Matthew realised that he had to take stock. He wasn’t going to get any answers out of Christian unless he played along. Christian had mistaken his anger for excitement, and now, in the face of Christian’s response, Matthew got a grip on himself.

He nodded. Yes, the glasses were good.

And then, forcing himself, he smiled at Christian, smiling at him as though the two of them were sharing a secret.

‘How do they work?’ he said.

Christian stepped forward and took the glasses out of Matthew’s hand.

‘They’re like a headset. Like a VR headset. They’ve got a receiver,’ Christian stepped close to Matthew and showed him, ‘in here, and a transmitter in this side. The needles interface with your brain waves, allowing you to hear, feel, taste, touch – everything. Just like you were in the puppet’s body.’

‘The puppet?’

‘Lukey boy.’

Matthew nodded. He felt a surge of anger that he could barely suppress.

‘These are master glasses, though. They’re expensive.’

Matthew opened his mouth. He didn’t know what to say.

‘I thought you might want to buy them. That was why I – lent them to you. I thought you might be interested.’

Matthew nodded, as though he was. And then he smiled. ‘How much are they?’

‘One point five million.’

Matthew frowned. ‘I don’t. You know I don’t have that sort of money.’

Christian nodded. ‘I know. I thought, maybe, when your inheritance comes through, you’d be interested.’ There was a pause. ‘But you can buy a pair of eavesdroppers.’

‘Eavesdroppers?’

‘They let you into the puppet’s body, but you can’t control anything. And if you’re sick of Lukas – well, there are others.’

Matthew nodded, and tried to take it in. He had to turn his head away, and wipe the back of his hand across his face, because his eyes had begun to water.

‘How much are the eavesdroppers?’ he said.

‘Forty thousand. But they’re only connected for a few months. After that, you have to renew.’

Matthew said nothing.

‘They do give you some control. It’s not like you can’t make them do anything. You can influence the puppet. If you spend enough time with them, thinking about stuff, and trying to move their body, you can get them to do things.’

Matthew nodded, and tried to look thoughtful, like he was interested.

‘Who else is there?’

‘Apart from Lukas?’

Matthew nodded.

‘Well, most of them are children, but people like that. There’s a boy called Jacob though, who’s thirteen. He thinks his name is Jimmy.’ Christian laughed. ‘He does some pretty whacked out stuff. I mean, we’ve been making him. It’s pretty funny.’

Matthew felt a chill flow through him, descending from his head, and running down his body to his thighs, to his feet.

‘Is he in the Royal? In the psych ward?’

‘Yeah.’ Christian laughed. ‘Dale told me about that. The thing in the lift. That was Dale.’

‘Dale?’

Matthew turned his head away and sat on the bed. Dale had…Dale had more money than any of them, than any of the guys, and Lukas had acted like…Dale…when…like Dale, who had said he had a VR game weeks ago, before the tablets, before any of this, saying he was addicted to it, and telling Matthew all about how good the headset was, but not inviting Matthew over to play.

‘Has Dale got the master glasses?’

‘There’s more than one set. For each little puppy,’ Christian said, sitting down on the bed beside Matthew. ‘We didn’t think it’d work like that, before Lukas, but I told my dad it would. It’s only when you’ve got more than three that things start to go a little haywire, like with Jimmy. He doesn’t have a fucking clue what he’s doing.’

‘Did he have an operation?’

‘Yeah. My dad does it. Not the technology side. He doesn’t do that. But the brain interface. There were a lot of fuckups, in the early years, which was they had to buy the hospital.’

Matthew didn’t even want to ask who they were. He knew Christian’s dad didn’t own the Van alone. There weren’t too many people that could afford a hospital on their own.

Matthew frowned.

‘So are there three master glasses for Lukas?’

Christian nodded. ‘We’ve got ten running on Jimmy – on Jacob.’

Matthew said nothing.

‘It’s better really. Cause it’s like you have to battle with someone to get control of the body. And he does all these whacked out things. Goes into contortions, and speaks gibberish, and tells people to get fucked, anything – and someone’s always making him grab guys in the crotch, though I’m pretty sure that’s Dale.’

Matthew said nothing.

‘It’s like – no responsibility. You can do anything.’

Slowly, Matthew nodded, trying to act like he was interested, still, though he felt sick. Sick for Lukas, and sick for himself.

‘We’ve got a teacher. A guy in his forties. But he’s been sectioned as well. We – not me. Other guys. Well, they made him – like Lukas. But he did it himself.’

