A few days after the FOR SALE sign had been taken down from in front of the house across the road, a large truck turned into its driveway. From across the street, Luke Bremner watched two men emerge from its cab. Haphazardly watering his parents’ lawn (Luke’s father Carl had put his son at the job earlier, after he’d had Luke clean out his car and mow the grass— “if you’re not going to play sports, boy, then you’re going to have to get your exercise somewhere” was his Dad’s philosophy), Luke observed as one of the men opened the door of the house while the other went to the rear of the truck and opened it.

Luke watched them unload furniture for a while before realizing that the grass before him was becoming waterlogged. He turned away and moved on.

*     *     *
The following afternoon Luke was sitting on the porch watching some movie trailers on his iPad when he saw a van pull up in front of the house across the way. Three toolbelt-toting men disembarked and removed all manner of implements, both large and small, from the rear of the van. Not long after they entered the house, Luke heard faint construction sounds. Not very loud, Luke said to himself. So they’re in the basement.

He wondered what they were doing with what had once been Jerry Soldo’s games room. Luke’s father had spent many Saturday and Sunday afternoons down in Jerry’s games room, the two of them drinking beer while watching college football, or playing darts, pool, or foosball.

Movement caught the corner of Luke’s eye and he saw a car approaching. He watched as it pulled up behind the construction van across the road. A short, slight man clad in a short-sleeved shirt and three-quarter length pants emerged from the driver’s side of the Toyota Camry. He was pale-skinned, wearing shades and a peaked cap. He stood studying his cellphone for a while. As he put it away he noticed Luke watching him. He smiled slightly and waved, a gesture that Luke returned. The man turned and walked toward the house, Luke observing him every step of the way.

*     *     *
The following day a small truck carrying a load of concrete blocks showed up. Two workmen got out and didn’t hang around with the job of ferrying the concrete in and out of the house.

“Must be paying ’em pretty well” Carl Bremner remarked and took a sip of his coffee as he watched the men speedily go about their business.

His fingers paused over the keyboard of his iPad, Luke wondered what his neighbour was doing with the basement. Definitely isn’t going to be a games room, anyway, he thought.

*     *     *
The faint banging, clattering and cutting from across the road continued all through the following day and the day after that.

“Must have a nice little bomb-shelter built by now,” Carl muttered beside Luke on the porch.

A little while later, his father gone, Luke watched a small truck pull up behind the workmen’s. The new owner of the house got out and went inside. It was only then that Luke noticed that the guy’s Camry was absent. What’s he doing with the truck? he wondered. A few minutes later, the man re-emerged. It was an overcast day, and the man wasn’t wearing the cap and shades he’d been sporting a few days earlier. Luke, whose eyesight was pretty sharp, couldn’t help but notice how bald the man was. He’d never seen a head more devoid of any trace of hair in his life. And he was so slight as well. Luke wondered if perhaps his new neighbour were sick. Luke watched him get into the cab of the truck. His delicate form looked so at odds with the large steering wheel. Overall, he looked quite out of place in the truck’s cab. But the sureness of the man’s actions in the way he handled the long gearshift and bulky steering wheel had Luke seriously doubting that there was a thing wrong with him. Luke watched as the truck pulled away from the curb and headed down the road.

*     *     *
It was after two am before the truck returned. It stopped in front of the house, its diminutive driver disembarking and going to its rear. He opened the door as quietly as he could. Inside, lying flat on the floor of the trailer, were three thick, steel doors, two more heavy-duty than the third. The lighter one weighed a little over three hundred kilos. He slid it effortlessly and lifted it from the floor. He hefted it under his right arm, and supporting it underneath with his left hand, walked quickly toward the house. Inside, he deposited it by the door-less entry to the basement. He went back out to the truck and removed the thicker doors, each one weighing over five hundred kilos. He carried them inside and descended the new concrete staircase that led to the basement. Halfway across what had once been Jerry Soldo’s games room there was now an eighteen-inch-thick concrete wall. About a third of the way along the wall was a doorway, awaiting the fitting of one of the half-ton doors that the recent arrival was carrying. Palesen Drive’s newest resident laid the doors down gently beside the doorway, studied the wall for a few seconds, then went upstairs to bed.

*     *     *
A little after the workmen returned the following morning, Luke saw his new neighbour drive away in his truck. A few hours later the Camry pulled into the driveway across the road at exactly the same time that Luke’s mother was pulling into theirs. In his usual early afternoon position of sitting on the porch with his iPad, Luke watched his mother emerge from her car and head toward the sidewalk.

“Hey there!” Andrea Bremner called across the road at the man who was approaching his house. It was another sunny day and he was once again wearing his peaked cap and shades. The man looked across the road.

“Hey” he called, giving a little wave.

“Welcome to the neighbourhood!”

“Thanks.”

“You in the mood for a cup of coffee? I got some nice cheesecake in the fridge, too.”

The man said nothing for a second.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Great! Come on over.”

The man began to make his way toward the Bremners’ house.

*     *     *
“Luke.”

Luke didn’t look at his mother, his eyes remaining on their guest as the man who had introduced himself as Giles Bodkin deposited a forkful of cheesecake into his mouth.

“Luke.”

Luke turned at the sound of his mother’s more firm tone. Don’t you know it’s rude to stare? the look in her eyes said. Embarrassed, Luke dropped his gaze and absently went about cutting off a piece of his cheesecake.

“It’s ok,” Bodkin said in a relaxed tone. “My appearance can have that effect at times.”

