This is the first scene of Algorithmic Timestamp: Elliot Sterling is about to turn eighteen. His friend Jaxon Kade takes him to the Arcade, where he has a big surprise for him that will end up dramatically changing their lives.
Algorithmic Timestamp #1: Temperdu in District Zero
Algorithmic Timestamp #7 (scheduled for 2 May)
Thursday night, busy, the lights of the City leeching away the darkness of the sky. Elliot Sterling rushed out of the high-rise into the first available robotaxi. To the Arcade. A few more dollars than he would have liked, but he had to be gone before his mother realized he’d slipped out of the apartment. No sign of her through the rear window. Good.
Not that she could have stopped him. He turned eighteen in a few hours, which meant she had no more authority over him. He would be a free man, an adult. The world unlocked. He was tapping his leg on the car’s molded carpet as it zipped through automated traffic, then climbed over the console to sit in the front seat. Newer model, this one, without a steering wheel. With a thought, he messaged Jaxon. On my way. He didn’t actually know where the Arcade was. It didn’t matter. Tonight was his night.
Half an hour later. “Sterling, what took you?” Jaxon said as they shook hands. “Got out under the yoke of your mum, yeah?” He laughed. Jaxon had turned eighteen two years ago and already lived on his own in some crisp condo. Where he got the money from, Elliot didn’t quite understand. Something on the Net. Hacker stuff, Jaxon had once said, but pure and clean. Nothing blackhat.
“She never saw me go. Blocked her access too,” Elliot said with a grin and he shared the custom rule he’d set up so his mother couldn’t figure out where he’d gone.
“Good going. You’re learning,” Jaxon said and he wrapped an arm around Elliot’s shoulder. “Ready for tonight? I’ve got some big surprise too, but that’s for later.”
They walked into the Arcade, a tight affair of lights, machines, and only the best games ever made. Thumping music in the background. Elliot had saved months for this. Hologram Havoc, MindMaze, Void Skirmish. They played for hours.
A few minutes to his birthday, Jaxon slid him a tablet. Crumbly. Microwired. “Goes under your tongue,” he said.
“I thought you promised a neutral evening?” Elliot said, keeping the tablet in his hand. He hadn’t ever done drugs before, and wasn’t keen on doing so today either. His dad had been a drug addict. Maybe he still was. He hadn’t seen him in three years.
Jaxon took out another tablet and placed it under his tongue. He nodded at Elliot’s. “That’s what’ll keep it neutral. Let it melt in your mouth and for a couple of hours it’ll derisk anything bad we drink. Can’t remember the last time I had a hangover because of it.”
Elliot looked at the tablet. His night, tonight. He placed it under his tongue, where it popped and crackled as it disintegrated. His mouth flashed numb, then the feeling went away. “Special,” he said, careful not to drool. In the top corner of his feed, the clock struck midnight.
“It’s a brilliant thing,” Jaxon said. “And here we are. Happy birthday, Mr. Sterling. See how fast that goes? Take it from me, every year time goes a little faster. It only slows down when you fill it with good stuff, which is what we’re gonna do now. Follow me.”
Elliot had figured Jaxon wouldn’t have brought him out just to play games. A neutral evening didn’t mean everything had to be PG. The tablet sparkled under his tongue.
As they walked deeper into the Arcade, it became clear that the loud music didn’t come from overhead, but from somewhere beyond the Arcade’s walls. They walked to two innocuous pillars and a man two heads taller and half an arm wider materialized next to them. Jaxon hologrammed his ID and prodded Elliot to do the same. Swirling lines of gray vapor obscured the man’s face (if he had one). He checked the IDs, then turned to the wall between the pillars, which slid open like curtains did, an unexpected illusion so perfect Elliot’s mouth fell open.
Beyond lay pure darkness unaffected by the Arcade’s bright lights.
They stepped in, although it felt more like stepping through. A soap bubble that didn’t burst. Inside lay a world where the music was rocket launch loud, some type of electro with a bass that rumbled under Elliot’s feet and roared over his head. The darkness was constantly interrupted by strobe lights that blitzed a room tightly packed with hundreds of dancing people. The acrid smell of meatspace. “This is District Zero,” Jaxon yelled in his ear. “About as exclusive as it gets.”
The clubs Elliot had previously been to paled in comparison to District Zero. This was a new world, one that pulsed with frantic energy, without the anxieties of teenage life, unrestricted, evergreen. “I love it,” Elliot shouted as he followed Jaxon to the bar and laughed when they ordered Neutral Vibes cocktails and then some more.
