Countdown

CHAPTER TWENTY

Ellis Enterprises was a twenty-floor building made of silver and glass that sat in an otherwise empty section of the city like a cold, sparkling gem under the overcast skies. I saw it from the comer of my eye as the car carrying the four men in white coats that had captured Rogan and myself drove toward it.

I rested my head on Rogan's shoulder. Both of us had our hands bound behind our backs.

He was currently unconscious, but he'd put up a pretty good fight. Despite what I'd told Rogan earlier, I was actually surprised that they hadn't killed us on the spot.

I was sure it was only a matter of time.

I tried to imagine Rogan showing up to work every day at a building like this one and couldn't quite picture it. The Rogan Ellis I knew wasn't a high-powered businessman with billions of dollars to spend and power to wield. I wasn't sure if I would have liked the old Rogan when he was a rich, spoiled playboy.

In fact, I was quite sure I would have hated him.

Then again, the old Rogan probably wouldn't have looked twice at somebody like me. At the end of the day, I was just a street thief who happened to steal the wrong guy's wallet one day. I'd never even been inside a building like this one.

But that was exactly where they were taking us.

I tried to concentrate on the sound of my breathing. Anything to keep from thinking about how badly this could all go. As Rogan had said, he wasn't sure how we were going to get inside the building in the first place. The security was tight. Super tight. We had to go through three checkpoints and a manned security station before coming within fifty feet of the place.

The car rolled to a stop next to a black side door. A man in a white coat sprayed something in Rogan's face, and he woke up with a jerk. Every muscle in his body seemed to tense until he saw me and our gazes met.

"We're here," I told him.

"Are you okay?" were his first gruff words.

"No, we're both royally screwed."

He smirked at me. "I think you're probably right."

"Shut up," a White Coat suggested firmly.

I glared at him but refrained from telling him to fuck off. We were in enough hot water as it was. Wouldn't want to speed up the execution.

God, even thinking about it made me feel sick.

Then the back door of the car opened and both of us were yanked out of our seats. All the White Coats, whom I had originally assumed were scientists of some sort, were carrying weapons. Scientists packing heat. Didn't make me feel any better.

"Move," they instructed.

We moved. Through an open door and into the cool interior of the building.

"We're in," Rogan said. "Should we celebrate now or wait till later?"

I gave him a look. How could he joke at a time like this? But I saw that the mild levity of his words did not spread to his expression.

"Shut up." One of the men jammed the butt of his gun into Rogan's back as we walked along a long, bare hallway. The white-tiled floor squeaked against my boots. "Don't make me tell you again."

Rogan said something under his breath, and it wasn't pleasant.

At the end of the hallway something was waiting for us, and I stopped walking quite as fast as we neared it.

Or rather, him.

It was Gareth. He stood there next to an open elevator with his feet spread, his arms folded across the front of his expensive, designer black business suit. His eyes were narrowed at our approach.

"Welcome back, brother," he said as Rogan was shoved into the elevator before me so hard that he hit the back of it with his shoulder. His hands were still bound behind him.

"Brother?" Rogan repeated through clenched teeth. "Is that what we are? Are you certain of that?"

"Sure I am." Gareth's mouth twisted into a strange smile and he glanced at me. "Why? Have you heard differently from someone?"

I felt a shove at my back and staggered into the elevator as well. Four men in white coats and then Gareth all pressed into the elevator and the doors closed. I felt very claustrophobic, which actually wasn't one of my typical fears, but I considered adding it to the growing list, along with darkness and heights.

We'd entered on the ground level, but the elevator took us down farther.

Joe had told us that the room with the artificial intelligence server was in the subbasement.

Joe hadn't put up a fight when the White Coats entered the gaming room a half hour ago. In an act of cowardly self-preservation he'd slunk back into the shadows and tried to pretend he wasn't even there. And it had worked. They didn't bother with him at all, since they were focused on us.

However, they did grab Colin. He hadn't accompanied us in the car, so I had no idea what had happened to him. Frankly, I didn't care. If I allowed myself to think about that bastard too much I wasn't going to be able to see for the blinding rage I was feeling at his betrayal. Maybe he'd get a reward. I guess everyone was out for themselves. Not that this was news.

I felt a small lurch as the elevator stopped and the doors opened up on a whole lot of white. Since heaven probably wasn't located five floors underground, I was going to have to assume that I wasn't dead yet.

I figured my odds of getting into heaven were slim to none anyhow.

Gareth soundlessly stepped off the lift, and a firm grip circled my upper arm, crushing enough to bruise, and one of the men pulled me along another hallway.

All white. Everything was white and smelled of metal and antiseptic.

Never had pristine cleanliness looked more like death to me.

"Where are you taking us?" Rogan demanded.

The White Coat whacked the gun against the back of his head. Not enough to knock him out, but definitely enough to hurt like hell. Rogan turned his head to glare at the man with uncensored fury, his upper lip curling back from his teeth.

"Do that again," he snarled, "and I'll shove that gun up your ass and pull the trigger."

The man laughed, obviously feeling unthreatened.

Joe said that he hadn't wanted to work here. Despite the perks, of which I'm sure there were many, he couldn't stomach the sadistic nature of being controlled by a walking, talking computer virus.

This guy, however, didn't seem to have a problem with it.

Gareth nodded at a door ahead. "In there."

It looked exactly the same as the room where I'd spoken with Gareth before, which meant I'd already been here. They'd taken me here by helicopter after Level Four, when I'd been blindfolded. However, I could have been wrong. There wasn't much to mark it as a unique room. It was all white, with a table in the middle. Two chairs on either end. Both white, the monotone giving it a strange, almost surreal feeling.

Rogan and I, wearing our borrowed clothes from the safe house and heavy Countdown black boots, were pushed into the chairs so we were facing each other.

