by D. N. Leo
Tadgh snorted. "He should have known Juliette better. And we have no idea what sort of bonus features Juliette may have kindly programmed into the disk.”
"All right. It's my fault. I'll go in and get the disk for you," Lucien said.
"Don’t do that. It might explode when you pull it out," Madeline said.
"It's a countdown to something. What's the original figure, Tadgh?" Ciaran asked.
Madeline noted that Ciaran assumed Tadgh would naturally remember the number. She was astonished when Tadgh actually remembered it.
"Six zero four eight hundred," Tadgh said.
"So what is that?" Ciaran asked.
Tadgh contemplated. "It's the number of seconds in seven days."
Jo gawked at Tadgh.
Ciaran nodded as if it was no surprise to him that Tadgh had been able to calculate the answer. Ciaran contemplated. "All right, even if it is a time bomb, we still have time. I'm going in to see if I can stop it."
"What if I'm wrong?" Tadgh asked.
"About the numbers?" Ciaran raised an eyebrow at Tadgh. "Then we won't stand a chance at anything else," he muttered and strode toward the villa. They all followed.
In front of the gigantic computer, the countdown had reduced by five minutes, the amount of time they had spent outside.
"See, you're right, Tadgh. It's a countdown by the second," Ciaran said.
"That ought to help," Tadgh muttered.
Ciaran looked at the machine for a while. Then he said, "I'm going to try something. Why don't you all leave the premises for the moment?"
There was no movement behind him. He turned around to stern stares from everyone. Ciaran turned back to the computer and typed some commands.
The monitor flashed: Insert the disk.
"I'm asking the computer to resume the task it was undertaking before. I'm trying to reverse the process to see if I can trick it into thinking that the disk had never been ejected," Ciaran said.
"You know what you’re doing . . . you don't have to tell us, Ciaran," Jo said.
Ciaran nodded and continued typing.
The monitor flashed again: Insert the disk.
Ciaran shifted his left shoulder, then pushed at the disk. It slid silently inside the massive computer. The machine hummed for a second.
The monitor flashed again. The requested task has been completed. Do you want to re-execute it?
Ciaran shook his head. Then he said something in French. He typed in a negative command. Ciaran typed another command.
The monitor flashed: The report is not available.
Ciaran mumbled something else in French. Although Madeline didn’t speak French, it sounded like swearing to her. When she saw a smile on Tadgh's face, she knew Ciaran was cursing out the machine.
Ciaran typed in more commands. There were more responses from the machine, but nothing useful about the task the machine had executed. At the same time, the numbers continued their countdown down by the second.
Ciaran stopped typing and thought for a moment. Then he typed again.
The monitor flashed: The information is available. Palm print verification required.
A square box appeared on the surface of the monitor.
Madeline stepped forward from behind Ciaran. She nudged him aside and placed her palm on the monitor. It was obvious Ciaran didn’t agree with Madeline’s action, but he didn’t say anything.
* * *
Text flew on the monitor:
Print verified.
Madeline Kelley.
Biological age: Thirty-three.
Born in Alphi.
Citizen of Eudaiz.
Successor of Sciphil One—Richard Kelley.
Exempt from elimination.
* * *
"Exempt from elimination. What the hell does that mean?" Madeline asked.
Ciaran darted at the control panel. His fingers flew over the keyboard.
The monitor flashed: Population of Eudaiz: six hundred and four point eight billion residents.
Ciaran stepped back and looked at the results.
"What was the original figure on the screen before, Tadgh?"
"Six zero four eight hundred," Tadgh said with a slightly shaky voice.
On the monitor, the countdown number was six zero three nine hundred.
"It has been fifteen minutes since the original figure—that’s the equivalent of nine hundred seconds. That means they are eliminating a thousand residents per second as we speak?" Tadgh said.
"What do you mean by elimination?" Lucien asked.
Ciaran shook his head. "Look at the figures and see for yourself, Lucien."
“My grandfather is killing a thousand people per second!” Madeline muttered in disbelief and stormed out of the villa.
