The Memory Bank – All in the Mind – Read an Excerpt

The Memory Bank – All in the Mind

Chapter One

In the Mind

Claudia Woodville walked into the laboratory, in the corner of which a body lay on a table, draped in a sheet. She was wearing the plain navy-blue business suit with a knee-length skirt that she often favoured for meetings with her company’s corporate backers. Claudia was tall and slim and around fifty years old, although her exact age was a closely guarded secret.

“Did you get it?” she asked her assistant, Harry Kruger, as she approached.

“Sorry, Claudia,” he replied. “I tried my best.”

Harry was in his early forties and had worked with Claudia in a technical or IT role in one capacity or another for almost twenty years. He looked older than his age, with his dark brown hair beginning to recede and flecked with grey. His face was heavily lined, especially around the eyes, the product of too many late nights in front of computer screens, or so he claimed.

“Did you keep him alive for as long as you could, like we discussed?” Claudia asked. “Was there a problem with the mask that you used?”

Harry shook his head.

“The mask worked just fine,” he said. “There was nothing I could do, Claudia. I only got so far in before he passed away.”

Claudia frowned then sighed heavily.

“You do remember, Harry, how much effort it took for us to persuade his family to even consider this clinic? And after all that, along with those meetings and all the promises we made, we still didn’t get the password we needed.”

She paused, running her fingers through her short grey hair before continuing.

“Was there anything we could use in the prism?”

“At first glance, nothing of significance,” Harry replied. “But I have the recordings and intend to check after we’re done here. We were close, Claudia, closer than ever before.”

“Perhaps,” she said, “but not close enough, it seems. We’re going to need some help.”

“What kind of help?” Harry asked.

“The unconventional kind.”