, you could find me?”

“I could find you,” said Carter.
 
“I know where you are right now.”

“Yeah, but the link,” said Mason.
 
“Of course you know.”

“Ok,” said Carter.
 
“I know other things.
 
I know where Harry is.”