Spencer, Simon and Victor were once more sitting in Spencer’s living room, side by side on the sofa. Subconsciously, the big moment had brought them to need physical proximity, group hugs were a likely occurrence.

“It’s crazy,” Spencer said, “I know it’s a foregone conclusion, but I still can’t help but feel nervous for the draw; like it still might not happen.”

“It’s most likely because our minds are fully conditioned with the knowledge that nothing is a certainty, other than the laws of physics.” Simon said, “We may have repealed those laws, but it might take a while for our minds to catch up.”

“Yeah, I’ll just make do with Dutch courage for now,” Spencer said as she poured herself another glass of wine.

The trio had a feast of chips and dips, pizza and wine on the coffee table. Vicky was out on the town with her friends for the night, and most likely not coming home till the very early hours of the morning, so they could celebrate in secret. They had decided to keep the win to themselves to avoid drawing attention to their work, for which they had developed a front organisation. The cover was only partly false, as the business would deal with technological innovation, using Simon’s warehouse as a think tank base of operations. Simon was planning to make himself a sleeping area in the building so he could live there and keep an eye on the drive; he may have lost his home, but he wouldn’t be homeless. Spencer and Victor had spent most of the day under Gary’s watchful eye, helping Simon move the rest of his things from the flat to a rented moving trailer. Victor would return the trailer tomorrow, once they had emptied its contents into the warehouse. Builders were due to arrive on Monday to fix the west wall, to begin with; then they were to replace windows, doors and ultimately make it livable for Simon with a shower and kitchen. He’d need to sleep in the warehouse tomorrow night to make sure that nothing was stolen, the west wall void was temporarily boarded while waiting to be repaired. Simon would be living in a building site until all was finished. He had decided to keep the space open-plan and not add walls to make his bedroom, he would place a bed in a corner of the upper floor — where most of their work would take place — and surround it with screens. Simon felt a great relaxation while in his workspace, separating himself from that source of comfort was counterintuitive to him. Though still in need of some renovation, the upper floor was mostly intact, the group could work there without being disturbed by the builders, shifting temporarily to the lower level when work there was complete. The drive would look like a heavily modded gaming PC and didn’t create any large, conspicuous whirling wormholes through dimensional space and time, there were no Wheel of Fortune style spinning wheels behind their seats or vehicles leaving flame trails. They didn’t have to worry too much about what the workers saw, they would just need to keep the discussion of future events to a minimum.

The three scientists — though already feeling a natural buzz of excitement — became all the more alert once the pre-draw game show came to a close. Soon enough, the show’s host handed over to the part of the studio where the lottery ball machine stood. His co-host welcomed the audience, reminded them that there was a double roll-over eight million pound jackpot up for grabs and engaged in the usual officiating of the security features for the draw. Eventually, the host wished the viewers good luck, and the over-sized red start button was pressed. The balls began to spin within the large clear plastic globe.

The trio moved to the edge of their seats in anticipation of the first number. A ball popped out of the machine and rolled down the metal track to the end point. It was marked with a number six.

“Oh, my God, it’s really happening,” Spencer beamed.

Another ball rolled to a stop next to the six, this one marked forty-two.

“Yes!” Victor shouted with a fist pump.

When thirty-four rolled into place, they were all standing and whooping, almost missing eleven’s appearance.

Next up was twenty-two and Spencer, Simon and Victor screamed with excitement.

The last number popped out of the machine, rolled down the track to fill the last spot at the end - forty-four.

The three bounced and jumped for joy, then crowded into a scrum style group hug, spinning in circles.

“Oh. My. God!” Spencer cried, holding out the last syllable until she almost ran out of breath.

Simon grinned. “It begins,” he said dramatically, grinning from ear to ear.

###

Spencer and Simon each called the number on the back of their own lottery tickets to report their wins. Their operators took the confirmation code digits, and they were told that the numbers checked out, as expected, the tickets were genuine after all, it was just the method of choosing the numbers that was slightly shady. They were congratulated and informed of the procedures and regulations for collecting their win. The tickets would be further verified, and a representative would call them back, most likely on Sunday to arrange a meeting for the official transferal of their winnings. As planned, the trio spent Sunday morning to early afternoon moving Simon’s things into the warehouse. During the move, both Simon and Spencer were called to arrange a meeting for their winnings, Simon requested to meet at his new living space, and Spencer chose her flat. They had both mentioned to the representative that their friend also won on the same draw, to avoid questions later. Their cover story involved a shared Chinese takeout and identically printed numbers on their fortune cookie paper slips. The representative was secretly confused when the story was delivered like an alibi rather than an amusing anecdote but said that it would make a good story for the publicity. Simon and Spencer both vehemently stated that they wished to remain anonymous, their guilty demeanour adding to the representatives confusion.

Simon had moved his bed and chairs into the warehouse, he had very little in the way of furniture in his previous flat — due to the technology clutter — but it would be sufficient while he took watch on his first night in the warehouse. The boards nailed to the west wall hole weren’t a huge deterrent for possible intruders, but it would at least keep draughts to a minimum and keep Simon warmer during the night. Simon had a space heater to place next to his bed for the night, should it get cold. Fortunately, the weather was fairly mild at that moment. He showered at Victor’s house on Sunday evening since he would have no access to amenities when morning arrived. The warehouse had a toilet and a sink in the one small WC.

Simon’s first night in his new home went without a hitch. There was a slightly annoying rattle from the plywood boards, but at least there were no attempts at breaking and entering. He awoke bright and early, an hour or two before the builders appeared and began work on fixing the west wall. The lottery’s representative, Claire, arrived during the afternoon at both places of residence. The funds were transferred to their bank accounts and an agreement was made for anonymity. Claire then left the new millionaires to their plans.

Simon, Victor and Spencer paid a visit to their local bank and opened a business account to which they had joint access. They had chosen to register the business name ‘PRE-Innovations’, since that would be what they were doing, pre-innovating. Taking innovations and making them occur at an earlier time. The PRE was capitalised to represent the first letter in each of their surnames. Simon and Spencer both made transfers into the new account, and their business became a multi-million pound corporation.