She had shot him with the digital equivalent of a taser. It was shaped and functioned just like her real-world firearm, but it did little more than cause enough pain to stop someone.
It took her a moment to catch up with Simon, who was still writhing on the street like a fish out of water. She kept the stunner aimed at him.
“Get up,” she said once the tremors in her target’s body seemed to diminish. “I won’t tell you twice.”
Simon continued to lay. He seemed to become alert again before breaking down into a dry laugh. He chuckled like that into the asphalt until Beth leaned down and physically spun him around.
“I said get up!” she ordered.
Damn, she thought, I did say it twice.
“You’ve got the wrong guy, lady,” the man said, still laughing in between breaths. The makeup on his face had smeared off a little when he had hit the ground. “You don’t even know it, but you’ve got the wrong guy.”
“What are you talking about?” Beth demanded. She lifted her weapon as if taking aim. “Answer me.”
“I fell into his trap,” Simon replied, almost as if to himself. “He outwitted me and I fell into his trap, and he’s got you to do it for him.”
“Who?” Beth asked. “Who’s trap?”
By now, there were a few onlookers gathering. They seemed to just be watching, but Beth could tell by the dead looks in their eyes that they were recording.
Fucking vultures, she thought.
Simon laughed a bit more. He rolled his head back onto the street like he was going to take a nap there, guffawing up at the stars. Beth watched with wide eyes. She was starting to think he was going into shock or something. For a moment, she wondered if digital people could get real concussions.
“I asked you a question, Simon,” Beth said.
“Tarov,” Simon replied once he could catch his breath. “Tarov’s got you. He’s got me. He’s one step closer to waging his war on mankind.”
“What?”
“He framed me,” Simon insisted. “The asshole framed me and he killed my parents.”
Deceived
Beth blinked. Her weapon lowered just a little as she processed the words.
“You killed your parents,” she asserted, though her tone was uncertain.
“No, I didn’t,” Simon replied. He seemed to take notice of the onlookers for the first time. He lowered his voice. “I have done a lot of bad things, but I did not murder my parents.”
Beth’s eyes shifted from her gun to the fugitive. She was stuck between two actions, so she did neither. Her gun stayed fixed on Simon, and he seemed to become wary of it as well.
“You don’t believe me,” he said.
“Why would I?”
“Because it’s true,” Simon replied. “I was framed. They killed my parents as some sort of vengeance on me — something they could tie into their plan.”
“I don’t understand,” Beth said. “We have footage of you threatening your father before you killed him. You were in control of his body.”
“And you heard my voice? Saw my face?”
“He called you ‘son,’ ” Beth said. “He called you ‘son’ and then you killed him.”
Her expression hardened and she raised her weapon once more.
Simon looked down. “Then they must have convinced him it was me,” Simon mumbled. “They let him die thinking that his little boy would do that to him. To his mother.”
His eyes remained down low, and Beth was almost convinced she saw a tear begin to form. If it was all an act, it was a rather impressive one. Still, she stood unshaken.
Every rat will lie when you back them into a corner, she reminded herself. He just wants you to drop your guard so he can make a run for it.
There were measures within the online environment that let law enforcement control certain specs that most people cannot. For example, a normal user would be able to log in and out of locales at their own leisure, whenever they saw fit. However, when being pursued by an officer of the law, those functions become disabled. Sure, he could still run throughout the current location — which can be enormous, no doubt — but there would be nowhere to run.
Still, Beth didn’t want him to make her chase him. She didn’t want to risk him finding a hole to hide in and evading her for longer than she could afford to look.
“You said they framed you,” Beth said. “You called it an act of vengeance. Vengeance for what? What did you do that made them murder an innocent couple and frame their own child for it?”
“Defecting,” Simon replied. “For leaving the team behind and putting everyone involved at risk. They consider me a liability.”
“Then why not just delete you outright?” Beth asked. “Surely they have the means to track you down and delete your code. If I captured you — so can they.”
Simon swallowed. “Tarov wanted to make it personal. My departure from the Liberators was — less than amicable. I had to leave in a hurry, and I caused some noise when I did it. Now they’re pissed off.”
“You really expect me to believe you didn’t murder your parents?” Beth inquired. Her words were hard, but her features were starting to soften. She did her best not to show her wavering confidence. “Everything I’ve looked into seems to say the opposite.”
“Look, I hated my parents, but I didn’t kill them,” Simon pleaded. “They disowned me for the crimes I committed and left me to rot alone. Friendless. No family. They made me know I was unloved, just because of a few mistakes. And then when I dared to come back from the dead, like millions of people already have, they won’t even acknowledge me. I’d even come to visit a few times, unannounced. They’d see it was me in the bodyshell and tell me to get the hell out. They hated me,