Luke looked up to see that Bodkin’s eyes were on him. So Bodkin had noticed him staring at the man’s eyebrow-less forehead, eyelids that were devoid of eyelashes, and forearms that were as bald as a child’s. It wasn’t a terribly strange sight, but it was definitely weird. Luke had never seen such a ... hairless grown man.

“Ten years ago I got cancer,” Bodkin said. “I lost all my hair with the treatment. With most people, it grows back afterward, but it my case ... unfortunately not.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Andrea said.

“Ah ... such is life.”

Bodkin took a sip of his coffee.

“So what do you do, Mr Bodkin?”

“Giles. Please.”

“Giles.”

“I’m in IT.”

“Oh, very good.” Andrea looked at Luke. “Luke’s big into computers. We can’t get him off his iPad half the time!”

“Oh?” Bodkin looked at Luke. Even though the man’s appearance creeped Luke out a little bit, Bodkin had a calm, friendly manner that neutralized the creepiness somewhat. Luke rarely felt at ease with strangers, but he felt reasonably so with this man.

“Yeah, I’m into computers,” Luke said. “I’m more into science, though. You know, outer space and stuff. Wouldn’t mind being an astronomer one day.”

“The study of heavenly bodies,” Bodkin said, smiling softly. “Must say that it’s something I’m interested in myself. So what are you most interested in, Luke? Planets ... stars ... nebulae ... black holes ... ?”

Luke couldn’t help venting an enthusiastic little smile. “Guess I ... don’t really have a favourite. They’re all pretty cool.”

Bodkin didn’t respond immediately, holding Luke’s eyes.

“It’s an amazing place, isn’t it? The universe.”

“Sure is.”

“Ever think about being an astronaut?”

Luke shook his head, his eyes dropping to the glass of coke before him. “No,” he said. “Too dangerous. I’d be more into the studying and research side.” He paused before resuming. “Although I often wonder what it would be like to walk on the moon ... or to be the first person to walk on Mars. I imagine ... it would be pretty awesome.”

Bodkin smiled wistfully. “Yeah. It’d be something, alright.”

*     *     *
A few days later, Bodkin invited the Bremners over for dinner. Shauna, Luke’s sister, was put out about this at first as it meant it cut into her Friday evening hang-out time with her friends, but she mellowed not long after tasting Bodkin’s cooking. It was delicious. Halfway through the main course, Luke excused himself to go to the bathroom. On his way there he passed by the thick steel door that led to the basement.

He froze. He turned back to the door. It was off the latch. He gazed at it for a few seconds. Then he grabbed its huge handle with both hands and pulled. He grimaced as it slowly opened outward. The weight of the thing! Light from the hallway spilled into the dark beyond, revealing a light switch on the wall. His heart beginning to pound, Luke ignored the voice in his head advising him to get out of there, go to the toilet, and head back to the dinner. He reached out and flicked the switch. A fluorescent light illuminated a concrete staircase with a solid iron railing at its side. Looking downward to his left he ran his eyes along a concrete wall, his gaze stopping at the steel door a little way along it. At the right-hand side of the door, built into a recess in the wall, was a keypad.

Not giving his mind a chance to shriek its protest at what he was about to do, he descended the staircase quickly. He stood before the door, running his eyes up and down its length. This thing didn’t have something as basic as the fridge-type handle on the door at the top of the stairs—this badass had a five-spoke handle that he’d seen in movies set in submarines. He figured that if a thief didn’t know the keypad code, then they’d need an anti-aircraft missile to get past this door. Either that or drive a tank through the concrete wall.

What the HELL has he got in there? Luke wondered. Jewels? Priceless works of art? Was Bodkin one of those end-of-the-world-is-nigh nuts? What did they call those guys on TV again ... preppers? Luke’s stomach churned when he considered another grim possibility. Was Bodkin one of those weirdos that kept ... people in his basement? Kids, perhaps?

You have got to get out of here NOW his mind said clearly. This time he listened to it, and he almost ran up the stairs. He flicked off the light and pushed the door inward, being careful to leave it as he’d found it, slightly ajar. He went to the bathroom and returned to dinner. The remainder of the delicious meal was not dominated by his tastebuds but by his mind. All he saw in it was that big, shiny, ominous door.

He was determined to find out what lay beyond it.

*     *     *
Luke’s “friend” Lloyd Shelby was a pervert. It had been a very hot summer and even Luke, who wasn’t much of an outdoors person, had gotten a tan. But good old Lloyd hadn’t. He’d spent most of his summer vacation watching online porn and reading his appalling smut magazines until all hours of the morning, which meant that he’d rarely risen from bed before two pm each day. As a result, he was quite pale and pasty as the end of the summer beckoned.

To be honest, Luke didn’t consider Lloyd much of a friend at all. He was more of an associate. Lloyd was into science and computers like Luke, but for Lloyd these interests were dwarfed by his obsession with women’s bodies. Luke hadn’t met up with Lloyd much over the holidays and when they had, practically all Lloyd had talked about had been tits, pussies, and asses. Luke liked girls as much as the next guy, but Lloyd ... well, Luke really felt that Lloyd needed help.

On this occasion, however, Luke found himself needing Lloyd’s help. The thing was, Lloyd’s father worked as an electronics engineer for the US military, designing cutting-edge drone technology. And being a responsible parent, in an effort to get his porn-obsessed son out of the house and into the fresh air, Justin Shelby had given Lloyd a basic version of a mosquito micro-drone he’d helped design for the US Delta Force in Iraq. It got Lloyd out of the house, alright. A little bit, anyway. When he did go outdoors, Lloyd would take the drone to the park, where he would skulk in the shade of a tree while he piloted the mosquito around bikini-clad girls, zooming in for prolonged episodes on their breasts, groins, and buttocks.

