Summary: by Aidan Doyle read by Austin Learned This story was originally published in 2014 in Cosmos. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page author Aidan Doyle about the author… from the author’s website: I’m an Australian computer programmer and science fiction writer. I live in Melbourne and love travelling. I’ve been lucky enough to visit more than 80 countries. I’ve always been interested in writing science fiction and made my first sale when I was 18. I’ve had short stories and articles published in magazines, newspapers and web sites. I have been a finalist for the Aurealis Awards, several of my stories have received honorable mentions in Year’s Best SF anthologies and I was the youngest writer to have an entry in the Encyclopedia of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy. In 2009 I attended the Clarion South science fiction writing workshop in Brisbane. I did a computer science degree at Monash University in Melbourne. After university I worked for an Australian computer games company as a programmer and designer. I’ve also worked as a software consultant and web site programmer. I have an entry in the Internet Movie Database. (For a computer game I worked on). Some of the interesting places I’ve visited include: North Korea, Belarus, the Galapagos and Transnistria (not officially a real country). I worked in Bolivia for a short time as a journalist for a Bolivian English-language newspaper. I lived in Osaka in for 4 years and worked as an English teacher. Now I’m working as a web site programmer. I’ve had articles and stories translated into Finnish, Mandarin, Romanian and Polish. about the narrator… Austin Learned is an Asian-American aspiring actor/singer/voice actor who would probably appreciate your comments and encouragement on this fine piece of work. Twitter @alearnedman00 Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvT8iIeN-WOe6bDIHv8I9qg Undeleted By Aidan Doyle One of Saito’s guys led Kentaro through the arcade. They passed row after row of black game pods, silent except for the hum of their cooling systems. The idea of crawling into a pod and letting the rest of the world deal with its own problems was tempting, but Kentaro had spent thirty years hidden from society. He needed his old job back. Saito sat in an office in the back of the arcade. He was flicking through a document on his tablet and didn’t acknowledge Kentaro’s presence. Kentaro had plenty of practice at being made to wait. A young guy Kentaro didn’t recognize lounged on a chair in the corner of the room. Saito finally glanced up and motioned to the chair in front of the desk. “Thank you for making the time to see me,” Kentaro said. He also had plenty of practice of being polite to jerks. Saito’s gaze strayed back to his tablet. “My wife’s goal in life is to visit every world heritage site. Which do you think would be less boring, Angkor Wat or Petra?” “I don’t travel much,” Kentaro replied. Saito laughed. “I guess not. I think we’ll go to Angkor Wat. It says they filmed Audition for Death there. Maybe I’ll meet Akita Yumi.” The young guy guffawed appreciatively. Kentaro had never heard of Audition for Death or Akita, but tried his best to make his chuckle sound authentic. “So you’re supposed to be some superhacker?” Saito said. Kentaro didn’t like boasting, but he needed the money. “I’m good with computers.” “I already have guys that are good with computers.” The young guy looked as though he was ready to explode with smugness. “How long were you away?” Saito asked. “Thirty years.” Yamamoto would have told Saito all this. “Technology has changed a lot since then,” Saito said. When Kentaro went inside, a tablet was something your doctor gave yo[...]
