Countdown

by Michelle Maddox

  G. ELLIS.

  My hands trembled as I slid Colin's access card through the lock. The lights flickered red.

  No entry.

  I felt the color draining from my face. "It's not working."

  "Try it again." Rogan's voice was strained, and he turned his head to scan the hallway. "And hurry."

  I tried it again. Still no luck.

  I let out a little sound of frustration as I slid it through for a third time. Then, as the red light flickered, I came to the sudden realization that I was sliding it the wrong way around. The metallic strip had to be down.

  Mentally kicking myself, I flipped the card and tried it the other way around.

  The light flickered green and I heard a click.

  Rogan pushed the door open. It was dark inside. I felt the wall until I found the light pad, and I tapped it. The lighting flickered on, and I blinked as I gazed around at the room.

  It didn't look anything like I thought it would. I expected a phalanx of computers, or at the very least one big one in the middle of the room. A desk. Maybe a potted plant. Joe said that this was Gareth's secondary office.

  Instead it looked more like a lounge. A large black leather couch was in the middle of the room with Japanese-inspired folding screens on either side. There was an unusually large amount of religious-themed artwork- paintings, sculptures, and other fine art pieces depicting all forms of religions, from an ornate and bejeweled rosary on the wall to a large, golden laughing Buddha on a tabletop.

  A large screen on the wall across from the couch displayed images of the outdoors. It looked similar to the "window" display that I had had in the reward room. Fakeness trying to appear real and almost succeeding. Behind me I heard a bubbling sound and turned to see that it was an elaborate water garden next to a Zen sand garden.

  I eyed Rogan, and he must have seen my confusion.

  "I totally agree," he said. "I wouldn't have guessed that a talking binary code needed a place to chill out."

  "Joe said this is where the server was."

  "Maybe he lied. Or maybe it's been changed since then, I don't see any server in here." The bluntness of his words didn't cover the disappointment in his voice. "Shit, why didn't Jonathan tell us more about his plan?"

  "Probably because he never thought he'd need to." I touched Rogan's arm. "Now what the hell do we do?"

  He shook his head and moved his gun back and forth between his hands. "I'm thinking."

  "Maybe there's still time for us to escape. You know, live to fight another day."

  Then, to destroy the Zen-like calm of the room, the earsplitting sound of an alarm filled the air.

  "Or not!" I yelled.

  I covered my ears and tried to concentrate. I looked at the display screen that was showing a swaying palm tree on a beach in front of a shimmering ocean. The sound of the waves lapping at the shore could barely be heard under the din of the alarm.

  Fake. Just like Gareth. Gareth was a lot like that palm tree. He looked so natural, but underneath he was just a computer program.

  I frowned. Just a computer.

  "The screen." I pointed at it. "Do you think it's the server? Maybe he's got it set up like this to fool anybody who might want to destroy it."

  Rogan looked at it, and his brow furrowed. "Give me the disk."

  I walked over to him and reached into my bra to pull out the small computer disk. He took it from me, squeezing my hand as he did so.

  "Let's hope like hell this works," he said.

  But before he could move toward the display screen to insert it, a door to our left slid open and Gareth walked into the room. He was alone.

  Rogan held his gun up in the direction of Gareth's head. Neither of us said a word.

  "That's rude," Gareth said. "You don't even want to apologize to me for ruining my plans again?" His eyes narrowed, and he looked at the minidisk in Rogan's left hand. "Why are you in this room?"

  "I heard this is where the waterfall was," Rogan said evenly. "I like waterfalls. They relax me."

  Gareth smiled thinly. "Do you know how I found you so easily?"

  "Security cameras," I said, feeling a sick churning in my stomach.

  He shook his head. "My former employee Colin was able to disable all of them when he helped you escape. Like I said, he is a very talented person. Or rather, was a very talented person."

  I glared at him.

