“You are without a doubt the vilest human being who has everexisted on this planet,” said Josh. “Why would you kill all those people? Isthis your latest way of getting me to change my mind because, let me assureyou, it’s not working.”
“It was you who gave me the idea in the first place, mylove,” she replied. “Do you remember when you said you wouldn’t want me if Iwas the last woman on Earth? Well, within a few hours I will be, so we can testthe theory. That’s if you’re still alive by then, of course.”
Josh sneezed profusely, about three or four times in a row,and immediately knew what she meant. His body had begun to react to the virusalready infecting every cell of his body. Right now, he felt exactly as heoften did at the start of an attack of hay fever, but he knew this was nothingto do with pollen.
“Oh yes, you’ve got it,” she confirmed. “That’s how itstarts. Just like a cold. But it rapidly get worse. Most people are dead withina couple of hours.”
“You won’t let that happen,” said Josh. “You wouldn’t havegone to all this trouble if it meant I’d die, too.”
“Quite right,” she said. “In fact, I’ve got the cure righthere. All you have to do is ask for it.”
“Never,” said Josh, determined not to give in to her. “I’drather be dead than submit to you.”
“Noble sentiments, indeed,” she replied. “But in a few moments,you’ll be begging me to help you. What’s the worst pain you’ve ever felt inyour life? Well, multiply that by a hundred and you might be getting close towhat your body’s about to make you feel. Now come on, be reasonable. Let mehelp you and we can stop all this silliness. It’s really gone on far too long,don’t you think?”
“Go to Hell!” he shouted, as the pain began to kick in. Itstarted with the heat building across his skin, starting like a mild sunburnbut increasing exponentially until it felt like he was being branded by red-hotirons all over his body. But it was the internal heat that was the worst. Seemahad been right. It was like being cooked in a microwave.
“Come on, Josh, why suffer unnecessarily? I’ve got thesyringe right here. Just say the word and I can make it all go away. Give in tome and it will all be over.”
Despite his best intentions, Josh simply couldn’t hold outagainst the agonising pain any longer. No human being could. She had beatenhim, and he would have to concede, at least for now.
“OK, I give in,” he panted, barely able to speak through thepain. “Make it stop.”
“That’s not enough,” she taunted him. “I want more. I wantyou to tell me you love me.”
“Please, just give me the antidote,” he begged, pathetically,through the foam that was now pouring from his lips. He felt disgusted that hehad been reduced to this.
“Not until you tell me you love me,” said Vanessa. “And youhad better hurry up. In another couple of minutes your internal organs will startturning to mush and then nothing will be able to help you.”
“Fine,” he spluttered, desperate to end the pain. “I loveyou.”
“Good boy,” she said, stepping over to where he was nowwallowing on the floor to stick the syringe into his neck.
“There – that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Josh felt a soothing coolness spreading across his skin buttook no comfort from it. He had been defeated and humiliated and felt utterlybroken. The pain had taken all the fight out of him, at least for now.
“And now something to help you sleep,” said Vanessa,producing another syringe and injecting him again.
Exhausted, he was grateful to succumb to the relief ofsleep, going under very quickly.
Vanessa gazed adoringly down at him. At last he belonged toher.
“Ah, my little sleeping baby,” she cooed. “Don’t worry,everything’s going to be alright now.”
Crazed as she was, she still knew she couldn’t make him loveher by any conventional means, but that didn’t matter. She had plenty more inher armoury yet.
“Dani, come here,” she ordered, and Henry’s pet android fromCanberra dutifully glided into view behind her.
“What can I do for you, Vanessa?”
“Bring him and follow me,” she commanded.
The powerful android lifted Josh’s body with ease, turnedand followed Vanessa back out of the office.
Chapter Eighteen
July 2058
When Josh awoke, the pain was gone, and he was barely awarethat it had ever been there.
He felt woozy and disorientated. He had experienced suchfeelings before in the brief seconds following an exceptionally vivid dream, orwhen falling asleep at an odd time of day, but this time it was different.Seconds after regaining consciousness he was hit by the shock realisation thathe had no idea where he was or even who he was.
He sat up, looking around to find himself in luxurioussurroundings. He was in an extremely comfortable four-poster bed in a large,white room, with marble floors and rustic furnishings. Large French windowsoccupied the whole of the side of the room to his right, through which he couldsee a beach framed with palm trees. It was a picture postcard view.
The sheets were pure silk, as were his pyjamas. He couldn’tbe short of money if he could afford all this.
The shore was not far away judging by the sound of wavescrashing. He could hear the squawking of various tropical birds overhead, aswell as a strange whistling call from some kind of bird he had never heardbefore. He was somewhere in the tropics for sure, but any speculation beyondthat would be pure guesswork.
There was a low, red sun, right on the horizon, which waseither rising or setting, but he had no idea which because his body clock wasall out. He sat up and watched for a
