Countdown (20 page)

who were murdered.” He tsked his tongue. “A shame. Truly.” I shuddered at the thought of more girls dying so horrifically. “You mean, Rogan would have been proven innocent?” Gareth twirled around to face me. “Yes, it was only a matter of time. And I couldn’t have that.”
“So, now you’re going to kill me right here?” Rogan said.
“I’m surprised that you have the balls to do it yourself. Wait
a minute. How many Subscriber brainwaves would a talking
binary code have to absorb to have balls anymore?” Gareth moved so quickly that all I saw was a blur. He
grabbed a handful of Rogan’s dark hair and pulled his head
back. The chair teetered on two legs.
“A talking binary code, as you so crudely put it, can do many extraordinary things. And the brainwaves help with many things. The more I absorb through the implants, the
more powerful I become. But it’s not good enough.” He slowly brought Rogan’s chair back to its normal position. He patted Rogan on the top of the head as one might
do to an obedient dog.
“Oliver,” he said. “Tell Rogan what I plan to do with his
reactivated implant.”
Oliver pointed at himself. “Me? You want me to explain?”
He looked around at the rest of us nervously, then pocketed
the receiver. “Okay…sure. Uh, Mr. Ellis has requested that
I—and the team, of course—upload an artificial intelligence
program into your implant. Not sure if it’ll work, but the
reading I just took makes things look pretty positive. So…uh.
I think that’s about it.”
Gareth grinned. “Thank you, Oliver.” He put his arm
around Rogan’s shoulders and crouched down to whisper,
still loud enough for me to hear, “So you see, Rogan, we
will
be family again. That’s why
Countdown
is so important. My
testing of it is now over. It was a narrow viewer base, anyway. It’s time to take the Network and the implants to a much
wider audience.”
Rogan wrenched away from him. “Why would you do
this? You’re not my father anymore. Why would you even
want me to be a part of it?”
Gareth’s grin widened. “Perhaps
family
is the wrong terminology. When part of me is uploaded into you, we will feel
the same, we will think the same. We will be one entity in
two bodies. With my power multiplied thus, soon everything
from this city to the Colony will be ours—and much more
after that. The whole world will be ours. And why you, specifically? The implant, my dear son. You share the exact prototype implant that I have and that is what makes it all work
so beautifully. Without that implant you would be as useless
to me as lovely Kira is.”
Rogan’s eyes had gone very wide. “You’re insane.” “I’m no longer prone to mental ailments such as insanity.
Nor will you be once you are…
improved.
”
“Improved?” I managed, my stomach twisting and turning
with each word he spoke. “How can you see this as an improvement? You’re no better than that robot from level three.” That earned me a truly withering look. “Kira, let me try to
explain this clearly so you will understand once and for all. I
am the next evolution of the human species. That’s what the
Plague was. A cleansing. A way to improve the human species and get rid of the excess fat clogging the arteries of this
planet. One day very soon, all humankind will be fitted with
one of my implants. They will feed us and we shall become
the gods of a new race.”
“You’re right, I can’t see that. All I see is a computer virus
that’s a few pixels short of a full program.”
“Then that is your unfortunate oversight. The robot you
fought earlier was a meager experiment in artificial intelligence. My intelligence is no longer artificial. I have a soul…
you said so yourself.”
“I didn’t say that. I said
maybe
I saw your soul.” He took a menacing step toward me.
“Wait!” Rogan’s voice was hoarse. “Don’t hurt her. Just…
just spare her. I won’t fight you on this. You can do whatever
you want to me, but you have to let Kira go.”
My eyes widened, but I held my tongue. He wasn’t only doing this to be my knight in shining armor. I was the one
with the antivirus disc hidden in my bra.
Both of us might not survive this, he knew that. But if I
could—and if I could get to that room…
No way. I wanted both of us to survive. I wasn’t ready to
accept any less than that quite yet.
Gareth laughed. “That’s so terribly noble of you. The memories I can access of you do not lead me to believe that chivalry was ever one of your virtues. Has juvenile detention and
sober living turned you into a gentleman?”
Rogan glared at him. “It did change me. I was a thoughtless, selfish, drug-addicted asshole before.”