And in exchange for using the drone to find out what Giles Bodkin kept in his basement-vault, Lloyd wanted footage of Luke’s sister Shauna and her friend Heather Wells sunbathing by the Bremners’ swimming pool.

After hearing the terms of the deal, Luke stared down at Lloyd. They were in Luke’s room, where Lloyd was seated at the edge of Luke’s bed, smiling up softly at his friend.

“Are you SERIOUS???” Luke asked.

“Yeah.”

Luke was silent for a few seconds.

“My SISTER.”

Lloyd chuckled.

“Yeah. She’s really hot, man. I want her in my collection.”

Luke stared emptily at Lloyd, unable to say anything. The request was appalling. But what did he expect? This was Lloyd he was dealing with. Lloyd was appalling. Luke looked out his window. Shauna and Heather were horizontal on the sunbeds by the pool. They’d been tanning themselves for the last two days, getting ready for the upcoming school term. Knowing what he was about to do, Luke felt a bit depressed. Even though his big sister had a go at him every now and again about his love of all things outer space and his non-existent presence in their school’s jock-clique, Luke loved her. And he had a big crush on Heather, who as well as being very pretty, was actually quite cool to boot.

He felt like he was pimping (he’d only recently learned the meaning of the word) them out. He looked back down at Lloyd.

“You really are a dick, you know that?”

The sides of Lloyd’s mouth curled upward in a sorry-but-too-bad expression. He shrugged.

“Unfortunately for you, I’m a dick with a highly advanced micro-drone, Luke. So. What’s it going to be? Do we have a deal?”

Luke sighed.

Pimp.

“Ok.”

Lloyd clapped. “Great!”

Luke pointed at him. “Do NOT put it up on YouTube!”

“Ok. I’ll put this one away with my ... select library.”

Looking at the pervert before him, Luke felt a little sick.

“Be here tomorrow around one. Make your little ... video, and then we’ll do the job.”

*     *     *
Luke had been studying his new neighbour’s routine for nearly a fortnight. The man was like clockwork, which was good. He emerged from his house a little after nine each morning and would head off jogging down the hill. He would return a little before ten. He would leave the house again at around two pm and would go for an afternoon walk. If there were people out gardening or walking their dogs, he would usually stop for a chat. Bodkin was proving popular in the area. He’d told Luke’s parents that he’d be around every day, as he worked from home—this was also a boon for Luke. But that was where the good fortune ended and where Luke needed a little bit of luck. He was relying on Bodkin to go into his basement-vault on the specific day that Luke and Lloyd piloted the drone into his house.

*     *     *
“You sure you don’t want to watch this? It’s up there with my finest work.”

“Yes,” Luke answered morosely, trying to focus on the YouTube clip he was watching. Beside him, Lloyd was looking over the drone-footage of Shauna and Heather on his iPad.

“Really?”

“Yes, really, you freak!” Luke said, half angrily.

“Not even Heather?”

Luke blinked uncertainly.

“No.”

“You’re not going gay, are you?” Lloyd asked after a pause.

“No. Are you nearly done? Bodkin might have left a window open and we could get the drone in position while he’s out for his walk.”

“I’m doing some editing,” Lloyd responded, peering at his iPad screen. “Gimme ten minutes.”

Luke sighed.

*     *     *
A few minutes after two, Bodkin left on his walk.

“Ok, go,” Luke said when Bodkin was a good way down the road.

Beside him, Lloyd tinkered with the two joysticks on the drone’s control pad and the little mosquito-shaped device on his right knee lifted into the air. It was an incredible little thing—only on close study of it would you see that it was a robot. The movement of its wings was only audible if it was a few inches from your ear.

On the control pad screen Luke watched the drone’s flight across the road and over Bodkin’s lawn. Lloyd directed it around the outside of the house, searching for an open window, but found none. An examination of the upstairs section proved similarly fruitless. Lloyd brought the drone back and once more it assumed its position on his knee. They waited.

*     *     *
When Bodkin appeared, Lloyd flew the drone to Bodkin’s car, where he perched it on the roof. As Bodkin approached the door of his house, Lloyd got the drone airborne and moved it close to the door, where it hovered behind Bodkin, waiting. When Bodkin opened the door, the drone zipped past his left arm and inside. Lloyd brought it to rest on the frame over the door, where he tilted its camera to observe Bodkin. Bodkin went into the kitchen, and through its open door, Luke and Lloyd were able to observe him taking an apple from a fruit bowl and pouring himself a glass of water. Then he sat down at the table and began pecking away at a laptop.

*     *     *
An hour later, Bodkin hadn’t moved from the table. Lloyd exhaled loudly and looked at his watch. It was ten past four.

“I’m out of here by six the latest,” he said.

“Ok.”

“If we get nothing and you want me back tomorrow then I want your sister in the shower.”

Luke turned to look at Lloyd. Lloyd met his eyes.

“I mean it.”

Luke looked back at the screen on the drone’s control pad.

“Sicko pervert.”

“I have a nice little shower library, you know,” Lloyd said. “If you’re a girl in my neighbourhood and you value your privacy then you really should close your bathroom window when you shower. Otherwise the Lloydster considers you fair game.”

“Thanks for that, Lloyd.”

“Gotta’ few mothers, too.”

Luke closed his eyes momentarily before opening them again.

“You’d be surprised how much the fairer sex farts in the shower, you know,” Lloyd said.

“Shut up, Lloyd.”

