CHAPTER 13 : Self Service As the afternoon had worn on, engrossed, confounded and horrified though he was by his interactions with his symbiote, Rother had realised he needed food. Mercy frequently told him, and he had to admit it was true, that his relationship with food was like a child’s. If he didn’t eat … Read more
CHAPTER 10 : Into The Bhalak The face of Albert Bach resembled nothing so much as a hairless Chinese Crested dog. He had been made acutely aware of this fact for most of his life and was resigned to it. His school mates had dubbed him Dogface, and girls had been known to take roundabout … Read more
CHAPTER 9 : Coffee, Biscuits And The Nature Of God Looking out over the Financial District from Mr. Kintsugi’s office at the Hu Foundation HQ, Mercy could see evening lights beginning to wink on beyond the Transamerica Pyramid. She noted too that some of the vehicles coming back to the city across the Oakland Bay … Read more
CHAPTER 8 : Dispatched “Now I remember,” sighed Elfin, stifling a yawn. “You’re not actually very good at that, are you?” Smiddy felt utterly deflated. The experience had been exactly as he remembered it from the first time. The sublimely beautiful Elfin had lain there beneath him doing nothing whatsoever during an interminable fifteen minutes. … Read more
CHAPTER 7 : Rother Names His Poison “How about I call you Kane?” Rother had mulled over several possibilities for naming his parasitical virus, and this was the one that had stuck. “Why, yes,” replied Kane. “Why not?” Although it still worried him, Rother was already becoming more accustomed to the fact that his parasite … Read more
CHAPTER 6 : Cliff Hanger “This view,” Mercy had said, “is just spectacular.” “On a day like this,” Mr. Park had agreed, “it’s hard to beat.” He pointed out towards the seabirds, mostly pelicans, cormorants and gulls, wheeling over Seal Rocks, then gestured further up the coast to the north. “And just up there, if … Read more
INSIDERS CHAPTER 1 – The Cheek Of It Rother did not notice that the first of them had burst through the skin of his right cheek, slightly below the faded scar under his left eye, until a moment or two after he sliced off its head with his twin-bladed shaving razor. The pain was brief … Read more
CHAPTER 5 : Thoughts And Words “How are you feeling?” asked the voice. Rother tried to ignore it. He desperately wanted to think logically about what was happening to him, but anything resembling a coherent thought was eluding him. He stared at his face in the mirror and, overcoming his feelings of revulsion, he raised … Read more
INSIDERS CHAPTER 4 : Booster Shot “He has not the slightest idea,” insisted Mercy Yoo. Across town, in the expensively faux art deco-style HQ building of the Hu Foundation, she sat directly opposite Mr. Kintsugi Joon-woo, the boss of her boss’s boss. She had arrived that morning feeling inordinately guilty for having deceived Doogle. With … Read more
INSIDERS CHAPTER 3 : Plastered “It was all a dream,” thought Rother. Startled back from sleep to sudden wakefulness, he had felt a flood of relief surging into his head and chest for all of half a second. “Just a dream.” he said aloud, hoping to convince himself. Almost immediately, however, he caught sight of … Read more