Babbage didn’t try to argue, just pushed his hands down on the arms of his chair to get up and froze. Nothing happened. He looked down at his legs and all he could see was a writhing mass of cables covering his lap, throbbing with power, snaking in and around his legs, slowly tightening their grip.

Gretchen was smiling down at him now, and he noticed the soft piping music surrounding them.

“It’s not time to leave, detective. I told you, you have to help me find him. It’s time we took a proper look inside to see what you really remember.”

The music was growing in volume as the cables slid further up his body, paralysing him with their touch.

“Memories are difficult things to trust, especially when caged in words. I find it best to go directly to the source, hmm? You can struggle if you like, but it won’t help you in the slightest.”

His arms now refused to move as the cables reached his hip. They had formed themselves into the one organ, a giant mouth slowly swallowing him whole. Gretchen’s words continued to drone on in the distance as his brain drowned in panic.

“The man we’re looking for used to like talking about memory. He considered himself a collection of memories surrounding a body, not a whole being. Constantly confused by his actions of the past. That was the line. Madigan liked that one, we all did.”

Babbage’s brain was paralysed with fear. It couldn’t react at all, just sit and listen and watch with horror as the great mouth crept up his chest, up towards his face.

“The connection between body and brain is a complicated one. Where, for instance, do you draw the line between thought and emotion? Which is a by-product of which? Changes to the body affect both, and what is memory but a collection of thoughts and emotions stored away in a part of the body, hmm? All very interesting questions.”

The music had to be doing it, had to be altering his brain, giving him visions. It had to be a hallucination, but all he could think about was the panic rushing through him.

“Music is a powerful retriever of memories. So is taste, and smell. All the senses. Fear is another one often overlooked. We remember moments of panic very clearly. Time slows down as our senses expand to soak every detail in. Likewise, fear can help us sink back into the past to find what we have lost. Adrenaline, norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine. The neurotransmitters, the chemicals which make up thought, all the same chemicals the amygdala releases in the moment of panic, in the fight or flight response. All very closely linked to the major hallucinogens too. Mescalin and adrenaline are almost chemically identical.”

The mouth was at his neck now. Babbage couldn’t even move his head to strain his face away from it.

“Madigan knew, we all knew what we were capable of. He was always too soft to use what knowledge he had. I know better, hmm? These weapons are necessary on our little quest. Don’t worry, it won’t take long.”

Babbage’s eyes rolled up in his head as darkness slid over him.