Some time after, he was on the dance floor by himself. He’d lost Jaxon somewhere in the throng. His hair was a dripping mess, but so was everyone else’s. He had his eyes on a foxy girl who danced much better than he did but he didn’t care because tonight was his night. They locked eyes and danced together from afar then closer and closer until he had his hands around her waist.
He and the girl drank and danced. He tried asking for her name, but she shook her head because the music was too loud or because such details didn’t matter here. Elliot would never have kissed someone in the middle of such a crowd, but things were different now. The kiss was wet, open, and interrupted by Jaxon’s hand on Elliot’s shoulder. “Leave me alone,” Elliot said but his words were lost in the noise. Jaxon pointed at him and the girl and motioned them to come with.
Elliot looked at the girl, shrugged, then pulled her through the crowd after Jaxon, tightly holding her hand so he wouldn’t lose her. They struggled to the other side of the club, through an emergency door into a narrow alleyway outside.
The cold air stung. No longer in the dark and dense environment, Elliot could properly see her for the first time. Short blonde hair. A green cut-out dress that ended above her knees. Cute cute cute. She put her hands on her hips. “Still okay?” she asked, an eyebrow raised, her voice hoarse.
Elliot stumbled over his words. “Yes, of course, I didn’t mean... Hi, my name is Elliot,” he said and he stuck out his hand, then pulled it back, then stuck it out again. Jaxon laughed.
“I’m Rhea,” she said with a faint smile as they shook hands. Her hand was wet or maybe his was. “Why are we out?” she asked.
Elliot turned to Jaxon. “Dude, yeah. Why are we out?”
“I told you I had a surprise, didn’t I? It’s over there,” he said as he pointed to a dispenser stuck into a wall. They walked over. The dispenser had nothing written on it except the word Temperdu on its interface. “This here device, it’s quite a thing. This may be a little weird, but hear me out. Temperdu is an algorithm. A really sophisticated one. It can predict exactly when you’ll die. To the day. I’m not kidding. It’s accurate. Everyone underground rages about it.”
“There’s no way,” Elliot said. He couldn’t help but feel disappointed. He hadn’t thought Jaxon would fall for this kind of hack. He’d always thought him as a smart guy. Loose, but smart. “Let’s go back inside,” he said.
“I swear, it’s like almost a hundred percent accuracy,” Jaxon said. “Elliot, I know it’s a little out there, but think about it. You can plan your life so much better if you know when it’ll end. Imagine you’ve got ten years. Better get the most out of it. Skip uni, go travel, get kids.” His eyes flashed to Rhea. “What do you think about it? I’ll pay for yours too.”
“I’m with him. It can’t work,” she said and she grabbed Elliot’s hand. “But I’ll try it out if you’re paying. Just to prove a point.”
“Fine. That’s all I needed to hear,” Jaxon said and he interfaced with the dispenser. “It really is a giant gift, let me tell you. Not an obvious one, but that’s how it goes with these kinds of gifts.”
“How much is it?” Elliot asked as he hovered around Jaxon. He didn’t believe it would work. And even if it did, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know when he’d die. But Rhea had said yes and he sure as drip wouldn’t go against her now.
“Price doesn’t matter,” Jaxon said as he moved around Elliot so he wouldn’t see the interface. When he stepped away, three microthin wafers in see-through plastic dropped out of the dispenser. Jaxon gave one to Elliot and one to Rhea, then tore his open. He balanced the wafer on his fingertip, then pressed it against his temple. It glowed, then faded into his skin. “I’ve been waiting for this,” he said with a grin.
“It’s a plugin?” Rhea asked.
“Yeah. It integrates with your core like any other plugin. I checked the code, it’s all clean as far as I could tell. No corruption. Come on, it’s great info.”
Elliot thought of his dad, then of his mom. Both would disapprove, he knew, and both because they wouldn’t want their son to make the same mistakes his dad had. Rhea pushed her hair behind her ears and pressed the wafer against her temple. Screw it, Elliot thought and he did the same with his. They waited a moment. “I feel nothing,” he said.
“You’re not supposed to,” Jaxon said. “It’ll check a lot of things now. Your thoughts, your behavior, everything. In a day or so, we’ll know our results. Let’s get back inside now.”
“Minus ten years because of this night,” Rhea said and she squeezed Elliot’s hand.
Elliot laughed. “Jaxon, you and your stupid gift. I better have a hundred years left to live after tonight.”
Algorithmic Timestamp #1: Temperdu in District Zero
Algorithmic Timestamp #7 (scheduled for 2 May)
The suspense is killing me