Hourglass: Chapter 3 - Phenibut

Xavier’s Link was 100% today.

Allow me to introduce you to another voice in my head, “the Angel,” - whose optimism is often crushed by the Demon. The two fiercely debated the day that awaited as he did his at-home morning workout…
“Lucky us! We got a big date today with a real woman! And a mysterious new drug to try…” The Angel beamed optimistically.
“Are you really going to risk getting a citation that could result in expulsion from Support just for a date with a girl who is probably a hooker? There’s NO way she will sleep with you.” The Demon brooded.
She certainly didn’t seem like a hooker, and she actually asked me out, so she might be interested in me!
“Do you think you can handle a real woman like that? If she so much as touches your arm, your biosigns will be through the stratosphere.” The Demon reminded him.
Well, the drug Yuri is giving me is supposed to counteract that; keep me relaxed and tranquil. If the drug works, it’s worth meeting her.
Xavier’s cost-benefit analysis was complete, and his confidence was bolstered by the increasingly muscular man who stared him back in the body-length mirror.
Lately, some people have been remarking that I must go to the gym a lot. Truth is, I haven’t been to a gym in about a decade and a half! For the past year, I’ve been doing surprisingly simple 10-minute variable resistance sessions in my living room with just a bar and some bands, with blood-flow restriction bands around the muscle groups I’m working on that day. Variable resistance, without joint lockout, pushing all the way to failure in a set stimulates muscle growth like nothing else. Arduously pumping iron in the gym or sweating like a pig doing cardio is a waste of time, Dear Reader!

The night before, the veterans - all of whom had experience with Phenibut - described it in terms dripping with puffery and hyperbole:
“It turns you into a villain from a 007 movie…”
“It’s legal, but it shouldn’t be…”
“It makes you smooth like butter…”
“It turns any woman into a succubus…”
“It gives you unstoppable liquid confidence but doesn’t make you retarded like booze does…”
A quick GoGL search on his Link informed him that about a hundred scientific papers, dating back to the 1960s, were written on it. That’s a good sign! But other than that, he didn’t know much about it.

Xavier had to go to Yuri’s house to pick it up; apparently, this wasn’t the kind of thing sold over the counter. As soon as the auto taxi pulled up in front of Yuri’s house, Xavier felt the rush of Serotonin and Norepinephrine. A sensation that brought a flood of memories of the cyber crimes he had once perpetrated, not because he needed the money but because he had needed something to make him feel alive.
“This is totally what an addict feels like just before they buy heroin from a brand new dealer.” The Demon opined.
Xavier exited the auto taxi and rang the bell. Yuri answered the door a few moments later wearing a big smile and a surprisingly stylish tracksuit, he greeted Xavier warmly, invited him in, and continued to sell him on what he was about to give him…
“Xavier you’re not going to regret coming here, what I have to give you has worked wonders for me many nights. However, I’m still confused about why you were worried about meeting this woman… You said you are in Support? For Link addiction?”
Xavier cringed - I hate answering this question!
“No… To be honest, I did the MC gig for the poker fundraiser because I need a letter of reference for social integration. The letter is for my attorney, who’s currently defending me against 11 charges of malicious cyber crimes. That is what I’m in Support for.”
That’s a lie. I committed cyber crimes to deal with my Link addiction. I am in Support for Link addiction, and if the charges stick, I will be out of Support and in jail.
“Sorry to hear that. I hope you beat the case. I will add my signature to the letter of reference. We are here to help you in any way we can.”

With that, Yuri produced an old-looking medical container; on the side were medical insignias with incomprehensible Cyrillic Russian lettering.
“Wait a minute. What you are giving me is from Russia?”
“Yes, when I was younger, I worked for a wealthy man. After the fall of the Soviet state in the 1990s, we took over a government laboratory that supplied the Russian Space program.”
“The Russian Space program, as in the cosmonauts?” Xavier’s interest was piqued.
“Yes… Phenibut was a drug developed to save the lives of cosmonauts.”
“Really… How?”
“You can imagine the job of a cosmonaut is difficult and dangerous. They are sitting on a rocket with millions of kilos of fuel, about to explode. If there is a problem, and there usually is, they must think fast. They need to pay close attention to many gages and switches in their spacecraft. All while facing death… So Soviet scientists developed Phenibut, which made the cosmonauts completely relaxed but simultaneously focused so they could do their perilous job.”
Yuri produced a handful of generic white tablets that he handed over to Xavier.
“This has been to space and back…”
“Really! These very tablets?”
“Yes, you see here,” he pointed to the medical box, “Soyuz T-13 mission, 1985.”

