"Sure I am." Gareth's mouth twisted into a strange smile and he glanced at me. "Why? Have you heard differently from someone?"
I felt a shove at my back and staggered into the elevator as well. Four men in white coats and then Gareth all pressed into the elevator and the doors closed. I felt very claustrophobic, which actually wasn't one of my typical fears, but I considered adding it to the growing list, along with darkness and heights.
We'd entered on the ground level, but the elevator took us down farther.
Joe had told us that the room with the artificial intelligence server was in the subbasement.
Joe hadn't put up a fight when the White Coats entered the gaming room a half hour ago. In an act of cowardly self-preservation he'd slunk back into the shadows and tried to pretend he wasn't even there. And it had worked. They didn't bother with him at all, since they were focused on us.
However, they did grab Colin. He hadn't accompanied us in the car, so I had no idea what had happened to him. Frankly, I didn't care. If I allowed myself to think about that bastard too much I wasn't going to be able to see for the blinding rage I was feeling at his betrayal. Maybe he'd get a reward. I guess everyone was out for themselves. Not that this was news.
I felt a small lurch as the elevator stopped and the doors opened up on a whole lot of white. Since heaven probably wasn't located five floors underground, I was going to have to assume that I wasn't dead yet.
I figured my odds of getting into heaven were slim to none anyhow.
Gareth soundlessly stepped off the lift, and a firm grip circled my upper arm, crushing enough to bruise, and one of the men pulled me along another hallway.
All white. Everything was white and smelled of metal and antiseptic.
Never had pristine cleanliness looked more like death to me.
"Where are you taking us?" Rogan demanded.
The White Coat whacked the gun against the back of his head. Not enough to knock him out, but definitely enough to hurt like hell. Rogan turned his head to glare at the man with uncensored fury, his upper lip curling back from his teeth.
"Do that again," he snarled, "and I'll shove that gun up your ass and pull the trigger."
The man laughed, obviously feeling unthreatened.
Joe said that he hadn't wanted to work here. Despite the perks, of which I'm sure there were many, he couldn't stomach the sadistic nature of being controlled by a walking, talking computer virus.
This guy, however, didn't seem to have a problem with it.
Gareth nodded at a door ahead. "In there."
It looked exactly the same as the room where I'd spoken with Gareth before, which meant I'd already been here. They'd taken me here by helicopter after Level Four, when I'd been blindfolded. However, I could have been wrong. There wasn't much to mark it as a unique room. It was all white, with a table in the middle. Two chairs on either end. Both white, the monotone giving it a strange, almost surreal feeling.
Rogan and I, wearing our borrowed clothes from the safe house and heavy Countdown black boots, were pushed into the chairs so we were facing each other.
Rogan met my gaze and held it. His handsome face was lined with worry and stress, his brows drawn together in a deep frown. The slash of his scar was red against his pale face. I saw a small amount of blood trailing down the side of his neck from where that asshole had hit him with the gun.
His hands were still locked behind him in metal cuffs just like mine.
He didn't say anything and neither did I. It was evident on his face what he was thinking, as I'm sure it was on mine.
Don't lose hope. We 're not dead yet.
I remembered the touch of his lips brushing mine, the feel of his body moving against me, inside of me. My stomach clenched at the thought that the time we'd had together might be all we ever had. A couple of days with the only man I'd ever truly been in love with.
Don't lose hope.
"Leave us," Gareth said, glancing at the men who stood there brandishing weapons that seemed so black against their white clothes. "And send him in when he's ready."
Send him in. My gaze left Rogan to go to the door. Send who in?
The White Coats left and then we waited. It felt like hours, but I'm sure it was only minutes until he walked in. My mouth dropped open.
Colin.
Definitely not unconscious anymore, although he looked slightly out of sorts. There was a red mark on his head from where he'd been knocked out against the side of the table.
