1 “Had I known always comes last…”

"You can't escape me Grace!"

Those were the final words I heard as I ran down the corridors of the Sheldrake Enterprises basement, ruffled and terrified. I ran down the corridors and took the stairs to the ground floor. I remember on the way crashing into someone carrying a cup of hot coffee. He screamed, the coffee poured all over his shirt but I could not stop. I sensed danger, I had to escape and I fret that I may never be safe again.

It all started a week before.

"So let's see it," Grimm said. Both Spector and I were stood before him in his office, as he leant back in his leather swivel chair behind his dark oak table. To his right and my left stood a plant beside the wall and behind him. I recognised it immediately. A philodendron, about two and a half feet tall with long skinny stems and extended gaps between the leaves, meaning that it did not get enough light. Not much could have been done about that as this part of Sheldrake is underground.

Grimm walked from his chair and Spector held the office door open for him. Grimm, a man in his fifties, looked big even when sat down but stood up he loomed large. I always found his size intimidating. He stood at least a foot taller than me, making him about six feet six, and his torso as broad as a tank. He wore a dark brown khaki military suit with gold buttons but no insignia. Beneath it, a white shirt, opened down by about two or three buttons, revealing a gold chain and a grizzly hairy chest of grey and brown colours.

The testing laboratories were clear white. White doors, white floors, white ceilings, making visual experiments easier to monitor due to the contrast. A quiet intern laid back on the recliner chair, acted as the subject, hoping for a permanent job at Sheldrake.

I adjusted the headset to secure it. A visor that covered the eyes attached to headphones, the rest of his head cove a thin cap with wires attached to it on the outside. The wires fed to a large vault by the wall, containing several processing units working in tandem. The vault itself connects to the main servers in another room, hidden behind several walls. By the chair I put a box of programmable matter that would make the Avatara form visible.

"Why all these wires?" said Grimm. Peering over the intern, with a sneering frown and glaring eyes, his arms folded.

"It's to connect his mind directly to the servers containing the Avatara kernel," I said. The intern appeared nervous so I reassured him that he would be alright but stole a glance at Grimm and realised I could not be so sure. I sat down at the desk there with my laptop and loaded up the folder containing the scripts of the Avatara program.

"So tell our director how it works Grace, let's not keep him waiting." Spector as usual, keen to impress his master.

"Please Spector," said Grimm. "Do not pressure young Grace. She deserves better than that. She's our star performer and our great hope for the future." He nodded at me gently. "In your own time."

I cleared my throat. "Using the application on my laptop, I start a script that makes a call to the Avatara kernel." Grimm and Spector heard me tapping the keyboard. "Now that is done. I just need Barney to imagine the form he wants to take in avatara form." I did not think people had that name in real life. The name Barney. The kind of name only used in TV show. Now he looked excited and frightened at the same time.

"Any form?" said Barney.

"Any form," I said. "But you have got to focus on it really hard...have you got it?" Barney confirmed he did.

"And now I start Avatara." Barney immediately became unconscious, noted by both his arms going limp. "The wires are receiving signals from the kernel generating a large electric field on the Barney's brain and body. This can also be done with a wireless connection, though not as powerfully. Simultaneously, the headphones receive decompressed audio signals that cause forced brain wave frequency alterations, that first put the subject in a sleep state, followed by a mixed wave alpha state."

"Can you see that sir?" said Spector. He pointed to Barney's brain wave tracing. The needle sharply moving up and down as the paper readout came out from the EEG machine. "He has consistent alpha waves on his reading, alongside the other waves. They're usually only present when someone is awake."

Grimm had a look and shrugged. He had no idea. A mild noise came from servers several metres away.

"It won't be long now," I said. "This box of programmable matter is perfect for the virtual form to bind to, to become visible. Though again there is enough ordinary dust is present in most places to be a viable, although poor, substitute."

The particles in the box rose up and started to arrange bedside the bed. Each particle moving into place in relation to the other until the form appeared. The different particle intensities creating various colours, until a shimmering man appeared, about the same height as Grimm, wearing a cape. Barney had decided to take the form of a superman.

"Wow," Barney said. He hovered above the ground. "That's my real body on that chair but I'm up here. And look at me, I'm superman!"

A wide smile evolved across Grimm's face. "Impressive."

"Now although Barney, has taken the form of a Superman, he is not superman. But he is stronger than what he would otherwise be. Barney can you please try to lift the chair your body is lying on?"

"Of course," said Barney. He lifted it with one hand by one metre in the air.

"Amazing!" said Barney.

Grimm chimed in. "Ok, stop the simulation."

I typed in a termination command and Barney's avatara collapsed into a pile of dust. His real body tumbled off the chair onto the floor. I made a mistake by stopping the run without telling him to put the chair back down. I hurried round to check on him.

"Barney are you ok?" Barney's eyes opened slowly. He smiled. "It's fantastic."

