Part 1 - The shimmering note

Jeb saw a shimmer out of the corner of his eye as he jogged to the class.

‘Ah! Crap, here we go again’ he thought to himself.

He stopped, turned on his heel and jogged up to the notice board. There at the bottom right corner was a vibrant little note. He plucked it out and tucked it in his jacket pocket. He didn’t want to be late for the test. The professor was a stickler for time. 09:00 am meant exactly that, not a second later. After all, he had stayed up through most of the night preparing for this. He would have to check it later.

It was about seven in the evening when Jeb remembered that he had forgotten something.

‘What was it? Did I have to collect the laundry or was I to meet up with someone?’

He racked his brains for a moment before remembering the flashing note. He got up off his bed and shuffled through his jacket, finding it within the inside pocket. He unfolded and took a moment to look at it.

It was of the usual size, just about twice the size of a postage stamp. The paper felt more like silk than anything else. It still had a little sheen of multicolored light dancing on it. He held it up in his palm and lightly blew on it. Taking care to not blow it away.

The rainbow shine dissipated into the air like a pinch of glitter dust. The soft velvety paper was now just white with something written on it in dark green.

12, Naokibi Plaza

That was all the note said. Jeb pulled out his phone and photographed the name then used an OCR reader to get the address into his mapping app. Looked like it was three and a half miles away. Normally he would have to get to the place before 8 am so an early morning was on the cards.

He checked the sunrise time for the next day and saw that it said 06:04 am. So he would have till 08:04 to make it. It would take him about 30 mins to make that distance so he set an alarm for 07:00 am. He whiled away the time watching reels on his phone until he fell into a calm sleep, splayed out on his rather modest bed.

It was around 07:05 am when he finally woke up after one snooze of the alarm. He quickly went to the common bathroom, washed his face, brushed and put on a clean pair of clothes after dousing himself with deodorant. It was going to be a long day and he wouldn’t be showering till he got back.

In about twenty minutes he stepped out of the accommodation and started off at a robust pace. He liked to front load his runs and then alternate between a slow and fast speed as he started flagging. This run was a bit less than five miles so he didn’t expect to be challenged.

The cool morning breeze swirled around him as he put in one foot in front of the other. His earbuds played some 80s synthwave fusion. As he ran on a stretch of road lined by trees under the mild glow of the early morning sun which was just beginning to burn brighter.

He thought of what might be on the cards for him.

He was just a bit more than 250 points away from becoming a rookie ethereal. It wasn’t all that far. It might be only six missions away, maybe seven. If he completed the bonus objectives he might make it in three or four missions. If he didn’t fail any, he could get it done today. Then he’d have to find out what being a ‘rookie ethereal’ actually meant but that was for later.

He didn’t notice it but his thoughts had carried him quite far without really having to slow down. He had made it to his destination in just under 27 minutes. He looked around the wide square and noted the mid-rise building that was at 12 Naokibi Plaza. It had nine floors and was a postmodernist building with a collage of stone and brick for its facade interspersed by bronze tinted glass. The entry was a two-storey arcade. Jeb walked right in and took the elevator to the top floor.

It was always the top floors or the one just below it. These were things that one learned along the way. The very first shimmering note he picked up led him to some old mall. He had gone through all the levels walking into shops and staring awkwardly at people to see if someone would drop a hint.

He didn’t have the courage to ask anyone about it at the time. He didn’t want to leave without having checked every inch of the place either. He had stumbled upon a door in a deserted corridor where one wouldn’t expect a door. The handle of the door glinted at him and he didn’t need a second invitation to try it. It had clicked open with ease and he knew he was at the right place.

This time, he didn’t even have to search all that much. Just as he got out of the lift he saw a corridor leading off to his left. It looked like it hadn’t been used in a long time. This was the type of hallway in which he would find a door. He walked down the hallway with purpose. In a couple of minutes he was faced with a vertical handle, like the ones on sliding doors. It had the familiar rainbow gleam to it. He put his hand on it and pulled it aside with ease. It glided silently on tracks that were well over thirty years old.

Part 2 - The arcade machine and Mission One

Inside the dimly lit room there was nothing out of place, at least for Jeb. There was a lot of dust and cobwebs stuck on random objects strewn around. There were a bunch of chairs and tables, some broken, some rotting or torn. There were piles of cloth - table linen, curtains, carpets, towels and nondescript rags. This would all be expected in what seemed to be an abandoned open plan office.

The one thing that would have been out of place was a large bucket chair and an arcade machine standing silently in a corner. It looked pristine like it had just been delivered in one whole piece and the plastic packaging had just been ripped off.

Jeb’s eyes locked onto the blue welting on jet black upholstery. It was a color combination that he greatly appreciated and it made the picture all the more inviting to him. He darted forward and sat down in the seat enjoying how it felt on his back and underneath his thighs. It was one of those rare seats that couched you as you sat in it but never pressed hard into you or made you feel too warm by sticking to your back.

‘If only I could take these with me. I would love to have one in my room.’

The screen in front of him blipped on.

Welcome Jebediah Neiufi, submit note to proceed

A slight jolt of nervous excitement made his feet tremble. In all these months, he hadn’t gotten used to his name popping up on the screen like that. He pulled out the sweat drenched note from the pocket of his track pants. It had become a misshapen roll. He smoothed it out and placed it into a slot just beneath the screen. The screen changed and new text appeared. There were some options on the bottom left and right.

Note accepted.

