HSBC BUILDING

A high ceiling. On three sides, huge glass windows. To the East, the triangular points of the Bank of China building. To the West, skyscrapers, one of which changes colour lazily. The south, over some rooftops, Hong Kong harbour. A soiree. An old white woman perched against a stool. Condensation on her glass of Cristal. Canapes. [[Approach her.]] [[Ask your friend for an introduction.]]

She wears a badge with her name - Audrey Shilling. Her immaculately manicured fingers fix a loose frond of grey hair. She looks like Helen Mirren. She notices you. [[A moment passes.]]

"Sure, that's Audrey Shilling. She's head of investment. She made a billion dollars last year. US dollars, that is. She probably has some clout with our guys." He guides you over. [[A moment passes.]]

She frowns and moves away slightly. She looks down her nose at you. [["Pleasure to finally meet you. I've heard all about you, of course."]] [["Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I recognised you."]]

She smiles too. [["Pleasure to finally meet you. I've heard all about you, of course."]] [["No, go on, you first."]]

"And who are you?" [[Touch her elbow.]] [[Smile pleasantly.]]

My name's... [["... Bill."]] [["... William Carson."]]

"You can call me Ms. Shilling. I don't normally have to introduce myself." She looks you over. "But for a man dressed like that I can make an exception. Where did you get that suit?" [["Why, my Saville Row man knocked it up just last week. Ruinously expensive, I assure you."]] [["This old thing? It was my father's. This is the first time I've worn it."]]

You say "My name's ... [["... William."]] [["... Bill."]]

"William what?" [["Oh, sorry. Carson. From Terrapyn NY."]]

"Bill? Which Bill are you?" [["Oh, sorry. Carson. From Terrapyn NY."]] [["... William Carson."]]

"And you're joining us today from...?" [["Terrapyn NY. We're a marketing information brokerage startup."]]

"The little ducks and geese down in my OTC unit talk about nothing but suits. You'd be the envy of them. But I know that suit is older than that. I recognise the tailoring." [["Exotic or vanilla?"]] [["Only one man in the world could have made this suit. I was hoping to get it replicated in Hong Kong before the MOMA opening next month."]]

"I had a passionate love affair with a tailor once. I'd recognise one of his anywhere. There's a certain lusciousness to the pooling of the hems. Something... Sophisticated. Delicate. Your suit... It's an Alvez." [["Only one man in the world could have made this suit. I was hoping to get it replicated in Hong Kong before the MOMA opening next month."]]

"Never heard of them, Darling. Are you very big?" [["Terrapyn NY. We're a marketing information brokerage startup."]] [["We've just done a project for MOMA. Now we're shopping around for partners in Hong Kong."]]

"Sounds dry." [["We've just done a project for MOMA. Now we're shopping around for partners in Hong Kong."]]

"Oh yes. Do you know Norma? She's works at MOMA. She's from Oklahoma. She has a tumour." [["I wouldn't want to clone her."]] [["I recently boned her."]] [["Fuck you. Don't talk to me about Norma. What a moaner. Turned me into a loner."]] [["Norma? Never met a Norma."]]

"If we could clone Norma, I would clone her one hundred times to run the OTC listed derivatives unit that I'm babysitting." [["What? I thought we were doing a bit."]] [["I don't know what you just said."]] [["Exotic or vanilla?"]]

"What? That's outrageous! She's married to Jeff Rodgers! You know, he teaches business at NYU. I fucked him last week. What's going on here?" [["Come on baby, you know you want it."]] [["What? I thought we were doing a bit."]]

"You're a little slow on the uptake for someone in such a dazzling suit." [["What? I thought we were doing a bit."]] [["This old thing? It was my father's. This is the first time I've worn it."]]

"I couldn't agree with you more, darling. She was an absolute bitch to me in the seventies. I'd love to say that we were lovers in Paris, but she wasn't in to it. She only wanted three things: Benzos, Cheetos and the Louvre." [["What? I thought we were doing a bit."]]

"Security!" Game over.

[[You look blankly at each other.]] [[You cast about for something else to talk about.]]

"Oh, sorry. I thought we were doing a bit." [[You look blankly at each other.]] [[You cast about for something else to talk about.]]

"OTC, but vanilla of course. I do dabble in some exotic on the side. But not in the Autumn." [[You have no idea what she is talking about.|You cast about for something else to talk about.]]

