Edge of Ether

By: Clarke Wayne

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

With too much pride to ask his well-off family for money and no way to pay his mounting court costs, Oz signs up for a shady research study promising a big payday for a little brain probing. He wakes up at home with no memory of what happened and an unfamiliar voice in his head.

In search of answers, Oz digs into the company behind the research study: Synpax. Oz meets Drew, the CEO’s assistant. She's uncovered evidence that the study is related to the launch of CEO Maude Griffith's latest brainchild: The Ether, a virtual world that can sustain human consciousness forever. No aging. No disease. No death.

In exchange for the research study, Oz unknowingly invited a piece of Maude's AI technology into his brain. The voice in his head. Oz decides to enter the Ether to take Synpax down from the inside out. And when he discovers that he’s more closely tied to it than he ever thought possible, and the voice in his head is only getting stronger and more sentient by the day, it becomes not just a fight against corporate greed but for his life.

__Something is wrong with Oz Herrick's brain__

**Previously published under "Clarke Wainikka"