Arjun had dreamt of Silicon Valley when he was living in India, but a San Francisco bedsit had never featured. The job that had been promised him had never materialised. No one wanted to employ him when they discovered he was on a temporary visa.
His mother rang. "I've just been promoted," he lied, before rewinding his tape of Leela Zahir in Naughty Naughty, Lovely Lovely and watching it for the 27th time.
* * *
Guy Swift was feeling pleased with himself, but then caricatures like him always do at the start. He had the marketing media agency, Tomorrow*, the flash apartment, the beautiful girl.
* * *
Things were looking up for Arjun. He had been hired by Virugenix and was working in the holy of holies. Pay wasn't great but it was a start.
* * *
The pitch in New York had failed. The venture capitalists were asking questions; the money was running out fast.
"I'm leaving you," said Gaby.
Guy swallowed hard. First the business, now the girl.
* * *
"We're making you redundant," said Daryll.
"But you can't," pleaded Arjun. He returned to his studio and picked out a disk. It was time to show them how much he was needed.
* * *
The first Leela virus found its way around the ether in less than 12 hours. In the course of a week, nine global businesses were badly disrupted. The experts concluded that it was the work of terrorists.
* * *
For no good reason Rocky Prasad decided to make a Bollywood film in Scotland with Leela Zahir as the leading lady. For no good reason Leela refused to leave her room. So for no good reason, Gaby, the publicist, had sex with the leading man.
* * *
Arjun was sweating. The net was closing in. He made a video for Leela, before making a break for Canada.
* * *
The Pan European Border Agency (PEBA) had fallen for Guy's obvious bullshit and would sign tomorrow. After celebrating, he disappeared.
* * *
Leela watched the young man explain how he had meant no malice in using her image for his virus. He was quite cute. She disappeared.
* * *
Arjun had headed south by mistake. But Mexico would do. The FBI surrounded his room. Shots were fired, but the dead body was later identified as a Chinese teenager. Arjun had disappeared.
* * *
Guy washed up on an Italian beach. He had been wrongly identified as an illegal immigrant after the Leela virus infected the PEBA system and was deported to Albania. He was never the same again. Leela and Arjun were never seen again. The conspiracy theorists had a field day.
The digested read ... digested
A promising story gets sidetracked by a virus and everything goes rapidly downhill