*     *     *
Fifteen minutes later, Bodkin rose from the table. He went down the hallway with the basement door on it, but went past it to the bathroom. Lloyd sighed loudly.

“Damn,” Luke said.

A few minutes later Bodkin re-emerged and returned to the kitchen. He took some chicken and vegetables from the fridge and placed them on the counter by the sink. He put two pots on the cooker. He was preparing dinner.

“Oh, man,” Lloyd groaned.

*     *     *
At twenty to six, Bodkin was checking something on his phone, looking quite relaxed after his meal, the dishwasher humming away nearby. Luke was resigned to the idea of Lloyd’s drone being strategically situated on the shower wall over Shauna’s naked form when suddenly Bodkin put down his phone and made to leave the kitchen.

Did he dare hope?

Luke’s heart began to beat faster when Bodkin headed down the hallway. Would he ... ???

“Yes!” Luke clenched his fist when Bodkin stopped at the basement door. He took a set of keys from his pocket and put one of them into the door lock. It clicked open and he removed the key from the lock. He slowly pulled the heavy door open.

“Go!” Luke said.

Lloyd piloted the drone toward the opening door, leaving it hovering high over Bodkin’s head until he switched on the light in the basement. As Bodkin turned to pull the door inward, the drone zipped inside and down over the concrete stairs before alighting on a dusty old chair at the far wall. Its camera tracked Bodkin as he made his way down the stairs and to the keypad at the side of the vault door. He began pressing buttons.

Luke’s heart was pounding.

The moment of truth.

There was a loud clang as heavy-duty bolts released. Bodkin went to the five-spoke handle in the middle of the door and began turning it. After what seemed like an age, he stopped turning the handle and pulled it gently toward him. The door opened slowly outward.

As on the previous occasion, Lloyd guided the drone into the vault while Bodkin turned to close the door after switching on the light inside. Lloyd brought the drone to rest on the frame over the door, training its camera on what lay before it on the opposite side of the room. Luke and Lloyd were so astonished at what greeted their eyes that they paid no heed to Bodkin, who went through a door in the wall to his right.

“Jesus,” Lloyd said in a small voice.

Luke couldn’t articulate anything at all.

Directly across the room from the drone, against the far wall, was a long table. On the table was a ... storage unit. It had two platforms. On the top platform were six transparent cubes, each one containing a misshapen, roughly circular rock that floated in mid-air, none of them bigger than a baseball. Most of them were dull or darkish in colour, and no two were identical.

On the platform below the rocks were cubes containing more ... unsettling items. Or entities. In each cube there was a thing that Luke doubted had any connection with the planet Earth. And in some cubes there were many things. For instance, in one cube there was a collection of small charcoal-coloured spheres that moved in perfect synchronisation around its cube. The spheres would stay perfectly still for a few seconds, and would then zip off together backward, forward, or sideways, always as a perfectly unified team, like a swarm of birds or a school of fish. Sometimes the group would even race up along the sides of the cube. When it did this, a flash of what looked like lightning would dart around the members of the bizarre collective.

In another cube was an even stranger sight. What looked like three small ... curtains floated about, their weird bodies billowing as though they were moving underwater. The colours red and blue shimmered alternately in their forms. In the cube to the right of this was a small, beige, cone-shaped item. Luke could make out two holes at one side of it. Suddenly what looked like green and black liquorice ropes emerged quickly from the holes and pooled at the cone’s base. Similar ropes appeared at the cone’s other side. The cone began to climb into the air, the ugly ropes appearing to propel it upward. When it was about a foot from the base of the cube, Luke swallowed in shock as the ropes began to move like legs, transporting the cone to one of the cube’s corners, where it “stood” unmoving. It was facing the open door that Bodkin had gone through. His stomach a nest of fear and fascination, Luke wondered if the thing was watching whatever Bodkin was doing. Not that he could make out any discernible eyes in the cone.

In the cube to the right of the cone-thing was a horror. Its prison a little larger given its size compared to the other occupants, the beast’s demonic form consisted of what was essentially a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth from whose sides radiated a terrible number of multi-segmented legs. Luke watched as the dreadful teeth parted and a faint green gas emerged from the mouth. He gazed, transfixed by the nightmare.

Remembering Bodkin, Luke snapped back into action.

“Lloyd.”

He looked sideways to see Lloyd staring at the control pad screen, his thumbs unmoving on its two joysticks. Lloyd’s eyes were orbs of shock.

“Lloyd.”

Lloyd merely blinked a few times.

“Lloyd, I want to see what Bodkin is doing.”

Lloyd’s fingers remained inert on the joysticks. Luke clicked his fingers in front of the screen.

“Snap out of it, will you? Those things aren’t in the room with us, Lloyd. They mightn’t even be real, man! For all we know this guy does special effects shit for the movies!”

Luke was surprised at how quickly he’d come up with that, even though he didn’t really believe it. Something told him the things in the cubes were pretty real, alright. Amazingly though, it thawed Lloyd out a bit.

“Ok” Lloyd managed. “M ... maybe you’re right.” His thumbs shook as they began to operate the joysticks on the control pad. The view on the screen was correspondingly jerky as the drone made a drunken flight toward the open door on the right of the room. As the drone drew closer to the cubes, the multi-legged mouth-creature began jumping wildly in its prison as though excited by the proximity of this airborne interloper.

“Jesus Christ,” Lloyd whimpered.

The drone bumbled along and turned to face the open door, the view bobbing about in tandem with Lloyd’s quivering thumbs.

A bomb went off in Luke’s gut.

“God ... oh God ... oh God,” he heard Lloyd gasp.

