BOOK OF BILLY: 2030

Chapter 15: Frontier

"Billy, well done, mate."

"Congratulations, Mr Amour, the man of the hour!"

"The work you and your small team have done is astonishing."

"Healer of the paralysed, saviour of amputees galore! Billy, Billy, Billy, what will you come up with next?"

A thump here, a handshake there, a grin on her, a smile on him. Eyes wide stare as I pass them. Someone tugs me this way, another tugs me that way. All vying for my attention.

"Thank you for your generosity!", "Thank you so much for believing in the CodeTech vision!", "I will not let you or your funds down!" are just some promises I throw out to individuals in the crowd.

I grab a flute of champagne from a wait staff as I get to the middle of the room and clear my throat, calling more attention to myself as I continue to the front of the room. And when I reach the front, all eyes are on me. Perfect! I wait for the white screen to drop behind me, nodding to this dignitary then that, smiling at this donor and that during the wait. Tonight, I am smiling at money and I must make a good impression.

I bring up an image on the screen behind me. Thirteen-year-old me, strapped to a gurney, being loaded into an ambulance.

"2011. My 13th birthday. A half-hour before a friend took this photo, I'd severed my spine. One silly mistake. One accident. That's all it took."

I glance around the silent room and am thrilled when whispers erupt. They are shocked. Perfect! Many people in the room don't know this part of my history, or rather, CodeTech's history. A small nanotech company that began in my mind. One I used to push the boundaries of medical and bionic science within a small isolated lab of my home.

"I've been tied to a wheelchair for the better part of my life. Today," — I hold out my arms like a messiah — "I stand before you, thanks to the young, relentless man I was." With a press of a button, another one of my photos pops up. A twenty-four-year-old me holding a tiny grey metallic chip between my fingers and a wide grin on my face. "That thing I'm holding here is the very first lab-made neural chip — made completely with the liquid nanite technology I created remotely using with my coding system, in its infancy."

Picture changes to one of me, standing in front of a small enclosure with ten-odd rats. "A few months later, I replicated the process in live subjects. A couple of years after that, I tested it on my first human subject." Another click, another photo. My gaunt self hooked up to an IV drip on the screen. "Me. That is how much I believed in what I created."

Gasps abound in the audience. I love it! It gives me goosebumps.

"I had perfected the process in rats and mice. Severing their spines and then using this groundbreaking tech to build them a new neural bridge, so they could scamper on all fours again. But, as a lone scientist working out of my lab at home, those were tough times. For funding, or for anyone to take a chance on a new tech. Especially since the COVID-19 pandemic crippled most world economies for a decent while."

I pace the front of the room deliberately. "I needed definitive proof. Something irrefutable to show the progress I was making. So I took a chance. I injected myself with enough nanites to set off a metal detector." I pause for effect, eyeing the Defence Secretary standing to the side. CodeTech is finally going big, finally being taken seriously. I am close to getting my hands on large enough funds to take my research further, push more boundaries. It makes me giddy.

"I pumped myself with the nanites, punched in the codes, and the little buggers went to work at the site. The excruciating pain had me passed out, but luckily I had paid a med student enough cash to come check on me. When I woke, I felt the lower half of me for the first time in years. For a while, getting out of bed every morning, alone, was a tough battle, as you can imagine. Apparently, it takes a while to retrain neurons after they've had a long siesta, and to rebuild enough muscle to accommodate movement also takes a while. But, here I am. Four years later, standing in front of you with all but a metal detector to tell you the story, how I was wheelchair-bound, once upon a time."

I call over the wait staff I have waiting to the side with a metal detector. The wait staff, an acting student by the looks of her, flourishes the wand like a magician's assistant for the audience before us and uses it to scan my body from head to toe. As she passes the lower half of my spine, the device beeps.

My assistant and I take a bow.

"Where to from here for CodeTech?" someone calls out from the crowd.

I smile. "Currently we are looking to make this tech the go-to in healing old and new spinal injuries, but with the funds raised today, and the large, anonymous backing we received recently, we are opening a dedicated CodeTech lab soon. Where we will research new frontiers — ways we can take CodeTech further, and into future lives that a tragedy like mine may affect. See if we can cure avoidable diseases and can make ailments a thing of the past."

I lift my half-empty glass high above my head a little. "My vision is to see an end to disabilities our society sees and hates. I want to restore vision to the blind, hearing to the deaf, maybe even a heart one day, who knows. And hopefully, one day all we have to worry about is getting enough exercise logged onto our Fitbits and nothing more. I want CodeTech to save lives, and if we can, make every single one that much better!"

"To CodeTech and saving lives!" a chorus rings out in front of me like a hymn in a Church, and I feel like I've just given the best sermon of my life. My smile is as wide as my face, and I am chuffed to my bones.

I mingle with the crowd, bestowing anyone keen for a chat with my presence. As I talk to a bunch of intoxicated rich wives drooling over me, I feel a gentle but firm tap on my shoulder and turn to see a soldier standing at attention behind me.

"Mr Amour."

"Please call me Billy." I thrust my hand towards the man. "I don't think we've met yet."

The soldier rigidly shakes my hand before returning to his form. "Minister of Defence and General Carell would like a quick word with you, in private if they may."

I scan the crowd, unable to spot either of the men he mentions.

"If you would follow me, sir."

"Sorry ladies, business calls." I bid my audience adieu, place the flute on a tray to the side, and follow the soldier out of the building into the warm summer night. "Where are we going?"

An official-looking SUV pulls up along the road and the soldier opens the door for me.

"The party is over I suppose." I delay a moment and slip in, unhappy at the interruption. I was enjoying being the centre of attention inside the hall. "Gentlemen, what can I do for you?"

"Mr Amour," The Minister of Defence begins as the door shuts with a thud and the vehicle pulls away from the kerb. "Let's discuss the future of CodeTech."

"As your newest, largest investors, we are interested in certain avenues for CodeTech," the General adds.

"Avenues?" I shake my head, pretending I do not know what's coming. I already know I will not like their answers. That 'anonymous' donor I was talking about earlier were these two men sitting beside me — here on the behalf of the government. CodeTech wasn't just going big, CodeTech was being owned and steered. It's a rude reminder that I'm no longer the sole captain of my ship.

The two men give me a knowing look. This isn't really a discussion. I am about to be ordered into submission. CodeTech now has a new venture, and it will not be all about the medicine.

I can feel it in my sweaty palms from the knowledge that I no longer have control, and perhaps never will again. I will not be driving the direction CodeTech goes anymore. My hands are slipping off that greased-up new steering wheel I boasted about a moment ago.

I don't know how to feel at this moment. I should be happy — as a scientist — I get more money and bigger toys to play with. But as a man who fought so hard to be where I am?

I take a deep breath and nod. "What sort of avenues are we talking?"