Chapter 22
Ciaran charged after her. He got to her in the front yard. He pulled her into his arms and held her tightly.
"Come on, darling, calm down. I don't think Richard knew the disk would trigger the elimination,” Ciaran whispered.
She tried to wriggle free, but his arms were as strong as steel shackles. When her emotions were in check, Ciaran let her go.
She called out, "Grandfather! I know you can hear me! We need to speak!"
Tadgh and Jo had followed them to the front yard.
Richard’s hologram appeared. He looked as if he had aged ten years since they had last spoken.
"Grandfather, what is this elimination?"
"I swear to you—I didn't know!"
"So what do you know? What do you want from me, really?"
“I asked Juliette to write a program that allows Sciphil successors to access the Daimon Gate by themselves. I didn’t know she had done something to the program to trigger this.”
Madeline narrowed her eyes. "I don't believe you."
"Why would I want to kill the citizens of Eudaiz, Madeline?"
"You are ambitious. You want to control Eudaiz. You said so yourself."
"What good would it do me to control a universe with no inhabitants?"
"Tell us how to stop it. What’s happening now in Eudaiz?" Ciaran asked.
"How can I tell you how to stop it when I don't know how it started? Juliette's program is killing people in Eudaiz. They’re dropping dead by the thousands."
"You have to tell me how they’re dying. Are the citizens human? If so, you have to tell me the cause of death. If they’re robotic or machinelike, they can be shut down by a computer program, and I'll have a different solution for that," Ciaran explained.
"They are human-like. They’re built for the Eudaizian environment. You could say that they are very fragile humans compared to those on Earth. Juliette brought something, some chemical, from Earth and is infecting them with it."
"How are they infected? Is it airborne, in the water?"
"Food. Our food is different from yours. It's a built-in system that automatically releases into the body. We program the food supply for the entire year. Juliette's program released a chemical into the food supply system. We cannot cut it off. It will take a year to reprogram."
"So either way, they'll die," Tadgh mumbled.
"What did Juliette release into the system?"
"If I knew, do you think I'd have let this happen?"
"You’re saying the chemical was released. If I ask the program to resume, it might release even more of it into your system. But it wouldn’t cause any more harm. I’m going to have to resume the program to know exactly what was in it."
Richard nodded. "The damage has already been done. The toxic chemical is inside the system. No more harm can be done. But if there’s a way you can identify the chemical and figure out how to eliminate it, then we’d stand a chance."
Ciaran nodded. "I'll try." He turned and ran inside the house.
Inside the villa, Ciaran resumed the program. He glanced at the countdown clock and looked quickly away. Madeline stood right next to him. She knew he needed her to be right there by his side. So that was exactly w
here she would be.
The computer hummed and resumed its task. Ciaran typed in a chain of commands.
The monitor revealed streams of letters, codes, and symbols.
Ciaran looked at it.
He stared at it.
He turned and looked at Madeline.
Then he turned back toward the monitor. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
He withdrew from the control panel. Madeline grabbed his hands. She sensed what was coming but could do nothing to help. She squeezed his hands. She couldn’t read the computer syntax, but she knew the gibberish on the screen meant bad news.
And just to complete the terrible joke fate was playing on her, her random psychic ability let her read Ciaran’s thoughts for the first time.
Madeline held Ciaran's shoulders and spun him around. "Ciaran, I love you. Listen to me, whatever happened wasn’t your doing. Whatever you are going to do, please remember I love you, and I need you. Before you take any action, please think of me . . .”
Ciaran didn't seem to hear anything Madeline said. Rage was like a haze of dark matter that consumed him. She could feel his rage as much as he did. It seeded in his soul, waiting for a chance to reach out and devour him.
He shrugged off Madeline's hands and left the room. Madeline saw that her hands were shaking. She looked at Tadgh, who was waiting for her instructions. "Tadgh, please don't let him get into a car or anything."
“What the fuck is that?” Tadgh pointed at the monitor.
