No Side Effects

Julian Keller, founder of Aura Longevity AG, lives in Lugano and measures everything: his sleep, his heart rate, his glucose. To his customers he sells the promise of living better and longer. What he sells, though, he never takes himself.

One morning he wakes at 05:30 to find the company’s treasury, fifty million Swiss francs, wiped to zero. On his screen there is a countdown and a single demand: confess in public that Neuravyl, Aura Longevity’s flagship nootropic, is lethal. If he has not done so by 08:45, the money will be destroyed for good.

Julian is used to solving everything with money, lawyers and pressure. This time the rules are set by an algorithm: it does not listen, it does not negotiate, it cannot be bought. What remains: three hours and fifteen minutes, a villa on the lake and a black bottle on the desk.

Before 08:45, Julian will have to choose what he is willing to lose.