In the room beyond, Bodkin was completely naked and he was ... fading. The left side of his body not far beyond the door, his form was half see-through, as though he were trying to disappear, and succeeding. The air around his form was shimmering like a heat haze. Luke was dimly aware that he could smell urine. Barely realizing that he hadn’t pissed himself; it had to be Lloyd.

Bodkin turned his faint head toward the open door, his transparent eyes fixed upon the drone.

“AAAAH!!!!!” Lloyd shrieked and dropped the control pad. He fled from the room and was down the stairs in seconds. Luke heard the front door open but not close.

His own hands trembling, Luke picked up the control pad and looked at the screen. Bodkin was looking directly into the camera. Luke saw that Bodkin’s arm was extended, so he had to be holding the drone between his fingers.

“Hello, Luke,” Bodkin said, his usual calm expression on his face. “Come over. I’ll explain everything to you.”

*     *     *
Bodkin placed a glass of lemonade and the drone on the table in front of Luke. They were in Bodkin’s kitchen. It had taken Luke ten minutes to muster up the courage to cross the road. And he’d almost fallen twice as he’d made the walk, such was the fear in his rubbery legs.

“How did you know it was us?” he asked, looking at the drone. It appeared to be unharmed.

“I watched your little friend having some fun with it in the park the other day,” Bodkin answered, smiling softly. “Guess he was too busy studying the footage to notice me. I wasn’t even ten feet away from him.”

“Those things in the vault. What happened to you ... you know, when you were ...” Luke trailed off.

“Becoming invisible?” Bodkin finished for him.

“Yeah. Was it real? Or ... are you some movie effects guy in Hollywood?”

Bodkin chuckled softly. “What you saw was real, Luke.”

Luke gulped, his heart suddenly racing again.

“Are you ... human?” he asked.

“Yes. But I can do things that ... regular people can’t.”

“Like disappear.”

Bodkin smiled. “Have you heard of the Hadron collider?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you know what its intended purpose is?”

“To give us an idea about how the universe began.”

“Right. Did you know that back in the 1990s the US had plans to build a particle accelerator of our own?”

“Yeah. In Texas. The Superconducting Super Collider. Much bigger than the one in Switzerland. And construction stopped when the costs of building it started spiralling out of control.”

“Hmm. That’s the story that the press got. But the real reason was that they changed their minds. It wasn’t big enough. And they needed a more isolated area for the huge project they now had in mind. So they went to Alaska and started digging the tunnels for what they simply called the Master Collider. I don’t know how they managed to keep it from the public, but they did. I was one of the scientists involved in testing the completed machine. To cut a long story short ... something happened to me in the testing. I lost most of the hair on my head in a couple of days. The doctors pricked and poked me, but outside of the hair loss, they could find nothing wrong with me. After a week I hadn’t a single follicle left on my body.”

Bodkin smiled slyly. Up to that point Luke had only ever experienced the man’s calm, reassuring smile. This new smile he didn’t like at all.

“That was the only thing I lost,” Bodkin went on. “I developed incredible strength. It grew exponentially as the days went by. Two weeks after the accident I was able to push a weight of a thousand kilos up a twenty-degree slope. I could crush a steel pipe in my hand like it was a piece of tinfoil. I couldn’t feel pain anymore. By then, the military were beginning to get really concerned about me. Were they going to kill me, or use me as a weapon? Well, I didn’t fancy either scenario, and luckily for me by that stage I’d developed the ability to simply will myself from one place to another. So ... that’s what I did. I left. I wandered around the world, staying in no place for too long in case they found me. I funded myself by robbing banks. I simply smashed my way into safes and took as much money as I could.” He paused. “And then ... they started to come.”

“Who?” Luke asked, knowing that Bodkin didn’t mean the US government.

“The Gamli. An advanced alien race with the capability to detect beings of incredible power, like myself. In any corner of the universe. They offered me ... work.”

“Work?”

Bodkin snorted humourlessly, his eyes dropping to the table. “That’s what they called it. But the proper term for it was ... genocide. They paid me to destroy planets.”

“To destroy planets?”Luke could only repeat the words, barely able to process what he had heard.

“Yes. And moons. All inhabited. Some by billions of individuals.”

Luke stayed silent.

“Of course, none of them were inhabited by humans, so ... that was how I coped with my actions. I told myself that it was no worse than ... killing flies.”

“How ... how did you do it?”

“How did I destroy the planets?”

“Yeah.”

Bodkin took a deep breath.

“It turned out that not only had I the ability to will myself around Earth ... but I could also skip right around the entire universe. The Gamli enlightened me to that. They also informed me that I could increase my physical size to ... well, bigger than the planets they wanted destroyed. Much bigger.”

Luke blinked as he tried to take this in. A man bigger than a planet. “How big were these planets?” he eventually managed to ask.

“The moons were bigger than our own. Most of the planets were bigger than Earth. Some were bigger than Jupiter.” He paused to let that sink in. “The Gamli told me how they wanted each one destroyed. Some I threw into black holes. Others I hurled into the star they orbited around. Two I smashed against each other over and over until there was nothing left but dust. And some I crushed in my hand until they were no bigger than a baseball. You’ve seen those ones. In the cubes.”

Luke’s stomach boiled. In his mind’s eye he saw the six floating rocks in Bodkin’s vault. Squashed planets he thought in mortified wonder.

“What about the things in the other cubes?” he asked. “What are—”

“Payment.”

Bodkin sat back in his chair.