Yuri continued, “After the capitalists, like my boss, took over in Russia, we turned these laboratories into a business and sold these kinds of drugs to make money. But I have been out of that business for a long time now, so I will just give it to you to help. Have you eaten yet today? How much experience do you have with drugs? Recreational or others?”
“Yes, breakfast, and yes, I’ve been around the block.”
“Okay… Take six capsules, and in 45 minutes, you will feel like two and a half vodka cocktails after a 90-minute massage with oil from a 5-foot-tall woman in Thailand. You will be a dangerous man.” He said with a toothy grin “You be enough clever to wash a bear without making fur wet.”
“Clever enough to wash a bear without getting its fur wet?” Xavier laughed
“Yes, is Russian expression.”
“I hope so!”

“When was the last time you had a date with a woman?” Yuri asked with genuine curiosity in his voice. Xavier couldn’t even remember.
“Ah, it’s been a while…”
“Well, you have a date today with an exquisite girl. There’s an art to seducing a woman like that. Before yesterday, you had never approached a woman directly on the street?”
“Can’t say I had.”
“Well, obviously, she liked something about you. You want her in your bed?”
Xavier nodded, and the older man continued, “You are clearly a competent, talented young man, but I think perhaps you could learn some things about charming the fairer sex. On the internet, you can find many videos and presentations about this. Maybe watch some videos before your date. You may be surprised by what you learn…”
“Sure. Yuri, I actually have an appointment with my attorney at his office in about 45 minutes…” That’s not true. I just want to get in a few hands of SuperSimPoker.
Yuri nodded, shut the Soviet medical box, and gestured to the door.
“You join us for cigars and whiskey again sometime?” Yuri asked as he walked him out.
“Totally! We’ll be in touch.”
“Good luck today, my friend!”

Back in his condo, it was a few minutes before noon, and Xavier’s date was at 2:00 PM.
It’s odd not to have to text her to confirm the date. She seemed sure about it yesterday. I guess I’ll just go and hope she shows up.
“She won’t.” Quipped the Demon
Xavier’s experience with dating was limited to a few awkward encounters he had as a nervous young man. Which he seemed to recall entailed texting a lot of funny, clever, and cocky things to the girls in exchange for mere emoticons. The girls had canceled at the last minute a lot, and the few times they did show, they seemed to be significantly more interested in their smartphones than him, not going more than 30 seconds without redirecting their attention to their glowing screens.
Overall, dating seemed like a huge waste of time. Especially considering the amazing simulated sex you could have via a VR headset and the Link in combination with a Sensation Sheath, a silicone condom-like ‘sensation apparatus’ that interfaced with the nervous system by covering the skin. A couple of times, Xavier had considered buying a full-body Sensation Sheath, but they were a pain in the ass to clean for obvious reasons, and he declined to rent them due to the sheer ickiness factor.
The few times Xavier had sex with real girls were memories made vague by copious amounts of booze, inglorious ends of sloppy nights at house parties. It never had anything to do with his attempts at dating or chivalry.
“You should take Yuri’s suggestion and learn some about the art of seduction! You are next to clueless and hopeless when it comes to girls. It’s been ages since you got laid….” The Demon sometimes made a good point.
On his Link, Xavier searched for “art of seduction” on Utube and watched the first few results. But the advice offered between midroll ads was dumbed so far down and blandly politically correct - feminist talking points were made incessantly - as to be rendered useless. I already know all this stuff. I need the underground stuff that’s censored on Utube! He navigated to the fringe of the internet, Odysee.com, and there he found the good stuff. He had encountered pick-up artist content before, of course, but had always laughed at it as he reached for his Sensation Sheath. But now, with his date with Astrid in two hours, he had a good reason to cram on this subject. And he learned more than a few useful things before growing antsy for a round of poker.