"There's only one man in the world who could copy a suit that perfect. Diego Alvez - the maestro who made it. Your problem is that his head is being held by a gang of Japanese anarcho-fasionistas. It's in a freezer in a Go-Go bar in Harajuku." [["If what you're saying is true, then he must be dead!"]] [["How do you know all this?"]] [["Come with me to Haolong Bay. I'm meeting my contact on a moto-dinghy. We'll be at the airport in 28 minutes."]]

"They're hoping to wire him up to a design mainframe in Fukushima. Nobody is quite sure what will happen when they switch it on." [["But... How did you know Diego?"]] [["Come with me to Haolong Bay. I'm meeting my contact on a moto-dinghy. We'll be at the airport in 28 minutes."]]

"Knowledge is power, dear boy." [["But... How did you know Diego?"]] [["And France is bacon, Audrey."]] [["Come with me to Haolong Bay. I'm meeting my contact on a moto-dinghy. We'll be at the airport in 28 minutes."]]

"I'd rather eat shit--or the frozen toe of Diego Alvez." But we could take the yacht. It's moored, as usual, in the corporate crypt. It's at the bottom of the tower. The HMSHKHSBC. It'll take a little longer, but I insist on travelling in style." [["But... How did you know Diego?"]] [["I've always wanted to see the executive tombs. Is it true that the souls of former CEOs are ritually transmigrated into crystal orbs?"]]

"I'm afraid I don't follow." [["But... How did you know Diego?"]] [["If what you're saying is true, then he must be dead!"]]

"She produces a golden locket from the high and severe neckline of her extravagantly simple, black Prada business dress, revealing a small, grey toe enclosed in a perfect cylinder of what appears to be sapphire ice. A slight gasp of frozen air puffs between you, drifting into the air silkily. "Diego... Mi corazon." She looks down at the plush red carpet, and re-secretes the locket. [["Where did you get that?"]] [["I knew you were the woman to speak to."]]

"Of course. Their radiance bathes the pineal glands of the elect, guiding this ironclad dreadnought of profit through the Bermuda Triangle of hypercrash-omegacapital. All glory to the helmsmen. I hope to join them. One day." [["Let's go."]] [["I might need a little something first."]]

"I'll get the boys to meet us down there. I should warn, I'm tripping on scoplamine and benzos. Well, it's a scoplamine-infused xanax-dash-codiene paste." She produces a foul-smelling leather pouch. "This set me back twenty large, don't you know." She scoops a chunk of what looks like mashed potato made from toothpaste from the pouch with her ring finger and rubs it into her neck. It is instantly absorbed. "Want some?" [[You grab the hand.]] [[You do not grab the hand.]] [[You deflect her hand and knock her to the floor.]] [[You say "I've got my own." You produce a bottle of Amyl Nitrate. You inwardly stream the air through the fine silk at the top of the bottle. The world is momentarily full of black spiders. They vanish. You have a headache.]]

The entire room shifts from plush red and gold lit by candles and moonlight into a relentless pulsating Golgotha, a new Golgotha of utter terror that dwells upon the seething hypercrashed earth. This is unusual, yet pleasant. Ms. Shilling looks at you with eyes that are telescopes of fractal fire and drags you by the hand into the executive elevator. You scream and laugh at the same time. [[You sink in to the floor.]] [[You ride the lift.]]

Before you can do anything, she rubs her hand across your neck. [[You trip balls|You grab the hand.]]

She gamely says "All the more for me!" and rubs another fistful into her decoupage. It absorbs more slowly than before, but still with vigour. Her eyes glaze over. She stands up and strides purposefully into the wall. Her face is rapt. The executive elevator springs open and she collapses into the arms of her cronies. She looks round at you. "How about it?" [[You go for it after all.|You grab the hand.]]

"I have something right here. She produces a foul-smelling leather pouch. "This set me back twenty large, don't you know." She scoops a chunk of what looks like mashed potato made from toothpaste from the pouch with her ring finger and rubs it into her neck. It is instantly absorbed. "Want some?" She offers you here paste-covered hand. [[You grab the hand.]]

"This was the message that they sent. It arrived by jumpjet but five days ago, and when I saw it I howled to the winds of commerce and swore that I would drink the liquid assets of those who had harmed him. I've been tweaked as fuck ever since, in preparation." [["What kind of a man was he?"]] [["Got some gear on you now?"|"I might need a little something first."]]

