Judgement

It started with a few isolated incidents: a mob shootout in Las Vegas, a firefight in the Central American jungles - one apparently unconnected event after the other, hinting at a worldwide conspiracy of unprecedented proportions. But before long CIA computer expert Bob Leith realises it's something much more than mere globalised terrorism, something literally not of this world. His understanding of the nature of reality, and of what it means to be human, will be challenged to the very core in a dazzling novel of intrigue, physics and espionage.

Fergus Bannon, when not performing neurosurgical interventions with the aid of a hacksaw, dowsing rod and amphetamine-soaked surgical mask, has been known to write for publications such as Interzone, Territories, West Coast Magazine and Shipbuilding.

Now with an introduction by Hal Duncan.

Published by Brain In A Jar Book (www.braininajarbooks.wordpress.com)

EXCERPT

De Meer was staring unblinking at some point very far away. She hadn't moved since they'd entered the apartment.

'Is she dead?' The woman put one hand to the neck, feeling for the carotid pulse.

'Cold as ice. Must have been dead for hours.' She withdrew her hand, coming out of her crouch and swivelling round in one smooth movement to aim her gun at Durrell. 'Time for some answers,' she said gravely.

'Not him,' the other man flicked his gun at Leith. 'Him.'

'Why?'

'He doesn't fit. I don't think he's even seen a wet job before, never mind done one. He's shit scared and it shows. Not like Boulder Dam over there,' he said, indicating Durrell with a nod of his head.

She aimed the gun at Durrell's chest but looked across at Leith. 'Start talking or I blow your friend away.'

De Meer moved.

Her head tilted to one side, then her neck turned slowly, or so it seemed at first.

Then Leith saw that the whole right side of her face was peeling off and separating. The smooth skin was revealed as some kind of tightly woven fabric. He twitched in shock as her eye and cheek exploded silently out into hand-sized puffballs. The gossamer spheres boiled out as they swept across the side of her head, growing at the expense of scalp and hair, revealing a matt black space beneath. Sweeping into view from the other side came another puffball, a second planet orbiting the ravaged face.

Ice coursed through his body as he saw that each coned down into coarse threads of flesh being stripped from her unwinding face. The threads split into finer and finer filaments, which sustained the blossoming puffballs. It was like two tornados circling round and round, unravelling the woman's head.

Then de Meer's head was gone and her torso started to disappear fast, the puffballs spinning faster and faster, making the air in the room turbulent, and causing the candle flames to flicker.

Only the legs were left now and the puffballs were each a meter across. They were spinning so fast that he could no longer focus on them. Just as the shoes and feet were consumed he saw that the two threads were joined. Then the puffballs flew apart, exploding out in a lightning-fast unfolding until one huge square of material blanked out half the room. Leith just had time to see the surface alive with myriad waving cilia, then the square was gone. The room seemed suddenly empty.