Countdown

'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.