“Payment for my last job. Everything in those cubes is the last of their kind. The Gamli took them from their planet—which was called Sothrat—before I destroyed it. They gave them to me as a down payment. After I did the job, they gave me a billion dollars worth of gold, diamonds, and platinum. Then I sold all the species in the cubes. They weren’t worth anything before the end of their world, but after that they were worth a fortune. Rarity value. The purchasers are scattered all over the universe. They’ll be coming to collect in a few days.” He paused. “Did you see the spheres? The ones that rolled around the cube together?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s a Korenais. Fifteen spheres constitutes one individual. They were the dominant species on Sothrat. The Gamli are a brutal, intolerant race, intent on taking over their entire galaxy, but the Korenais were no saints. They hunted and tortured the Trilikay—the scary spider creature with the mouth—for sport. Did you see the cone-thing in the cube next to it?”

Luke nodded. He was having trouble imagining how a collection of spheres the size of large marbles would torture a monstrous thing like the Trilikay.

“That’s a Krelix. The Korenais kept those as slaves. If a Krelix was disobedient or misbehaved, the Korenais would frequently cut their legs off to teach them a lesson. The legs of the Krelix would grow back, but it would take a month.”

Bodkin took a drink from the glass of lemonade before him. He looked at Luke in silence for a while.

“So. What do you think of what I’ve told you?”

Luke blinked uncertainly.

“Do you believe me?” Bodkin asked.

Luke put his hand on his own glass of lemonade, studying it.

“I’ve no reason to lie, Luke.”

“You could be mentally ill.”

Bodkin chuckled softly. “Then you’d better call someone to take away the things in the vault.”

Luke didn’t respond.

“I could disappear again, if you like.”

Luke looked at Bodkin. “Why were you naked when you did that?”

“I can’t take anything with me when I do it. No clothes, nothing. Only my body goes.”

“Did you ever do any good with your power? Did you just ... destroy things?”

“At the start I saved a lot of lives. And stopped a lot of bad things from happening. But you get tired of people saying thanks and then going about their business. People say you eventually get desensitized after doing enough evil ... but ... it works the other way, too.” Bodkin paused. “And destruction pays better, Luke. Heroes are poor.”

Luke didn’t respond immediately.

“Why are you telling me all of this?” he eventually asked.

“Because I don’t want it anymore. This ... thing. I’ve had it for nearly twenty years. I want to have a normal life again. I don’t want to be a ... freak anymore. I want to be human. I want to value being alive again, because now I don’t. I’m numb. How old would you say I am?”

“Ah ... fifty?”

“I’m seventy-five. I haven’t aged a day since the accident. I haven’t been sick since, either. Not even a cough or a cold.” Bodkin paused. “You can’t appreciate youth if you’re never going to get old, Luke. And you can’t appreciate health if you’re never going to get sick.” He took a deep breath. “I’m telling you all of this because I want you to know what you’d be getting yourself into if you decide to take it from me.”

“Take what?”

“The power.”

Luke didn’t understand. “What do you mean ... take it from you?”

“Let me clarify—I’ll give it to you. If you want it. It’s the only way I can be free of it. A willing recipient.”

“Me?” Luke asked dubiously. “A kid?”

Bodkin shrugged. “Why not?”

“Have you tried to pass it on to others before?”

“Yes. They all said no.”

“Why?”

“For the reasons I just outlined to you. People might like going to the movies to see Superman, Spiderman, and all the other superheroes, but they don’t want to be them. They don’t want to be different. But you, Luke ... I have a feeling you want to be different. You’re like I was when I was your age. An outsider. Am I right?”

Luke felt uncomfortable. His eyes dropped to the table.

“You don’t have many friends, do you?” Bodkin asked.

It was a while before Luke said, “No.”

“You play sports? Talk to girls?”

“No.”

“You feel invisible in school. Powerless.”

Luke remained silent. His face felt like it was on fire.

“Look at me, Luke.”

His heart pounding, Luke looked at Bodkin.

“Take what I have. Be a god. I’m the richest man that’s ever walked the earth. I’m one of the richest beings in the entire universe. I own large corporations in over thirty galaxies involved in banking, technology, health, interstellar travel. In the Andromeda galaxy I rent housing to over a million beings. In the Tucana Dwarf galaxy I own the exclusive mining rights on a moon made almost entirely of silver and lead.” He paused. “All this can be yours, Luke. Or you can be the do-gooder. Use your power to help people—or whatever species you choose. Hell, don’t do anything! Just travel the universe. Be a tourist! But try it for a while, at least. And if you don’t like it ... pass it on.”

A slightly cynical smile appeared on Luke’s face. “If I can. If someone will take it from me.”

Bodkin opened his hands in a yes-that’s-the-catch gesture. A few seconds later he rose from the table. “Well, think about it. I’d better get back to what I was at before your little mosquito interrupted me earlier on.”

“Another planet to kill.”

“A moon, actually.” Bodkin headed toward the kitchen door. “You can let yourself out.”

“What’s it like?” Luke asked when Bodkin was behind him. “The first time you do it.”

It was a while before Bodkin responded.

“It’s easier the second time.”

Luke listened to Bodkin’s footsteps as he headed down the hallway. He heard the heavy steel door of the basement thudding softly shut, and then there was silence.

*     *     *
The following evening Luke knocked on Bodkin’s door. A few seconds later Bodkin opened it.

“My answer is yes.”

Bodkin’s calm smile appeared. He stepped back from the door.

“Come on in.”

*     *     *
The following morning Luke woke up feeling more alive than he’d ever felt. He sat up in bed, feeling something brush down along the side of his face as he did so. He looked down and saw a few hairs on his duvet. Not for a second did he feel dismayed that he was on his way to becoming as bald as Bodkin. Only ecstasy coursed through him.