“A thoughtless, selfish, drug-addicted asshole who didn’t
know good entertainment like
Countdown
when he saw it.” Rogan’s expression darkened. “It’s still murder.” Gareth sighed. “The murder of a human, especially a criminal, is meaningless. In the world I envision, there are no criminals. There is no crime. It will be a perfect place to coexist
and to thrive. And by the time this body wears out, I will
have developed the proper technology to be able to upload
my very essence into a new one.”
“Immortality,” Rogan said, stunned. “That’s what this is
all about for you, isn’t it?”
“And be thankful I wish to share it with you. Perhaps
there is a small part of this body that still feels a familial bond
with you. Otherwise, I likely would have already killed you
for ruining my game. When the Subscribers are angry, they
turn to other programs—programs I have no direct access to
yet.” His eyes narrowed. “You have no idea how hungry I
am right now.”
I shuddered.
“Spare Kira,” Rogan said again. “And I will do whatever
you want.”
Gareth cast a dark look at me. “Was it your idea to shoot
the cameras?”
I glared at him defiantly. “It was a mutual decision.” “You ruined what would have been a very interesting finale.”
“What, our deaths on camera? You sure have a twisted sense
of what’s interesting.”
“I’m still not entirely convinced that you wouldn’t have
shot Rogan to reap your ultimate reward if there had been
no other option.”
If my mouth wasn’t so dry I would have spit at him. “I
wouldn’t
have killed him,” I said evenly. “I would rather
have died first.”
“I guess we’ll never know for sure.”
I heard a whirring sound, and a small hatch in the wall up
in the top right corner of the room opened up and a camera
slid out. It swiveled around so that it pointed toward the table. “What the hell is that?” Rogan growled.
“You ruined my game,” Gareth replied. “I can’t have fifteen
thousand angry Subscribers. Now I will make it up to them.” Oliver moved forward. “Wait. You said that you wouldn’t
hurt her!”
Gareth put a hand on his shoulder. “And I meant every
word.”
Oliver relaxed a little. He dared a glance in my direction.
“See, Kira? I’m not as bad as you’re probably thinking. I refused to help if he was going to hurt you. He promised.” I didn’t reply. I was afraid of what I might say to thank him
for his “help.”
“Come with me.” Gareth led Oliver toward the door. “I’m
sure the new ending I have planned for this cycle of
Countdown
will be well received.”
Oliver moved with him but was frowning. “I don’t understand. You promised…”
Gareth nodded. “I promise that her death will be completely painless.”
“What are you doing?” Rogan roared. “I said that I’d cooperate if you let her go!”
Gareth shot him a dark smirk. “You have no choice but to
cooperate. Now, I will leave you in private—other than the
cameras, of course—to say your goodbyes.”
The door shut behind them, leaving Rogan and me in the
white room all alone except for the company of the camera. Rogan’s gaze shot erratically around the room. He strained
against his bindings.
I felt the pounding of my heart in the backs of my eyeballs as I waited for something horrible to happen. I’d tried to
stay calm this whole time, but the dam had broken and fear
f looded over me again.
The metal cuffs restraining my arms behind me released
and dropped to the f loor. I rubbed my wrists and looked at
Rogan with wide eyes.
“What just happened? I’m free.”
I jumped up from the chair and began to move toward
Rogan.
“No—stop, Kira!” He leaped from his chair, too, his gaze
moving up toward the ceiling “This room—don’t come any
closer—”
A thick sheet of glass slammed down from the ceiling to
the f loor, slicing between the two facing tables. The force of it blew the hair back from my face. If I’d taken one more step,
it would have cut me in two.
I looked at it, stunned, not believing what had just happened. I put my hand against the cold glass and stared at Rogan
whose hands were still bound behind him.
I glanced up at the camera that was taping us and imagined
the Subscribers watching eagerly.
I rushed to the door and realized with dismay that there
was no handle on this side.
“Kira!” Rogan’s voice was clear and loud, despite the glass
barrier. He wore an expression of pure shock.
I promise that her death will be painless,
Gareth had said. I only had to wonder what he meant for another moment. That was when the gas began to seep through the air vents
into my side of the room.

THE GAS SLID OUT OF THE VENT IN THE UPPER left corner in a translucent white slithering line. It trailed down the wall and onto the f loor. More and more of it, moving through the room like blind fingers searching me out. When it reached me, it curled around my legs, swirling and
moving like a snake.