  "No," Gareth continued, and withdrew a remote-control device. "It's your implant, Rogan. The one I had Colin reactivate. I simply traced its signal."

  "I'm going to shoot you," Rogan growled.

  "No, you won't."

  "Why? Because you're using my brother's body?" "No. Mostly because of that implant." He pressed a button on the remote.

  Rogan dropped the gun and the disk and clutched his head. I touched his shoulder, his face.

  "I can't move," he said after a moment when his arms dropped down to his sides. "It's like someone is holding me in place."

  I eyed the remote in Gareth's grip, which was obviously connected to Rogan's implant.

  Gareth sighed heavily. "Move away from him now, Kira."

  When I didn't, he pushed another button and Rogan roared in pain.

  "Fine." I took a few steps away from him. "Stop hurting him!"

  He shook his head sadly. "Kira, I was going to be kind before and allow you to die peacefully and nonviolently, but now I'm not so sure about that."

  I tried not to give away how afraid and panicked I felt at the moment; it would only give Gareth more fuel for the fire. But I couldn't help it. Everything I was thinking must have been etched into my expression, and my gaze flicked back to Rogan, who was frozen in place.

  Gareth walked toward Rogan and bent over. He didn't bother with the gun and instead snatched up the minidisk. He slid it into the inner pocket of his jacket, and my heart sank. That was our one chance.

  The alarm continued to blare, and he had to shout to be heard over it.

  "That racket," he said, rolling his eyes. "Honestly." He walked over to a telephone, picked it up, and pecked in two numbers. "Turn that off," he said simply, and hung up the phone.

  The noise ceased five seconds later.

  "So," I began. Maybe if I got him talking it would give me enough time to figure out what to do next. "What's with all the religious stuff in here?"

  He gazed around the room slowly. "My collection. I've been studying humankind in an attempt to understand them. So many faiths in this world and so many problems that difference has caused across the centuries and millennia. I plan to take the best of each one and form a single perfect religion in the future. Do you believe, Kira?"

  "Do I believe?"

  "In a greater power?"

  I glanced at Rogan. "I… I don't know."

  "You should, with the gift you've been given." Gareth folded his hands behind his back and walked a circle around me.

  I stood as still as one of his expensive statues and felt his appraisal like cold, clammy hands on my skin. He came close enough that he was able to flick my dark hair back off my shoulder. He put his fingers against my throat. For a moment it seemed as if he was searching for a pulse.

  "Humans are essentially a weak species who are too concerned with destroying their world and each other to appreciate all that has been given to them by a greater power."

  I frowned. "What are you talking about?"

  "There is a wonder in being human," he breathed. "Organic matter that thinks and breathes and reproduces. And these organic creatures in turn created computers to help them. Now the cycle shall fold back upon itself and the computers will use the organics to help them. But the psychic element… that is a wild card in the mix."

  "Get your hands off her," Rogan growled from his side of the room.

  "I could crush her windpipe so easily." His fingers played along my throat. "But it's such a waste if her death can't be shown on The Countdown. You will die on camera. I can promise you that. But not just yet." />
  "What do you want from me?" I managed, feeling sickened by his touch but too afraid to pull away.

  "I want you to read me." He grabbed my hand and brought it up to his face. "I dismissed your abilities before, but now I'm wondering if you may be more powerful than I originally thought. Read me. I want to know for certain that I have a soul. That I am truly the first of an evolved species."

  "Tainted artificial intelligence programming doesn't have a soul," Rogan said. "You're just a computer virus with the ability to think."

  Gareth whirled around to face him. "No, I'm much more, and soon everyone will see that."

  "Gareth!" Rogan yelled, his face and neck showing the strain of trying to move when his body wouldn't let him. "If you're in there somewhere, you have to fight. You have to help us."

  "Your brother is gone forever," Gareth said. 'Think of me as the improved model." He turned back to me. "Will you read me?"

  I shook my head. Why would I give him anything he wanted? He'd just said he was going to kill me anyhow.

