2 Chapter Two

Aston could normally get away with around six hours of sleep, but today he woke at seven totally refreshed, only fours hours and I feel great he thought. He went through his daily regime, ten reps of dynamic stretching, these included jumping jacks, arm circles, lunges, high knees, and squats. Followed by thirty mins of Yoga, using poses he was taught early in life. To vary the workout and muscle groups used he liked to interchange the ten poses, this helped improve his strength and flexibility and also kept the workout from getting to regimented. He always finished off with ten-minute meditation which not only helped focus his mind but also gave the muscles time to relax.

Before he jumped in the shower, he sent Ellie a text message to see if she had any tutes or classes today. He wanted to be straight up and ask about last night but thought it better to start the conversation off before addressing the real question. When he'd finished, she'd text back to say she had a tutorial she couldn't avoid at 10.30am and asked how he was.

His reply read "all good :0) do you fancy coffee need to pick your brains!"

Ellie responded, "nice - as long as you buy my brain breakfast - Bean @ 9.00?"

By Bean, he knew she meant the coffee house Bean around the World, which was a favourite haunt of theirs. They had gone there following their first meeting during their senior year at Magdelena school. He had been gifted a flying lesson as a result of winning the headmaster's merit awards, and Ellie had also chosen the same prize after winning the girls' school equivalent. They met on the tarmac after his flight. He was heading back to the flight school office, high on the adrenaline from the experience in the seemingly very small two-seater Cessna. He remembered being taken by her smile, it lit up her whole face, her green eyes sparkled, accentuated by long lashes. She'd asked him how it went, and he remembered stumbling for words and ended up saying

"I - I - I, really enjoyed it thanks," he thought he'd saved himself by turning and shouting back "it's awesome, you'll have a fantastic time, the landing is extreme!"

He'd watched her all the way to the plane hoping she just might turn her head and acknowledge him. When she didn't, he figured he'd blown his chance of making a good first impression. He waited on the runway tarmac to watch her take off and ever so briefly caught a glimpse of that stunning smile and was sure he got a little wave from her as the Cessna picked up speed down the runway.

He had hung around in the flight school deliberately to speak to her, when she came back he knew she had enjoyed the experience, she was laughing and joking with the middle-aged pilot who was paying her compliments and being a little too attentive. He was about to leave when she called after him in her broad country accent "you were right about the landing, absolutely awesome, I nearly wet myself." That was the catalyst of their friendship. They continued talking with the flight school pilots and hit it off when they discovered a mutual affiliation to off from centre sports, fencing, mountain biking, and rock climbing. They shared a taxi back to Oxford, which is where they first went for coffee at Bean.

He was sat in the same window seat now, the smell of coffee and freshly baked bread fuelling his hunger waiting for her to get there so he could tell his tale and finally order breakfast.

"I didn't see the whole show!" Aston almost spat out the scrambled eggs he'd just taken a mouthful of when she told him.

"What?" He recovered after swallowing. "I thought you were there?"

"I left just after the guys barking like dogs, which was pretty lame. I had to be somewhere."

"Can't believe you didn't see it, officially miffed." Aston felt snubbed that she didn't stay to see him, and the fact that now she wouldn't be able to give her take on what the hypnotist said.

"I did see a clip of the show on YouTube, though, and it did look rather intense." Aston perked up.

" I can't believe he would do that in front of an audience, very unethical, we've covered this in med school, and it shouldn't be taken lightly, the brain I mean."

"It's on YouTube?"

"I was so worried when you fell off the chair, you could have had a severe head trauma, that guy should get banned! Yes, apparently you've got over 4,000 views."

"What?"

"Somebody posted it this morning, oh you've got 4,755 now, look!" Ellie handed Aston her phone and continued to eat her Bircher muesli.

"This is great, this will really help, we can work out what he did and said."

Ellie looked bemused "I'm sorry Aston I'm not sure I understand."