The power was his!

He got out of bed and started doing press-ups. Ten ... twenty ... when he hit thirty he started doing them on the tips of his fingers. On forty he lifted his left hand into the air, transferring his entire body weight to his right arm. Forty one ... forty two ...

HELLO, BOY.

Luke froze, just about to descend on his forty-third press-up. What the hell—

OR SHOULD I SAY, VESSEL.

Perturbed, Luke jumped to his feet. His heart thumping, he looked around the room, paying no heed to the hairs falling from his head as he did so. Where the hell was this voice coming from???!!!

STOP THAT.

The commanding power in the tone caused Luke to freeze where he stood. He was staring at his bedside locker. Hardly going to find the owner of the voice in there, his mind mocked him just before the voice spoke again.

SO BODKIN HAS FINALLY SUCCEEDED.

Luke was shaking now, his heart hammering in his chest. He was going insane! That was the price of the power. Had Bodkin suffered this? The man hadn’t looked insane—

CALM, BOY!!! the voice commanded. SMOOTH YOUR MIND. SMOOTH YOUR MIND.

Luke released a shuddering breath. Yes, the voice was right. He needed to calm down, control his thinking. A wave of anxiety rolled in his gut. What the hell was he doing???!!! Listening to a voice in his head!!! One that he had no control over—

I SAID CALM!!!

Luke’s mind was suddenly empty. A few seconds passed. He blinked, dimly aware that he was still looking down at his locker. A few more silent seconds ticked by and a seed of hope planted itself in Luke’s mind, and with it the tentative stirrings of relief. Was it over? Was the voice—

ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF.

Luke’s stomach rolled in despair and a lump rose quickly in his throat. He started to sob.

Suddenly he couldn’t breathe. His two hands flew to his neck and he opened his mouth wide, gagging for air. He couldn’t produce a sound. The inexplicable torture went on for a few more seconds before the blockage in his windpipe removed itself as suddenly and completely as it had presented. He breathed in deep, relieving gasps and stumbling, sat down on the edge of his bed.

THAT IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF YOU CRY AGAIN.

“What are you?” Luke groaned.

A sharp pain flared in his skull and he hissed in agony, his hands flying to his temples.

DO NOT SPEAK OUT LOUD WHEN ADDRESSING ME. IT WILL BE A HINDRANCE IF THE WORLD THINKS YOU ARE MAD. I CAN HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS, SO SPEAK THAT WAY

Luke closed his eyes. He willed himself to remain calm, waiting for his breathing to return to normal. Eventually he was ready.

What are you? Why are you in my head?

I AM THE NORDROS. AND I AM NOT JUST IN YOUR MIND. I AM IN EVERY FIBRE OF YOUR BODY, STRENGTHENING AND ENHANCING IT. EVENTUALLY YOU WILL BE READY FOR WORK.

Work?

YES. YOU ARE MY NEW VESSEL. BODKIN’S REPLACEMENT.

Luke felt panic begin to rise within him again. This nightmare couldn’t be real! No way! He had to be still in bed, dreaming! Had to be! He clenched his fists on his legs, forcing himself to maintain his composure.

What do you mean, your vessel? What is this work that you’re talking about?

The voice laughed, and to Luke it was a more terrible sound than the voice itself. It confirmed his suspicions. Bodkin had fooled him. His face flushed with dread, Luke waited in resignation for what was coming.

BODKIN LIED TO YOU, BOY. IT WAS NOT HIM THAT WORKED FOR THE GAMLI, IT WAS ME. BODKIN WAS MERELY THE VESSEL I USED TO CARRY OUT THE NECESSARY ACTIONS. I HAVE NO NATURAL PHYSICAL FORM OF MY OWN. I ENTERED HIS FORM SIXTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, WHEN ANOTHER LIFEFORM CONVINCED HIM TO TAKE WHAT WAS OFFERED.

He told me he got the power twenty years ago in an accident!

MORE OF HIS LIES. SOMETHING HE HAS GOTTEN GOOD AT OVER THE DECADES. YOUR SPECIES HAS A SAYING DOES IT NOT—PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.

Luke felt lightheaded with the enormity of this. Bodkin had had this thing inside him for decades?

THE WEALTH BODKIN SPOKE TO YOU OF IS, OF COURSE, MINE. ACCUMULATED OVER A PERIOD OF SIX HUNDRED YEARS OF WORK. YOU ARE THE SEVENTH VESSEL I HAVE INHABITED IN THAT TIME. HOPEFULLY YOU WILL BE THE LAST. MY GOAL IS WITHIN SIGHT.

Feeling weak, Luke tried to process all of this.

What is your goal?

TO ACCUMULATE ENOUGH RICHES TO PAY THE PIERCER AND THE CRAFTSMAN.

Luke fought to keep his concentration from being engulfed by all of this.

The piercer and the craftsman?

THE PIERCER IS THE ONLY ENTITY CAPABLE OF PUNCTURING THE WALL OF OUR UNIVERSE AND VENTURING BEYOND INTO THE NESTRA. IN THE NESTRA THERE ARE MATERIALS CAPABLE OF HOUSING MY UN-ATTENUATED STATE. WHEN I HAVE PAID THE PIERCER, SHE WILL RETRIEVE THESE MATERIALS AND GIVE THEM TO THE CRAFTSMAN, WHO WILL IN TURN FASHION A BODY TO HOUSE ME AT MY FULL STRENGTH.

You’re not at your full strength within me right now?