  His jaw tensed and he pressed a button on the remote, holding it down.

  Rogan yelled out in pain and kept yelling.

  "This will kill him if I continue," he said. "You will kill him."

  "Please … don't-" I began.

  "Don't?" He didn't let go of that button.

  "Fine! I'll read you."

  He finally let go of the button and Rogan went silent. His eyes were closed, and his chest went in and out with labored breathing.

  Gareth grabbed my hand and put it to the side of his throat. "I'm waiting. Tell me what you see."

  I glanced at Rogan, who was still recovering from the torture of his implant. And then I looked up at Gareth.

  It felt almost like an intimate stance, standing this close to Gareth, one hand on his neck, the other braced against his firm chest. He was the same height and the same build as Rogan. Even his blue-green eyes were similar.

  But he couldn't have felt more different to me if he'd tried.

  I closed my eyes, tried like hell to concentrate, and flexed.

  I frowned as the pain began to seep into my brain. "I see nothing. I'm getting nothing."

  "Keep trying."

  I shook my head, slid my hands to a slightly different position on Gareth's body, and waded farther down into his mind. My head began to ache. "No, it's like a universe of darkness. So cold and empty and-"

  :::::::::Fear

  Pain::::::::

  :::::::::Sadness

  Then I heard something so quiet that it was like a radio turned on in another room. I strained to make out the thoughts deep inside the darkness.

  Kira… don't give up. … You're so close…. Kill me. … Kill my body…. You must do it…. There's no other choice…. I can't live like this… so much pain…. It's the only way…. Take care of my brother…. Don't let this happen to him…. I love him. …

  My eyes snapped open. I grabbed my head, which felt as if it were splitting open. Gareth clutched my hand.

  "You saw something else. What is it? Did you see my soul? What did it look like? Was it beautiful?"

  I licked my lips. "I… I did see something. It was very faint for a while, but there was something-"

  "What? What was it?" His words were filled with eagerness and naked hope.

  "Your… your soul was like a bright light in the middle of the darkness. It was very beautiful."

  The lie sounded incredibly unnatural leaving my mouth, but it was obviously what he wanted to hear.

  He nodded. "I never should have doubted it. This proves what I have been saying all along, that I am the first in the next evolution of mankind. The true mixture of man and machine, and now, Kira, you will help me be even more than that."

  I raised my eyebrows. My help? What the hell was he talking about?

  He stalked back to the telephone and picked it up. "Yes, change of plans. I want to have the girl taken to the eighteenth floor for further testing." He hung up without saying another word.

  When he turned back to me his expression was very pleasant. "I will be testing your psi abilities to find out what makes you different from an average human. Whatever it is, I will reproduce it on a digital level and add it to my programming."

  The phone rang and he moved toward it.

  I exchanged a look with Rogan. His eyes were open again, but his expression was as tense as I'd ever seen it.

  Don't give up hope. We 're not dead yet.

  Gareth turned his back to me as he spoke with whomever was on the other end of the line. The gun Rogan had dropped was by his feet.

  "Give us a few more minutes," he said into the receiver. "And then send security down here."

  What was he going to do for a few more minutes? Get me to read him again? Torture Rogan more?

  Did he even know why we were in this room? He'd taken the disk away from Rogan, but did he have any idea what was on it?

  And did he realize that I'd stolen it back from him when I'd been reading his mind?

  He hadn't felt me slip a hand into his inner jacket pocket. He may have noticed when I'd stolen his wallet on the streets, but he hadn't even flinched this time.

  Well, I had picked a few pockets in my time. Practice made perfect.

  I clenched the minidisk so tightly in the palm of my hand I was sure it would leave a permanent impression, and hissed out a long breath through my teeth. Only one shot. I was betting it all. Both Rogan's and my lives. Betting it all on a faint hope.