"We were lovers. We did VK injections together in the sixties, eating whale blubber in the wastes of Alaska. He was researching the sewing techniques of the Inuits. There was a big party scene. Best years of my life, actually. He was in Namibia stitching together ibex hides to make the biggest balloon in the world for Richard Branson's niece. We were the money. He was taken one afternoon while I was fishing for desert crabs in the sinkhole flats of Namibia. I blame myself." [["Richard Branson doesn't have a niece."]] [["What kind of a man was he?"]]

She slaps you. "Fine. I was in an Icelandic volcanic spa. He was making lace for the Secret Queen of Iceland. He was using the thread of giant glacial silkworms, who spin webs of pure ice. I was there on a work jolly. We fell in love as I stood on the back of the worm that I had slain. He struggled to breathe from behind the luxury glacial ice-silk that I had won for him. They took him that same afternoon." [["What kind of a man was he?"]]

"He was a pimp. I loved him. I hated him. He confined me with his bolt-like vision. His hands smelt of strawberries and were the nimblest things I had ever tasted, and I've tasted a lot. He was part oyster, part tiger, part butter, part toffee, part streetlight, part nightshade. Part needle, part thread. He was part of me." She pauses. "He was not a man. He was dynamite." [["Let's go."]]

The scoplamine paste wears off. You find yourself alone in a concrete room, surrounded by money. Audrey's voice echoes from above "... and not a drop to drink." You wonder what to do next. Somewhere across the water, Diego Alvez dies during a power cut. Years later, you die of something tragic yet boring. Who gives a shit. GAME OVER

The lift has glass walls. A giant serpent seems to be emerging from the sea near the airport, swallowing all the moto-dinghies. The moon transforms into a giant radiant slug, which falls from the sky and becomes impaled on Kowloon. In its death-strokes it levels a city block, revealing an alabaster pyramid. Audrey is unconcerned. She gurgles blissfully. [["Do you have any liquor on this boat, then?"]] [["I could get used to this. This is all for me."]] [["By the way, I was lying about knowing people in MOMA. Norma was the name of my tromboner. I'm a stoner crooner, baby, and I love it."]] [["I'm a cone."]]

"Wine is fine and liquor is quicker, but Scoplamine-infused-Xanax is the best." She sinks into the floor. [[You sink in to the floor.]] [[The lift arrives.]]

She laughs like a bassoon. Her laugh is full of scorpions. [[The lift arrives.]]

She doesn't care. [[The lift arrives.]]

You are a perfect cone in the exact centre of the Kobernausser Plaza. No-one lives inside you. There is a red dot in the centre of your floor. GAME OVER

The next three hours are a blur of orbs, waves, limbs, orgasms, scoplamine paste, liquor, marble, satin and saxophone. Aboard the yacht, you stagger to the kitchen, searching for something to take your temperature down. You see a freezer and open it. Inside is the frozen body of Diego Alvez. You scream. A Ukranian voice says "Mother Russia sends her regards," and clubs you on the head. [[***]] [[***|Ganglord]]

The room fades away. You wake up on a bench in the zoological garden in Berlin. You feel like you missed an opportunity. But where? GAME OVER

A waiter arrives with canapes. They appear to be made of different types of rock. You spot igneous, volcanic, sedimentary, metamorphic. She grabs a quartz and consumes it. It sounds like she's eating a rock. She's eating a rock. She says "It's all the rage in Helsinki." [[You pick one up and eat it.]]

You break several of your teeth. Blood drips from your mouth. She flashes you a glimpse of her robotic maw. "Boy, you should have got the implant first." Blood spills down your suit. [["Ah, shit, this suit was one of a kind."|"This old thing? It was my father's. This is the first time I've worn it."]]

You wake up in a fish processing plant. You are extremely cold. When you try to get up, you realise to your utter horror that you are handcuffed to the frozen body of Diego Alvez. He is missing one toe, and his head. You vomit. There is a thick crust of flaky brown crud on your neck. Every breath tastes bitter. There is a flavour coating your tongue that reminds you of Audrey. [[You feel pretty good.]] [[You feel pretty crummy.]]

No you don't. [[You feel pretty crummy.]]

The floor shudders and begins to move. You are on a conveyor belt. They are going to process you and Alvez's body. This will render you both unusable! Ahead, you see Audrey. She is strapped to a giant squid. At the end of the conveyor is a big fucking red metal fish-smasher. Fish are being wrecked by this thing and coming out as this fucked-up pink paste full of tiny rocks and YOU DON'T WANT THAT, SON. [[Shout: "Audrey, use the paste!"]] [[Try and roll off the conveyor belt.]]