He wore an Ellis Enterprises security-clearance name tag against his otherwise casual clothing-ripped jeans and his H-logo T-shirt. He seemed no different from the Colin I'd known for a few years, other than the fact that he now stood beside the man who wanted to kill us.
Colin looked at me, and his brow furrowed slightly before he turned his attention to his new boss.
"Colin?" I managed. "What are … what are you doing-"
Gareth's lips curled. "Colin works for me now, don't you?"
Colin nodded. "Yes, sir."
Gareth moved toward him and slapped him twice on the back. "The boy's a genius. I always have room for geniuses on my staff. He was hired in a low level position a few days ago, but his association with you, Kira, made him suddenly all the more interesting to me. I've decided that he will be my personal assistant in all things."
I ran my tongue over my very dry lips and tried to find enough moisture in my mouth to form words. Gareth's personal assistant? Colin? I'd felt the ridge in the back of his scalp where he'd obviously been fitted for an implant, and knew he'd taken a job here, but I didn't expect his connection to Gareth to be so close.
The thought didn't fill me with reassurance. Anyone could be bought. Even someone you thought was your friend.
Gareth's smile held. "Yes, after his inconvenient run-in with you at the mall he was held for questioning. His computer was thoroughly examined. Are you aware, Kira, that the boy has pictures of you of a very personal nature? He's obviously quite enamored with you. However, I am quite sure you were completely unaware of these pictures even being taken, but they were there on his drive, along with evidence of very accomplished programming and hacking skills. I offered him more opportunities should you contact him in the future, and you did. I always follow through with my promises. Isn't that right, Colin?"
Colin nodded, his expression guarded. "That's right, sir."
Gareth's gaze slid over me with distaste. "I honestly believed that you had gotten the better of me with your little escape." His expression darkened. "You can imagine how delighted I was when we were informed of your whereabouts."
I fixed Colin with an icy glare. I'd thought that he'd done it out of sheer stupidity or the wish to protect himself from harm. Either of those reasons I was almost willing to forgive. I was mad as hell, but I had the capacity for eventual forgiveness. But to sell us out just to get a cool new job?
I couldn't forgive that.
"You said that you wouldn't hurt her," Colin said after a moment of silence. He seemed suddenly incapable of making eye contact with me.
Gareth laughed. "Sentimental fool, aren't you? Humans and their complicated emotions. Yes, yes, I did promise that, and I do try to keep my promises." He looked at me. "Since Colin has an implant, he's been able to follow along with watching you compete on The Countdown. I truly believed that after the reward level his desire to protect you would fade. No man would like to see the woman he loves enjoying the intimate touch of another."
I scowled at him.
"Now, on to other business." Gareth clasped his hands behind his back and began to pace the room slowly, moving in a slow circle around our table. My gaze flicked to Rogan for a second, but his attention was now fixed on his brother's possessed body. "Inspect him, if you would be so kind, Colin."
Colin moved toward Rogan, and I saw that he had a small metal receiver in his hand that flickered with green and yellow lights. He moved it over the back of Rogan's head and he studied the light reading.<
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"What the fuck are you doing?" Rogan tried to move his head away.
"Brother." Gareth leaned against the table, his back toward me. "Please relax. Colin is simply checking the validity of your implant."
"Jonathan was kind enough to remove it before you had him killed," Rogan growled.
"No, no. Not that implant. The other one. The prototype."
Rogan went very still. "But it never worked."
Gareth pushed away from the table and began to move about the room again. "A lot has changed in the past few years. Technology that we believed was redundant can be made active. Especially the prototypes. You have one. I have one. Anything after that was simply a mass-produced imitation of the original."
"Which means what?" Rogan said.
Then his face twisted in agony and he yelled out.
"Rogan! No!" I struggled against my restraints. "What are you doing to him?"
Rogan slowly relaxed, his chest heaving, and there was a gleam of sweat on his forehead.
Gareth ignored me and instead glanced at Colin, who squinted at the receiver. "Well?"