Spector and I helped him up onto the chair. I asked him to take a moment to stay still just in case he experienced side effects like confusion, vomiting, dizziness or headache.

Grimm clapped his hands with vigour and laughed heartily. "Great work Miss Shelley. This is a marvellous invention, totally ground breaking, I'm so proud of you. You are indeed the best thing that has happened to Sheldrake in the past ten years."

"Thank you Byron," I said. I am the only person he allowed to call him by his first name. Barney sounded groggy and needed to lie back on the chair a little longer. Spector muted with a manic smile but not saying anything, just stood as if waiting to be commanded.

"Can these avatara walk through walls?" Grimm strolled around the lab with his hands clasped together behind his back, looking pensive.

"No, an avatara cannot walk through walls," I said

"What of supersonic or long distance hearing?"

"No, sir."

"Though it could enhance the abilities of a trained soldier?"

I hesitated a moment before replying. "Quite possibly sir."

"But it is like an astral projection?" said Grimm.

"Yes," I said.

Spector eagerly interjected. "The name we have for it is consciousness translation. That's the scientific term but you could also call it soul travelation."

"I asked Miss Shelley," said Grimm.

"Yes, it's a bit like that, except astral projection is a pseudoscience and isn't real."

Grimm grunted. "Hmm you think so? I am privy to intelligence and other strategic information around the world and have been recently been made aware of a few monks in Asia who can project their spirits by force of mind. I have been meaning to pay them a visit."

Then he made eye contact with me. "But you are right, it's probably fiction."

He walked towards Barney who appeared comfortable, albeit not yet completely alert yet.

"Spector, make sure our intern- what is your name again boy?"

"Barney."

"Thank you Barney, your contribution has been duly noted." Grimm smiled. "Spector, please make sure Barney is suitably taken care of."

Then nothing occurred, until a week later, when Grimm called me into his office. "Take a seat Miss Shelley," he said.

Grimm, in good spirits, necked down a double straight measure of whiskey. I noticed from his excessive geniality that maybe it was not his first for the day. On the feature wall he pointed to a framed large map of the world. He spoke of how Avatara could be a global phenomenon.

"I never thought it would actually work," I said.

"Me too," said Grimm. "Me too." There was a way he said it and looked at me with a chuckle that made me uncomfortable. He leaned back in his chair with fingers together beneath his chin. I always found him intimidating but in that moment something changed, my eyes opened, I could see him, and I did not like what my gut told me.

"Unfortunately this technology cannot get in the hands of the general public, it must be protected." He strode around the desk until he stood over me.

"Spector tells me that there are special codes that control the kernel of our technology. Or rather unchain it. Avatara can do much more than mere soul travelation hmm?"

My heart pounded. Spector though not creative and lacking in inventive skill, had a genius intellect, and it seemed that this secret property of Avatara (an accidental creation) did not escape his detection. He must have told Grimm. I tried to manage the problem by creating kernel codes to limit the power of Avatara. But now Grimm knew and it dawned on me that I was right. Right to try and keep it a secret.

"Grace, my darling, what do we have if we cannot trust each other?"

"Controlling other people's minds and bodies is bad," I said.

He placed his left hand on my chin and stroked my lips with his thumb. "So delicate, so soft," he murmured.

"How old are you, Miss Shelley?"

"Twenty two," I said. I had always been the youngest employee at Sheldrake since I have been here. Also known for having red hair, blue eyes and a slim figure, in a male dominated environment. Never harassed for it but I felt experienced different treatment from the excessive politeness to patronising tones.

"Stand," Grimm said forcefully and abruptly. I did not resist. "You're such a beauty Miss Shelley, a dignified woman in all her glory." He grabbed me at my left buttock and brought me in close to him, his breath heavy. "But you need the protection of a strong man."

The firmness of his hands on me brought me back into the present moment and I felt terror in every fibre of my being, frozen on the spot, as he tried to explore me with his grubby hands. I wriggled, winced and drew my head back as I noticed him dribbling at the mouth.

"Let me go," I said. More a plea than a demand.

"With those codes we could create a powerful army that can bring this country to order and then the world. No government could stop us, with you and me, together, there's nothing we can't achieve." His crazed eyes gleaming with delight and his tongue hanging out. His face turned red with the veins of his neck engorged. He would not reason with me.

I only had one chance to break free. Too close to kick him in the balls or hit him with my hands, I had few options. I suppose I could have bitten him but he might have liked that.

Luckily, in that moment I had my wits. I pretended to surrender, softening my face. I leant forward as if to kiss him and then I spat in his eyes.

"Aaargh." The shock of it made him let go and I ran.

"You can't escape me Grace!" The last words I heard as I left the room. Making my way out of the basement to the ground floor foyer and then out onto the streets of London.

I moved without thought or any idea of where I was going. Not daring to look behind me. Running for my life.