from the ground into it. I lifted the twig to my nose and inhaled the powder. The easiest way into the body was through the mucus membranes.
“Can’t we just tell people what we know?” mused Vince as he cupped his coffee, blowing the steam off it. I offered him the bag of powder and he took it.
“No, we don’t have enough,” I replied. “After what’s happened, it’d look like more Terra Novan interference. Coming from us, it wouldn’t exactly look reputable, and would probably get us in a lot of trouble. We need to fly under the radar as much as possible.”
“Yeah, I think we need to have a serious chat with Sintil8, wherever he is, before we do anything else,” added Willy’s splinter.
“Hey, don’t believe everything you think, Willy boy!” laughed Sid as he worked away on our private metaworlds. “At least before you check with me!”
Sid was trying to be funny, but he was right. He had hacked into our personal pssi systems and begun hardening them against exposure to Cognix, starting with backups to our memories and our own cognitive intrusion detection systems. We had to make sure our minds remained our own.
“Are you sure you’re up for this?” I asked Vince.
“I’m the perfect person to have along!” he laughed.
It was true. The only place he existed was in the present, and for most of the world this hardly counted anymore.
“Ah yes, the man with no future,” laughed Sid. “Aren’t we a motley bunch to trust for saving the world?”
I wasn’t in a humorous mood.
“Look Sid, we have no choice in this.”
I had to get Nancy out of there. It was too dangerous to let her know what she was facing, so we couldn’t tell her about Jimmy. I shuddered to think what he could be capable of.
“I suppose it all depends on how you look at it,” continued Sid, “maybe it’s not so bad.”
I shook my head at him incredulously.
“Well I mean you and Nancy, together being able to see everything.”
“Yes…?”
“You’re like the omniscient being who walks on water, searching for the body of man to save the soul of mankind from eternal suffering.”
“Squaring off against what seems to be the devil, no less,” chipped in Vicious. “I mean, it’s all been done before mate, and so far so good!”
“Tell me that doesn’t sound biblical,” suggested Sid, now transformed into a talking burning bush sporting two stone tablets with our names inscribed on them.
“Well,” I replied, my mood lightening, “I bet Christ’s disciples didn’t include a punk rocker.”
I cast a sideways glance at Vicious and smiled.
“Oooh,” replied Vicious, returning my grin, “but I’ve heard that Judas Priest weren’t far off mate.”
I laughed. “I’m going to be careful of you, then.”
“And the whole key to this is in my body?” said Willy, shaking his head. “Wally must have left us some clues. We just need to look.”
“Brings a whole new meaning to ‘Where’s Waldo’ dunnit?” laughed Vicious, unable to contain himself. This brought laughs from everyone, including Willy’s splinter.
Smiling, I looked at all of them one by one, looking to me for leadership.
“I’m sure this wasn’t what the prophets had in mind when they imagined the Second Coming,” I joked grimly, “but we’ve got no choice.”
“Moscow huh?” asked Hotsuff, looking at Brigitte and Bardot and then down to inspect her camping short shorts. “I’m going to need a whole new wardrobe.”
“Yeah, sure,” I replied. I looked around at our little gang. “I think we’re going to need a lot of things.”
The trail to Willy’s body began and ended with Sintil8, who’d now totally disappeared off the grid.
Terra Nova was almost hermetically blockaded, both in the physical and cyber realms, so there was no help there, but since Willy’s mind was still with us, his body was still alive out there somewhere.
The thought of tracking down a gangster like Sintil8 frightened me, but then, our choices had boiled down to the lesser of two rather nasty evils. The only clue we had was Sintil8’s real name, Sergei Mikhailov, which Patricia had managed to dig up.
Clouds of smarticles released in San Francisco yesterday had begun to float in on the breeze, even up here, and I could feel small channels and rivulets of information begin to flow, connecting me to the multiverse. As refreshing as it felt to my metasenses, it now took on a darkly ominous feel as well.
“Let’s get a move on people,” I said as my phantoms shivered. “I think it’s best that we stay away from major cities as much as possible.”
“That’s not where I think I am anyway,” added Willy for good measure.
The four of us with physical bodies shouldered our backpacks of gear and checked around the campsite for anything left behind. I kicked some dirt onto the smoldering remains of the fire.
Stopping for moment, we all smiled at each other, and then started out on the path that led into the great Redwood forest and beyond.
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed Atopia and want more, please go and write a review, no matter how small, on Amazon right now! This was my first novel—writing isn’t my full-time job (yet!) but I’d like it to be, and by leaving reviews on Amazon you can help me get there. Having more reviews on Amazon has a direct impact on rankings and encouraging other people to read. I also read all the reviews and it’s great to hear your feedback!
If you’d like to join my beta reading list for my next novel, or would like to share some thoughts or chat, just email me at matthew.mather@phuturenews.com
SPECIAL THANKS
I’d like to thank my editors, Eddie Mumford and Andrew Kozloski, and in particular Allen Tierney who did a whole edit of the book as an unsolicited favor!
A special thanks to the many people who helped me make this possible, including Robert Megeney, Danny Grant, Dave Sachs, Quito Galiana, Nancy Zadler, Yulya Faibusovitch, Paul Warne, Garnet Alexander, Andrea Rabinovitch, Mary Lim, Eric Montcalm, Miriam Aczem, Alex Moon, Myleen Sjodin, Vaseem Baig, and Brendan O’Malley.
An extra special thanks goes out to Mr. John Jarrett, who lives somewhere out near Perth in the Land Down Under, who in addition to beta reading also created the graphic for the Atopia logo!
And of course, I’d like to thank my mother and father, Julie and David Mather, and last but most definitely not least, Julie Ruthven, for putting up with all the late nights and missed walks with the dogs.
Ps. On next page are instructions for viewing 3D augmented reality image of Atopia on your iPhone!
Instructions for viewing augmented reality 3D view of Atopia right on your Kindle!
(requires an iPhone)