Reclining in “The Casino” (the nerve center of his little digital poker empire) - after having taken a few capsules of Phenibut, which had a surprisingly tangy taste - in the middle of a SuperSimPoker session, the first thing out of the ordinary that he noticed was that his Coherence scores weren’t bottoming out after being dealt a few bad hands. Elite players like Xavier used biofeedback to monitor their physiological states while playing. Specifically, heart rate variability: a measure of how well the heart and nervous system react to external and internal stressors, producing a Coherence score. For poker players, lower Coherence scores are synonymous with reckless, emotional, ‘caveman facing a jaguar’ decision-making that costs money.
The Phenibut was kicking in. Yuri wasn’t lying; it did feel like a few strong cocktails after a Thai massage - minus the low lighting, 25% expected gratuity, and indecent proposals.

As Xavier was out walking his dog, Odysseus, the world started to seem friendlier and more playful; he could empathize with the black Chow Chow’s wanderlust at the world. He even had a short chat with an old woman at a stoplight. As he strolled the streets with his hound, he seemed to feel the energy of the city flowing around him more acutely; the sounds of a truck honking, a kid yelling, birds chirping, and a multitude of others seemed richer and more symphonic.
This is kind of cool!
A notification popped up on his Link, his meeting with Astrid was in just 15 minutes.
Talk about time dilation! I lost track of time; that’s odd.
He booked it back to his building, left Odysseus with the concierge, and hailed an auto taxi. “Water Fountain Park, please.”

Two o’clock came and went as Xavier browsed the net via his Link. She’ll show, in her culture, it’s probably normal to run late. The Demon was surprisingly unopinionated on her absence.
Maybe I should learn a thing or two about Colombia? He warp-speed read a few articles about the country. Apparently, after the narcos there were crushed and the collapse of Venezuela, a “far-right” aggressively Catholic regime was voted in that had held on to power for over a decade. They threw petty criminals in jail to rot, banned porn, and implemented other “decency” laws to the outrage and scorn of the Western media. They conceded to allowing just a single Pride parade in the country after NATO threatened to bomb the capital, Bogota.
It occurred to him, I should say something nice to her in Spanish. A quick search on his Link for charming things to say in Spanish produced a winner.

At 2:25 PM, she appeared.
In Xavier’s experience, women you met at night under low lighting were predictably a sad reflection of their former beauteousness if you met them in the daytime. But not Astrid. Her angelic radiance seemed to illuminate the entire park even though she was wearing another simple utilitarian dress, this one lighter colored. As she strode toward him, her body seemed to move with an almost musical rhythm that originated in her hips and emanated out through her thighs, shoulders, and swaying hair.
Usually, something like this - the prospect of a date with a beautiful woman, her tardiness but eventual arrival - would have put Xavier through an intense emotional roller coaster, but not today. He had enjoyed playing poker and walking with Odysseus, and now he was going to enjoy coffee with her. Life wasn’t bad.

“Un placer a verte Astrid. Me pareces una diosa de cafe.” He mispronounced every other Spanish word as he gestured, with a grin, to the thermoses of coffee she had in her purse.
“Oh, you speaking Spanish now?” She said with a giggle.
“No. I just looked it up on my Link.” Xavier admitted, and she laughed again. That’s a good sign!
“I’m sorry I arrived late! I wanted to look nice, so I took a little extra time.”
He looked her up and down unashamedly, his eyes lingering longer on her curves.
“You succeeded,” he said in a low tone full of certainty, to which she smiled widely, revealing two rows of pearly whites, and Xavier could swear her face turned a subtle degree redder. Did I just make her blush?