Aston proceeded to tell Ellie about the lifelike experience the regression had been, and his plan to try and go back and attempt it again with Harrison's and hopefully her help.

"Are you mad, you're seriously not thinking of trying a hypnotic regression without the aid of a specialist!"

"That's why we need you, Ellie. You can be our specialist you've got the medical training."

"I'm only in the second year of my degree you fool." Ellie playfully swiped at him. "It will be four years before I start residency. If I make it that is."

"You're gonna make it, and I've got to give this a go Ellie. Can you imagine what this could lead to? You have to help, think of it as early practical experience" she swiped at him again.

"Look I'll help but only to make sure you don't zombie out or something, especially with Harrison involved he's probably got an app written for it already!"

Aston laughed "He reckons if we do pull it off he's going to write a thesis on it and major in psychology. But seriously if we do this and prove I've found a window to the soul ... just think if the ramifications."

"Sounds deep Aston but what are you going to do? Alter the course of his history! You've been watching too many late night movies." Aston could sense her indifference.

"If given the chance I would, but first I need to see if it was just a one-off or if I can do it again." His attention returned to the YouTube video which had now nudged past 5,000 "and this will really help!"

"Okay, as long as you're doing this for positive reasons, not just some ego trip I'll help, but I don't see how it was anything to do with this hypnotist guy. It may not be him, and if you had the ethereal past life event or whatever you call it, it's probably more to do with your state of consciousness, sorry, twisted state of mind more like!"

Ellie's phone sprang to life as a call came through, he handed it back to her and mouthed "new boyfriend?" She awkwardly took the phone and walked outside with it to her ear. Aston watched as she paced up and down outside for a few minutes she looked troubled as she headed for the door. The bell pinged above the door as she entered

"Are you okay?"

"Look I have to go. Sorry, I'll call you later."

"You're still good to help right?"

"Of course, I'll call you. Thanks for breakfast."

Aston watched her head away into the grey morning, he wondered what the call was about, made a mental note to find out later and then remembered the YouTube video. He grabbed his phone checked the time, "9.45, good he'll still be in bed." He ordered a double espresso to go, settled the bill and headed back to tell Harrison.

"Oh my god it's got over 6,000 views, that's sick!" Harrison was more concerned by the fact the video had gone viral, so he didn't get Aston's point.

"It's not the reason we're watching this."

When he got back, Aston had to beat down his roommate's door. He knew Harrison was a heavy sleeper, but he'd fallen asleep wearing his noise-cancelling headphones. The espresso had done the trick, and they were sitting at Harrison's workstation, he didn't like to call it a desk, watching the YouTube video sensation that Aston, his regression and fall from the stage had become.

"Check out the comments!"

Aston rolled his eyes and put his hand to his forehead "Oh no."

"Whose sharing this? Probably everyone from the show last night right?" His habit of answering his own questions straight away reminded Aston of how they had become friends.

They had met during a quiz night a few years back. They were in competing teams heading into a soul and jazz music round, and only Aston and Harrison seemed to be the ones with the right answers. They clashed on the final question of the round, Aston remembered it well. "What was the first track on Miles Davis' Kind of Blue?"

Harrison had jumped up out of his seat and shouted " Freddy Freeloader, no, no it was Blue in Green, no, no. What was the first track on Kind of Blue, I'm pretty sure it was Freddy Freeloader, yes Freddy Freeloader" his teammates were as confused as the quiz master.

Aston was impressed that someone else his age had an interest in Miles Davis. He called out his team name as per the rules and waited as the quiz master informed Harrison he certainly had two tracks from the album correct, but neither was the first track. He then asked Aston, who stood up, looked over at Harrison answered correctly. "So What!"

Aston went over once the quiz had finished to introduce himself. "Good to meet a fellow Davis fan, you maybe should have used your playlist like me." He held up his own phone which was showing the Kind of Blue tracks in order.

Harrison smiled shook his head. "Tech solutions work every time. Should've done the same but I got ahead of myself, it's a nerves thing."