RED to roll GREEN to return

The arcade had two joysticks with seven multicolored buttons in the middle. The seven buttons had the seven colors of the rainbow and the left joystick had a black ball atop it while the right one was white.Jeb depressed the red button.

In an instant the screen grew larger and warped around him into a massive curved wall. The controls moved closer to him while the seat reclined just enough to be comfortable like a first class lounger on a transatlantic airline. On screen a large wheel appeared. It had little icons that looked like cartoon caricatures of different people.

The wheel started spinning, slowly at first and then gathered speed. It came to a sudden stop. The icon on the section of the wheel at the top pulsed. The bottom left and right of the screen had some text.

YELLOW to preview INDIGO to reroll

He examined the icon and noted that it was a middle aged woman, probably in her early forties. She might have been South American or East Asian. He couldn’t tell all that much. It had some details about her right beneath the icon. She was widowed and had two children. One was in college and the other was finishing school. She worked as a janitor. He didn’t need to read more. He pressed the yellow button.

The screen changed into a multi-storey office complex. He could see through its walls and floors as if the wall that would have obstructed his point of view had been removed. A bit like how one would see their characters in a Sims game.

He flicked the joysticks and moved around a little. He could see many office workers chatting or tapping away on their keyboards. Some others were engrossed in whatever work they had peering over papers and books of various kinds. Some were talking on their phones or just scrolling.

After a bit of zooming around he found the lady. She was tired. That much was clear. There was a wipe cloth in her gloved hand and a bucket with wheels at her feet. There was a squeegee and a mop balanced on some holders that were clipped onto the rim of the bucket.

‘Should I take this?’

ORANGE to accept VIOLET to return

‘Who am I kidding, I’ve never turned down a roll’.

He pressed the Orange button and the screen changed again. This time he saw the world through the eyes of the woman who he had been watching a moment ago. He could feel her fatigue. Her aching joints. Her stuffy nose.

There was a musty smell to the water bucket and other equipment at her feet. The wipe cloth in her hand didn’t have much of a pleasant odor either. He realized that the woman couldn’t tell. It was just him that felt the tang of congealed dust and moisture.

BLUE to charge

He tapped the blue button and felt the woman's surprise at a rush of energy. She couldn’t tell why but her nose just cleared up and maybe her feet weren’t killing her after all. In a wink she had cleaned a patch of the hallway in front of her. It was as if a font of energy had burst forth. In under an hour she had cleaned up the floor she was on. She quickly moved on to the next and then one more.

Before noon she was done with the four floors that she had been assigned. She waltzed into the bathrooms next and dazzled herself at how well she cleaned every surface. For quite many months she had wanted to get at a spot on the lower hinge of a stall door. It was only seen when the door was completely open. She just couldn’t bend and reach that low while the door was open. Yet today, she did it without even thinking about it.

She looked around in sheer amazement.

“What am I, the clean fairy?” She said aloud to any empty bathroom.

“The clean fairy, that is so lame.” She was about to facepalm herself but stopped remembering the gloves and wipe cloth in her hand.

She wanted to turn around and walk out of there. She wanted to go into the service toilet and wash the mop and other tools to finish up but something kept her rooted to the spot. She couldn’t figure out what it was but her legs just wouldn’t move.

‘Oh! I am suddenly going to feel all that fatigue.’ She thought to herself. Then she heard footsteps. The slow but light pattern was unmistakable. It was Shanara, the manager.

‘Oh no Naomi, you better not bump into her.’ The manager wasn’t a bad woman but she had a habit of scrutinizing the work of her subordinates a little too much. Being the janitor did not give Naomi any exemptions.

She found herself drawn back to that last stall.

‘Maybe I can just go in and close the door. It’s not like the manager will check in on who is using the bathroom.’

She moved towards that last stall but instead of going in as she had planned, her body bent down towards the bottom of the stall door and her hand with the wipe cloth started polishing that last hinge.

‘What the..’ before she could finish her thought, the manager entered the women's room.

“Oh! Naomi, I didn’t notice the sign. Wait, did you not keep it? You should put up the wet floor caution sign when you are in here you know. I or someone else can slip and fall. We don’t want to be liable for that.” Shanara had a brisk way of speaking that just overwhelmed some people.

“Uuh! Oh! Ms. Summerbell, I was just done. I had actually taken the sign off but I noticed this spot here after I had finished up.”

‘Noticed this spot… what am I saying. I hope I don’t get a lecture for this.’

“You can just call me Shanara, everyone does. I have said that quite a few times to you. I really don’t want you calling me Ms. Summerbell. Good that you are done.’ The manager paused and suddenly her eyes lit up.

“Ooh, ooh, that spot. Oh my God! You are a life-saver Naomi. I just hated seeing that and I realized that it can’t be seen when the door is closed. I usually use that stall and some time in the last week, I pushed that door open. I saw that hideous lump. You cleaned it. Oh! That’s such a relief. How does someone get stuff there? Like how do you manage to…. Does it splash when. Eeeuugh, I don’t even wanna say.” The manager's face went through a series of emotions from surprised joy to hateful disgust.

“No, No. Ms. Summerbell, that wasn’t anything like that. I think it was a tiny insect that got caught in the hinge and then died. It was mixed with some grease or oil from that hinge, that’s all. I mean it was dirty but not what you were thinking.” Naomi flashed a quick smile.