Their conversation was somewhat limited in depth by her grasp of English, which she insisted on trying to speak, even though Xavier’s Link was an adept translator of over a hundred languages. Xavier noticed that she had no smartphone. She wasn’t lying about being new to this country! So much for being worried about her posting a privacy violation hashtag.
They mostly talked about their respective families, who couldn’t be more different. Astrid grew up in a large family in a town deep in the heart of coffee country in Colombia. Xavier was a single child raised by his single mother; they moved a lot in his childhood for her job, and he didn’t see his father much - a detail he left out.
“What is your job?” she asked him.
Of course, she wants an idea of how much money I make. She might not like the fact that I don’t have a “normal job” - nor will she appreciate my infamy as a black hat cybercriminal! When we met, I was wearing a suit, looking pretty fly, so I’ll hint that I do something important with investments…
“Well, I work independently in quantitative finance and predictive modeling,” he began and proceeded to motormouth his way through an explanation sure to baffle her. “I leverage stochastic processes and Monte Carlo simulations to predict market trends—primarily within high-variance assets like cryptocurrency. I employ algorithmic strategies to hedge against fluctuations and maximize alpha, particularly in crypto derivatives. I also engage in probabilistic decision-making models, like Bayesian inference, which have applications across asset classes.” He shrugged modestly, then added, “That, combined with my work in complex statistical gaming frameworks—like game-of-chance simulation modeling—creates a diversified portfolio of high-return opportunities. It’s not your usual nine-to-five, but it keeps things interesting.”
“Oh, that sounds complicated.” And Astrid asked a question that Xavier had never deeply contemplated. “Does this work make you happy?”
What makes me happy is not being a broke joke like my father (who couldn’t even afford a decent gift for his son’s tenth birthday, the one birthday he actually showed up for!) He took an avoidant sip of his coffee, in the distance a homeless derelict struggled to get a rickety grocery cart full of junk over a curb.
“Sure, it makes me happy. I like working with numbers.”
But there was something else that Astrid was curious about; she drew her face closer to his.
“I noticed the little lights blinking. I can’t imagine having a little computer screen in one of my eyes.”
“Yeah, at first it’s weird, distracting, and a little overwhelming all the information you can access instantaneously, but eventually you get used to it, and it becomes advantageous.”
“But if you can close your eyes and watch any movie, read any book, or play any game anytime you want, doesn’t that make the real world seem boring and gray? If I had a Link, I think I might use it to escape myself…”
“Well, I don’t use it to escape myself.” Or do I? “The Link is a tool—it’s only as good as how you use it. Sure, there’s access to everything imaginable, but that just makes it… practical, right?”
“Well, I see the little lights in your eyes, and in Colombia, we have a saying… ‘too much light can blind you.’ Maybe with the Link, it’s like that—you think you see everything, but maybe you see nothing true.”
“Sure, but honestly, it’s not about escape.” He felt another pang of doubt. “It’s more like… optimization. I mean, everyone uses technology, but a Link just integrates it seamlessly. Makes life easier.”
“But, if life is so easy with the Link, maybe you miss something important… like when you stop reading a book before the last page.” The distance between them on the bench grew slightly.
“Well, actually, it helps me not miss things.” He closed one eye. “For example, while watching you with my right eye, I can pull up a live video feed in my left eye of my dog, Odysseus, at home right now and make sure he’s okay.”
“Oh my God! You should have brought him! I love dogs…”
With that, he produced his smartphone from his pocket, and she swooned at pictures of Odysseus. The conversation moved on to pets; Astrid had many growing up that she gushed about. Pets are a much better first-date conversation topic than debating the dubiously dehumanizing effects of augmented reality technology!

As he sipped the hand-delivered hot coffee (as smooth as wine and without a quantum of bitterness in its darkness), Xavier’s eyes were drinking in the magnificent symmetry of her face, her high cheekbones, and how the darkness of her hair brought out the green of her eyes - which were perfect, unlike his. I’m a bit cross-eyed, but so are most people nowadays - that’s what happens when you have a little screen in one of your eyes.
But, in the resplendent sunshine, he noted that her left tragus (the small, triangular flap of cartilage in front of the ear canal) was ever so slightly deformed. The imperfection only added to her natural beauty.
God, I want you. I want to know every curve of your angelic body.
Her eyes seemed to widen. The bench, the water fountains, and the park all disappeared. His lips were wet, intertwined with hers, their tongues dancing pensively. He had skipped the normal cost-benefit analysis; in one uncommonly smooth movement for Xavier, he reached his hand behind her head and pulled her into him. As they embraced, she rested her hand lightly on his chest as if to feel his heartbeat.
This feels really good, better than in an adult Sim!

