Kim Miller
Endel is the enforcer for a drug lord in Macao, it's 2101 and neural implants and memory chips are ubiquitous. Endel's memory chip is constantly being edited and overwritten so it can't be accessed by law enforcement as evidence. But there's a problem. He keeps having memory flashbacks of things that never happened, of people he doesn't know, and of being somebody else.
There is a constant in these flashbacks, that he has a wife and daughter from whom he is estranged. But he has little to go on apart from these flashes of insight as old memories deep in his brain come to the surface. Then he meets his wife. She is angry and rejecting. He stands across from a school for glimpses of his daughter. He's warned off. But something keeps pulling him back.
As he realises he must get out of the syndicate and find his real self he starts to form a plan. Trouble is, his life is filled with violence and murder and the plan will mean more of the same. He has to work out who he can trust, where he can go, how he can hide.
As his wife becomes more apparent in his memories and his life he must also work out how to keep her safe. And that daughter? It turns out he has two daughters, but the second one has been wiped from his memory. And it's then that he realises that the drug boss is manipulating him so well that he's no more than a tool to be used and and a weapon to be wielded against others.
As the story progresses we see that it's more than a tale of drug dealing. His boss isn't merely running a drug empire, there is something much more sinister, something with the potential to upset the world order. The twists of the plot gather up as many ideologues as gangsters as the danger increases in depth and scope. Memory, it turns out, is a saleable commodity, and can be monetised in so many ways.
The heated confrontation and climactic battle is suddenly way over the top and almost comical as the body enhancement tech of the era is on full display. It's like watching a superhero movie with a cinema full of kids screaming in delight as blood spatters everywhere.
And then it's suddenly over. Endel is gone and somebody else is in his place. And his family? Well, they will have to find a way forward from what has suddenly become a new starting point. It's that Escher staircase again. Which way is up?
Endel is the enforcer for a drug lord in Macao, it's 2101 and neural implants and memory chips are ubiquitous. Endel's memory chip is constantly being edited and overwritten so it can't be accessed by law enforcement as evidence. But there's a problem. He keeps having memory flashbacks of things that never happened, of people he doesn't know, and of being somebody else.
There is a constant in these flashbacks, that he has a wife and daughter from whom he is estranged. But he has little to go on apart from these flashes of insight as old memories deep in his brain come to the surface. Then he meets his wife. She is angry and rejecting. He stands across from a school for glimpses of his daughter. He's warned off. But something keeps pulling him back.
As he realises he must get out of the syndicate and find his real self he starts to form a plan. Trouble is, his life is filled with violence and murder and the plan will mean more of the same. He has to work out who he can trust, where he can go, how he can hide.
As his wife becomes more apparent in his memories and his life he must also work out how to keep her safe. And that daughter? It turns out he has two daughters, but the second one has been wiped from his memory. And it's then that he realises that the drug boss is manipulating him so well that he's no more than a tool to be used and and a weapon to be wielded against others.
As the story progresses we see that it's more than a tale of drug dealing. His boss isn't merely running a drug empire, there is something much more sinister, something with the potential to upset the world order. The twists of the plot gather up as many ideologues as gangsters as the danger increases in depth and scope. Memory, it turns out, is a saleable commodity, and can be monetised in so many ways.
The heated confrontation and climactic battle is suddenly way over the top and almost comical as the body enhancement tech of the era is on full display. It's like watching a superhero movie with a cinema full of kids screaming in delight as blood spatters everywhere.
And then it's suddenly over. Endel is gone and somebody else is in his place. And his family? Well, they will have to find a way forward from what has suddenly become a new starting point. It's that Escher staircase again. Which way is up?