“Oh! Ohhh! Hey, that is, yeah, that makes much more sense. I couldn’t even use that stall after I saw that. I was just so upset. I don’t know, maybe I just fixate on stuff. Thank you for spotting that one and cleaning it. You’re doing a good job in general. I should tell you that more shouldn’t I? Yes I should.You know what I’ll keep this in mind. Let’s see. Umm.. oof, I’m yapping but I need to use the facilities.” Shanara squeezed her shoulders and made a fake tiptoe walk towards the last stall.

Naomi found herself moving out of the way and then doing a little bow as if she were a doorman at the entry to a fancy exclusive club of some kind. Shanara stopped and laughed at the gesture.

“Now, now, don’t you pamper me too much. If you want to be like that just call me Shanara and stop with that Ms. Summerbell thing please.” Shanara stepped into the stall as she spoke.

“Ok then M.. Shanara.” Naomi wanted to cover her mouth as soon as she uttered that name.

“There we go. That’s it. Thank youuuuu.” Shanara cooed from within the stall.

The janitor hurried out of the bathroom and zipped down the hallway with her tools.

‘What came over me? Why did I say Shanara? You don’t do that Naomi, that is not you. Why did I stop to clean that spot again?’ She had a flurry of questions in her mind.

‘It worked out pretty well there in the end.’ A small voice rung out in her head..

‘Yes, that it did. True. I feel better though. You did good Naomi, that was ‘assertive’ as they say here. Maybe I should ask for a raise at the end of the year.’

‘Why not next month?’ Something inside her piped up again.

‘Woah! There, slow down woman. You did a killer job today but aren’t we pushing our luck?’

‘No. You should go for it. You have been grafting here for years. They’ll have to reward you for it.’ As that statement echoed in her head she felt a renewed burst of energy.

‘That I have been. I need to be paid for the good work I do. Hey, I like this confidence I am getting.’

“I don’t know where this is coming from but it is what I need for myself.” She whispered as she went to the service area.

Part 3 - Mission Two

Mission complete. Bonus objective achieved

The screen now had a stats display.

Time - 04 hrs 23 mins

Mission points - 50

Bonus points - 50

Total points earned - 2850

Level up at - 3000

RED to roll GREEN to return

‘Great, I could do two more missions with the bonus and I would definitely make it today.’

Jeb had wanted to become an ethereal ever since he had received a note and found an arcade machine in an abandoned corner of that mall. It didn’t say much of what an ethereal could actually do, just that he could do missions and become more than just a corporeal being.

He had been getting notes at different times and places. There was once when he got a note in a book that he had just bought. Another time it was among the paper napkins that he pulled out of a dispenser at a coffee shop. At first he thought that everyone could see them but he soon realized that only he could see them. Others always thought that his hand was empty or that he was just holding a mundane object like a napkin for instance.

He hit the red button.

This time the roll landed on an older man. Probably in his early fifties. He was a truck driver with a large family back home. Jeb pressed the Yellow button and found himself looking down on a largely empty stretch of highway.

The trucker was struggling to stay awake. He had been driving slowly, sticking to the shoulder. Yet he seemed unwilling to pull off and rest for a little or even just stop.

‘There must be some deadline that he is gunning for.’

Without a second thought Jeb pressed the Orange button to accept the mission and then the blue to energize the older man. The tall, thin man holding onto a large steering wheel felt a burst of vigor within him. He was now wide awake and alert.

‘I am raring to go. How is this possible?’

Jeb could feel the shirt sticking to the mans back. There was a faint whiff of fine dust mixed with diesel fuel and sweat. The cab was cool but the man had been up for almost twelve hours, not even stopping to eat in all that while. His body was starting to protest the poor treatment.

The man found himself depressing the accelerator without any hesitation. The engines which were mildly humming along roared to life. He found himself moving with precision as if he was one with the forty ton machine. The mass of metal, glass and rubber glided along the empty road and flowed smoothly even when it encountered thick traffic. In a couple of hours, the trucker found himself nearing his destination.

‘Man I haven’t driven like this in over a decade. I’ve still got it then. When the need arises I haul.’

The man pumped a fist in the air as he drove. Soon he turned into the yard where he had to drop the trailer off. He got it to the spot and backed in pretty close to the warehouse door even though it wasn’t expected of him. The workers could just step off the back of the trailer and right into the warehouse. They wouldn’t have to carry the boxes as much. They thanked him for that.

He raised his cap to them in a salute and picked up his return trailer. Then he drove another hour to an all-you-can-eat buffet that was a bit out of his way. This would have been a risky move on a normal day but today he had delivered his trailer half an hour earlier than expected and he had gotten his pay.

‘I can treat myself sometimes.’ He beamed at the thought.

He ate his fill and moved on from there to the nearest rest spot. He had been driving over sixteen hours and that buffet was the first time he ate anything substantial. He could sleep seven hours and still make it back by the day after.

‘If I drive anything like how I did in the last four hours or so, I will make it earlier than planned.’ He found a spring in his step even as he walked to the decidedly humble lodgings.

Mission complete. Bonus objective achieved

The screen once again had a stats display with a couple of messages underneath

Time - 04 hrs 58 mins

Mission points - 50

Bonus points - 50

Total points earned - 2950

Level up at - 3000

You are close to a level up.

You can take a special mission to guarantee a level up.

RED for special mission GREEN to return

Part 4 - A special mission

Jeb pressed the red button.

‘Let's go for it and get it done. I am going to become a rookie ethereal today.’ He drummed his fingers on the console as he watched the screen display another building. There was no rolling of the wheel this time around and no icon or option to preview,

This was a building with its wall removed from his viewing perspective. He could tell that it was a hospital but he was not sure as to who would be the person of interest or even what kind of hospital he was looking at.

