Countdown

'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.'