You wake up on a platter, surrounded by choice cuts of rare meats. You're on the menu! GAME OVER

Audrey comes to, and rubs some paste on to her own neck. [["Throw me the pouch!"]] [["No, on the squid!"]]

Buoyed by adrenaline, a second release of life, your course of action seems as clear as the crystal balls you saw in the sacred crypts. You pull the body from the conveyor and raise it above your head. The slaves on the factory floor look up at you. [["I'll kill you, you slaves!"]] [["You have nothing to lose but your chains!"]]

You execute a balletic roll over the frozen corpse and catch the pouch. [[Apply to yourself.]] [[Apply to Alvez's truncated trachea.]]

The squid begins to lash its thankless unholy mega-arms around the fish factory, upsetting piles of angry industrial slaves and fiddling statistical models. A flock of Eastern European gangsters rush in to the room and are immediately crushed by the tentacles. As they begin to slide beneath the chomping mouth-pit of the fish crusher, the squid asserts its presence upward and splits the hated engine asunder. The slaves rejoice, toppling the statues of Anubis that you now see flank the factory floor. "What hath God wrought?" you ask aloud. The squid replies "My salient will is eternal and forthright. Now go in peace and restore this corpse's head. What God has brought together, no anarcho-fasionista will divide. To Harajuku! Now anoint him with the sacred paste." [[You get that frozen dude all pasted up.]]

You ascend. The world appears to be made of black vinyl. You are crushed by the fish smasher and processed into tiny rocks. You are eaten by alpha-grade businesslords around the world at top-swank conference chalets. They comment on the rare savour and particular delicacy of this batch of rocks. You consider this a qualified success. GAME OVER

The frozen body rears up, seething with bright yellow energy. It radiates the vital force of life. It tears your handcuffs asunder. Audrey shouts "Hey! Bring that golem here!" It needs no telling. It runs to the side of its former paramour and severs the beak of the giant squid, inserting it into its trachea. It seems to groan "Mi corazon." "Oh Diego!" she cries. "It is you!" [["What now?"]]

As the squid departs to swim amongst the stars and serve as prey for omniwhales, the frozen body of Diego Alvez seethes to life and stands beside its sometime companions. The beak of the squid descends upon a swell of aquatic radiance and the golem places this relic atop its haggard throat. "Mi corazon," it gurgles. [["What now?"]]

You are feeling pretty hopped-up. You and Audrey climb atop the shoulders of the golem, topping up its paste through the squid beak. "Alvez, my love, take us to your head," says Audrey. "Take us to the Go-Go bar in Harajuku, so we can be reunited!" The golem roars and stamps its feet. It begins to run, its delicate hands tearing the walls that block its way. Soon it is above the sea, gliding atop a cloud of bees. From its beak comes a whistling sound. The Go-Go bar comes in to view. [[Enter Go-Go bar.]] [[Coast the joint.]]

The slaves are furious. A stampede echoes through the chamber. A blood-curdling scream erupts as they tear their chains and flood towards the chambers of their masters. Some of them run towards you! Just then, Audrey shouts "Catch!" and throws you the paste. [[Apply to Alvez's truncated trachea.]] [[Apply to slaves]]

The slaves rejoice. All around them, the world seems to shift into their possession and they are free. Some of them find a barrel of paste and apply it to their necks. [[Get some paste yourself.|Apply to yourself.]] [[Watch.|Apply to slaves]]

The slaves descend into a furious broil and in the ensuing tumult the entire room is coated in paste. A cacophony of cries fly in to the wind as the place is engulfed in a kind of madness - peculiar, but not unpleasant. [[Some gets on the squid.|"No, on the squid!"]]

On the walls of the Go-Go bar are black garments sorted according to the number of openings. The socks and hats have only one opening. The skirts have two openings. The trousers and pants have three, and the shirts and dresses have four. Someone is mixing up the displays. The golem roars. "Where is the head?" Audrey shouts. "Who owns this joint? I want to see who's in charge. The manager." The wall of the bar collapses. Atop a cybernetic body is the frozen head of Diego Alvez. "I AM THE MANAGER!" he cries. "My love, my sweet!" cries Audrey. "I've brought your body! We can be together once more, as it should always have been!" "It is too late for us," says the head. "There is always time for love." A single tear forms on the frozen head of Diego Alvez and freezes. "No," he says. "Now is the time for you to die." [["NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"]] [["Golem! Attack!"]]

