Toys

Chapter 68

Speaking of deluding oneself-there were always amazing toys to play with, even in an MI7 safe house. I couldn’t resist. No one can…

With eight seconds left in the World Cup soccer game, the score stood tied, one to one. The earth trembled under my running feet from the stamping of the hundred thousand screaming fans who packed the stadium.

I booted the ball up in a high, looping pass and charged down the grassy field to receive it back, racing fiercely against the other team-the past year’s World Cup champion from Italy.

Twisting and feinting, I cut sharply in and out of the sprinting figures.

Then someone slammed into my legs and knocked me rolling-one of the Italian players had blindsided me.

The crowd’s roar rose to a fury and the ground shook like an earthquake-but the referee was acting like nothing had happened!

I came up off the ground in a footfirst lunge.

I saw the ball.

It had reached the top of its arc and hung there for an instant like the sun, then it quickly gained speed as it plunged downward.

I launched myself toward it-with every stitch of its black and white hexagons, every scuff and scrape on its surface, crystal clear in my vision.

The goalie leaped into position, his body tensed, arms spread wide.

I feinted at the ball with my head, but at the last second, I ducked, flipped, and smashed it with my foot toward the far side of the net.

The goalie spun to follow and made a desperate leap, but his fingertips only grazed it as the ball shot into the far upper corner.

Boom! The sound of the final gun.

The crowd turned into an insane human wave, tearing seats out of the stands, swinging them as they stormed the field.

Abruptly, the yelling voices and vivid colors disappeared, leaving a blank screen flashing the words “GAME OVER.”

I tugged off my headset and sank back on the couch, panting, soaked with sweat.

This was one mother of a simulator! Everything had seemed so real.

Anyone who hid out here at the safe house had time on his hands. So MI7 made sure there was entertainment-Toyz Corporation’s latest products. I’d been immersing myself in them, waiting for orders to come from Sir Nigel. Trying to keep my mind off Lizbeth and our kids.

Suddenly, a hand came to rest on my shoulder.

Slender.

Female.

Impossibly soft.

Tony red nails, long ones.

“Hi, Hays,” said the house android, Anna. “I came to see if I could get you anything. Anything at all.”

“I’m fine, thanks,” I said, glancing at her distractedly. “Honestly, I am.”

Then my head swung back for another look.

“Anna?”

I’d realized that Anna was no ordinary servant model. She was definitely high-end-not only intelligent, but also with the capacity to morph into other shapes.

Now she was wearing a slinky black dress with slingback high heels. Her eyes had turned liquid blue… and she’d developed a shock of blond hair. And I mean that-a shock of blond hair.

She could have been Lucy’s twin.

“You like?” she asked.