Stimulated concrete

The thick bodied security guard at the door took a brief glace at the presented papers and gestured for Damon to enter. The door was strong and heavy, no doubt resistant to bullets and to any other kind of projectile weaponry. He wasn’t quite sure why he had not been searched for hidden bombs or firearms - he supposed that the Boss trusted him.  However, why was any man’s guess, as they had not yet met. He squeezed his grip on his briefcase and stepped through.1

The Boss preferred not to give out any of his details, not even his name, it was for this reason he always carried a sense of mystery about with him. No one knew anything about him, not even his closest and dearest partners. His company was expanding by the day; he was no doubt the richest business man in the city – he constantly added to his monopoly. His workers and employees generally did not know what it was the company actually did – they just took care of tedious figures and statistics. It was only the employees of the dubbed “Inner circle” that the Boss trusted to do the heavier jobs.2

The door slammed shut and a mechanical ‘clunk’ signaled that the auto-lock wasn’t going to let anyone interrupt business. Damon was almost shocked as he saw the Boss lift his head from his computer screen on his desk. He had expected someone who looked the business, important and most of all a leader. The man that sat before him was an average sized, middle aged man with the look of norm on his face. If you saw this man in a crowd he would not look out of place. It was the plainness of his expression that was the most striking – Damon could see how people felt overwhelmed by his mystery. 3

“Please, take a seat,” The Boss had a calm and middle toned voice, and he leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers, as he watched Damon take the empty seat and rest the briefcase on his lap. 4

“Thank you.” The Boss kept eye contact with Damon for a few seconds, allowing a silence to fall between them. Just when Damon was about to feel uncomfortable the silence was broken.5

“I wish for you to see something.” The Boss stood up and walked across the room. Damon noted the way his shoulders were slightly hunched, and his head nearly sagged as he walked, it was spotting little things like this that made him glad he has studied drama when he was in college. There was a click as the Boss slid a small disk into a silver box, and then the wall on the opposite side of the room lit up. 6

The Boss was rich, Damon did not doubt that. He probably had millions piled up in the bank that he could spend without the bat of an eyelid. This, however, was astonishing. The wall hosted the blueprints to what was, Damon guessed, the largest skyscraper he had ever seen. There was no way this could be afforded, it would probably rack up in the billions to say the least.7

“How are you going to afford this?” There was a revealing glint in the Boss’s eye.8

“We.”9

“What?”10

“I want you to be my partner. We will go down in history.” It was not fame that concerned Damon at this moment; he knew that even with both of their credit combined they could never muster enough money to fund this project.11

“But… I don’t understand how we could get enough money. Surely you can’t afford this?”12

The wall suddenly changed in an explosion of colour and a large picture of a middle aged man’s face appeared. It was vaguely familiar, thought Damon.13

“This man. You recognize him, do you not?” Damon noticed an odd change in The boss’s voice. Then it dawned on him, this was the City’s MP, a very successful and respected man – which was quite a feat, being a politician.14

“He agreed?” Damon spluttered with astonishment. 15

“He does not yet know of our plans.” 16

“Then how can you know that he will fork out a couple of billion?” The Boss unleashed a cruel smile, one which almost blew Damon off of his chair.17

“Send them in!” 18

The door opened and 5 people stepped into the office. One was a very attractive young woman, whom Damon had to give a second look. The second was an elderly man with a look of eccentricity on his face. The third was a younger man, probably only a couple of years younger than Damon. The fourth was a woman who, with her big brown eyes, greatly resembled a mouse. And finally, a young boy probably aged around 12. Damon could not guess what they were doing here. He could have presumed they were business colleagues, however, the 12 year old boy threw him off track.19

“James Holven’s nearest and dearest!” The Boss began to laugh. Damon instantly realised that this was hideous blackmail and he was sickened.20

“You’re blackmailing? This is outrageous!” Damon stood up, his briefcase clattering to the floor.21

“Oh… it’s better than that. 9 months ago James Holven met a young woman in a bar on the outskirts of the city. He instantly took a liking to her, and she ‘liked’ him too,” The attractive woman stepped forward, “They are both very much in love, aren’t you Georgina?”22

“Oh yes. As far as my drama training permits,” She said with a smirk.23

“That was where it began, Damon. We own this MP’s life – we control him in a way no-one has ever been controlled anyone before. These are all brilliant actors, who I acquired one way or another. The boy, he’s supposedly Georgina’s son from her previous relationship, James has taken a strong liking to him. The old man, he’s allegedly a previous Norwegian politician who is career advising James in ‘secret’. That man there, he’s James’s best friend, he met him at a student law convention. Finally, my most prized work, Rebecca here is a senior figure in the local press.”24