  With a last look at Rogan I moved quickly to the display screen, frantically searching the side of it for a slot to put the disk into. My hands were sweating.

  I found it. I slid it in.

  Gareth hung up the telephone and turned back to look at me.

  The image of the palm tree was gone. Instead there was a black screen with a blinking cursor at the end of the words: EXECUTE PROGRAM.

  Since there was no keyboard, the screen showed a touchpad, and the enter key was right there, only an arm's reach away. I put my hand up to it.

  "What do you think you're doing?" Gareth asked.

  "What does it look like?"

  He smiled. "It looks like someone who has no history of using computers is trying to act smart."

  I tried to slow my breathing. "Is that what it looks like to you?"

  "Yes. And keep in mind that I said 'trying' to act smart. Not succeeding. I assume you took that disk from me? Once a criminal, always a criminal." He shook his head. "What program is that?"

  "Just a little antivirus one." My hand hovered just above the enter button.

  His expression didn't change. "And who exactly gave you that?"

  "Somebody who isn't thrilled with your programming selections."

  He blinked slowly and then looked at Rogan. "Was this your idea?"

  "Actually," Rogan said, "I was thinking about killing you and being done with it, but Kira's a lot nicer than me, I guess."

  Gareth smiled thinly and turned back to me. "And why have you put an antivirus program on my Zen screen?" His gaze was steady.

  I tried to match it with a calm expression of my own. "This is a Zen screen? That's funny. I thought it was the server that held your entire artificial intelligence programming that's connected to your implant. You know, the one with the virus in it that makes you a complete psycho."

  "A server? In here?" His lips curled back from his teeth. "That's not very logical, is it? All the servers are on the second floor."

  I had a moment of doubt. Well, another one. If we were wrong then everything was over. We would have lost in a very large way-both personally and for the unsuspecting world around us.

  Oh, God, I thought, sinking into despair. We were wrong.

  But then I frowned. If I was that wrong about everything then why wasn't Gareth storming over here and slapping my hand out of the way? He looked relaxed and cocky, but he wasn't moving, wasn't provoking me to press the enter button.

  "This is the server," I said wit
h as much assurance as I could muster and pushing past my doubts. "I know it is. And as soon as I press this button I'm thinking that your evolutionary aspirations will be wiped out completely."

  His lips thinned. "I would have to disagree."

  "Then let's see, shall we?" I brought my hand right up to the screen.

  "Wait…"

  I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

  "Even if you press that it won't do anything. My new life may have begun as a difficult-to-reproduce miracle, but I have grown. I have learned and evolved. I am more than man or machine. You know that… you saw my soul yourself."

  I shook my head. "I didn't see anything inside you except a big black hole."

  His eyes widened. "You're lying."

  "Am I? Then let's try it. I can press this and we'll see what happens. If you're right and you have a big, shiny soul inside that body you stole, then you might be able to walk right out of this room. If not, then your implant will be fried and the old Gareth will come back."

  His expression darkened. "Is that what you think?" He turned to Rogan. "Is that what you think? You think that you can still save your brother? Your brother is already dead. The moment he chose to put the implant in his brain he chose the path of death, as did you."

  "My implant-" Rogan began, his brow furrowing.

  "It works. I believe we've already proven that fact."

  I looked at Rogan and then at Gareth. "What the hell are you trying to say?"

  One side of Gareth's mouth turned up in a half smile. "What I'm trying to say is that if you press that button, there is a very remote possibility you are right and that I will cease to be. My implant will be destroyed, but don't you see? So will Rogan's. And since it's embedded deep within his brain tissue it will kill him. Our implants are directly connected. Everything here at Ellis Enterprises is connected to the main server."

  I swallowed hard. "What about the subscribers? They have implants, too."

  He shook his head. 'The only implants that truly matter are the prototypes. The subscribers have a low-grade facsimile that is a pale shadow of what we have. You would be hurting Rogan … killing Rogan … and the subscribers would all live to see another day."