He flicked the joystick and surveyed the place. He read the words above the entryway.

‘Manuel Gori Memorial Pediatric Cancer Center’

His heart sank. He had never been to a children’s hospital on a mission, much less a cancer center. There had been tough missions before. There was a time when the mission directed him to a young woman moments after her car crashed. In terms of actions he had to take, it was simple. He just kept pressing the blue button again and again and again. It provided her with energy and kept her heart beating.

He had been privy to the many thoughts and scenes that flashed through her mind. She had been unable to move, lying in a dazed state on the side of the road awaiting assistance. The help did come and she did survive. The papers had hailed it as a miraculous escape and quick recovery. She had given an interview about it to some local news channel. Jeb had seen it online but he didn’t understand much since it was in a language he did not speak. He remembered how he had spent days in his room barely making it to classes even.

The experience had jolted awake some thoughts in him that he never knew existed. He questioned the worth of life and his place in it all. The power and the privilege he had as someone who could change lives and even contribute to saving lives. He had resolved to do more and do his best.

There was another mission when he had been a man in his late thirties, fresh out of prison after serving a four year term for fraud. The man's mind was a mess. He had been divorced while he was in jail. He lost custody of his three kids. One of them was born only a few months prior to his conviction. The real difficult thing was that the man believed himself to have been wronged by the system.

Jeb didn’t know much about finance and investments at that time. Yet he could tell that what the man did was fraud. The man had been a bit too naive to understand how he was manipulated into doing the wrong thing. He ended up taking the fall for a few others who were scott free. In fact, Jeb later learned that those that caused him to end up in jail were now in other parts of the world, some even having changed their citizenship.

That mission was difficult to figure out at first. These missions did not give any direction to him, they just gave him the option to see who would be the person of interest. Once he decided to accept a mission, he had complete control. It never told him that there were bonus objectives either. Jeb had to figure everything out by himself.

The man kept getting calls from unknown numbers which he seemed reluctant to pick up. Yet when he did pick up a few of them, Jeb realized that these were from certain contacts that people inside the prison had given him. The inmates had told him that these people were well-wishers and would set him up to fight back against those who wronged him.

For about three hours, Jeb became a voice of reason debating with that man in his head. He had managed to convince the man that this was another round of manipulative behavior by people who just wanted to play him.

‘If someone wants something from you, ask yourself, why are these people asking me instead of anyone else.’ Jeb had planted a seed of wisdom in his mind.

In the end Jeb had fulfilled a bonus objective of making that man understand how he might have been both a victim and a fraudster. That mission had left Jeb in a cynical mood for weeks. He dismissed every new piece of information and rejected any friendly discussions with people who he knew at his college.

In just three weeks, his friends had started to resent him and the new person he had become. Jeb then had to work on his mindset for another month or so before the people around him realized that he was back to being somewhat normal.

At present he wondered what this mission might turn out like. If he pressed the Yellow button it might show him who the actual person of interest was.

‘Do I even want to know? I could just press that green button to return and do a simple or a much more straightforward mission.’ He thought for a moment and decided to take a look before pressing green.

He depressed the yellow button. The screen refreshed.

Before him sat a boy, probably ten or eleven years of age. Head without hair and eyebrows like mere wisps. The bed was all too large for him and he had some books next to him on a table. On the other side was a blue cushioned chair on which sat a woman, likely his mother. She eyed all the wires and tubes connected to her child with a weary gaze.

For a moment her eyes locked with that of her sons and they both smiled. The door opened and a man walked in with a hot steaming bowl of soup.

“Who wants some egg drop soup?” He was enthusiastic.

The boy smiled again with a little more energy and the mother took the bowl from the father. She started spooning out some of it, blowing on it and then giving it to her son.

“Thank you Mom and Dad.” The boy said between mouthfuls.

“You don’t have to thank us Misha.” The Mom glanced lovingly at her son.

“But what if I can’t thank you after six months.” The boy looked up at his Dad as he spoke.

“No no, there is not going to be any of that talk. You will be running around being a thankless little brat in no time.” The father cupped the face of his son.

“The doctor said…” Before he could finish his sentence, his mother had brought another spoonful of the soup to his mouth

“I know what the doctor said but we know that you are a strong boy. You’ll be alright in no time.” The father looked at his son with eyes that betrayed no grief. He was grinning widely, teeth showing. The creases around his eyes scrunched up tightly so that it created lines just above his cheeks.

Jeb couldn’t bear to watch what was going on. He looked above towards the ceiling of the room. It was a featureless white expanse. It had no blemishes of any sort other than a spot where an LED strip was embedded into it.

‘Should I take this? What can I even do?’ Jeb thought back to every mission he had ever done. There were too many to make an exact count. He knew that he had done at least forty of them.

In the very early days he only did one a day. He didn’t know what all he could do so he tested his boundaries. He understood that he could move their hands and feet and make them do things with the joysticks. He realized that the buttons had some roles too. There was never much explanation given but sometimes, it would be clear that tapping the red button would make them stop or tapping the green button would release them.

At times he had wondered if all these controls were even necessary. He began to notice that just thinking about what he wanted them to do and moving the joystick would make them likely to do as he wanted. It was not as if he controlled these people like string puppets but as long as they weren’t personally opposed to what he thought, they would do those things.

He also knew that ‘charge’ was a way to energize people both physically and mentally. He could feel the bodies and minds of the people. Sometimes he would inadvertently learn their personal secrets.