“Kira!” Rogan yelled.
Gareth was right. It wasn’t painful. In fact, it didn’t hurt
at all. I was surprised that the gas didn’t even have much of a
scent when it finally reached my nostrils. I clamped my hands
over my mouth and nose, but I knew that wouldn’t do any
good. Not for long. I turned to the glass, to Rogan. “What do I do now?” I didn’t even try to hide the panic
in my voice.
He pulled hard against his restraints, but it did nothing. His
expression was frantic. “I don’t know. Damn it! I don’t know!” The camera swiveled to take in both sides of the room. “Where are you, you son of a bitch?” Rogan roared. “I’m
going to kill you!”
But there was no reply. There was nothing. His father had
promised to give us some privacy—other than the fifteen
thousand subscribers who were tuned in to watch my death
scene, of course.
I tried to hold my breath, but after thirty seconds I remembered that breathing wasn’t really a choice. Unfortunately. I inhaled some of the gas. It still had no discernible odor.
Maybe it was just a ruse. Maybe this was just something to get
an entertaining reaction out of us and make the Subscribers
happy after we’d cheated them out of a good level six ending by escaping.
But, no. The more I breathed, the weaker I felt. My head
began to swim. I gasped for breath. Instead of pounding hard
and fast with fear like it had been before, my heart began to
pump more and more slowly.
The gas cast a whitish fogginess over the already white
room. My legs crumpled beneath me, bringing me onto my
knees hard enough to bruise. I dragged myself closer to the
barrier and put my hands up against the smooth, cold glass. Rogan had moved close enough that his breath now fogged
up the glass. He continued to struggle hard against his bindings, but it was in vain. He couldn’t break free. His expression
held a mixture of rage and grief. From where I had placed my
hand against the barrier, he was only a few inches away. So
close…but not close enough.
“I want you to know,” I managed, gasping now for each
breath I took, “I still think that you were wrong earlier.” “About what?”
“I’m glad I got off the shuttle. I…I’ve been happy for any
time I’ve spent with you.”
“Kira—” His voice broke. “Don’t talk like you’re giving
up. Please, don’t.”
“Promise me that you won’t stop fighting.” I blinked, and
the tears splashed down my already wet cheeks. “Don’t let
him change you into a monster like him. You’re too good for
that. There’s…there’s still hope…”
My hand slipped off the glass. I breathed shallowly through
my mouth in quick little gasps. The world in front of me was
fading from white to gray. Darker and darker, closer and closer
to the pitch-black that I feared the most.
Would I see my family? Would I go to Heaven when I died? I wanted so desperately to be brave. But I wasn’t brave. I
was afraid. So afraid.
Gareth was right about one thing—it didn’t hurt. But that
seemed to make this even scarier. At least pain reminded me
that I was still alive.
“Damn you, Kira!” Rogan yelled. “Don’t stop fighting! Not
after everything we’ve been through. Not like this. Please!” I wanted to let him know how wonderful I thought he was,
how much I believed in him, and how he’d helped me trust
somebody again, somebody other than myself. That the past
didn’t matter. That he was better now. So much better. And
that I’d miss him so much.
But I didn’t have the energy to speak. My mouth moved
wordlessly as I slid the rest of the way down the glass and felt
the cold, hard f loor against my head.
Just before the world turned to complete, impenetrable
black, I heard something. It seemed so far away—as if it was
coming from the end of a very long and empty hallway. A door opened. Then I felt hands under my arms and the
sensation of being dragged. My heavy boots squeaked as I slid across the f loor. Then a door closed. It was still so far away I
didn’t know what was going on. I was still fading. Fading…. And then I felt the unmistakable sensation of a hand slapping me across the face. Several times. Really hard. “Wake up, Kira. Wake up!”
My eyelashes f luttered, and I opened my eyes slowly, my
left cheek stinging. The world crept back into focus. Oliver stared down at me.
“We don’t have much time.” His voice trembled. “Can
you move?”
More eyelash f luttering on my part. I swallowed. When
I realized that the air I was now breathing was clear of the
poisonous gas, I began taking greedy gulps of it. I drank in
the air, filling my lungs with deep mouthfuls until my head
cleared even more.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw his hand rise. “Slap me again,” I said, “and it’ll be the last thing you ever
do.”
