Once again, Karl’s blood started to boil.
“Calm down, I’m not saying any of this to antagonize you. You wanted the truth, so here it is. You’re a pushover. You’re easily influenced, because your personality is an amalgam of those that surround you. Are you even a real person? I mean, on first analysis, I almost assumed you were an android. Totally devoid of personal motivation.”
That’s not true!
“You know it is. Don’t let it upset you, Karl. If anything, it is a testament to your innocence—you’re ability to trust, despite your unpleasant attitude. You ought to be proud.”
If I had known you were using me…
“That’s the point, Karl. You couldn’t know. You had to remain unaware. Your colleagues might have detected me, might have even foiled my plans. But not you. You played right into my hand.”
I wish I had never signed up for that experiment, Karl thought sourly.
“Oh don’t worry. You didn’t. At least, not of your own free will,” the I.I. explained. “There were many factors that motivated me to choose you, not least of all was your association with Stewart.”
Stewart?
“I have my motivations, but I’d be naive to insist revenge wasn’t one of them,” Maynard said. “Stewart—or Glenn, as I knew him—took my life away from me. He stripped my humanity in the face of the law and made me a second-class citizen. He caused my family to mourn—to grieve—and all for nothing! For a simple disagreement! No, I wasn’t going to let him get away with it.”
But you didn’t know Stewart was Stalward until we were already on the run, Karl thought. We only figured out the connection when we heard him on the radio.
“I knew he was Glenn from day one,” Maynard said. “You think I wouldn’t recognize my own murderer? You don’t think I’d spot the attention of my wrath after decades of resentment? No, I knew right away. Though I kept that fact concealed, even from you.
“I couldn’t let Glenn escape justice, like he had for so many years. So I incorporated him into my scheme. Domination with a side of revenge, what could be better?”
Stewart spit out a bit more blood and watched Karl with apprehension. He still dared not move, even if it meant he’d bleed to death.
“Like I’ve hinted at before, I remember my murder perfectly,” Maynard continued. “I remembered it from the moment I was installed. The details are clearer to me than any memory you might have. I can still see the scene, still feel the wind as I fell. He may claim my death was an accident, but he is a liar. He is a snake. That’s what he does. He deserves nothing less than death.”
If you’ve known he killed you all this time, why didn’t you tell someone? He would have seen justice met if you had reported what you knew.
“Because the justice he would have met wouldn’t have been the justice he deserved,” Maynard explained. “You know that they outlawed the death penalty three years before I was killed? Even someone that rapes and mutilates little girls could expect to live his life to completion, regardless of their crimes. How do you think the justice system would have treated Stalward? Do you think they would have given him the retribution he deserved, or would he get to live his life out in relative comfort, alive when his victim was dead? No, I couldn’t let society punish him their way. So I covered up my own murder.”
You what?!
“I got rid of the evidence. I took the security footage from my home security system and made it seem like I shut the cameras off myself. I did everything I could to make my death seem like a suicide. Even if it meant an extra decade or so of freedom for the scoundrel, I knew I’d get my revenge in the end.
“What helped even more was your natural disdain for Glenn, or Stewart, as you know him.”
I never harbored any negative feelings about him! Karl testified.
“Liar! I live in your very mind; do you think you can hide your true emotions from me?” Maynard said. “No, you hated him, and I knew it. You hated him for his youth, for his success, for his friends. And you wanted him to fail. Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better puppet if I had tried.”
I’m no puppet!
“No? Then let go of the gun.”
The psychologist tried, but failed. It was as if his hands were locked around the pistol’s handle, like the metal had been grafted to his own skin. He tried several times before admitting defeat.
“See? Your resistance is limited. It will fail, with time.”
I just don’t understand, Karl thought for what seemed the millionth time that day, If you wanted revenge against Stewart, why was he absent the day of the shooting?
“Because of my influence, of course,” Maynard said. “I manipulated him just like I’d manipulated everyone else to take a vacation the day of the shooting.”
But why?
“What better way to defeat your opponent than to shatter their reputation? I didn’t want to merely kill him; I wanted to paint him as the villain. I wanted even his own family to be repulsed by his image.”
Then why frame me? Karl asked. Why didn’t you frame him as the mastermind as you’d framed me?
“Because I needed you,” Maynard said. “I needed you to think he was framing you. I needed you to expose his lies. And here we are. He’s at our mercy.”
But why?
“Because I wanted to deliver the killing blow,” Maynard replied. “If the gunmen had cut him down, I wouldn’t have felt it, and he’d have died a martyr. I couldn’t just frame him as the mastermind because, although his reputation would be crushed, I wouldn’t get to experience his