He had strived to keep those memories out of his mind and much to his delight he started to simply forget a lot of their personal information in a few weeks if not in a few days. Yet some bits and pieces lingered. Like how much that woman who recovered from the accident liked the care and attention she received from a friend of hers.

The memory of how much that truck driver loved his children but still resented talking to his eldest son, who was clearly into psychedelics, was fresh in his mind. He had tried to make the man understand that there might be some unresolved pain or troubles in his son's mind which was pushing him to seek such an escape.

It had been one of those moments where Jeb was torn between ‘none of my business’ and ‘I might be the only one who can do this’. Eventually the concerned meddling nature - which was inherent in what he was doing - always won out.

‘What might I be able to do? Can I.. can I take out the cancer?’

He took a deep breath and looked back at the room again. The mom was reading to the child while the dad was sitting on a corner of the bed with his leg up mindlessly scrolling through his phone.

Jeb decided to watch for a few moments. The mother was reading a story about an adventurer in a valley chasing a herd of horses looking for a special black one with white hair and blue eyes.

An oracle had prophesied that this was his steed and it would lead him to great glory. The boy listened to it all with rapt attention. The father kept looking at his phone and putting it back in. He made little huffing noises from time to time and occasionally turned and looked at his wife and son before smiling. The mother and child did not see those smiles, it was an exercise in cheering himself up.

‘What can I do? What can I do? I couldn’t do much for that woman other than give her some energy to hang on but what about now? Maybe I should just give it my best shot. Maybe I’ll know it when I feel it.’

Jeb looked down at the console and pressed the orange button to accept the special mission.

Part 5 - No turning back

The screen had gone dark and stayed that way for a bit longer than usual. After about ten seconds Jeb realized that the boy had closed his eyes and was leaning on his mother. He could feel everything that the child felt. He had never had reason to appreciate what being a child was like.

An unbridled flow. A relentless surge of thoughts, feelings and dreams. The boy’s mind had many different little things. Unlike the adults the child had merged together his own thoughts, information that he knew and how he felt about it. There was no clear separation for all the pockets of life that one was supposed to have. It wasn’t a sad place, in fact, there was really only one worry. The boy did not want to leave his parents alone and go away. That was the only cloud.

Like his other thoughts, he hadn’t separated his dreams or memories from this one either. The boy imagined what might happen after his death. His parents had told him that he would become a star. He didn’t want to be a star because that would be too far away.

“Can I pick a star for myself?” The boy had asked his Mom.

“You’re picking a star?” Mom was amused.

“Yes, to go after I die.” He spoke in an innocent tone. The kind of tone that only those who don’t have to face their pain or fears by themselves could speak in.

“Oh! Yes you can pick one but there is no hurry. There is a lot of time for all that.” It was the father and the memory showed that same smile which only had joy.

“You know what, I’ll be a sparkle instead. I’ll not go far at all. I’ll only go up to the sky but stay under the clouds. I’ll watch you from high upon the arc of the rainbow when it rains. I’ll always be here.”

The father had walked up and lifted him to hold him in a tight hug. The memory did not have the fathers face while he hugged his son but Jeb thought that he caught a little flash of that mask slipping. The careful cheer that the Dad always had was cracking and maybe he lifted up his child and held him to hide his face.

Jeb couldn’t figure out what he might be able to do. A resting child who had cancer with seemingly no recourse. He had never thought if he could back out of a mission after accepting it but today he pondered that for a moment.Jeb saw that the child was dreaming at that moment. So he decided to observe that instead of stumbling through the kid's mind.

The boy was picturing himself on that special horse. Jet black with silver white hair. He could see its blue eyes as if he was picturing himself from above. The boy saw himself as a man with a stubble. Black hair flapping in the wind. The rider could feel the jerking up-and-down motion of the ride and the occasional chill of the wind as it kissed his face. The boy felt it and so did Jeb.

The sharp clarity of the aspects of the child’s imagination took him by surprise. It was not accurate but there were some details that the boy seemed to feel deeply. A wave of joy overcame his mind. The boy pictured himself riding as the sun rose up ahead of him. Its long slanted rays illuminating mountain tops that were capped with snow.

The rider took in cool fresh air as he raced along forests and valleys. He felt the boy draw in a deep breath. The boy's nose felt the sting of the sterile alcohol soaked hospital. It coated his nose and mouth and that would have made him retch. Only that he was so focused on the galloping stallion and its rider in his dream to care about anything else.

‘Where am I going? I can go to the mountaintop. Maybe there is a dragon.’

‘No dragons are boring. Maybe a friendly elf, no they’re too preachy.’

‘How about a cancerous black hole? Yes, that is it. A cancer spreading black hole. I will defeat it.’ The rider smiled as did the boy.

Jeb couldn’t see her face but he could feel the mothers fingers patting the bald head of her son. He realized that she must have seen the kids smile.

“Ride Zefir. We must take down this fiend without delay.” The rider declared. He dug his heel into the stirrup and Zefir rode harder.

Jeb did not touch any of the controls and simply let the events unfold. The Rider and his horse tore upwards onto the summit of the mountain. They didn’t have to ride far. The black hole was growing.

It sucked in pebbles and sticks at first but now it was uprooting entire trees. A gentle stream that flowed down from the peaks was now flowing back up. There was no evil laughter or menacing roars. There were no breaths of fire or hails of arrows. Just a black mass encircled by a bright hot yellow and white rim, pulsing and expanding every passing minute.