He gave me a tentative smile. “I’m glad you’re feeling okay.” “
Okay
is a bit of an exaggeration. You should know that as
soon as I’ve recovered I am going to kill you.”
His smile fell. “But I saved you.”
I kept trying to breathe normally. I was alive. I hadn’t died.
“Thank you for saving me.”
He let out a sigh of relief. “You’re welcome.”
“However, you do know that we wouldn’t have even been
in that room if it wasn’t for you, right? So, please, forgive me
for not offering you a big, warm hug of celebration.” Oliver stood up and shuff led his feet nervously. “I begged
Mr. Ellis to let you go. He didn’t listen to me. The man is
evil.”
“You think?” I would have rolled my eyes if I’d had the
energy. “Help me up.”
He offered me a hand and I got to my feet. My ankle still
ached from spraining it. But pain was a relief. After all, it
meant I was still alive.
“Mr. Ellis had a conference call come in from the Network
chairman. He had to take it. I took the opportunity to disable
the camera. I couldn’t figure out how to shut off the gas, so I
had to come and get you myself.”
That meant we didn’t have much time. Hopefully it would
be enough. “Honestly, Oliver. I can’t believe you work here.
For him. How can you do that?”
“If it’s any consolation, I think this is my last day.” His expression twisted into one of shame, and he suddenly looked
a great deal older than his seventeen years. “I never realized
how bad it was. How bad
he
was. Or, at least, it took me a
while to clue in. I never wanted you to get hurt.” “But it was okay for Rogan to get hurt?”
His expression went hard. “My sister was one of the murder victims at that university. She was the only family I had
in the world. I wanted Rogan to suffer for that.”
My heart twisted. “But he’s innocent. His father even admitted it in there.”
His eyes filled with tears. “I was wrong. I’m sorry.” “And I’m sorry about your sister.” I’d never known he had
a sister. He’d never mentioned her. Then again, I’d never told
him about what had happened to my family and to
my
sister. I’d never told anyone I’d met on the streets, holding my
secrets close as if they might keep me warm on cold nights. I guess we had way more in common than I’d thought
we did.
I looked at his name tag, which read
Oliver Palmer—
Programmer
.
Funny. I’d never known his last name before, either. Never
realized that until right now. I’d been too wrapped up in my
own problems to allow myself the chance to really get to know
somebody else. At least, until Rogan.
My eyes widened as I studied Oliver’s name tag a moment
longer.
It was red.
Joe had said we’d need somebody with a red name tag to
get into the room with the server.
“How long until somebody finds out I escaped?” I asked,
scanning the eerily empty hallway.
“Not long.” He looked worried. “The Subscribers will start
complaining that the feed cut out—or they’ll start changing
to another show. Mr. Ellis will be notified, and he’ll know
what I did. We’d better get out of here now.”
Oliver had had a lousy life—no question. And I didn’t even
know his whole story. I guess I couldn’t completely blame
him for latching on to something that seemed like an incredible opportunity, especially working with computers, the one
thing he seemed to love most in life.
Lucky for me—and just in time—he’d realized that he
wasn’t a monster like Gareth Ellis.
“We need to get Rogan,” I said firmly.
Oliver hesitated, but then nodded. He removed the red card
from his name tag holder and swiped it in the computerized
lock on the right side of the white door leading to the other
side of the room.
The door swung open. Rogan turned to look at us, and
his eyes widened.
“Kira!” he exclaimed. “You’re alive!”
I grinned. “Yeah. For now.”
I felt a happy lurch in my chest as I went directly to him. His
gaze ref lected what I’d been thinking. That that had been it.
He’d thought he’d witnessed my death. But here I was, battle
weary but ready to go another round.
But any celebrations would have to wait until we knew if
we were going to live more than five more minutes. All Oliver had done was buy us a little more time.
Oliver pressed a hidden panel on the wall, and a keyboard
was exposed. After he touched a few numbers, Rogan’s metal
cuffs snapped open and fell to the f loor as mine had earlier. Rogan stood up and pulled me to him, crushing me against
his chest for a moment before capturing my face between his
hands. “I thought I’d lost you.”
