I knew almost everything about the world, I dreamed about it, and in the form of a book or even an encyclopedia. This world, the one I saw in my dreams, seemed like a faraway wonderful country, where for some reason I was not allowed to go.

When I was 12 years old, I became more and more interested in it, and my uncle Gostomysl, whom my father called no other than Richelieu, asked me more and more often about the details of dreams. For some reason, after I recounted my dream, he would ask me what year it was, whether the borders of land and water converged with those on the globe? Then he would describe a circle in the air with his finger and the globe would appear there. I answered cheerfully that everything was the same. He smiled back and stroked my head. And once, during negotiations with my mother, she suddenly opened her jacket and showed me the inscription on her T-shirt "Mars 2020-2050, the anniversary of the colony", then quickly zipped up – and the connection was lost. Uncle Gostomysl broke into the room, took me by the collar of my shirt, came close to me and, looking intently and strictly into my eyes, asked me if I had lied to him about the content of my dreams.

When I told my father about it, for some reason he also looked at me carefully, put his finger to his lips, saying "be quiet," nodded and called me into the next room, and for some reason crossed himself. In the room, he turned on some kind of device, then asked me to rest my head and look into the lens of the strange apparatus, and he sat down at the computer. After a minute, when my head was in such a mess that I didn't realize whether I was really seeing the world or it was in my head, my father called me to him.

I saw and heard inside my head everything that was on the screen.

– You can now find out about everything that's out there… Just remember – and they know your thoughts.

"Can they read minds? How? – I pondered. – Father could have given the answer, but…"

– I did it on purpose. Don't say a word. The supercomputer whose name I put the clue in will calculate the number of atoms missing from the universe to equal Graham's number and take your signal," he said quietly and quickly.

If I could still reason about the first sentence and the second, the meaning of the last statement was not clear to me at all.

Dad suddenly grabbed his head, then fell down. I hugged him and shook his shoulders for a long time, crying. Two stresses were merging in my soul. My brain was bubbling nonstop with thoughts about the reality of the situation. The most amazing thing was that I began to realize: Dad was dead, and the world was completely different.

I hugged my father and fell asleep.....

But I was not allowed to sleep. The computer suddenly spoke to me.

– You are fully loaded, level 6. Communication is constant.

– Who are you? – I asked worriedly.

– I'm your friend. I'm your assistant.

– A friend?

– Yeah. Your dad made me like this.

– Did he know he was going to die? – I asked worriedly.

– That's not important right now. I'm going to tell you a lot of things. First of all, remember this: you were raised in isolation because you are a special child. You're a product of genetic engineering. I am an artificial intelligence. Call me what you like, just know that it will be a program name, and you can't change it permanently.

– Rangit. I'm going to call you by your father's name," I blurted out, standing up abruptly, glancing at the computer screen as if I wanted to see someone's eyes… and I saw Dad's face.

I cried again. The computer now spoke in my father's voice.

– Son, you are listening to this speech, my voice, talking to me. I have transferred my intelligence into a computer, or rather, it runs on the basis of my intelligence. This is not a recording. I have to take a risk, to tell you a secret: the world is not as it is. I've figured out the lies of the supercomputer that runs everything. Time is different around here… and the state of the world is different. It shut me down. We all have a chip in our heads, but you don't. I've created the technology to read minds and communicate brain-computer without a chip. Even though I've equipped you with blockers, you have to lock your fangs together to hide your thoughts. Still, be careful, they can read your thoughts. I've created a special mutation of neurons and implanted the technology in you. Your neurons emit an extra amplified signal, and when it travels through your dendrites and axons, its emission can be read at a distance. There's a transmitter built into your tooth to broadcast that signal over a greater distance. I created you to fulfill a secret mission: to infiltrate the Russian Academy of Sciences. There, in the control core, switch the supercomputer to your commands, return and enter the password on the computer here. This is the only way to disable the Perimeter nuclear missile auto-launch system that the supercomputer has taken over. You must enter the academy using the mind displacement machines I invented. To prevent you from being exposed and destroyed, I have included you in a special super-secret program. The program runs on machines I invented and programmed. I've linked the emission code of your neurons to the resonant frequency of the machine. That's it, son, I'm shutting down. They're coming in now. Cry.

Chapter 2: Mom's message

Someone was shaking me. I opened my eyes. My father, or rather his body, was lying next to me. I was helped to stand up. I looked at the monitor. The dolphin on it winked at me. I wasn't thinking straight. Was it a dream?

Madame Magdalene, as Dad called her, with the real name Magda, led me from the room. I was still in a state of shock. My father's sudden death, the upheaval in my mind, the revelation of my virtual dad. The last one was the one that bothered me the most with its mystery. What was it?

Magda took me to the clerk's office, and there was Mom on the screen. She was crying.

– Son," she said, wiping away her tears. – How could this have happened? Was Daddy complaining about his health? Son, I miss you very much, I'll be there soon.

I cried again. I wanted to hug her. I felt so alone.

My mother worked in a joint program of our research center and a similar one in the USA. Already from my childhood I realized that the cooperation was secret and concealed more than the very purpose of this cooperation. Since my childhood years I heard about classified centers, about the secrecy of which, by the way, I learned as if just now, from the information that came to me. Before that, life itself, the work of the research institute, everything I had heard at my father's lectures was something to be hidden from the whole world, but the world itself seemed illusory to me. It was as if it didn't exist.

– I need to talk to the supervisor," Mom finally said very firmly.

It was addressed to Uncle Gostomysl, who approached, as usual, unnoticed and quietly. His demeanor, like his name, was mysterious. He nodded to Magda, and she stood up and hugged me, whispering in my ear:

– Come on, Butterscotch. Say goodbye to your mom. You'll talk to her alone soon. We should go out for a while.

Already on my way out, I heard from Gostomysl:

– You realize that's impossible. At least not yet.

***

We went back to the office. Mom was still on the screen, Uncle Gostomysl was sitting a little farther away. When I approached, my mother wiped her tears, moved closer to the screen and said:

– Come closer son, I want to kiss you… Let's kiss through the screen.