"Yeah, I think everyone noticed."

They had sat and discussed Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and other jazz greats for the rest of the night and been friends ever since.

"Just go back to the beginning of the video." Aston pointed at the screen, "We can hear what he says. This can help us."

"Right!"

"So now we can copy it exactly."

They watched the video again, and Harrison managed to integrate closed captioning on to the file so they could see and capture what was being said. It didn't appear to be too far from what they had tried the night before.

"I reckon it has more to do with me attempting to block his advances. Ellie said something similar this morning."

"Ellie was here?" Harrison looked shocked "she didn't say hi?"

"No, I met her at Bean while you were still in your comatose state, that's where I got your coffee. She said it might have been more my sensory control and seeing this again I think she might be right."

"So what did you do? Some Buddhist technique no doubt."

"You do know you're not supposed to answer your own question." Aston rolled his eyes. " Well, it was actually! I was spotlighting my attention, focussing on a particular area or part of my body. And yes it is an old Buddhist technique that Grace taught me. She said it went back longer than time and can help to heal in some people."

"Check this out." Harrison had run a Google search on Spotlighting Attention Meditation techniques and pulled up a recent study by Brown University in the US. They had found that a form of mindfulness meditation known as MBSR acts as a "volume knob" for attention, changing brain wave patterns.

They read through the article and then looked at each other and Aston said: "that could be it, let's give it a go now!"

Harrison looked at the time. "Maybe, but not now - I've got a tute, and so do you. Can't miss another one so soon in the semester, and we've got 15 minutes to get there."

Aston managed to make it in time but might as well have missed the tutorial as he was not there in mind, his focus was far away, a different era and a distant place. He could hear Grace's voice once again telling him to breathe and concentrate, focus all your thoughts on a particular point. She had told him this technique had been utilised over two millennia by Buddhists in China and Tibet to reduce the distress and chronic pain from aching joints or specific parts of the body. Some had found it helped improve cognitive functions and stave off the effects of old age.

Aston lived in Hong Kong from the age of three until he was twelve, his father had been tempted by the lifestyle and financial rewards of being an expat, especially for an accountant at one of the largest banks in the region. Throughout the whole time, Grace went from being his nanny to his guardian and teacher, and on to be his best childhood friend. Grace Li taught him everything any child could want to know about Asia, the traditions, the culture, the history, the religions, everything. She was raised in a Buddhist temple so she was deeply entrenched in her faith, although she was also intrigued by the ways and motives of the West. His mother would say she was Grace by name grace by nature, she was kind and gentle, humbly bowing whenever she greeted people, courteous and respectful. Aston also remembered the firm and swift response if boundaries were crossed, and Aston often tried to cross them, typically receiving a rapier-like tap or slap which seemed to come out of nowhere.

He recalled one lesson regarding spotlight attention, and Grace was trying to get him to imagine his father backing the car out of the drive. A simple task but to reach the street safely, he must hold the destination in mind while steering and ignoring distractions from elsewhere: you children playing in the back seat, the news on the radio, the glare of the sun in his eyes. Aston didn't understand and was being distracted by a passing bee until Grace brought his focus back, she had knelt, spun and swung her leg around in a perfect semicircle, stopping just behind Aston, who was following the bees trajectory in the air until he tripped over the obstacle he hadn't seen. She spun around again to catch him just before he hit the floor. "See Aston, many people, filter out these distractions using their subconscious — but should irrelevant stimuli or bees distract you, backing out a car or even walking along can become an ordeal. Spotlight of attention can improve focus and have an impact on the alpha brain waves that help filter and organize sensory inputs, improving your attentional control."

Once again Aston was brought back to the real world by the sound of laughter and cheering although this time it was his tute class. The professor was staring straight through him, the glare intensified by his bifocals, "North, North!" He was getting louder and Aston opened his eyes "North! Finally, you're with us. Care to elaborate on where you've been for the last ten minutes; I 'm pretty sure no one has hypnotised you this morning." The class burst into laughter, and Aston's face burst into a deep shade of scarlet.

