6. To Kill A Monster

are only option now. Besides, I'm not alone. I have you, but I'm the only lifeguard on duty. I trust you. Okay? Sixty two point five PRF for five seconds, eyes forward, deep breath. When I woke up on the floor of my apartment, I felt like I'd been very Then with sand I had to peel myself off the cement fluid. Took me a few moments to regain focus and find a clock. It was after one pm. Then I started to catch up with my situation. I had been attacked.

I scared. My refliction no bruises christ except a nasty confusion where my forehead must have collided with the ground. When I felt she's I hear her keys to wake up the computer and tied to my password. The screensaver vanished and there it was at best box page still opened on the desktop. Something was different. They were missing files, like half of them were gone. No man, I tried to play the same files team the night before from one of the transitions with to March, but it wasn't

it was. I looked about my palmer for the signs of intrusion, but it was one good morning, Cassandra. You wanted to see me. What the hell happened to you? You You get in a fight? You're able to tell a rock stepping on the shower walk with me? That kind of helped your headache definitely hasn't. Well, that's understandable considering the pressure we're all under after your last conversation with Max. Okay, look, cast, I'm not going to take responsibility. Thank you. By the way, sure,

what time is your pod leaving? Finn and I are planning to meet up at the hotel. Allowed to go over this speech one more time, have a couple of visits. I think that'll be good for him. Here's something I don't think you should go. I'm sorry, I don't think you're up for this. M I don't like I said, it's just a headache. I command to see. Yes, I'm not talking about c E s. And what are you talking about? Letting you go? Gotcha? Oh? You know Max is the one who hired me. Max is gone and

he also sized my checks. Under current conditions, I have full authority to terminate. All right? What what conditions of that? Well? One condition is that Max is gone. Another condition is that Max is gone in part because of you. And I'm not buying your bullshit excuses anymore. Looked at yourself in the mere lately, you're a mess. Jack. You're obviously not up to this. Okay, all right, I'm not getting good. You're blind? What did you say? Not only am I upitius,

I'm you're an hope. Fain will be completely lot about me. He may seem like he's got this, but the truth is he's got a chance of puking the mini steps out on that stage. I need you to look around. I'm the anchor here. He trusts me, and if I don't show up a sea, yes, he's going to fold like a fucking sock. And you know it. Okay, that's more like it. You know, I learned a long time ago that people are much more complex than most of us. Assume we all have more than one version of ourselves.

Sometimes it just takes the right stimulation to bring out the best one. I like this side of you, Jack, but I'm still not convinced that you fully grasp just how important this speeches. Of course I do, because if Finn doesn't absolutely nail this, I mean fucking nail this too the wall, there won't be a next corp to come back to. What's that? You know what that is? That's a shut I applica uh huh. Finn is a brilliant man. His mind works in ways that I cannot fathom.

But Finn is not Max. I think you know that if you want to keep your job, you will need to step up. If you will need to be more than a cheerleader. You will need to be Finn's right hand to keep him relaxed and sharp and focused, which means I will need you relaxed and sharp and focused. I need you to be the best version of yourself. This is buyinry, Jack. You are either with us or you are fired it. I had underestimated my opponent, Cass wasn't blind at all. She'd been watching me all along,

waiting her web black of spider. Now I was trapped. She was five moves ahead of me, and she knew it. Every outcome was the same check me, every outcome except one. My worst possible option was suddenly my only option. O Cass had me. Yet the only thing that mattered was the end game and taken down next Corp, tell me that you understand. How do I take it? It's easy, Just hold this to your eye, okay, relax, I'm going to count down, ready, yeah, three two to kill him

one star. Sometimes we have to become one ourselves. How do I take it? It's easy, Just hold this to your eye, okay, relax, I'm going to count down, ready, yeah, yeah, three two one. It was a flash of bright light and then warmth, gelatin, like the heat of anesthesia, slivering through your veins before it takes you out. But it

doesn't take you out. It takes you in electricity that seems to start at your extremities and then pulses upward and inward, moving fast, until all the sensation collides no unpleasantly in your scalp. And then this bath of white light. This wash of pressure pulses back outward in a burst of energy as a flash that seems to last an eternity. Bods, It's over and blink of an eye and I'm back there where I was back in the room looking at Casperkeley.