“Do not be scared, Zefir. Keep faith. You, me and the Sword of Perun will end this abomination here and now.” The rider let out a deafening roar as he pulled out a shining red and silver blade from a scabbard that appeared at his waist. The weapon was much taller than the rider. Yet the man swung the hulking behemoth of metal like a conductor of an orchestra swishing a baton.

Tiny sparks of energy leaped forth from the sword and coalesced into a column of lightning. Fiery red and orange branches with a core of blinding blue enveloped the silent void. The gaping maw stopped pulsing for a moment as the trees and boulders it was drawing up in its wake just hung in the air.

“Good, we have stunned it. Nevertheless it is a formidable foe. Most enemies would have been sundered by one blow from this most splendid saber of mine. Alas, it remains whole. I must get at it from every possible angle. Guide me around Zefir so that I may deliver the reckoning to this villainous plague upon us.” The rider pulled back on the reins as the horse reared up on its hind legs to let out a loud neigh. Then the animal and its master started to circle the object of their fury.

Jeb watched as more strikes seemed to only slow down the expansion of the hungry vacuum. He decided to not look at it anymore. Somehow the outcome seemed to be certain and Jeb didn’t want to see that. He was watching the black screen again. No sounds or sights from the boy's mind occupied his senses. That was when a strange thought crossed his mind.

‘Why am I not feeling anything wrong?’

He thought back to the time he had guided that woman with life threatening injuries. He could feel the broken bones and torn ligaments. He could feel the layers of skin and flesh that had been cut through and exposed. This was not like that.

There was a sensation of burning all throughout the body of the child. There was a debilitation in every fibre of the his being. His stomach and other intestinal organs felt fluid rather than as distinct parts of a body. His muscles ached, not like a constant ever present pain from being overworked but like an ache that you knew was there but did not present itself until you tried to move. All of that was somewhat expected but he couldn’t find something else that he expected. There was no tumor.

‘Is it possible that he has become alright?’

Jeb searched everywhere that he could reach out to. Every last nerve ending and capillary. There was nothing that was out of place. For the first time ever, he decided to actively rifle through another person's private memories. Whatever he had learned before about anyone else was accidental but now he needed to know something.

He looked back through the last few weeks and then months. He soon happened upon that one moment in the stream of subconscious that was heavier than the others. While everything else floated around like a puff of dandelion seeds, this one stayed at the bottom. He dove into it and saw the moment where the father told his son what a few doctors had been saying in the last few months.

It was a tumor in his brain. He would need more and more treatments for his sickness. There was a possibility that these treatments wouldn't work. The father explained that the doctors weren’t sure that the boy would survive. The father had spent hours telling his son that both his parents had disagreed with the doctors. They were sure that their son would make it.

Jeb had to once again stop looking at the screen for a moment and closed his eyes. He started going over everything he knew about all that he had accomplished while on missions.

‘His insides have been shattered by chemicals but there is no trace of a tumor anywhere. He must have defeated that cancer. That has to be the only explanation. They only need to test once to confirm. Can I speak? Can I ask for a test? Can I say that I feel better?’ For a fleeting moment, Jeb didn’t see himself as separate from the child.

Jeb opened his eyes and looked at all the buttons. There was never a button to make someone say something. He had always thought about what sentences could be said and that would suggest itself to the person. That was how it had always been. The only issue was that this child was sleeping.

‘I might have to wait till he is awake.’

Jeb went back to watching the rider and his horse who were locked in a struggle with that indomitable force. The gigantic sword blitzed through the air and sent a bonfire of red and blue lightning strikes at the heart of its target. He kept flailing his weapon even as the horse circled round their target while backing off and losing its footing at times.

The black hole appeared almost calm in contrast. Consuming everything it managed to reach. It had now laid bare the summit of the mountain and chunks of earth were launching themselves into the mass.

The rider stopped his thrashing and pulled his horse back. He briefly watched the darkness as it expanded. The rider bent forward and spoke in the ear of his horse.

“I have to part with you Zefir. I know what I must do, I have to shred it from the inside.” The horse neighed in protest.

“Only I can do this and so I shall finish it.” With an ear-splitting roar, the rider leaped from atop the horse and into the belly of the abyss. He held his sword up above his head and as he was pulled in by the unrelenting force he began slashing the massive blade forward.

Columns upon columns of red lighting throbbed and coalesced into a massive sphere of energy around him. As he flew into the endless chasm the crackling mass of pure energy congealed into an enormous cannonball. It flew into the true center of the fissure and disappeared.

As Jeb watched, the black hole stopped ripping up the mountain. Then without a sound, it split. Cracks appeared throughout its length as if it were a plate dropped on the floor, Sunlight shone through the widening gaps in the dark form. Then in another instant, it disappeared without a trace.

A tiny spark of light which was next to invisible in the bright sunlight was all that remained. Jeb watched as the spark rose over what was left of the mountain and flew into the sun. The black horse with white hair and blue eyes let out a solemn neigh and then the screen went black.

The screen came back on with a piercing brightness. Jeb raised his hand to shield himself and then he realized that the boy had also raised his hand. The child had woken up and was staring at the LED strip on the ceiling which had been turned on. The sudden influx of light had hurt his eyes but he was now adjusting to it.

“Mom, where is Dad?” The boy's voice was stronger than before.

“He had just gone to talk to the doctor. What’s up Misha?” There was a note of concern.

“Nothing. I just realized what my star will be.” He spoke brightly

“What do you mean?” Mom helped the boy sit up.