Ellie had called Aston as arranged, and he managed to confirm the time to meet in between babbling on about his embarrassment during a tutorial session with Professor Ferris. She had told him not to worry as he should be more concerned about what he was getting into. It was now eight o'clock, and she had serious doubts about letting one of her best friends dabble in regression hypnosis and god knows what else and paused outside his apartment before knocking the door.

They had been friends for almost two years now, the meeting on the airfield was the first time she'd ever really looked at a guy her age, she remembered his green eyes, he was attractive if a little nerdy, good hair, dark and a little curly. She liked the cute way he bit his lip as she passed him on the runway, obviously trying to think of something clever to say. She had purposely not looked back but did steal a look from the plane as they took off. She also remembered the flight instructor who, although a little older than most of her boyfriends, was quite dashing. She was glad Aston had offered her a lift as a way out of there because she may have been tempted. Older boys were always more mature when she was in her early teens, and that progressed as she matured herself. Her mom said it was a father figure thing, but her sister reckoned it was really the fact they could drive and had better jobs. Aston had intrigued her, his interest in unconventional sports matched her own, and they seemed to share a lot in common. She had agreed when he invited her to go to mountain climbing lessons a few days later. That was followed by fencing lessons although Aston never really asked her out on a date as such. Being good friends was where they managed to end up but she still harboured hopes it might develop although Ellie was adamant she wasn't going to instigate anything.

As she knocked on the door, she couldn't help thinking he was getting into something way more extreme than sports. Harrison answered "Hey Ellie" they hugged.

"Hey you, built any more killer apps lately?" She liked to wind him up about his tech obsession.

"No, but check this out" he showed off his iPhone that he'd switched out the Apple logo on the back to light up like a MacBook."

"Pretty cool, can you do mine?"

"For sure, if only you'd ditch that Android crap!"

"Hey no fair, we can't all have a father who buys us whatever we want."

Ellie was a little bit jealous of Harrison's father; she 'd grown up in relative poverty living on a farm in the West Country and always looked on with envy at the richer kids in school. Her dad had died when she was only twelve leaving her Mom to look after four daughters. Her elder sister had taken up much of the household responsibility which allowed Ellie to concentrate on study, meaning she wasn't there to help out so much. Which created a fair bit of tension between them, and Ellie was still trying to make amends.

"Where's the patient?" She asked to change the subject.

"He's just..."

"Hey you" Aston cut him off as he stuck his head around the corner of his room.

Their flat was so much nicer than her dorm at the University. "I still can't believe you guys got this place." Ellie had helped them move in and added a few feminine touches where she could, even taking Harrison and his daddy's credit card to Ikea to buy curtains, rugs, lamps and some pictures to brighten up the place.

"It's great that you're here Ellie, I'm so excited about this! I have been thinking about it all day."

"A bit too deeply so you said earlier!" She said quickly.

Harrison laughed. "LOL, yeah man. I heard that too. I bet Ferris was pissed!"

"Yep, he wasn't best pleased, but I managed to convince him it was the after-effects from last night!"

"Aston I'm not sure we should do this. I'm worried that you'll end up catatonic or something." Ellie thought she should at least try to take some moral high ground.

"Look I think it'll work, and I've been thinking about what you said, about it being more me than the hypnosis. I'm sure it's something to do with the spotlight attention meditation. I was solely focussed on my inner thoughts and mind when he was trying to put me under, and that's what I think triggered this window opening and my soul to reboot."

"Hang on. You think your soul rebooted — are you mad?" Ellie had a problem with regression, reincarnation, and the whole past life thing. She was raised a Catholic by her mother, and they still attended mass when Ellie visited.

"That's the only thing I think could explain it, Ellie - it was like I was there like I said before, and after watching the thing over and over I reckon that this wasn't a regression. He pointed to Harrison "We watched heaps last night trying to suss out how it happened, and they were different right."