My breath caught. “I’m still here.”
“I’m glad.”
I let out a very mild laugh. “Yeah, me, too.”
“We need to go,” Oliver urged.
He was right. Breathlessly, I grabbed Rogan’s hand. “Let’s
get out of here.”
The three of us left the room without another word. “Are you okay?” Rogan asked, squeezing my hand. “I’m recovering.” I hobbled along quickly on my injured
ankle. “Call me crazy, but I don’t think sucking in poisonous gas until you’re almost dead is something you can just
shake off.”
Oliver didn’t say anything. Now that Rogan had joined
us, he seemed to be afraid again. Whether it was because of
Rogan’s reputation or the fact that he’d almost killed me and
was scared what Rogan might do in return, I didn’t know. Rogan turned his gaze to Oliver. “We need to find my father’s private sub-basement office. Do you know where that
is?”
“I haven’t been here long enough to completely know my
way around.”
“We already took the elevator down past ground level. Is
this the sub-basement?” I asked. “Or is there more?” “There’s one more level beneath this one,” Oliver said. “I
was supposed to start working down there soon.” He sighed.
“I guess that’s not going to happen anymore.”
“Can we get to it through the regular elevators?” Rogan
asked.
He shook his head. “There’s a f light of stairs. Yeah, right
there.” He pointed at a white door in front of us that wasn’t
marked.
Scurrying down the hallway toward the door, I got the oddest sense of déjà vu. Then I realized why. It was from watching Oliver play his networked game
.
It felt as if we were in
the game right now, trying to find our way through, trying
to save the day from the bad guys without getting ourselves
killed in the process.
Then I remembered how the game had ended for Oliver. Oliver reached for the unmarked door.
“Wait!” I began, but he’d already turned the handle. There was a man on the other side. I recognized him as
one of the White Coat thugs who’d brought us from the car
to the white room. He was the one who’d hit Rogan in the
back of the head with the butt of his gun.
The gun he still held.
His eyes widened with surprise when he saw us standing
there.
Oliver held up his hands. “Uh…hi there. Um…Mr. Ellis
asked me to take these two downstairs for the next level of
Countdown.
”
“Nice try,” the man said.
He raised his gun and shot Oliver in the chest. As he twisted to aim at me, Rogan sprang at him, grabbing his arms. There was a blur of fists and legs. Rogan hit
him across the jaw, and spun around and kicked him in the
stomach. They both fell to the f loor. He grabbed the man’s
arm and pressed his knee down on his forearm until I heard
a sickly snap of a bone breaking. The man screamed in pain,
but Rogan had the gun in his hand now and he pointed it at
the man’s head.
Rogan, breathing hard, turned to look at me, his expression tense.
I’d caught Oliver as he began to fall, and helped him down
to the ground. His breath came in short, shaky gasps, and he
held a hand to his chest that oozed bright red blood. “I guess I didn’t pass the final job interview,” he managed. “Oliver—” I could barely find the breath to form words.
“Oh, Oliver! I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head. “No…no,
I’m
sorry. Don’t…don’t hate
me.”
“How could I hate you? You rescued me. Thank you.” I
kissed his forehead.
His lips curled into a small smile, and then his eyes glazed
over.
I let out a shuddery moan. He was dead. He’d died in my
arms, trying to help us.
I looked at Rogan, whose attention was now on me. “Rogan!” I yelled. “Behind you!”
The man now had a knife, and he lunged at Rogan. Rogan
turned, aimed and pulled the trigger. He didn’t miss. The man slumped back to the f loor. This time he wasn’t
getting up.
Rogan gave me a pained look. “That’s two people I’ve
killed now.”
I found my voice quickly. “You didn’t have any choice.” “You’re right, I didn’t.” His chest heaved from the exertion. “I’m very sorry about your friend.”
“So am I.” I nodded, blinking back tears, and moved Oliver’s still body to the side of the hallway. I took a moment to
close his eyes.
Then I grabbed Oliver’s red access card.
Rogan had a gun and I had an access card. I touched the
front of my shirt to make sure I could still feel the outline of
the disc in my bra.
Maybe—just maybe we could really do this.
Together we thundered down the stairs to the sub-basement.