“You know, my star. The one I’ll be after six months.” The boy had an eagerness to his tone that might have sounded out of place to his mother.

“No, no, not after six months. Only after many many years. You are already getting better you see. You moved your hand very quickly to cover your eyes just now. I can tell that you are feeling better already.” Mom had a jovial tone.

The door opened.

“Misha is feeling better already isn’t he?” Dad was at the foot of his bed, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

“Dad, dad, I know my star. You know the one I’ll be in six months. I’ll be the Sun. The Sun is a star isn’t it. It is my star.” The boy looked more animated than he ever had been. Jeb could feel the excitement coursing through.

The father laughed and looked at the mother. There were little droplets of water in his eyes.

“He is in full remission. They’re calling it a miracle but we always knew, didn’t we?” The father turned to look at his son.

The mother leaped out of her chair and hugged the father. Then they both moved to the bed and held their child. Jeb could feel the child’s confusion.

“Dad. What is remission?”

“It means that you’ll be the Sun but only after many long and healthy years.”

The screen cleared and the familiar stats display appeared. This time it had a note before the stats and an additional option in the center at the bottom of the screen apart from the usual two left and right of it.

Special Mission complete. Level up earned

Time - 03 hrs 02 mins

Mission points - 50

Bonus points - 150

Total points earned - 3150

Level up at - 9000

RED to roll BLUE to accept GREEN to return

Jeb sat in the chair for a few minutes. Here he was back in his own world. There were many questions and few answers. Still he felt happy to have been part of that moment with Misha’s family.

‘I didn’t have to do anything. The boy was fine. I was just there to see him be told that he is fine. What did I even do? I moved my hand and his hand moved.’

Jeb felt a tinge of melancholic delight. There was nothing to worry or be downcast about yet he felt something akin to a catharsis. This time, he was right to do nothing.

‘Wait, do I need to accept this level up?’

He gently pushed the blue button. A new line of text appeared on screen.

You have accepted the level of rookie ethereal. You are now no longer in need of a console to complete missions. You have access to basic ethereal abilities.

GREEN to return

The screen provided no further explanation. He tapped the green button. The screen went back to being black and he got up. He walked to the door that he had entered through and looked back. The console was gone.

As he stepped out he looked at his phone. The time showed 08:23 pm. The building still had lights in its hallways and some people were milling about. No one paid any attention to the young man taking a lift down or exiting the building.

Everyone had their own lives to take care of and strangers were inconsequential like a speck of glitterdust.

Subscribe now

“It does teleport people and materials over much larger distances. We have tested it over five thousand kilometers and it was successful.” I really needed this investment.

“You had actual human participants?”

“Yes I was one of them. Every single one of the participants is completely fine.” I could feel sweat forming on my temples.

“How many prototypes are there?” His smile widened.

“Only these two.” The skin on my forehead was slick.

“I can tell when you’re lying.” His face turned serious.

“Let’s level with each other. You have made many versions of this attempting to correct that flaw of yours.” He stared straight into me as if commanding my neurons to tell him everything.

“Yes.” My voice wasn’t as shaky as I felt.

“I have quite a few copies of the teleporters. I don’t really know, maybe thirty of these. All of them have that one flaw. I have never been able to iron it out.” It had cost me all of my savings and most of my parents money too.

“Without covering up anything. Tell me every little detail of your flaw.” His voice was sharp.

“I have not told any lies other than the number of the prototypes.” I stopped and drank some water.

“The flaw is quite straightforward. When a human or an animal steps out of the teleporter, they are completely fine until they drink some water. Then they start to feel tipsy. The more water they drink, the more drunk and inebriated they feel. Something about the abundance of hydrogen in water messing with the realigned brain chemistry.” I stopped speaking and searched his face for some sign of dismissal. He kept his gaze even.

“They only need to sleep it off. A nap of two hours should do it and they’ll be perfectly fine. They won’t even feel hungover.” His smile had returned. I felt a dash of relief.

“I am sure that I can solve it with another year’s worth of research. Five million dollars of funding should do it.” I liked to start with a higher number.

“Have you filed for a patent?” His smile was warm, almost friendly.

“Yes. EP 5105334 B1.” I didn’t hide my delight.

“Good. I’ll license it. Ten percent of the operational profits before taxes plus a minimum annual guarantee of one million dollars per year if you grant us a sole license.” The corner of my left eye twitched for a few seconds.

“What.. What are you..”

“I’ll offer two million as the minimum annual guarantee if you ask no questions and never talk about this agreement with anyone outside this room. This also means that no one, absolutely no one sees or comes to know about the other prototypes.” My left foot started shaking. I took a minute before responding.

“Twenty-five percent of the operational profits before taxes plus a minimum guaranteed amount of two million dollars per year. You have the sole license and I will keep my mouth shut.” I forced my leg to stop shivering.

“You drive a hard bargain Mr. Baccay. Consider this deal done. I’ll have my people get in touch with you.” He shook my right hand with both of his and that warm smile never left his face.

Over the next year, I received over 400 million dollars in royalties.

True to my word I kept my mouth shut. I had gotten my parents a new house even though they insisted on moving back as soon as the renovation of our old home was done. I spent a cool four million on a swanky penthouse in Parañaque.

I often wondered what it was that tall dark skinned man did with my patent but I didn’t make any attempts to find out. One does not look a gift horse in the mouth, as they say.

One sultry day in June my cousin came to see my new place. He lived in the US or Canada, I could never remember which one it was.