"It looks good," Colin said simply. "I've gone ahead and activated it for you. Simple, really."
Gareth smiled. "I'm so pleased that you think so. Then all is well with the world. Do you want to know why I care about your prototype implant, brother?"
"You're not his brother." I bit off the words. "And you damn well know it."
Gareth raised an eyebrow at me. "I see. So you told him despite my warnings of the consequences? I'm not sure if you're brave or stupid."
"Go to hell."
He laughed. "You have been an amusement, Kira. And the subscribers have enjoyed you, up until your disappointing finish. I wonder if you truly do have psi abilities. I watched your interaction with Kurtis on the roof in Level Five. He was convinced that you could see his soul. Were you lying to him?"
I forced myself to smile. "You'll never know."
He regarded me for a moment with a bland expression. "A true psi. An untapped element of humanity." He approached me and slid his hand around my throat tight enough to hurt and make me struggle to breathe. "Obviously when you read me before you sensed the annoying human presence who once used this shell. I wonder what else you think you may have seen."
I glared at him. "Maybe I saw your soul."
"Interesting." He raised an eyebrow and then released me. I coughed and still could feel the imprint of his fingers on my neck. He was very strong. I wondered how much of that strength came from Gareth the man, and how much from the virus itself.
Colin watched the proceedings from the far corner, his expression tense.
Gareth turned his back on me and approached Rogan, who struggled against his bindings, his gaze never leaving his brother's face.
Gareth crossed his arms against his black suit. "While I'm not happy about your attempted escape, I will say that I am very pleased that you survived so far into the game. When I first brought you in I thought of it merely as a mild amusement. A way to get rid of you once and for all. I'd heard that there were further investigations afoot after a similar crime in another university took place last week. This time it was ten girls who were murdered." He tsked his tongue. "A shame. A true shame."
"Rogan would have been exonerated?" I asked.
Gareth twirled around to face me. "My, that's a big word for such a little girl. And yes, it was only a matter of time. And I couldn't have that."
"So now you're going to kill me right here?" Rogan said. "I'm actually surprised that you have the balls to do it yourself. Wait a minute. How many subscriber brain waves would a talking binary code have to absorb to have balls anymore?"
Gareth moved so quickly that all I saw was a blur. He grabbed a handful of Rogan's dark hair and pulled his head back. The chair teetered on two legs.
"As you can see, a talking binary code can do many extraordinary things. And the brain waves, as you so crudely call them, do help with many things. The more I absorb through the implants, the more powerful I become. But I need more."
He slowly brought Rogan's chair back to its normal position. He patted Rogan on the top of the head as one might do to an obedient dog.
"Colin," he said, "tell Rogan what I plan to do with his reactivated implant."
Colin pointed at himself. "Me? You want me to explain? Wow. Okay." He pocketed the receiver. "Mr. Ellis has requested that I-and the team, of course-upload an artificial intelligence program into your implant. Not sure if it'll definitely work, but the reading I just took makes things look pretty positive. So … uh, I think that's about it."
Gareth grinned. "Thank you, Colin." He put his arm around Rogan's shoulders and crouched down to whisper, but still said loud enough for me to hear, "So you see, Rogan, we will be brothers again. That's why The Countdown is so important. The testing is over, and now I shall take the game to a much wider audience."
Rogan wrenched away from him. "Why? Why would you do this? You're not my brother anymore. Why would you want to share this with me?"
Gareth's grin widened. "Perhaps brothers is the wrong terminology. When part of me is uploaded into you … we will think the same. We will be the same. It will be as if we are one entity in two bodies. With my power multiplied thus, soon everything from this city to Offworld will be mine. And why you, specifically? You share the exact prototype implant that I have, and that is what makes it all work so beautifully. Without that implant you would be useless to me."
"You're insane." Rogan's face contorted with disgust.