How do you feel? Jack? A hard reboot and my mind had been upgraded with a new process of build dream logic and a micraine. He's gone, hold on, okay, I'm in a car behind but in a Dell Taco on the way to the loop. I I had to pause for a sick pull over a quiet moment. Can can I help you? Jack lock H? He was asking, I'm agent Batty h e A, well you want to call look like you're talking to something now, man, just connecting my thoughts self meditation and I just needed some man,

so I pulled over. I guess the air behind del Taco can't be beat. Yeah, not to some mel Fiesta bowls in the morning. Were you were you following me? Of course I was following you. I'm sorry, mate. Am I in trouble? I don't know? Oh yeah, how can I help you? Agent Bating? Do you know what we do with the human enhancement administration, You enforced laws surrounding humans. Were nice here, but wait, are they any real laws or just a few bills bown around in the chambers

of Congress. I just wanted to know your chosen field has grown very quickly. Yeah, and you're correct. And actually tried to go to the h A, and so they said they help a week after Michael's death. But I soon realized that I have to investigate the matter myself. Sure, the h A has the power of a federal law enforcement agency, but I soon realized that it was really just a basement operation, newly formed, underfunded, and understaffed. But then they showed up. So you're the ones who shut

down the shot I trials? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, people were sent to the hospital. Oh so you he had to protect people? Nice? What if Max Fuller told you about your brother m I'm sorry, what has he told you about your brother's involvement? And shut eye? All right, nothing. We haven't talked about manything. He doesn't know you're related. He doesn't know why not. Oh it hasn't come up. It's curious, it's personal. Yeah, yeah, i'd say it is.

Come on, what exactly are you're doing it next? Corpse Jack, I'm helping develop state of the art technologies that will move mankind forward. Well, Jack, do me a favor. Let me know how that goes. That's my card. Oh yeah, Look, if you happen to talk to Dr Wolds again, would you get out of return my call? Enjoy Ces. Maybe we'll see you there. Fuck me, Jennalicole Abbey calling Dr Abbe Reynolds. This is Dr Abbey Reynolds. If this is

a medical emergency, hang up in down. Otherwise, if I said the next few hours were blood, well, I'd be lying to you. I was moved fast for shure and shy. I remembered every second with a strange clarity, each scuffle of a shoe on the concrete platform fly cleansed overlooks, the rasp in the voice of a gay agent who had been working too many hours. Ye. All the while, I'm just just to be to be awake, really awake, sitting and again rocky in across the desert, Bloody Las Vegas.

My father loved Vegas. Suckers stacked in every direction, he said. Centuries before neuroscience was even a thing, magicians had a really cracked the code on the human brain. They learned through trial and error that they could control what an organ sees or does not see, what they believe or do not believe. Max Foller was right. Humans are flawed, and it's a conman's job to exploit these flaws. Inaccurate memory, susceptibility to suggestion, they need to perceive cause and effect.

Even a small time hustler relies completely on these vulnerabilities to make a living. As I moved through the Casino hotel, it felt like I was stepping into a time warp. Everyone was moving in slow motion except for me. Casinos are designed to make you use track of time and space. No clocks, no windows, so the suckers will know how long they've been losing money. Amazed with no clear exit, but I was hyper aware of every second and every step I took deeper into this labyrinth. My mind was

involuntarily bapping my way. Okay, I just passed a man and I looked nor More a little too normal. Shorts, sandals, sunglasses, and now yeah, he's swallowing me. It was a little cold out for shorts and sandals. But then Vegas is like a giant pressurized space station with his own internal atmosphere to keep the suckers slightly high. In the endless lab ruth of slow machines and oxygen bars and poker tables and pancake per face, you can go for days.

We'veout ever seen daylight in Vegas. But this guy, short sleeve, buttoned down, still had creases in it, fresh out of this package. And when I got to the elevator, the guy passed by. Jack. You had six missed calls from Finn connolly Blood. I rolled into my hotel about seven pm. I'm still lee up from the afternoons does and probably a head of a lot less worried than I should have been about prepping Finn to speaking Max's absence. That will change five minutes after I walked into my hotel room.

I'm going Jesus coming. Oh hey man, hey man, were you gonna call me when you got in? Or what? I don't not? Just how happened to your head? So important? Look, I think we should rewrite the sort of aspirational section. I don't really think I'm in less than probably Do you have your laptop right now? You all right? Me? No, I'm not all right. I'm getting ready to ship myself

here do you have your laptop or not? But Finn was effectively having a panic attack that lost it from the hotel, into the car and on into the convention center. He was a mess. But we've reached a point in our evolution where for the first time, we can choose m we can choose we can we can choose hip jack. I don't know, man not just still doesn't sing. It sounds great. It sounds great. Seriously, it's effective, eloquent on message,