Damon was both horrified and intrigued. He stood gaping at the 5 actors, not able to say a thing. The Boss gestured for them to leave, and they did so with respectable discipline. Finally Damon plucked up the courage.25

“You’ve created an artificial world for this man to live in, who is blissfully unaware of this conspiracy?” Damon was suddenly very uncomfortable, as he realised that he could be living in a similar world for years and not even realised it. Every nerve in his body screamed for him to run out of the door and drive to a secret corner of the country, but his anger kept his feet on the ground.26

“That’s right, and we’re slowly directing him towards our route. Soon I’ll present him with the proposition and my fine actors will sway him in the right direction.”27

“He’s living in a false reality!” Damon’s voice was now raised; he was unable to control himself.28

“Define reality Damon! Go on, try!” The Boss had raised his own voice and it set Damon’s heart pounding with fear. His quick brain whirred into action, he had always taken reality for granted, but was now terrified the way that this man had easily created an imaginary world for someone to live in and was using it control their every thought. Damon had always believed reality was a state of real and never given it any more thought. However, when he tried to define real he could only come up with the stimulants of the senses.29

“The… the state of real, something that is not artificial. Real being something you can see, hear and touch.”30

“No, Damon. You can’t define it. Reality doesn’t exist. You say reality is something you can sense – James sees his ‘friends’, he feels Georgina’s touch, their friendship, but it isn’t real,” Damon could not help but to agree with him, even though every fibre of his body was fighting against the idea, “You are weak Damon. You must learn to survive without reality. It is just another restraint, another disease, you have to disregard it. It is shallow; it is a word without meaning. Let it go!”31

Damon sunk back into his chair. His head was spinning. It was as if his world had just been flipped – every thought he had to rethink, every belief he had to reconsider. The Boss drew up a chair along side of him and sat down.32

“It’s a tough world. People say Mankind is more civilized now, no longer the primitive survival of the fittest it once was. They are wrong, it is more so now than ever. Boundaries have been placed to stop us from becoming too powerful – to stop you learning to survive. Reality is just one of these; you must learn to let it go.” Damon threw his head into his hands in a desperate attempt to figure out what was going on, and how he managed to get himself into this mess. The Boss stood up, and there was a threatening click. Damon looked up to feel the cold barrel of a gun on his forehead. The World around him exploded into nothingness. All he could hear was the fast beating in his ears and the unvoiced thoughts screaming ‘Don’t kill me! I’ll do anything!’33

“Wha… what?” Damon muttered.34

“I know what you are thinking now. You would do anything to survive wouldn’t you? You would serve, you would steal… you would kill. I could kill you now and make it look like a car accident if I wanted to. That’s what power is, Damon. It is a substance that allows you to be free. It’s a dog eat dog world, and you know it. Your primitive instincts are setting in; it is survival of the fittest. Do I prove my point?”35

“Yes! Yes!” Damon cried. The gun didn’t move. His heart beats stepped up a notch, and he could feel the sweat on his forehead.36

“Tell me Damon… what would you do to stop me pulling the trigger now?” The Boss asked. Damon was in desperation mode. He was a good man, he went to church every Sunday and he would and had never hurt anyone. In turn he had never been faced with death before, and he knew there was so much more he could give to the World. 37

“Anything… kill, steal… I don’t care… just, please, don’t kill me!”38

“What is reality, Damon?”39

“There is no such thing!” He had said it instinctively. Suddenly a wave of new thought hit him. His heart rate slowed, and his mind engaged. Everything here could be fake, the gun, the blueprints, the people outside of the door… even the Boss.40

The door swung open and a smartly dressed middle aged man stepped through. He held his head up high and strode with importance. Damon sensed a quiver in the gun.41

“You may go.” The man said with an authoritive tone. If this had happened just 5 minutes ago Damon would have been wracked with confusion and fear. However, he was not surprised. He was expecting everything. Anything could happen, he knew that now. The gun moved from his head and the Boss left the room in a hurry. The newcomer loomed over his shivering body.42

“Georgina!” The man called in a deep voice. The attractive woman strode in and handed the man an envelope, she then left without a word or a glance at Damon. He stared up at the man, there was something in his eyes that suggested that perhaps somewhere deep down they were on the same wavelength.43

“Find James Holven and give this envelope to him. You’re the best you can buy from a business postal agency,” The man pulled a card from his top pocket and handed it to Damon with the envelope, “Tell him the Boss sends his regards.”44