Immortalys

Chapter Eleven: Blainey

Friction glanced up at Blainey in disbelief. "Hang on," he said, "...what?"

"Check your pocket," she repeated.

Slowly, Friction obeyed, and his hand crawled into the right pocket of his cargo pants. His fingers groped to the bottom of the pocket, and then they brushed something rather papery. Incredulously, Friction seized the bundle and struggled to pull it out.

As his hand emerged with a huge pile of currency, Friction looked up to meet the eyes of Willow, who had also just extracted a bunch of cash from her coat pocket. Her mouth was slightly open as her eyes bulged at all the money they both suddenly possessed.

"Told you," said Blainey, grinning. "Now you can pick out your Surfaces."

"...Where did all this come from?" rasped a flabbergasted Willow.

Blainey shrugged while Sienna gave a loud chuckle, as if finding huge wads of money in random pockets was a common occurrence. "Dunno, probably the people from the Department for City Welfare. Come on, I'll show you which Surface I've got, and then you can choose one that fits you best."

Friction and Willow absently approached the wall of Surfaces, the wads of money clutched between their fingers. There were at least twenty-five different types of Surfaces offered, all being slightly different in size or shape. The style for each was relatively the same, and as Friction got a closer look at them, he began to wonder how this type of technology could possibly work.

Each Surface looked like a slab of thick, polished glass, gleaming and transparent, but with the image somehow glowing on it like a computer screen. Only two opposite edges were encased in protective metal, which seemed to provide a handhold on the device as well as harboring the camera lenses and charging ports. It looked much too simplified to really be used for everything that Friction had clearly seen people using it for, like being a phone, a tablet, and a computer all in one. It looked like a... well, a slab of glass.

Sienna watched Friction and Willow stare at the wall of Surfaces for a few minutes, and then she asked, "Would you perhaps want to play around with one to see how you like it? I can get any one for you that you'd like."

Blainey nodded encouragingly at them, so Friction swallowed and said, "Um... sure."

Sienna rapidly approached the sleek silver desk where her colleagues were still sitting and chatting, and reached for the cupboards. "Which one do you want?"

Figuring he'd start with the simplest looking one, Friction said, "I'll take a look at the small one that looks like a cell phone."

Siena laughed and brought out a fancy box made of polished wood, which she opened and removed the small Surface for Friction to see. "This one?"

"Yeah." Friction held the Surface in his hand, and was surprised to discover that it was not nearly as heavy as he was expecting it to be. He traced the edge of the blank, clear glass with his finger, watching as it magnified his fingernail slightly as he looked at it from an angle. Could this thing really function just like a tablet that he was so accustomed to in Canada?

"The power button is here," Sienna instructed, pointing to a small protrusion near his left thumb. "You can push it to see how it works. If you'd like, once you purchase one, you can program it so that it turns on by your mere touch. The power button is usually only used for a power-off if the device is acting strange."

Friction pressed the button, and the glass immediately took on a soft blue glow and the Immortalys insignia appeared in the middle, looking like the rest of the Surfaces on the wall. "What do I do now?" he asked, glancing up.