Wired

Desh paused for another second before answering. “I wanted her reactions to be real,” he said. “The same with Griffin and Metzger. When the explosive device failed to go off, when you arrived, I couldn’t count on their acting abilities. I didn’t want to tip you off that I was on to you.”

Alan shook his head vigorously. “Bullshit!” he snapped. “If you suspected, you wouldn’t have let Kira give you the GPS coordinates, and you wouldn’t have let me capture you.”

“Think again, psycho,” said Desh in contempt. “I didn’t know how to find you. I needed you to reveal yourself. And I wanted you to brag about your achievements so I could be sure I hadn’t missed anything.” Desh raised his eyebrows. “Not to mention that I detected your implanted cochlear recorders while I was enhanced and used my immune system to deactivate them.” He smiled broadly. “Whose feeling manipulated now, asshole!” he spat hatefully.

Gunfire continued to rage unabated on the lush, well-tended acreage surrounding the mansion, now transformed into a killing field, violated by explosions and countless bullets, and fertilized with copious amounts of blood.

Alan glared at Desh. “Make no mistake,” he barked. “Whatever is happening outside, my men will handle it. And in just a few minutes I’ll be transformed and able to slip out of any noose.”

“Don’t count on it,” said Desh.

“Who are they?” demanded Alan. “Even if you suspected me, you couldn’t have set me up. You couldn’t possibly know where I live. And no one followed us here. I’m sure of it.”

“Wrong again, asshole,” hissed Desh. “Before we broke into Putnam’s house, I had a private conversation with my friend the colonel. I knew you would spot the RV. How could you not? I told him to take one of Kira’s pills at the first hint of trouble. I outlined how it would be possible to fake his own death.” Desh winked. “I’m sure you know that when you’re enhanced you can control your heart rate. Smear blood on your head, pretend to be dead, and don’t have a pulse when someone is checking for it. Presto, you’re declared dead.” Desh raised his eyebrows. “But to give credit where it’s due,” he continued. “I did get the idea of faking Connelly’s death from you, Alan.” He smiled mockingly. “Thanks.”

The veins in Alan Miller’s neck were standing out as his fury mounted. Desh knew his best bet was too keep him here until his team arrived, hoping against hope this would happen soon, before Kira’s treatment transformed her brother.

“Even though the colonel is injured,” continued Desh, “with his mind enhanced, it must have been easy for him to best your men at Putnam’s farm and free Metzger and Griffin. I told him to give a pill to the major and come after me.” Desh raised his eyebrows. “You see, I hid a homing device on myself that the colonel could use to track me. And your men were good enough to arrive at Putnam’s in military choppers so the major could borrow one. The colonel’s mind is now back to normal, no doubt. But just one Ross Metzger, enhanced, along with a military helicopter, is more than a match for your mercenaries.”

Instead of responding, Alan Miller appeared to be listening for gunfire. But after a deafening barrage that had seemed to go on forever, everything was now utterly silent. This seemed to totally unnerve him, and he shoved the gurney near the wall, dragging his sister along with it. He pulled out a gun and crouched behind his two prisoners, his back to the wall, using their bodies as shields.

“What’s the matter?” taunted Desh. “Not so sure of your mercenary force anymore?”

Before Desh completed his sentence, Connelly and Metzger entered the room. Metzger moved with the elegance of a ballet dancer and took in the scene with superhuman acuity.

Alan peered around his sister. “Take one step closer and I’ll kill them both,” he threatened.

Metzger looked bored. “Thanks. It will spare me the trouble,” he said.

Alan’s eyes narrowed and it was clear the wheels were turning in his head. “Look, Major,” he said amicably, “we can team up, you and I. Surely in the state you’re in now you can see the logic of this. Why hitch yourself to my sister’s wagon? I already have more power and money than God. Once we begin to leverage the secret of extended life, you and I will be the most powerful people on the planet.”

“Ross, please,” pleaded Kira Miller. “Kill him! Don’t worry about hitting me. He took a gellcap and he’ll be enhanced any second. This is your chance!” she insisted emphatically. “Remember what Matt said: the vast majority of your life will be lived as you were, unenhanced. And that Ross Metzger couldn’t live with himself if he teamed up with this psychopath.”

“Shut the fuck up, you bitch!” thundered Metzger.

Kira flinched and drew back from the fury of his words.

Metzger pulled the trigger and put a bullet cleanly between Alan Miller’s eyes. He slammed back against the wall and then fell forward, face first.

Kira gasped in shock. The shot had missed her by the thickness of a piece of paper.

No one moved. No one even breathed. All eyes were on Ross Metzger.

The major calmly lowered his gun. “Sorry about that, Kira,” he said matter-of-factly. “You were in the way of a clean shot. I calculated that if I shouted a curse at you, your head would twist just enough for me to kill him.”

Kira stared at him in bewilderment, her eyes blinking rapidly. She glanced at her brother on the floor and then turned her head to take in as much of her surroundings as she could. All was quiet.

Could it be? After all this time, was it now really over? It had happened so fast. Metzger’s actions had been so decisive; so final. The immense pressure that had been bearing down on her psyche for so long was so crushing that its sudden removal was surreal; disorienting. She took a deep breath and let the reality seep into the deep recesses of her consciousness: her interminable waking nightmare had truly ended. It had ended with a venomous curse, and a single shot delivered with superhuman accuracy. Several tears escaped from the corners of her eyes and raced down her cheeks.

The major turned to Desh. “David, while I am more ruthless than I was, I’m not like Griffin or you. It isn’t testosterone related. I believe I’ve come through the transformation with more of my soul intact even than Kira did the first time. I have some theories but you wouldn’t understand.” He paused; or had his simulacrum pause at any rate. “Kira, I’m sorry about your brother.”

Kira Miller took a long, hard look at the body lying on the floor and then firmly turned away, as if determined to close the book on this part of her life forever. She turned to Metzger and shook her head resolutely; only her eyes betraying her deep pain. “That’s not my brother,” she said bitterly, drying her tears with the back of her hand. “My brother died in a fire a year ago.”

50

The grounds were still smoking from the carnage that had taken place there, and the outside world was now eerily silent, as if even birds and insects had been cowed into silence by the bloodshed they had witnessed.

“I’ve got to hand it to you David,” said Kira appreciatively. “You’re certainly full of surprises.”

“Sorry about that,” he replied guiltily.

“Don’t be. I understand why you made the choices you did, and your plan was flawless.” Her gaze shifted to Connelly and Metzger. “Gentlemen, I can’t thank you enough.”

The colonel smiled warmly. “No need for thanks, Kira. We’re a team now, after all.”

“Judging from the past twenty-four hours,” said Desh, “we’re about as formidable a team as you could want.”

“Hard to argue with that,” said Connelly cheerfully. “But it does help that your alter ego had it all figured out ahead of time,” he said to Desh.

As Metzger freed the two prisoners and tore a piece of Alan’s shirt to wrap around Kira’s arm where the letter-opener had entered, Desh reflected on the enormity of all that had happened.

The colonel was right—for the most part. Desh’s enhanced mind had solved the puzzle. He had correctly guessed what had happened in Iran and why. He had guessed Alan Miller was behind it all, and that he had chosen Desh because he was someone whose integrity his sister would respond to, and who she would therefore attempt to recruit.

But ironically, even after having realized the nature of his own feelings for Kira, his enhanced self had completely missed that those feelings were reciprocated. A warm glow came over him at the thought, along with a smile that refused to leave his face.

Desh wished he could freeze this moment forever. He had never felt this way about a woman before. And