If you had been looking closely into the trees, rather than watching the hyperactive little boy playing in the garden, you would have seen a strange figure lurking just out of sight. The first thing that would strike you as you drew closer would be the bizarre metal contraption that the man was wearing on his head, completely covering the right side of his face. Getting closer still, you would see that the device resembled a strange mechanical eye, or intricate camera lens, moving and twisting to follow the child, its wearer remaining stock still, right hand hidden up the sleeve of his left arm.

If you were close enough to touch him, you would have been able to spot the tangle of wires winding down the man's back like a futuristic ponytail, disappearing into a flat backpack about the size of a briefcase. You might have been tempted to grab the wires and pull, just to see if they were connected to the man himself in some strange way, but his scarred features betrayed the look of one who would not be averse to tearing your body apart limb from limb before you even had a chance to reach out your arm. Indeed you might be forgiven for wondering if he had done just that, many times before today. You would probably agree that it would be best to keep your distance and pray that the mechanical eye did not turn in your direction.

The figure in the trees had been standing motionless for so long, that when he finally moved he almost had to consciously send the signals from his brain through his nervous system to his extremities. His limbs responded weakly with paresthetic waves of prickling pain as his circulatory system rebooted. He reached up and unclipped the clunky headset, blinking at the sudden rush of natural stimulation as his 3d vision slowly returned in the darkness.

The large camera-like arrangement he had strapped over his right eye was heavy and uncomfortable, but the primitive night-vision and text readouts had seemed to work well. Getting constant messages flashing up about distances and atmospheric temperature and pressure were all very well, but hardly that useful, at least not in this situation. He really ought to work on sort of software driven motion-tracking system, to save the tedious manual steering he had to do at the moment. There were still some issues to iron out - the computer did not seem to be able to tell the difference between a little boy and a fat tabby cat - but these were trifling problems he would be able to look at once he finally had the boy in his charge.

The man pulled up his sleeve and looked down at his left forearm, which was enclosed in a crudely welded metal cylinder with a large liquid crystal display and qwerty keypad on top. When he flexed his fingers and clenched his fist, a series of numbers ran across the screen. Perhaps he should focus on the interface first. If he can control the Eye by moving his fingers, perhaps he could link the camera into his nervous system through his arm...

He felt himself becoming distracted. This was not the time to worry about the Tech, he had to watch the boy. From this position he could clearly see the dim light of the old man's front doorway. They were still having their evening chatter. He shrugged off the backback, wincing when the wires tugged out of the computer on his arm sending little electric shocks into his fingers. He needed to sort that out too. Once the headset and cables were packed neatly away, he pulled his long black coat around himself, hid the backpack in the bushes and resumed watching the cottage.

He had been watching the little boy and his mother for some days now. It had been a long search and although he was reluctant to admit it, it had only been blind luck in the end. Medical records were so easy to track down these days. He sighed, So many dead ends, so many dead children. Now this. He was sure this time. No doubt about it, little Billy Speers was The One. The dark figure smiled to himself, the scars on his face twisting around each other in a grotesque dance, revealing a grim snarl of white enamel and silver, like some kind of bizarre piano keyboard.

The old man was going inside. The man in black faded behind the tree as the little boy came running through the garden and then quietly walked up behind him. He put his hand on the little boy's shoulder.

'Hello William,' he said.