On the roof of the bar is an ancient stone inscribed with the words "This stone is the exclusive property of Harajuku Holdings Ltd." Audrey gasps. "This stone is too beautiful for them to keep. I'm having it." She eats it. Audrey eats the stone. All of it. There is a car park containing a caravan and some travellers. They are unimpressed by this display. They curse you. You see nothing else. [[Enter Go-Go bar.]]

A swarm of anarcho-fashionistas enter the room elegantly as the mainframe monster orders the attack. The golem is quickly subdued by hands in well-fitting gloves. Audrey's foul-smelling pouch of paste is torn from her grasp and she screams "My money!" The frozen head of Diego Alvez says "Now I will explain to you my master plan. I will form the greatest syndicate of wearable technology infrastructure consolidationists the world has ever known. Armed with my robot body and all your cash, I will consume the world." "Was I nothing to you, Diego?" "Never more than the money, love. Megamarkets wait for no man, and you and I were borne together on a broken spar of antidemand that was destined only for insolvency. And now my scheme is complete. I will forever sever the old trite hierarchy of garments. No longer will clothes be shackled to phoney categories of tops and bottoms, and overclothes and underclothes. We dare to dream, here, of clothes that can be worn only on the right or left hand side of the body, or which grow to unfit the feeble supplicant frame upon which they are carried." He begins to cackle and Audrey screams. Just then you notice something: There is a blob of scropaline paste, whatever it was called, who gives a shit, but you see some of this haute benzo paste on the paving stones and realise that with a deft slurp you could ingest it. [[Ingest.]] [[Use your tongue to flick it towards Audrey.]]

The golem and the cybernetic body are locked in mortal strife, each mighty humanoid throwing blows that would topple a lesser being. Neither gives an inch. A deadlock ensues. The titanic struggle overwhelms the sinews and breaks the spirits of both incarnations of Alvez. The body fights the self, and the self fights the body. The eyes of the frozen head are inches from the hooked tip of the squid beak, and the mighty paste-swollen flesh of the body seems fraught with a tension that is mirrored imperfectly by the latent hydraulic force of the cyberlimbs. Just at that moment, Audrey appears behind the cybernetic form and wrenches the head from its spun-wire moorings. The squid beak opens and she drops the head in. The room is filled with gentle light, and the beak and the empty shell of the robot drop away to the floor. Alvez looks down at Audrey and puts his arm around her waist. The sound seems to die in the room. He smiles and says "Mi corazon." GAME OVER

The paste electrolyses your faculties and you zoomslope sideways out the orifice of the edifice while everyone watches this high-octane powerplay. You don't much care to see how it turns out. This dame Audrey, she's been using you from the get-go, for your wiles, and for your styles. You leave her to this severed-head situation. The head seemed like another one of these arseholes. They deserve each other. You steal a skateboard, skitch on to the back of a passing freight train, and you are gone, over the horizon. The wake of your moto-dinghy disseminates on the waves of the South China Sea. No one ever sees you again. GAME OVER

As the corpuscle of goop arcs through the air, Audrey's tongue protrudes from her lips in an effort to catch it. She fumbles the manoeuvre, however, and volleys the gob across the room. It lands between the eyes of the frozen head of Diego Alvez. His robotic body turns red and assumes a life of its own, as is the paste is transmitted down the neurons of the frozen head of Diego Alvez into its titanium circuitry. It flips a table over and runs for the golem. The golem is destroyed. It then turns its attention to the frozen head, whose eyes have become black disks. The frozen head of Diego Alvez looks wonky as fuck and it fails to respond when the cybernetic body takes its corporeal revenge against the abstract intelligence that gave it life. It leaps in to the air, flattening the skull of Diego Alvez against a ceiling spar. Audrey signals her security entourage. "We're done here," she says, and for only a moment you see what seems to be a flicker of uncertainty in her usual steely visage. "Want to come back to the yacht?" [[Five years later.]]

Your baby is born. Audrey lies back in the hospital bed, smiling. "It's a boy," she says, "and I think we will name him... Diego." GAME OVER

She says "Mine is better." [[She caresses your throat with a sticky finger.|You grab the hand.]]