Then, to his surprise, he felt a hand rest on his right shoulder as if to command his attention, tearing him from the paradise he had found between her luscious lips. In his peripheral vision, another Astrid appeared. Her twin, from the elevator in the Support building!
Xavier’s date slithered a few inches away from him on the bench with an embarrassed look on her face. The twins exchanged a few nervous words in Spanish, too quickly for Xavier’s Link to translate.
“This is my sister, Alejandra.” Astrid redirected her attention to Xavier.
“Hi Xavier, a pleasure to meet you.” She said in clear English with just a hint of the Colombian accent that was so thick on Astrid’s delightful tongue in her attempts at the Teutonic language.
Other than English skills and the ear, they were uncannily identical, even down to their green eyes. But then he noticed a difference; around Alejandra’s irises - barely detectable - little red lights blinked twice. That’s interesting. Alejandra has a Link.
It would take from him everything.

Astrid had embraced him long and tight after Alejandra had insisted they had something to attend to and had to leave. Possessed in that moment, Xavier had decided it was time to pull out all the stops and go big with this girl. In her lithe arms, every atom of Xavier’s body seemed to command him: Do whatever it takes to keep this girl!
“I have this friend who is a helicopter pilot. Sometimes, he takes me on private sightseeing flights over the city…”
He’s my ‘friend’ because I pay him $350 an hour!
Her eyes opened even wider, and her face beamed with curiosity.
“Would you like to go on a private flight with me? To see the city from the sky. The lights and buildings are beautiful at night.”
“Of course! When?” She blurted. Rubbing his upper shoulder with the tenderness of a telepathic masseuse, her face a vision of infatuation as Oxytocin danced with caffeine in her Antioquian hypothalamus.
“Uhm… I will call my friend and see, but probably this weekend. Ok?”
“I’ve never been in a helicopter before! I’m so excited!”
“You like sushi?” Xavier was about to sweeten the already overwhelming offer
“I tried it once in Medellín, I loved it…”
“One of the best sushi restaurants in the country is not far from here, and I’m friends with one of the chefs. Sometimes, I hire him privately to cook in my kitchen.”
I only have to pay him $75 an hour.
“Really? What should I wear?” Astrid took his hands.
Alejandra cut into the eupeptic conversation, mentioning something quickly to her sister in Spanish (Xavier’s Link picked up “rich dress”), which Astrid nodded giddily to.
“I have a Gucci dress she can borrow.” Alejandra noticeably enunciated ‘borrow’ as she lovingly caressed her twin’s exposed shoulder, “So she looks the part on your big night.”
“Great. You will wear a dress and I, a tuxedo, and we will have a movie star night together that I promise you’ll never forget.”
With that, she planted a big, wet kiss on his lips. She was a vision of childlike excitement, twirling her hair every few seconds.
Don’t you love making grand promises? There is nothing as divinely beautiful as a promise the moment after it is made. Well, perhaps, except for the magnificent curvature and proportions of Astrid’s figure.
“Do you have a phone number yet? How do I text you a time once I confirm with my pilot?” Xavier’s mind switched back to logistics
“You can call or text me. We live together.” Alejandra offered.
After exchanging numbers, the twin figure-eight figures bid Xavier farewell with effortlessly enunciated “Ciao(s)!” and final cheek kisses. The pair strode off across the park and out of Xavier’s vision in their heels, distracting a few joggers and a crew of landscaping laborers.
I’ll show her what it’s like to be with a man of means like myself! And then she’ll be my little plaything between the sheets! She would be my first real-life Latina. Her sister was practically swooning, too!
Xavier strolled back to his condo, feeling like a Norse deity after defeating a school of sea monsters.

Later that day, back in “The Casino” after cleaning up in an online poker tournament, Xavier texted his pilot ‘friend.’
“Hey, buddy. I got a hot date this weekend. I want to show her the city from the A-Star 450. You available?”
“Yeah. Friday evening? $800 for two hours. Fuel prices went up. Sorry”
No need to apologize! That’s only 8.75% of my earnings from the tournament I dominated today.
“Gas the bird up. This one has cupholders, right? 9:00 PM, tentatively?”
“This one has a champagne cooler. I’ll shoot you an invoice for the deposit pronto. See you Friday at Northstar Airfield.”
His sushi chef ‘friend’ was unavailable to work his magic in Xavier’s kitchen Friday night. He had his Link’s AI assistant book someone to come over after the flight from a private chef service. I’ll just offer the guy a $100 tip to pretend to know me and be my friend in front of Astrid.