"Juliette used Ciaran’s Golden Life formula. She tweaked it into a weapon of mass destruction and contaminated Eudaiz’s food supply system,” Madeline said.
Tadgh shook his head and raced out the door.
Outside, Ciaran was charging toward the car when he was tackled by Tadgh from behind. The brothers both rolled through the grass and mud.
Ciaran got up and strode again toward the car.
"You're not getting into the car. You want a one-on-one? Come on. Come here. We haven't done that in a while."
"I'm not in the mood to fight with you. Don’t!" Ciaran warned. He turned around to get to the car.
Tadgh charged at Ciaran for another tackle. Ciaran swung around. In one short second, Tadgh landed on his weak ankle about fifteen feet away from his original position.
He lay on the ground, moaning.
Ciaran rushed for the car.
Jo darted toward Tadgh. She tried to help him up but couldn’t take Tadgh's body weight. They both ended up on the ground. Madeline helped them both to get up.
She saw Ciaran sitting behind the steering wheel. She understood his pain. The Golden Life was his lifelong invention. With it, he’d hoped to change people’s lives, to cure all diseases. Now it was being used by Juliette to cause this massacre.
She approached the car and got in. She sat next to him, saying nothing, just holding his hand. After a while, he calmed down. He got out of the car and approached Tadgh.
"Sorry about your ankle,” he said to Tadgh.
"It can be fixed. No big deal. But if you drove that car away and broke your neck, I don't think I’d be able to fix you."
Ciaran grabbed his brother, bearing the weight from Tadgh's weak side. "Let's go home and find a solution to this mess." He turned toward Richard. "If I find an antidote for the chemical Juliette used, I assume that the computer in there can inject it directly into the food supply in Eudaiz?"
Richard nodded.
"So you promise not to turn that machine into scrap metal tomorrow?" Ciaran looked at Lucien.
"I'll guard it with my life."
Ciaran nodded and helped Tadgh into the car.
Chapter 23
Jo glanced at Ciaran. It had been twelve hours so far in the lab that he’d manned the computer mainframe. She worked on her smaller unit, but there were only limited activities she could help with.
Pharmaceutical wasn’t her expertise. She could run simulations for each formula he created, but she couldn’t even read the results.
Madeline entered the lab. "I need to put some food into you both."
Tadgh was right behind her. "For your info, it's pizza."
Jo sniffed the air and grinned. Tadgh approached. "Hello, green eyes. May I interest you in some slices of melted cheese on beef, chicken, sausages, sundried tomatoes, onion, and god knows what else?"
Jo laughed. "Sounds deliciously healthy."
Ciaran said nothing.
He concentrated on putting some kind of chemical extract in tubes and jars. Then he prepared two syringes, dropped the liquid in the syringes into small containers, and mixed some chemicals with the liquid. He looked pleased. He then entered the information into the computer.
Madeline approached. "If you need more time, don’t push it, Ciaran. Give yourself a break."
Ciaran put the syringes down on the table. He pulled Madeline into his arms and held her. "I'm done."
"You've got it?" Madeline yelped in joy.
"Still has to be tested. I need to call Doctor Thomas."
"Why?" Jo asked.
Ciaran pointed at the two syringes—one contained a golden liquid and the other one a green liquid. "That's the Golden Life with Juliette's manipulated formula. The green one is the antidote. I need to test them before I enter the codes into the system."
"By testing, you don't mean injecting them into yourself, do you?" Madeline narrowed her eyes. "That's why you need Doctor Thomas?"
"I have to . . .”
"You need to test the drug, and there is no time. I get it, Ciaran," Madeline stated firmly. "But if something happened to you, what do you think Doctor Thomas is going to be able to do?"
"Can we use a lab rat?" Jo asked. "I know it sounds awful, but . . .”
"The rat can’t tell me what it feels, Jo. I need to monitor the drug absorption to adjust the doses of some of the key compounds," Ciaran said.
“The rat can't tell you. But I can." Tadgh grinned.
