Countdown

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.'

I felt the blood drain from my face. If I pressed the button I would kill Rogan?

No. That couldn't be possible.

'It would be better if this was being taped,' Gareth said, almost regretfully. 'The subscribers would all tune in to see this. Such a waste of good entertainment.'

He pressed a button on the remote control and Rogan yelled out in pain again.

'Step away from the screen, Kira,' Gareth said. 'And Rogan will live.'

'No!' Rogan gasped through his agony. 'Do it, Kira. Launch the program. Don't worry about me.'

I chewed my bottom lip. My brain was working overtime, going through all the scenarios that might occur. Press the button and nothing happens. Gareth has my psi abilities studied until he's bored with me and kills me anyhow. He changes Rogan into a monster like him. Or press the button and launch the antivirus, killing Gareth but also killing Rogan.

No. It was too much. I didn't know what to do.

My hand wavered from the screen. My arm ached from holding it up.

'Forget about me,' Rogan urged in pain-filled gasps. 'You have to stop him. It's not just me. He wants to take The Countdown and the implants wider, to Offworld. More people will be hurt. More will be killed.'

He was glancing down at the floor in front of him as he spoke. I followed his line of vision to the gun he'd dropped when his implant kicked in.

The gun.

I could injure Gareth, not kill him. Just incapacitate him long enough to figure something-

Gareth took his finger off the button as he noted where my attention had flickered to. With a soft sound of amusement he walked straight to Rogan, leaned over, and snatched the gun off the ground.

He inspected it, pulling out the chamber and gazing inside.

'Humans and their weapons,' he mused. 'So violent. So bloody.' He smiled. 'So very entertaining.'

He turned, aimed, and pulled the trigger at Rogan.

I screamed.

Blood flowed red from the fresh wound in his shoulder. Rogan's teeth were clenched and his forehead drawn, but he hadn't made a sound when the bullet pierced his skin. He still couldn't move.

'I had my people injure you before,' he snarled. 'You would be dead right now if it wasn't for Jonathan's interference.'

'I'm going to kill you,' Rogan growled.

Gareth was inspecting the gun again. 'If I'm counting correctly, I have ten more bullets available to me in this gun. I'm sure after the fifth or sixth you may start begging for your life. Kira? What do you think? Or would you prefer I continue to torture him through his implant?'

Tears slid down my cheeks. 'Don't hurt him anymore. Please.'

'But don't you understand yet? You're the one who's hurting him now. Every moment you wait will cause him that much more pain. Do you really want the man that you love to experience such anguish?'

Kill me … Gareth had begged. Please.. I can't go on like this….

Rogan would be like that. Like the real Gareth once the artificial intelligence was uploaded to his implant. He would be trapped somewhere down deep. Always in pain with no chance for relief.

Either way I would have lost him forever.

'Do you want him to be in pain like this?' Gareth said again, louder. 'I wouldn't wish this on anyone. The world I will create will be a perfect one, with no pain, no doubt, and no fear.'

'Being human means that you have to feel pain and doubt and fear, Gareth.' I blinked and more tears splashed to my cheeks. 'But that doesn't always make it a bad thing.'

'Do it,' Rogan said, his words a raspy, pain-filled croak.

Gareth raised the gun again.

'I love you, Rogan,' I said softly, and then touched the screen's enter button.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

A long string of code that I didn't recognize or that, in my opinion, didn't make any sense began to flow down the screen.

That seemed to be the only change that occurred since I had pressed the button.

After another moment the screen froze and two lines of readable type appeared, surrounded by asterisks.

***************************************

ELLIS ENTERPRISES HACKED.

REVENGE IS SWEET BY NUCLEARXXX.

***************************************

Then, to add insult to injury, a picture of Joe appeared, giving his Web cam a very clear shot of his raised middle finger.

Just a prank? He'd given us a disk with a stupid prank on it?

I felt a wave of nausea flooded over me and I fought it. I'd known that it was a long shot at best.

Rogan was still alive. The thought mixed some relief in with the horrible feeling of dread.

'Twit,' Gareth said, and it was directed at me. He laughed and, if you asked me, looked somewhat relieved. 'I told you that you couldn't stop me with some ridiculous progra-'

He stopped talking and frowned. Then he cleared his throat.

I glanced back at the screen. The image of Joe was gone again and was replaced with more of the scrolling computer code.

Gareth brought a hand to his head.

'Not feeling so hot all of a sudden?' I asked.

'I… I'm not-not… sure.'