Audio book of ‘The Mind Game’ by M. G. Harris
‘Dulles International Airport, Washington D.C., five years ago. On a spring morning, the concourse was already rammed with travelers. No one wore masks back then, it was before the pandemic. Remember how things used to be? Everyone breathing the same air, not a thought for microscopic packages of deadly genetic material.
In the line for passport control, twelve-year-old Maxim Santiago clung tightly to his mother’s hand. Witnesses say she stared directly ahead. Did Maxim try to catch her eye? Did his mom look away?
Even aged twelve, Maxim didn’t think of himself as a kid any more. At school he was afraid of no-one and nothing. His classmates and teachers had never met anyone like him. So maybe he was different. Yet waiting on line that day, beside a mother who trembled with fear, Maxim must have been scared.
It was a busy line, it moved slowly. Scanning tech at the borders was still new, clunky, they didn’t trust it. Despite the scanners, half the time guards had to check documents and faces. The line advanced. For just a moment, his mom let go of his hand. Was it for one last check of their documents?
His gaze wandered along the row of people in front of him, settled on a family of five, the Grover-Dysons from Alexandria. When Maxim Santiago looked at you, really looked at you, that wasn’t something you easily forgot. Katie Grover-Dyson was thirteen years old at the time and being scooped out of school for a family funeral in Boca Raton. She remembered his eyes, described them as ‘haunted.’
Did Maxim know what was coming? Did Masha, his mom?
If they were forced to leave their home, Masha must have made Maxim promise to keep it a secret. Because he didn’t breathe a word. Not to anyone.’
Listen to the first chapter of The Mind Game at Kobo.
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