Ciaran, Madeline, and Jo turned around. Tadgh was sitting on a chair at the end of the long lab table, holding an empty syringe.
He had injected the golden liquid into himself.
"What the fuck are you doing, Tadgh?" Ciaran darted toward him, picking up the empty syringe and staring at it in disbelief.
Tadgh shrugged. "Do you want my info or not?" He stood up, but he lost his balance and fell forward. Jo grabbed him. She struggled, and Madeline darted in to help. They lowered him down onto the lab bench.
Ciaran dragged over some equipment and connected Tadgh to the machine to get his vital signals.
"How's your breathing?" Ciaran asked.
"Fine."
"Dizzy?"
"Very."
"Vision?"
"Not good."
Ciaran typed like crazy on the keyboard.
"Scale vision from one to ten."
"Three."
Ciaran attached a drip to Tadgh's arm via a cannula. The green chemical started to drip through the transparent tube into Tadgh's system.
"Scale dizziness."
"Ten"
Ciaran altered something on the computer.
"Vision?"
"One"
"He's drifting, Ciaran," Jo said.
Ciaran made further adjustments.
"Tadgh, you hear me?"
No response.
"His pulse is rocketing, Ciaran," Jo said.
Ciaran shook his head. He made more adjustments.
"How's that, Jo?"
“Slowing down . . . too much, Ciaran.”
“Now?”
“Still too low.” She checked Tadgh’s breathing. “He’s not breathing!”
Ciaran adjusted dosage again. “Jo?”
“No. Not helping.” She shook Tadgh’s shoulder. “Come on. Don’t do this.” Tadgh was getting colder by the second. Ciaran kept typing on the computer, trying to make the necessary adjustments.
“Jo!” he called out.
“He’s not breathing. Damn it.” She ran to the corner
and pulled the resuscitation equipment over. “You wanted to be the guinea pig . . . Well, you got what you wanted. I’ve never used this before,” she muttered and pulled out the chargers.
Ciaran darted over and pressed a series of buttons that she assumed set it at the right level. “Do it, Jo,” he said and ran back to his computer.
“No more pulse.” Jo glanced at the monitor and then cranked up the machine and jolted him.
The green liquid continued to drip into his system, but there was no pulse to distribute it.
“Again, Jo,” Ciaran said.
She did it again. And once more. Tadgh’s body jerked up, and his vitals showed up on the monitor.
“He’s back,” Jo said.
“Tadgh, you hear me?” Ciaran asked.
Tadgh’s body tensed. He convulsed. Jo jumped onto the bench to hold him down. His body twisted and contorted, and Jo was thrown to the floor. Madeline jumped on the bench and pinned Tadgh down.
Ciaran kept making adjustments. The convulsion eased off. He calmed down. His pulsed returned to normal. His eyes fluttered and opened.
“You hear me, Tadgh?”
“Yeah,” Tadgh said groggily.
Ciaran cursed under his breath, but it was loud enough for Madeline and Jo to hear.
"Still hear me?" Ciaran asked.
Tadgh grunted out an answer.
"Vision now?"
"Ten."
"Good."
"Heart rate, Jo?"
"Perfect."
"Still dizzy?"
"Fuck yeah."
"Well, it will stay that way for a few hours. You’ll just have to deal with it."
Ciaran grabbed the disk from the computer. "He can't go anywhere for the next five hours or so. Would you take care of him, Jo?"
Jo nodded. "Of course."
Ciaran checked Tadgh’s pulse manually. “How are you feeling now?”
“Fine. Go away. Do whatever you have to do,” Tadgh muttered.
Ciaran nodded. “I’m going to the villa to input the antidote into their system. I’ll be back soon.” He exited the lab with Madeline.
As soon as he heard the sound of the door clicking closed and the security system reported that Ciaran and Madeline had left the premises, Tadgh grunted and grabbed his head.
Jo held his shoulders. “Look at me, Tadgh. You’re in pain. Tell me what to do. I’m going to call Ciaran.”