An Odd Fix
Harry Lewis, considered by many to be the world’s best hacker, upsets the North Koreans by blocking a digital theft of hundreds of millions. And it’s not the first time she’s overturned their corrupt plans. She and North Korea have history.
Meanwhile, seventy miles away in the beautiful Suffolk countryside, Marty and Moira Greenwood are faced with a problem for which there appears to be no solution A strange spacecraft is parked in their garage and the occupants appear to be forever stuck on planet earth.
Harry and her partner, Saxon, are friends of the Greenwoods and Marty asks for their help. He’s hoping that Harry’s computer skills can find a solution to their problem. Harry’s happy to help and brings with her another hacker known as Phirewall. Real name Gaz Thomas, he’s a character who many would avoid, based purely on his appearance.
But, try as they might, Harry and Gaz are unable to solve the problem. And then, Harry and Saxon discover that they may well have roots going way back in time. Meanwhile, the North Koreans are determined to get revenge and that brings Oddball and his sidekick, Lynx, into the fray. The only way to know how it all ends up is by reading An Odd Fix.
AN ODD FIX
Travelling as holograms meant they didn’t cross space so much as skimmed along its surface. No ship. No hull. Just two silhouettes of shimmering data drifting between stars like wandering auroras.
The pair passed through dust clouds without disturbing a single grain. They slipped between magnetic fields like dancers weaving through curtains. They watched the slow pulse of red dwarf flares from Proxima Centauri disappear into the distance, each one lighting their translucent forms from within.
They talked, too – not with voices, but with ripples of interference patterns. Laughter looked like diffraction. Worry looked like a brief flicker in the coherence of their edges.
Soon, Earth grew from a pale dot to a blue sphere, then to continents, then to the familiar sprawl of the British Isles. Then they descended like falling reflections, passing through clouds, streetlamps, and the thin dust of a familiar driveway. And then – almost as an anticlimax – they arrived back where their journey had begun – in Marty and Moira’s garage. A concrete floor. A nearby spacecraft.
“Are we real now?” Saxon asked, dusting off some cosmic dust from her sleeve.
Harry poked her. “Seems like it.”
Saxon giggled and poked her back. “Well, that was a bit different, wasn’t it? I’ve never been a hologram before.”
Harry nodded. “Nor me. I hope we didn’t dream it. Do you think we did?”
