Read Mind Games for Free Online

the streets below. At maximum speed the whole thing is a bit like a rollercoaster. But somehow it still feels like cheating to me.
    ‘Wow,’ Jason says.
    ‘What?’
    ‘I’ve switched on London Now and Then . It’s cool. You can see St Paul’s without the dome. And how it was before, too: not so white as it is now.’
    I stare into the distance at St Paul’s Cathedral, the NUN towers beyond it. The round white dome has always been as it is now in my lifetime, a landmark you can see from the El in recent years, and also from King Henry’s Mound in Richmond Park. I know from history class that it was destroyed in the third world war, then rebuilt, that this isn’t the original dome. But it’s the only one I’ve known.
    Jason twists on his bicycle to look behind us, his eyes moving around at things only they can see with his Implant.
    ‘What are you looking at now?’
    He shrugs, makes a small gesture and his eyes refocus to here and now. ‘You miss so much stuff, Luna,’ he says, not answering the question. ‘Why don’t you get an Implant?’
    I look at Jason in surprise. ‘You know. We’ve talked about this before.’
    ‘That you’d rather see what is real all the time. But that’s stupid. And boring!’
    ‘Gee, thanks.’
    ‘And you can still see what is real, and what isn’t. With Implant stuff it’s just like an overlay on things, you can switch it on or off. It’s not like being plugged in.’
    The El drops to street level again, and then abruptly ends at a gate, one that wasn’t there the last time we came this way. We wait, but the gate doesn’t open.
    Jason unfocuses, checks out the delay. ‘You need a pass code now from someone in the Queens Road community.’
    Melrose lives there. She never mentioned they’ve extended the gates to cut off the El, but with five years to catch up on yesterday, it obviously didn’t rate with all the gossip and boys. I could ask Jason to message her; I should get him to do that. But needing my little brother to communicate for me rankles inside.
    ‘Let’s exit,’ I say, instead.
    Jason grins. He likes doing things Sally says not to as much as I do; at least that is still the same.
    Once off the El we have to go around the whole gated community. Jason takes off in front, and when he turns right at a crossroads, I call out for him to come back.
    ‘The park is the other way, isn’t it?’ I say when he reaches me.
    He gives me a look, shakes his head.
    ‘I don’t know this way. Check your Implant map.’
    He sighs, and unfocuses to switch it on, then looks back at me. ‘It says to go right.’
    ‘Are you sure?’
    He crosses his arms. ‘There is an arrow on the ground in front of my bike that says where to go. If you had your own Implant, you could check it. You’ll just have to take my word for it.’
    I roll my eyes. ‘OK, fine. You’re in charge.’
    Jason heads off in front again. The road loops back around, so we are indeed going in the right direction for the park. As we go there are more and more houses that are closed up, dark. Shutters drawn or boards across windows, and for no reason I can identify, I start to feel uneasy.
    I catch up to Jason and cycle next to him. ‘Maybe we should go back,’ I say.
    ‘Why?’
    ‘It’s kind of creepy around here.’
    He gives me a look again. ‘We’re nearly there now. Come on.’
    He picks up speed, and I follow. There are more empty buildings, others run-down. Rubbish on the street. We pass a house with a garden so strewn with junk that it looks like a tip. A movement flicks near the ground: a cat? I look again, and beady rodent eyes stare back. There are figures lying on sofas in the midst of it all, unmoving beyond twitching. Implant Addicts? Here, in Richmond?
    Even as my legs pump the pedals faster to leave this place, my eyes are unable to look away. There are five of them. Two men, three women, and then with shock I see that one of them is actually a girl. She looks younger than me. But