Ant removed the haptic gloves, passing them to Griff like he didn’t care. He really wanted to grab his headset and run for home. Ant was a good runner. But if one of them did catch him and jump him, his kit could end up getting wrecked. Much as he hated it, this was the best way.
Griff pulled on the gloves and crushed the heavy headset over his blond hair, which stood up in little gel peaks like a crown. He stood waiting for something to happen, tapping his foot impatiently. His eyes were hidden behind the headset’s visor but Ant could imagine their outraged expression. Who on earth would dare make Griff Landsdowne wait? Lyle and Boom sniggered, but when Griff turned towards them, they fell silent.
‘Start,’ ordered Griff. ‘Start playing, come on! What’s wrong with it?’
‘Erm … hardly going to be voice-controlled, is it?’ suggested Lyle. ‘Technology that old?’
‘Activate it, then!’ Griff turned towards Ant, even though he couldn’t see him, and flung up his arms in exasperation. He really did have the patience of a three-year-old. ‘Come on, Ant. Do I have to stand here all day?’
‘Millions of years ago, apes worked out how to use switches and humans were born,’ Ant muttered, reaching behind the headset. Griff flinched.
While he pressed the on/off switch, Ant also turned a dial, sending the game into energy-saving, ‘flat-map’, greyscale mode. Within seconds, Griff was killing himself laughing.
‘What can you see? What’s it like?’
Lyle and Boom grabbed hold of Griff’s shoulders and shook him, but he was laughing too much to speak. Eventually he managed to say, ‘It’s pants! It really is … pants!’
Despite this, Griff persevered. Ant could see how quickly he learned to move forwards and backwards by twitching his fingers. Then he began flicking his arms around stupidly, while guffawing his head off. Ant could imagine what he was doing.
The flat-map mode had bounced Griff back to the very first planet in the game, Mantros, where he could do little more than run through the 2D woods, fire arrows and chase baby hommerabbits back to their burrows. On Mantros, he couldn’t access Pradahl the dragon, which was what Ant had wanted. In flat-map mode, Griff couldn’t harm the game or set back Ant’s progress. That was more important than their teasing. They’d tease him whatever.
Lyle and Boom insisted on having a try and Ant had to put up with ten minutes of the three of them passing the game around and making fun. He sucked it all up. He had to.
‘Finished then?’ Ant held out his hand, as Griff finally removed the headset for the last time. ‘By the way, you messed up your lovely hair.’
Griff frowned and shoved his hair back into place. He handed back the headset and gloves with his nose wrinkled and his little finger sticking out as though he couldn’t bear to touch them any longer. ‘This belongs in a museum, Ant. A museum of boredom. What’s the point?’
‘I like it.’ Ant shrugged.
‘But why?’ Griff looked genuinely puzzled. Then he lit up. ‘Soon as I turn twelve, I’m getting Ray-Chay. It comes out round about then. I literally cannot wait, guys.’
Lyle and Boom stared at Griff, awestruck. A ‘Wow!’ escaped Boom’s lips.
Ray-Chay was the new game that everyone was talking about. Race, Chase, Collect or Destroy was its full name, but everyone was already just calling it Ray-Chay, including its creator Kody Crunch. It was the first game to give its players a full-body experience in a virtual world. Ant had seen the advert: Kody Crunch leaping out of his neon-green convertible sports car, flashing his million-dollar grin, pointing a pair of finger pistols at the camera and yelling: ‘Ray-Chay’s going to change gaming forever. I mean FOREVER! Are you ready for the BIG ONE?’ Crunch Hut made the best virtual reality games on the market, so everyone believed him.
Though long forgotten, Kismet Cosmos had been Crunch Hut’s first-ever game, so Ant was sure that the new game would be absolutely brilliant. The main problem was the cost. The entire Ray-Chay set-up, including individually-moulded, featherweight headset and bodysuit, came to several thousand pounds.
‘Get Ray-Chay, like me.’ Griff grinned. Ant couldn’t work out if he was being deliberately cruel or simply didn’t realise that there was no way – no way on earth – he’d be playing Ray-Chay. It wasn’t the age restriction: Ant had already turned twelve two months back. Just simply, Ant’s family could never afford it.
‘Maybe you’ll let me have a go on yours,’ Ant smiled back. ‘Only fair, isn’t it? You’ve had a go on my game.’
Griff’s smile wavered at the idea that he’d let Ant try on his thousands-of-pounds suit for a split millisecond.
‘The suit only responds to its owner,’ Lyle chipped in. ‘You wouldn’t be able to use his suit, duh! You’ll have to get one of your own, Clancy.’
‘Didn’t you know that? Keep up!’ Boom made an ugly face, flicking his fingers dismissively.
Griff threw his arms around his mates’ shoulders, pulling them towards him. ‘Sorry, Ant.’ He didn’t sound it. ‘See you around and enjoy your … gaming.’
The three of them bounced away up the path joining the Dell to the Parade, laughing as though Griff were the funniest comedian on earth.
Ant watched them leave, overwhelmed with relief, cradling his precious headset in his arms. He was glad Griff hadn’t seen the real Kismet Cosmos. It was too beautiful for him. So what if no one else had played it in years? Ant was one of the last, perhaps even the last, to travel from planet to planet in Kismet, in a quest to nurture the greatest dragon in the cosmos. That made it all the more special.
2
The Biggest Fun
Griff’s family owned the King’s Elm Hotel-plus-Health-Spa just outside Westford Abbey, the biggest, poshest hotel for miles. On weekends, Griff would hang around the hotel, use the gym when no one was looking