Harrison nodded.

Ellie was turning off the idea even more now "Look I don't mind trying hypnosis and was happy to play along but messing with reincarnation and past souls I'm not sure I'm up for that."

"We need you, Ellie!" Aston looked a little crestfallen.

"You don't need me. You've never needed me, Aston." Ellie wasn't sure if she should have said that, she tried to deflect a little "you two seem to have this figured out between both of you. What exactly do you need me for?"

Aston looked a little puzzled as if he was trying to work out what Ellie's little slip up was about. "I...I...I" he stumbled, she knew he was flustered especially when he started stuttering "I...I'd rather have you here, just in case, medically I mean."

"Medically' medically!" Ellie's short temper was about to get the better of her, "So I'm nursemaid am I?"

"I didn't mean it like that." Aston was starting to raise his voice.

"Well, that's what it sounded like, I'm the bloody medic you said" her temper had taken over, and she took the way out Aston had just presented. "I'm off!" she turned on her heels.

"Elle your part of our team — we need you, I was getting palpitations last night when I came around, Ellie! Ellie!"

Aston's protests didn't resonate, and she kept on walking out of the door, making a point to slam it behind her. She couldn't believe she'd had two arguments, with people she cared about, in the same day.

Aston didn't do arguments, although Ellie had run him close on numerous occasions, she had a temper shorter than a fuse on a Roman candle and it was easy to light. His reluctance to get drawn into arguments stemmed from having to listen to his parents as a child. They would argue for what seemed like hours while he and his sister would cower under the bedclothes, pillows as earmuffs. Aston was glad in a way when his father disappeared; the conflict cease fired and his mother seemed so much happier once they had moved back to London. He had vowed to himself never to be like that when he grew up and preferred to walk away or concede rather than evoke memories of his childhood nightmares.

"Let her go" he stopped Harrison from opening the door. "She's well within her rights; I was a little unsubtle."

"I was more worried about the door and the neighbours, what brought that on? Probably a bad time, you know."

Aston shook his head "Don't."

"And what was that 'you never needed me' comment? Maybe it's hormonal."

"Harrison" Aston curtailed his friend's sexist dig but he was a little puzzled by Ellie's left field comment, but he didn't want to get into it right now though. He and Ellie had never got anywhere near romance as far as he thought, he'd fancied her early on but knew she was into older guys. He always thought she saw him as more of a brother, and when they found out they shared the same interest in extreme sports, the sports became something to do together. They would frequently try to get one over on each other, who could be more radical or daring, the mountain biking became rock climbing which turned into abseiling and was due to become hang gliding.

"We're just good mates," he didn't mean to say it out loud.

"Not anymore my friend," Harrison was laughing.

"She'll be all right, I'll call her tomorrow. I'm just pissed off we may have to put this off for now. Her Med' school training would have given me more confidence should anything go wrong."

Harrison was keen to try and solve the problem as always, "I've been thinking about that and I reckon we can hook up something to monitor your vitals if you're that worried. I've got a sportband we can use that, connect it to your phone and I'm sure I can hack something together in a few days to monitor brain activity." He started fishing about in one of his desk draws.

Aston was still thinking about what had just happened."I'm gonna text Ellie just to say sorry" he typed out the message a few times deleting words and phrases until it read okay in his head before he sent it.

"Sorry Ellie don't get cross at me — it's an adventure I'd rather do with your support, help and perspective — call you tomorrow if I'm not shipwrecked! :0)." He thought a touch of humour may help but didn't want her to dwell on their spat without him reaching out in some way.

"Look" Harrison had found the Sportband "try this on and we'll see if it works," Harrison's confidence was starting to bring Aston's focus back on the regression.

"Right, you're right" he shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Let's just do it!" He said with a wry smile. The wristband blinked into life, returned a pulse rate of just over 55bpm, Harrison checked the App. "All working. You can go for a run or we can give this a shot."