Matthew said nothing.

‘We figured he was a pedophile.’

Matthew nodded, but he wasn’t even listening.

‘We know what you’ve been doing, Matty.’

‘What?’ Matthew said, though he sounded glum.

‘With Lukas. All the guys. We know what you’ve been doing. And it was a trip, dude, really.’ Christian paused. ‘The best game I’ve ever played.’

Christian put his hand on Matthew’s back.

Matthew shrugged away from him.

‘All the guys. Well, Dale, really, but all the guys. They want to know if you want to do it again. With Jimmy. It wasn’t really any fun with Mr Turner. Not when he did it to himself. But with Ji-Jacob, well, Dale’s got some pretty whacked out ideas of how you could do it.’

Matthew wasn’t listening properly. ‘What?’ he said.

‘Fuck his gear up.’

Matthew said nothing, though he was suddenly aware of Christian’s arm around his shoulder.

‘That was the best game. With Lukey boy. That was a fucking trip and a half. And now – man, you should see what they’ve done to him! You should see his fucking groin.’

Matthew put his head in his hands. ‘He’s not a fucking game,’ he said.

‘Well you’ve been playing him. You weren’t very good at it. But you’ve been playing him for weeks.’

‘He’s a fucking human being, Christian,’ Matthew said, turning, and elbowing Christian in the face. He stood, and punched Christian, punching him hard, right, left, right, in the face, though Christian lifted his foot, and pushed him away.

‘You fucking cock,’ Christian said.

Matthew wanted to smash him. He wanted to smash his head with an iron bar, and see it crack. ‘Who the fuck do you think you are? Who the fuck do you think you are to go and fuck somebody’s brain up and play them like…?’ A puppet? Matthew thought, and remembered all at once that he had heard this before, that Rodney had said it to him, that day at the beach.

And suddenly, vividly, the dream he had had, of him and Lukas as puppets, came flooding into his consciousness.

Christian was struggling to his feet.

‘You can’t fucking well do that to people, Christian. To children. Are you out of your fucking mind?’

Christian was rubbing his jaw. ‘There’s six billion people on the planet, Matthew. You think we can’t spare some, to have a little fun? A few stupid fucks.’

Matthew kicked. He kicked Christian in the stomach, and watched as Christian doubled over.

‘Well, you misjudged me, you prick. You, and your fucking father.’

‘What are you going to do? Go to the police?’

‘Damn fucking right I am.’

‘And what do you think they’ll do? Where’s your fucking proof?’ Christian snatched the glasses, as he said it, and put them into the pocket of his jeans.

Matthew floundered for a moment. ‘I’ll take Lukas to the Royal. I’ll get an MRI. You think it won’t show up, whatever the fuck it is?’

‘Come on, Matty, just calm down a minute. Think a minute. He’s got a neural net strung through his brain. There’s more than a thousand filaments. You can’t remove them. It’s like barbed wire. It’d kill him.’

Matthew swallowed.

He turned around and walked out of the room. When he got to the car, he was crying.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing,’ Matthew said.

He started the car and pulled onto the street.

‘Did you have a fight with him or something?’

Matthew was biting his lips. What could he say to Lukas? How could he ever explain?

‘They did something to you.’

‘What?’

‘Dr Mueller. He did something to you.’

‘I don’t think so.’

Matthew shook his head. He indicated right, and turned onto the Westaway.

He would go and see his father. Tell his father. Arrange an MRI. There must be something they could do. Even if they couldn’t get the thing out of Lukas’ brain, there would have to be something they could do to turn it off.

He would go to see his father. His father would help.

Matthew put his foot down, and the car accelerated onto the long bridge over the lake.

It was dark now, and the rain was heavier. He had to squint to see.

‘You know, Matthew,’ Lukas suddenly said, turning to him. ‘You really are very stupid.’

Lukas reached over and grabbed the bottom of the wheel. He tugged on it, pulling the car onto the incoming lane.

Matthew had a moment, a moment in which he realised that it wasn’t Lukas, but Christian, who was wrestling with him. He struggled, but it was too late. There were headlights.

He tried to avoid them.

But there was an impact, as they hit the oncoming car. Airbags exploded. The car spun. Hit the rail. And flipped over it.

They were falling. Upside down. Toward the cold water of the lake. And then they hit. There was water. But it was the last thing Matthew remembered.