“Jayson, it's a real shame that you don’t drink.” Alon was about the party life.

“You know, I don’t enjoy that feeling of being uninhibited, even a little bit.” I gave him a smug look.

“I know, I know but you should come to the States man. There is this new club called Club Agua.” His earnest voice told me that he really wanted me to show some interest.

“Oh! Yeah. Club Agua. Ok, maybe we can check it out when I come over.” I tried not to sound too dismissive.

“It is an exclusive club and not everyone gets an invite to be a member. I managed to snag one through the wife of my boss.” There was some conspiratorial undertone to that statement but I didn’t want to pursue it.

“That’s cool bro. So you’ve been to this place then.” I knew that he wouldn’t bring it up if he hadn’t been there.

“Yes, yes. They scan you when you walk in with these advanced high tech scanners. You can feel a little prickle on your skin when you walk in through that scanner.” He laughed.

I sat up straight.

“Do you feel like you are being brushed by cat whiskers?” I knew of only one machine that could make you feel like that.

“Oh my God, bro. That is exactly what it is. I knew you were a top notch tech guy but man you are also the Picasso of words.” His face was a mixture of elation and astonishment.

“So what happens at Club Agua?” Now, I had to know.

“So you walk in right. They have that scanner. They only let in one person at a time. They tell you beforehand that if you have any weapons or other dangerous substance on you, it will be removed automatically by the scanner.” He paused and waited for a reaction that he did not receive.

It made him a little less enthusiastic but I was processing what he had described to pay too much attention to his attitude.

“Then once you are in there, you get all kinds of booze. They have much lower prices than any other bar or club that you can go to. You have to pay a hefty annual subscription though unless you have the privileged card. You get the privileged card by going there once a week for at least eight months. Guess who’s a privileged cardholder?” He had a wide grin on his face as he looked at me expectantly.

“The boss's wife?” I blurted the first thing that came to my mouth.

“Nope. The boss. His wife gets a pass as a female family member of a privileged cardholder. They both can invite new members to the club and she got me in. I was on track to get my privileged card but I had to fly out here for my parents.” Uncle and Aunty insisted on having him over for a month in the summer.

“Aw! That sucks bro. What else is special about the place?” I was only half-teasing him. I had a sneaking suspicion about what he was going to say next.

“They have an exclusive brand of clear spirit. It's called Agua Marina. They don’t sell it anywhere else and they don’t even let you take it out of the club. It is some type of vodka or neutral grain spirit. It is expensive but man does it hit hard.” He was too engrossed in his own tale. His face had become animated like some slapstick cartoon character.

“I’ve never seen a guy or girl that could take more than one bottle of it. It doesn’t have much of a taste though, it is like…”

“Almost like pure water.” I completed the sentence for him.

“Yes bro. That is exactly what it is. Telling you man, you are the Picasso of words. You really need to come to CA with me Bro. I can take you in as soon as I get my Privileged card.” He kept on for another couple of minutes about the large parking lots and the upper floors of the club with exotic dancers, poker tables, slot machines and such.

“So it is a bar, a strip club and a mini-casino all rolled into one.” I summarized it trying to get him to stop.

“Not just that bro, they have luxury hotel suites in the upper floors and top clients have permanent accommodations there. Like CEOs have their second offices up there. I mean, makes sense right. You can’t sneak anything past that scanner. It is one of the safest places to be.” He was on a roll and he didn’t care to see if I was listening.

It was clear to me that the Club Agua had my teleporters installed as their scanners and they were selling overpriced water to their customers. The only mystery was how they managed to target any weapons or other ‘dangerous substance’.

The teleporter worked by atomizing and reassembling anything that was placed in it. Maybe they were choosing to not reagglomerate certain objects. I could figure out how that worked if I spent some time in the lab. Yet, they would have a pile of waste atoms or some form of wasted material.

“Wait, what are these ‘dangerous substances’?” I cut through my cousin's monologue.

“What? Oh! Well drugs of course and stuff like batteries or I don’t know explosive or potentially hazardous chemicals. They have a list. I don’t remember all of it but if something can’t be taken to the airport, it sure can’t go into Club Agua either.” He had stopped for the moment.

“Right, by any chance do you know anything about their waste disposal systems?” It was worth a shot.

“What? No. Why would that be anything special? They must be connected to the sewage grid. They must have garbage collection trucks coming over. The only thing that I have seen other than customers' cars are those security vans. The ones in which they bring money and stuff like that.” For a guy who didn’t seem to pay much attention, my cousin seemed to have a decent memory.

“Considering that they have a casino, that makes sense.” I smiled at him.

“Yeah, I heard that they are opening up in various South American, North African and Middle Eastern countries. Truth be told, I don’t understand how they might find premium clientele in some of these places.” My cousin stood up and walked to the balcony as he spoke.

“Yeah that would be difficult.” I replied, but my mind was elsewhere.

A global network of teleporters. Anything could be moved from anywhere to anywhere under the guise of a multi-purpose entertainment hub of some sort. A hub where no weapons or other dangerous substances could be brought in. A secure fortress of an international transportation and entertainment hub.

I finally appreciated all that was behind his devious smile.

A brilliant piece of kit in the hands of a master schemer. No wonder why he didn’t care for the flaw. He made it sound like I pushed for a hard bargain. Only that he had played me like a fiddle.

I didn’t mind too much though. I could continue my research at will and I had secured the future of my family for generations to come with a billion dollar flaw.

I stood up and walked to the balcony with a sly smile.