Friday morning, Xavier awakened with optimism; it was rare that the prospect of spending just a few hours with a flesh and blood human being was such a novelty stimulus for him.
He threw out his expired condoms and ordered some new ones from AmZN Instant. Is she going to make me wear a rubber?
He double-checked that he had enough Phenibut remaining to become Casanova again.
He shot a text to the pilot, to whom he had already paid a deposit, confirming their flight time.

It was time to call Astrid. Her sister had actually texted him yesterday, asking him to call today to confirm details. Which seemed odd and worried him; most girls abhorred speaking on the phone. The time in between rings felt longer than normal. She picked up on the fifth ring.
“Hi, Xavier. How are you?” It was Alejandra; she spoke in low, almost wet tones.
I can’t tell if she’s using her seductive voice with me on purpose or if that’s just the way she talks!
“Uhm… I’m great. Uhm… good morning! Can I talk with Astrid?”
“I’m sorry, Astrid isn’t here right now.”
“Ok… I just confirmed the flight with my pilot for our date.”
“She is super excited for the date; she will be back soon. I will let her know what time, and she will be ready. What time are you coming to pick her up?”
“At 7:30.” Pro-tip gents: schedule your hot dates at the half hour instead of “around 8:00 PM,” and she’ll be better about being ready on time.
“She will text you as soon as she comes back. Do you want our address now?”
“Sure…”
“1909 First Avenue, the building with the big red door.”
He recognized the address. Alejandra lived in a posh building. I wonder what she does for work?

As he was about to exit his building to take Odysseus on his mid-morning walk, a notification popped up that stopped him (and Odysseus via the leash) abruptly in their tracks: NEW RELEASE: Dictator 3: Empire of Waves - View Demo?
“Oh yeah…” Xavier uttered as Serotonin began to flood his prefrontal cortex
The Dictator series was a meteorically successful pan-media phenomenon. The masterpiece wove an award-winning story between an engrossing Netflix series, a massively multi-player roleplaying game, and a narrative-driven virtual reality adventure peppered with adult encounters.
The game’s description further wet his appetite for digital debauchery…

12000 B.C. the Dictator begins his career as an officer in the Grand Navy of Atlantis, the mythological empire to which the prehistoric peoples of the Americas, Europe, and the Mediterranean are subjects. The Dictator will find themselves a key player in an asymmetrical cold war between the admiralty of the navy and the Atlantean royal family. The Dictator must do battle, innovate technology, switch alliances, spy, bribe, conspire, lead revolutions, and seduce to ultimately master the dark arts of statecraft.
$39/monthly - Download Now

Xavier couldn’t have punched the download button faster if he were Bruce Lee. A confused Odysseus was dragged back into the building and up the elevator.

If you enjoyed this sample chapter and found it provocative, prepare to have your mind blown by the rest of the book!

Here's a plot summary...

Xavier is a Biohacker, Lifehacker, professional poker player, statistical savant, gamer, addict, and cyber-criminal currently being prosecuted for masterminding a nine-million-dollar heist of "pre-cognitive capital." Pushed out of his comfort zone one night at a cigar bar, he approaches a strikingly beautiful Colombian woman, Astrid. An old Russian man gives him a mysterious confidence drug along with some advice that gives him a shot at charming a woman unlike any other he has ever known. But Astrid has an identical twin sister who seems to have succumbed to the same corrupting modern influences as Xavier. As he battles his addictions, the twins draw him into a web of intrigue and moral quandaries. In a world where corporations enslave the human mind to predict the future and profit, he'll excel because of the Biohacking tools he yields and his innate talents but falter because of his fundamentally flawed character.

I'm author-banned on Amazon, so you’ll be able to get it as a digital book + audio book package (release: mid-2025) via the Limitless Mindset Store, here

Pre-Order Novel 🛒 Hourglass

You may pre-order it now via the link above and will receive the current (well edited and formatted) manuscript of 26 chapters, an invitation to the advance readers group, AND through the link above, you may preview an animated AI short film I’ve produced, giving you a provocative glimpse at the world of Hourglass - a world drunk on virtual bliss that mirrors the destruction of an empire 12,800 years ago… 

Please do NOT share the cinematic trailer video (I'm not ready for it to go viral)