"Cool. Let's get started."

"I'm just going to check the video again to see if we can see anything." Harrison was taking the lead, "I recorded the sounds yesterday to try and isolate out what the hypnotist was saying from the background noise but I reckon it's worth checking the visuals he may have done something else."

"Not a bad idea bro."

"That's a bit weird."

"What?"

"It's gone — the URL's not working, I'd added it as a favourite but looks like the video's been taken down off YouTube."

"What do you think happened?" Aston was partly relieved he was no longer viral but also, a little miffed as it would have helped.

"I guess someone complained or the film infringed on some rights management law or something. Or the bar staff probably didn't want anyone to see how many people they let in that night."

"It's not our night. Do you still have the sound recording?"

"Yep on your phone, check out Hypno playlist, track one."

Aston scrolled through his playlists, "What else is on here? There are about fourteen tracks."

"Some of the hypnosis preamble stuff we found yesterday plus some relaxing ambient sounds. Thought they might be handy — hey they nearly put me to sleep!"

Aston played track one. It was weird listening to his replies but Aston found himself repeating it back. He stopped the track and turned to Harrison.

"This could work."

"Too right it could!"

"So instead of you trying to put me under like yesterday, I think we just use this and see where it gets us."

They debated how best to set things up. If Aston was going to be under, where would be the best place for it to happen? Harrison thought it a little weird doing it in Aston's room with him lying down on the bed. Aston suggested setting up his yoga mat in the lounge and using the classic cross-legged Lotus meditation position which he believed would give him the best chance to go under. The logistics debate ran for the next 15 minutes until they settled on Harrison's idea of a therapists couch type scenario using the reclining sofa chair.

Before they began, Aston checked his messages; no reply from Ellie. It was a shame she wasn't there but it was her choice and his worries re medical support were somewhat relieved by the Sportband. "Remember if anything goes wrong call 999 then try and revive me."

"I think you're being a little too cautious but I've got you covered man."

"Okay, pass me the headphones, we don't want us both going under."

Harrison handed over his headphones, Aston plugged them into his phone, lay back on the recliner and pressed play. He crossed his arms and held his thumb and forefingers together applying a little pressure to help his focus. For the second time in a matter of days, the hypnotist's voice began to lead Aston into hypnosis.

"I need you to find the release form for Christ's sake! Is it too much to ask?"

Leonardo Desangé was annoyed at his assistant; he was starting to lose his temper and then she asked him which one.

"Which one, which one!" he exploded. "The bloody regression from the end of the show last night that's which one. Jesus!"

He was due on stage in 30 minutes and was still thinking about the kid from last nights gig at Oxford University. It had distracted him at the office earlier and had played on his mind for most the day. 'The Battle of Trafalgar' he thought to himself 'odd, very odd,' the regression hadn't gone as planned and the kid put up some strong resistance, and the trigger points were wrong when he went under. It was also unusual to get so much intricate detail; specimens are usually quite vague even if they get to a past life event. Most don't even have the brain capacity to get close to it, let alone give a frank and intimate recollection of a definitive end of life event.

He'd never gotten a chance to speak to Giselle about it and now when they had his assistant was too worried about her costume to find the release forms from last night and help him.

'The boy could be another one?' He thought, starting to calm down. He'd seen the YouTube video which reaffirmed the complexity and depth of the regression, that was before he'd ordered it to be taken down, that exposure was unfortunate and potentially embarrassing for him, he was glad he sorted it out quickly. After the show he would get in contact with the kid on some premise, that is he thought, as long as she finds the form. For now, he to had to get ready for his performance.