"I'm no longer prone to human ailments such as insanity. Nor will you be once you are … improved?"
"Improved?" I managed, my stomach twisting and turning with each word he spoke. "How can you see this as an improvement? You're no better than that robot from Level Three."
That earned me a truly withering look. "Kira, if you can't see how I am obviously the next evolution of the human species then I cannot help you. One day very soon all humankind will be fitted with one of my implants. They will feed us, and we shall become the gods of a new race."
"You're right, I don't see that. All I see is a computer virus a few pixels short of a full program."
'Then that is your unfortunate oversight. The robot you fought earlier was just a meager experiment in artificial intelligence. My intelligence is no longer artificial. I have a soul.. you said so yourself."
"I didn't say that. I said maybe I saw your soul."
He took a menacing step toward me.
"Gareth!" Rogan's voice was rough. "Don't hurt her. just… just spare her. Please. I won't fight you on this. You can do whatever you want to me, but please let Kira go."
My eyes widened. "Rogan, no!"
Gareth laughed. "Brother, that's so terribly noble of you. The memories I can access of you do not lead me to believe that gallantry was ever one of your virtues. Has prison turned you into a gentleman?"
Rogan glared at him. "Prison did change me. I was a thoughtless and selfish asshole before."
"A thoughtless, selfish asshole who didn't know good entertainment like The Countdown when he saw it."
Rogan's expression darkened. "I can't condone murder."
Gareth sighed. "The murder of a human, especially a criminal, is meaningless. In the world I envision, there are no criminals. There is no crime. It will be a perfect place to coexist and to thrive. And every time this body wears out, I will have developed the proper technology to be able to upload my very essence into a new body."
"Immortality," Rogan said. "That's what this is all about."
"Be thankful I wish to share it with you. Perhaps there is a small part of the original owner of the body that still feels a brotherly bond with you. Otherwise I would have already killed you for ruining my game. You have no idea how angry the subscribers are. And when the subscribers are angry, they stop watching." His eyes narrowed. "You have no idea how hungry I am right now."
"Spare her," Rogan said again. "And as I said, I will do
what you want."
Gareth cast a dark look at me. "Was it was your idea to shoot the cameras?"
I glared at him defiantly. "That's right."
He nodded. "You ruined what would have been a very interesting finale."
"What, our deaths on camera? You sure have a twisted sense of what's interesting."
"I'm not entirely convinced that you wouldn't have shot him to save your own skin, Kira."
If my mouth weren't so dry I would have spit at him. Crude, sure, but definitely an effective way of showing somebody what you were thinking.
"I wouldn't have killed him," I said evenly.
"Perhaps. But now we'll never know for sure."
I heard a whirring sound, and a small hatch in the wall up in the top right corner of the room opened up and a camera slid out. It swiveled around so that it pointed toward the table.
"What the hell is that?" Rogan growled.
"You ruined my game. I can't have fifteen thousand angry subscribers. Now I will make it up to them."
Colin moved forward. "You said that you wouldn't hurt her!"
Gareth put a hand on his shoulder. "I meant every word."
Colin appeared to relax a little. He dared a glance in my direction. "See, Kira? I'm not as bad as you're probably thinking. I refused to help if he was going to hurt you. He promised."
I didn't reply. I was afraid of what I might say to thank him for his "help."
"Come with me." Gareth led him toward the door. "I'm sure the new ending I have planned for The Countdown will be very well received."
Colin moved with him but was frowning. "I don't understand. You promised-"
Gareth nodded. "I promise that her death will be completely painless."
"Gareth!" Rogan roared. "What are you doing? I said that I'd cooperate if you let her go!"
Gareth shook his head. "You have no choice but to cooperate. Now I will leave you in private-other than the cameras, of course-to say your good-byes."
The door shut behind them, leaving Rogan and me in the white room all alone except for the whir of the camera.
Rogan's gaze shot erratically around the room. He strained against his bindings.
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