There was silence for a few seconds.

IF I UNFOLDED MYSELF COMPLETELY WITHIN YOU, HALF YOUR PLANET WOULD BE VAPORIZED.

Luke swallowed. He felt as though he were in a daze.

Did Bodkin ever refuse to do what you told him?

ALL THE VESSELS DID. AT THE BEGINNING.

How did you get them to obey you?

Luke had a feeling he knew the answer, although he didn’t expect what happened next.

There was an explosion of pain in the middle finger of his left hand as it flew backward and nearly made contact with the back of his hand. It broke loudly. Luke opened his mouth to shriek but no sound came out. He gazed in mortified agony at the horribly angled finger. A few seconds later the pain level went up a notch and Luke felt a dreadful grinding sensation in the aggrieved digit. Very quickly though, this new pain began to recede and Luke realized that the bone was miraculously re-connecting itself, mending the damage. Eventually the pain was completely gone, and the finger looked as though nothing had happened to it at all. Breathing hard, his entire left hand shaking after the appalling experience, Luke hazarded bending the finger. It was fine.

THAT IS HOW I ENCOURAGE COMPLIANCE. I CANNOT FORCE YOU TO WORK, BUT I CAN SHATTER EVERY PIECE OF YOUR BODY UNTIL YOU ACQUIESCE. THEN ALL DAMAGE IS REPAIRED, NO MATTER HOW CATASTROPHIC.

Luke closed his eyes. It was a while before the voice spoke again.

BODKIN LIED ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE. HE TOLD YOU THAT NONE OF THE PLANETS HE DESTROYED WERE POPULATED BY HUMANS. THAT IS NOT TRUE. ONE TIME, OUTSIDE OF EARTH, THERE WERE SIX OTHER PLANETS IN THE UNIVERSE WITH HUMAN POPULATIONS. NOW THERE ARE FOUR.

Luke had endured so much horror up to that point that this latest revelation only caused his guts to pitch mildly.

I don’t want to know how many people he killed.

HE SHOWED NOBILITY WHEN I ACCEPTED THE CONTRACT TO DESTROY THE FIRST HUMAN PLANET. HE REFUSED TO DO THE WORK. IT TOOK NINE BROKEN BONES AND A PUNCTURED EYEBALL FOR HIM TO RELENT.

An image of Bodkin on the ground in agony, his broken body twisted at impossible angles and one blind eye dribbling its contents down along his cheek, filled Luke’s mind. To purge the ghastly vision, he looked out his bedroom window and down at the pool below. His sister was smiling and chatting with the pool-guy, a college student. Luke knew that Shauna had a crush on him. There they were, out in the sun enjoying another beautiful California day, while he, Luke, was in his bedroom scarcely fifty yards away, trapped in some impossible nightmare. A flood of sadness rushed through Luke, and he felt a lump rising in his throat again. He swallowed it away, hardening himself. He did not want the demon, or whatever it was, throttling him again. He turned away from the window. He thought of what Bodkin had done to him and very quickly his despair morphed into rage. The snake and his treacherous lies! Him and his calm, condescending smiles!

IF YOU CHOOSE TO KILL BODKIN, I WILL ALLOW IT.

Luke blinked. What a wonderful idea! With his newfound strength he would do it with his bare hands. He would crush the man’s skull with one murderous punch. He bolted from the room and dashed down the stairs, still clad only in his bed t-shirt and pyjama bottoms. His mother was in the hallway, texting. At his dramatic approach she looked up and was about to ask him what the commotion was about when her eyes widened.

“Luke! Your HAIR!”

Luke went past her out the door without acknowledging her. He raced across the street without looking left or right, and when he reached Bodkin’s front door he shoulder-charged it without slowing down. It flew in before him, coming to rest on the last few risers of the staircase ten feet away. He ran into the kitchen. It was empty. He was about to leave and head upstairs when he saw the note on the table. He went to it. It read:



Luke

I’m so sorry – I hope one day you will forgive me.

G



His heart pounding, Luke took long, deep quivering breaths, trying to quell the rising wave of rage and frustration flooding into him. In the end, he simply gave in. He threw back his head and roared, the Nordros making no move to silence him.

“RRAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!”

Every window in the house shattered and blew outward in a rain of glass.

*     *     *
Bodkin started awake. He opened his eyes and studied for a moment the vast trunk of the towering redwood tree ahead of him. He’d fallen asleep with the radio on. The volume was set low, and he could just about make out the sound of a female voice that was vaguely familiar to him. Some tall British woman with red hair. Florence the Machine, or something. Movement caught the corner of his eye and he looked to his left. The driver’s door was open and a few feet away was a squirrel holding a large nut. Its nose twitched in the air as it studied him. When Bodkin raised his arm to look at his watch the squirrel skipped away. He saw that he’d been asleep for half an hour. Before he’d pulled in for a break he’d been driving for nearly ten hours.

He took a deep breath.

Sixty-five years.

A lump began to rise in his throat as he recalled all the suffering he’d inflicted and endured over the decades. But now the Nordros was gone and was the boy’s problem. He felt sorry for the young man; indeed, it was a terrible load for a young person to be saddled with. But the truth was, Bodkin would have foisted his tormentor on a baby or a sick old woman if it would have meant being released.

He pulled the driver’s door shut and started the engine. He turned the car and left the layby. As he gathered speed on the highway, headed north, he looked at himself in the rear-view mirror.

The world’s youngest-looking one-hundred-and-twenty-year-old man.

He wondered if his hair would grow back now. Not that it mattered. All that mattered was that he was free.