He looked at himself in the dressing room mirror, the glow of the halogen bulbs around the edge of the frame exposing every detail in his face. At least this venue had a decent dressing room; most were dreadful. He'd been doing the hypnotism act for a long time now. It was a hobby, a game really, that tweaked his amusement, he'd used it as a method for manipulating people, the passers-by, the flotsam of life, but every now and again he discovered someone, a soul that interested him, a potential candidate for higher study or possible recruitment. "He could be another shifter, Giselle. It's vital we find the form. I want to speak to him." His voice softer now, his accent caressing her name as only the French could.

As he sat and applied his stage makeup he looked at the lines on his face and thought of the time he'd been here. Not bad for someone over two centuries old he thought. A long time ago Leonardo Desangé had been taught a secret, a very powerful secret. One that had given him the ability to shift his soul. He could control his mind in such a way that he was able to self-regulate his bodies regenerative balance, therefore controlling the cells ageing process. He had hardly aged since learning of the secret during the Opium wars in Canton China over a hundred and fifty years ago. A complex and intense meditation method gifted to him by an adversary that had saved his life. As well as controlling the ageing process soul shifting gave him the ability to shift mentally back in time, he could regress his soul to revisit his earlier life, learn from experiences and even influence future states.

Desangé had abused this secret ability to establish, and become the head of, a small but incredibly powerful global investment company. The firm had made its fortune benefitting from what he had coined as "outsider trading" on presumably unforeseen economic events, stock markets fluctuations and money market collapses. He had used his ability to shift back in time and manipulate the market. Short selling specific stocks and currencies, placing long positions on entities just before a major breakthrough or profit reports. They had been doing this for the past hundred years and had now amassed a billion dollar empire. The company inexplicably being able to foretell the stock market, economic conditions, political swings and major incidents, the first being one of the only businesses to profit from the Wall Street crash in 1929. The forerunner to many investment miracles ever since, that, despite being investigated by authorities, were seemingly infallible and legitimate.

Over time, he had imparted this secret on a select few, his generals and confidants, identified after taking part of a hypnosis show or, as in the case of Giselle, souls he had met and during his travels around the globe. Each thoroughly scrutinised before receiving the chance to join him. Most welcomed the opportunity without question, those who did not, would not live to tell their tale as Desangé could not tolerate rejection or risk exposure.

"Giselle did you find the forms from last night Mon Cherie?" his mood had softened to a dead calm.

"Here they are Leonardo" she kissed him placing the forms on his dressing table. "But I'm not certain which is which."

He started flicking through the forms and said: "I think this kid could be of interest and he may be our next little study, someone we can manipulate and possibly learn from, I think he could become a new and potentially important member of our group."

"Sounds interesting and I'm glad you've calmed down" she kissed him again as the stage manager knocked the door and called five minutes.

"But it will have to wait until after the show," she opened the door. "By the way, I've got the blank forms for tonight." She winked and headed for the stage.

"Merde, merde" his temper returned as he called after her. "The little shit used a false name! Here under the heading regression, the name given is Michael fucking Mouse."

Aston listened to the hypnotist attempt to take him under, the French accent seemed more prominent now than when he was face to face. Harrison had done a superb job isolating the vocal, and the clarity of Bose headphones made it feel like the hypnotist was actually inside the head he was trying to hypnotise.

Aston tried to remember at which point he'd tried to block out the hypnosis; he wanted to emulate the night before exactly, 'right here' Aston recognised the staircase and responded by focussing on his mind with the spotlight attention technique as before. The trigger worked and Aston started hearing a sound he recognised, it was a blues rhythm with a rock guitar track that was unmistakable, 'was that Hendrix?' For a moment he thought he was hearing sounds coming from the university club the night before, the chatter of voices, clicking of glasses, but they didn't allow smoking and he could sense the tobacco smoke in the air. The music suddenly changed and his ears filled with John Coltrane's Giant Steps, it was complete and began overtaking his senses, drowning out all other sounds nothing like the muted music from before. Giant steps got louder and louder racing up and down the scale. All of a sudden Aston was pulled out of his transient state. It was his phone ringing, he saw a shocked looking Harrison staring down at him, his heart was racing, he shook his head took a deep breath and looked at his phone Ellie was calling. He answered.

