POV

POV
Chris Brosnahan

Let IDRoPs change your point of view…Chris Brosnahan is the winner of the 2013 30 Hour Novel Competition, run by authonomy and The Kernel magazine. His debut thriller, set in a future where augmented reality is widespread, will have you hooked.I pushed the needle into the woman’s eye. She squirmed.‘It’s okay,’ I told her. ‘It’s okay.’ I brought my voice down a little, trying to calm her. ‘Just relax.’John Macfarlane is a highly-skilled optometrist. He works with IDRoPs, a solution that allows people to see augmented reality. He lives a quiet life with his wife and daughter, but one day, everything changes.John discovers that someone is brutally murdering his patients, ripping their eyes out, and slipping away. Who is the killer? And can he stop them before they destroy everything he has worked so hard to build?Chris Brosnahan’s debut novel is gripping and vividly real – all the more impressive as it was written in just 30 hours! A must-read for fans of fast-paced fiction which twists and turns.

POV

Chris Brosnahan

authonomy

by HarperCollinsPublishers

Table of Contents

Cover (#u93611e2c-610c-5984-bad4-dcf3bb154ac8)

Title Page (#uda0c9f88-ee1d-5a35-829b-7b1b44d4d473)

POV (#uede1d93f-bb5c-5888-a2f8-4f1ffc3859fa)

Chapter One (#uede1d93f-bb5c-5888-a2f8-4f1ffc3859fa)

Chapter Two (#ue8236f84-e5f3-5bd6-b990-e7921fe28358)

Chapter Three (#u7d5a0b30-956b-5448-ba89-6243ad91f6d2)

Chapter Four (#ub92ca9a6-dd64-59fe-8b17-a3418fd9dfbc)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Extra Material (#litres_trial_promo)

The Warning (#litres_trial_promo)

The Happy Pills (#litres_trial_promo)

The Knight in the Library (#litres_trial_promo)

How to Write a Novel in 30 Hours (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One (#ulink_82dfb873-40fc-54dc-adbe-b57aa71ac3d4)

I pushed the needle into the woman’s eye. She squirmed.

‘It’s okay,’ I told her. ‘It’s okay.’ I brought my voice down a little, trying to calm her. ‘Just relax.’

She clenched the side of her chair, her knuckles turning white. ‘I’m trying.’

‘You’re doing fine, Sarah,’ I said. ‘Honestly. Just try and fight the urge to blink for another couple of minutes. It won’t take long.’

‘It feels strange. Is it okay?’ she asked.

‘It’s going exactly as it should go,’ I said, slowly pressing down on the syringe’s plunger. ‘This is normal.’

‘My eye feels heavy.’

‘Your eyes are going to feel a little heavier than normal from now on, but that’s something you’ll get used to in no time.’

She let go of the side of the chair and dug the nails of her right hand into her thigh. Even through the jeans she was wearing, I could see that she was doing it hard enough to hurt. Those sharp, thick, red nails looked lethal.

‘I’m freaking out a little bit here,’ she said. ‘I’m trying not to, but I am. Are you sure this is going right?’

‘It’s going fine.’ I said. The plunger was about halfway into the syringe now, and I could see the thick liquid swirling around underneath it. It was grey-white and metallic, and moved around of its own accord. ‘This isn’t taking any longer than it should. It’s just a strange sensation, that’s all.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘Look, while I’m talking, I want you to take your hands and put one on top of the other, okay?’ I said to her. This was a technique I’d used before to try and calm people down. It sometimes worked. The problem with this procedure was that it wasn’t something you could stop halfway through. If I stopped now, the connections wouldn’t be made, and the liquid would just settle at the bottom of the vitreous humour, rather than filling it. It would push against the retina instead of surrounding it comfortably like packaging, and would damage her vision irreparably – possibly blinding her completely. And if she pushed her head against the restraints too far, she would break them and I’d have no option but to pull the needle out.