When he heard the voice, Mathias’s eyelids flickered. He almost lost connection.

      “-lcome to you, agiters, miskers and malcos, and be at harmony for just this extremely moment. You’ve come to a here and now that most will never know. You’ve traversed the seas and deserts of consciousness to do it-”

      The voice faded out. Mathias adjusted focus, pronouncing silently: here i am, as he drew breath…nowww, as he exhaled. here i am…nowww…

      here i am…nowww…

      here i am…nowww…

      “-one knows you’ve made it. No one knows you’re here but you.

      “Freedom!

      “You’ve found it, oh my sons and daughters!

      “Inside your absolutely self.

      “Here’s a time for whispers and ecstasy, the notes and motes of secutime. This concast is for your minds only. This here’s the joy frequency, the universal peace band. And no one can steal it from you.”

      The voice was a conundrum. It came directly from silence and yet, when he was tuned with it, it filled him totally with a vast, consoling sound. He was afloat on the surface of his mind. The concast was a layer barely a millimetre thick. Experiencing it was like rising through a lake and trying to keep your eyes level with the surface. It was difficult if there were waves but the concast was a constant; only Mathias’s mind made ripples. It was all a matter of intention.

      A muted rattle signalled keys in the door. Though he was an uncrossable distance away in his mind, Mathias knew his body was sitting cross-legged on the concrete floor of a cell in the bowels of a facility that no ordinary person knew was there. From the world’s point of view, he didn’t exist.

      He struggled to stay with the concast but irresistible thoughts and distractions sucked him down. His mind fell through the sky and earth to where he sat. To the pain in his nailless fingertips and strained joints. To the bruises on his arms and legs and the soles of his feet. To the bleeding sockets of his missing teeth. To the infections creeping into every wound.