"I'm outside, I'm sorry for storming out but you know how I get."

Aston was still trying to get his breath and couldn't speak.

"Aston, Aston - are you there?"

"Yes!"

"Are you okay, you sound like you're out of breath? What were you doing? Let me in I'm at the door!"

Aston could hear the echo of her voice by the door. He turned to Harrison, "It's Ellie, can you let her in."

"Coming now Ellie," Aston said trying to get his breath. He hung up the phone and checked the heart monitor on his wrist. Harrison and Ellie came through the door Aston was still wired up and Ellie had a horrified look on her face

"Is that your heart rate?"

The wristband was now reading 180 bpm and was down from just over 200.

"Either you've been exercising too hard or your heart is in Arrhythmia." Ellie rushed over to him and felt the artery in his neck, and she checked her watch. "Well, the wristband is working, Aston how did this happen?"

"I have no idea how it happened Ellie, but we were in the middle of a regression when you called. It's like last night my pulse was racing when I came out of the hypnosis. That's why I wanted you around, you understand these things and can monitor the biometrics."

"Well, I guess it's a good job I came back, I got your message." She smiled and her face lit up, " But you need to be careful, max heart rate is 220 minus your age and that's during heavy physical exercise. Harrison, did you track this thing?" She took off the Sportband and waved it at him.

"What do you think? Of course, it was hooked up to his phone!" Harrison grabbed Aston's phone and pulled up the app. He scrolled through the data and then checked the phone call. Wow, that's odd, at the exact time of the call the heart rate jumps from normal around 55bpm right up to 210. It's like coming out of the reboot, jump starts your heart or does something."

"Reboot, not again. What's with this rebooting? He's not a bloody computer H!" Ellie was starting to look cross again "You're seriously messing with the unknown here and it's not something you can fix by turning it off and switching it back on again."

"I'd call it a window to the soul but rebooting the soul does kinda sum up what we're doing." Aston defended his fellow tech head. "Anyway don't take it out on H, he was here to help me after all." The sudden realisation that they had in fact managed to open up the window on another soul hit him. "It worked by the way, right until your call, I was starting to experience another soul."

"What?" Ellie looked shocked.

"We did it?" Harrison high fived Aston.

"Yes, we did, although it wasn't the Battle of Trafalgar it was some nightclub, and I think it was the sixties."

"The sixties? How do you know that?"

"Well, I could be wrong because it wasn't entirely clear, but I think Jimmy Hendrix was playing."

"Hendrix? Seriously? That's cool! But it could have been a DJ or even a jukebox so you could have been in the seventies?" Aston could tell Harrison couldn't quite believe it.

"Maybe so, but I'd swear he was actually on stage. I wasn't there long enough thanks to Ellie and John Coltrane here" he waved his phone.

"Yeah, you might want to put it in flight mode next time!" Harrison laughed.

"Sorry," Ellie apologised.

"You weren't to know Ellie; the good thing is I think we've cracked it. I see what I need to do now and Harrison, I believe tech is your department, you might have thought about that before."

"This is exciting man — we did it! And I reckon I can sort out a better way to monitor your heart rate and maybe brain activity as long as I can get the equipment. Give me a day or so as I need to ask a few questions but I think I can get it rigged up by Monday."

"And you are going to need some expert medical assistance from now on. I may not agree with this and the ethics involved, but I'm damn sure I'm not going to let you kill yourself. Count me in!"

"That's bloody marvellous you guys. I think that calls for a celebration. Fancy a pint?"

Deep down Aston would have liked to try again but thought better of attempting to push things especially now Ellie was on board, 'let's give it a day or so then the adventure starts' he thought. The image of the club flashed in his mind, the sixties! His mind started racing again he now had a whole new raft of questions and possibilities. Where better to discuss them than the pub he thought, he put his arms around his friend's shoulders "The pub — first round on me!"