and we're really running low on time here. I think you're ready, right, I just think I just think we can still make a few little minor cuts in, just like a just a few hey, hey, hey, excuse me, you what are we looking at? Time wise? Three minutes of ship? Okay, thank you, shift ship. I'm not ready for it's right, it's time. Oh thank god, cass, how's it looking? It's a ship show cast. He's ready. He's just freaked out, right, I'm freaked out. This is absurdain. Hey, Finn,

what you know what's happening right now? Yeah? Yeah, I know it's happening. My brain is releasing cortisol, which is raising my heart right now, it's modulating he okay, I need you to take the very deep breath right now, Take a breath, Take a breath. I want you to remember something, you what You don't need to impress anyone. You can't be Max. They don't expect that our of you. What do they expect an awkward keep that I can do.

It's true, Finn, we're pitching to the money people. And do you know what the money people want to see? The money people want to see. They want to see the brains of the operation. They want to see the spine. They want to know if there's someone real behind the curtain. I can't do this, cast, I can't do this. I'm not going to just give me a second. Hey, how much time do we have? One minute? Ben? Look at me? Look at me? What? What? What? Okay? Forget all this?

Once Max told me that the only reason next corp or shot or any of this ever happened was all because of you. Like a project that you were working on, right that the reconnect, the reconnected reconnected mind Yeah right right? That said He wasn't even sure if he wanted to continue living anymore after his father had died. But for you, but for me, yes, yes, he came to visit you, and he saw something in you that changed him. He sort of looking your eye, that wonder about the mechanics

of the universe and the human mind. That that's something Max doesn't even have, but mate, you do because you actually live for this ship. And that's the good stuff. Yeah, the good stuff, the good stuff. That that is what matters. That stuff is all that matters. This speech. You memorize everything we wrote, you know what, just forget it. Just throw it away. Man, it's stressing you. You don't need to try to be the most charming pathon in the room because you're really a lot of the most trauma

pushing in the room. Man. All you need to do is share it. Just walk twenty over there and tell him, tell him about it, about the good stuff, all right, give him the good stuff, the good stuff. Yeah, Okay. At this point, I was starting to come down from the show. I guess that would be the phrase. Definitely felt less bright, and there was a ghost of a headache in the corners of my brain, just a whisp. I would have been worried more if the next few

moments hasn't wrenched my attention away. Has dedicated his life to this exact principle. It's my great pleasure to welcome the lead engineer of Next Corp. Mr Finn Connolly. Thank you, thank you. Uh. It's amazing to be in front of you tonight. It's amazing that we live in a world that allows us cs given the long and fraud history of man and technology. Mm hmm. Ever since we first stole fire from the gods, the same question is asked of every technology, are they more helpful or more hurtful?

From language to the printing press to microchips, and the naysayers always have the same argument. With every new technology that we become dependent on for survival, we become weaker as a species. But that is actually shortsighted. It's not that we're dependent on our inventions. It's that we're dependent on our ability to invent genetics, AI, nanotech, thought ware. These are scary words because they unknown and they feel dangerous. But this, this is human kind's next frontier. Right when

he had them, the craziest thing happened. Holy shit from the shadows on the far end of the stage of figuring, Luves dressed in a black suit, hair swept back and

eyes bunning. Wow, I'll be Damned Max Fuller every Day m Tomorrow's Monsters, starring John Boyega as Jack Locke, Darren Chris as Max Fuller, Marley Shelton as Cass Berkeley, Clark Gregg as Walter Fuller, and Gauga as David Truesday, Nicholas Takoski as Finn Connolly, Claire Bronson as dr Abby Reynolds, David Chen as Michael Gordon, Sue, Hila Eltar as Jenna, Victor Rivera as Eddie Bender, Robert Pralco as Agent Batty, Steve Coulter as Senator Berkeley, wrote of Griffiths as Rainy Webb,

with additional performances by Helen Abel, Jason Williams, Michael Anthony, Robin Bloodworth, and Teresa Davis. Our first assistant director is Michael Monty. Our second assistant director is Sarah Klein. Sound and music by Ben Lovett, Additional sound design and editing by Benjamin Belcolm, Justin Roboski and Mike Reagan. Casting by Jessica Fox think Been. Our executive producers are Scott Sheldon,

Shelby Thomas, Alexander Williams, and Matthew Frederick. Written by Dan Bush and Nicolas Takowski created by Dan Bush and Conald Burne, directed by Dan Bush, produced by both Flint dan Bush and John Bleega Tomorrow's Monsters as a production of Higheart Radio, Flynn Picture Company, Psychopia Picture and of The Room Productions. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. M