Rogan met my gaze and held it. His handsome face was lined with worry and stress, his brows drawn together in a deep frown. The slash of his scar was red against his pale face. I saw a small amount of blood trailing down the side of his neck from where that asshole had hit him with the gun.

His hands were still locked behind him in metal cuffs just like mine.

He didn't say anything and neither did I. It was evident on his face what he was thinking, as I'm sure it was on mine.

Don't lose hope. We 're not dead yet.

I remembered the touch of his lips brushing mine, the feel of his body moving against me, inside of me. My stomach clenched at the thought that the time we'd had together might be all we ever had. A couple of days with the only man I'd ever truly been in love with.

Don't lose hope.

"Leave us," Gareth said, glancing at the men who stood there brandishing weapons that seemed so black against their white clothes. "And send him in when he's ready."

Send him in. My gaze left Rogan to go to the door. Send who in?

The White Coats left and then we waited. It felt like hours, but I'm sure it was only minutes until he walked in. My mouth dropped open.

Colin.

Definitely not unconscious anymore, although he looked slightly out of sorts. There was a red mark on his head from where he'd been knocked out against the side of the table.

He wore an Ellis Enterprises security-clearance name tag against his otherwise casual clothing-ripped jeans and his H-logo T-shirt. He seemed no different from the Colin I'd known for a few years, other than the fact that he now stood beside the man who wanted to kill us.

Colin looked at me, and his brow furrowed slightly before he turned his attention to his new boss.

"Colin?" I managed. "What are … what are you doing-"

Gareth's lips curled. "Colin works for me now, don't you?"

Colin nodded. "Yes, sir."

Gareth moved toward him and slapped him twice on the back. "The boy's a genius. I always have room for geniuses on my staff. He was hired in a low level position a few days ago, but his association with you, Kira, made him suddenly all the more interesting to me. I've decided that he will be my personal assistant in all things."

I ran my tongue over my very dry lips and tried to find enough moisture in my mouth to form words. Gareth's personal assistant? Colin? I'd felt the ridge in the back of his scalp where he'd obviously been fitted for an implant, and knew he'd taken a job here, but I didn't expect his connection to Gareth to be so close.

The thought didn't fill me with reassurance. Anyone could be bought. Even someone you thought was your friend.

Gareth's smile held. "Yes, after his inconvenient run-in with you at the mall he was held for questioning. His computer was thoroughly examined. Are you aware, Kira, that the boy has pictures of you of a very personal nature? He's obviously quite enamored with you. However, I am quite sure you were completely unaware of these pictures even being taken, but they were there on his drive, along with evidence of very accomplished programming and hacking skills. I offered him more opportunities should you contact him in the future, and you did. I always follow through with my promises. Isn't that right, Colin?"

Colin nodded, his expression guarded. "That's right, sir."

Gareth's gaze slid over me with distaste. "I honestly believed that you had gotten the better of me with your little escape." His expression darkened. "You can imagine how delighted I was when we were informed of your whereabouts."

I fixed Colin with an icy glare. I'd thought that he'd done it out of sheer stupidity or the wish to protect himself from harm. Either of those reasons I was almost willing to forgive. I was mad as hell, but I had the capacity for eventual forgiveness. But to sell us out just to get a cool new job?

I couldn't forgive that.

"You said that you wouldn't hurt her," Colin said after a moment of silence. He seemed suddenly incapable of making eye contact with me.

Gareth laughed. "Sentimental fool, aren't you? Humans and their complicated emotions. Yes, yes, I did promise that, and I do try to keep my promises." He looked at me. "Since Colin has an implant, he's been able to follow along with watching you compete on The Countdown. I truly believed that after the reward level his desire to protect you would fade. No man would like to see the woman he loves enjoying the intimate touch of another."

I scowled at him.

"Now, on to other business." Gareth clasped his hands behind his back and began to pace the room slowly, moving in a slow circle around our table. My gaze flicked to Rogan for a second, but his attention was now fixed on his brother's possessed body. "Inspect him, if you would be so kind, Colin."

Colin moved toward Rogan, and I saw that he had a small metal receiver in his hand that flickered with green and yellow lights. He moved it over the back of Rogan's head and he studied the light reading.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Rogan tried to move his head away.

"Brother." Gareth leaned against the table, his back toward me. "Please relax. Colin is simply checking the validity of your implant."

"Jonathan was kind enough to remove it before you had him killed," Rogan growled.

"No, no. Not that implant. The other one. The prototype."

Rogan went very still. "But it never worked."

Gareth pushed away from the table and began to move about the room again. "A lot has changed in the past few years. Technology that we believed was redundant can be made active. Especially the prototypes. You have one. I have one. Anything after that was simply a mass-produced imitation of the original."

"Which means what?" Rogan said.

Then his face twisted in agony and he yelled out.

"Rogan! No!" I struggled against my restraints. "What are you doing to him?"

Rogan slowly relaxed, his chest heaving, and there was a gleam of sweat on his forehead.

Gareth ignored me and instead glanced at Colin, who squinted at the receiver. "Well?"

"It looks good," Colin said simply. "I've gone ahead and activated it for you. Simple, really."

Gareth smiled. "I'm so pleased that you think so. Then all is well with the world. Do you want to know why I care about your prototype implant, brother?"

"You're not his brother." I bit off the words. "And you damn well know it."

Gareth raised an eyebrow at me. "I see. So you told him despite my warnings of the consequences? I'm not sure if you're brave or stupid."

"Go to hell."

He laughed. "You have been an amusement, Kira. And the subscribers have enjoyed you, up until your disappointing finish. I wonder if you truly do have psi abilities. I watched your interaction with Kurtis on the roof in Level Five. He was convinced that you could see his soul. Were you lying to him?"

I forced myself to smile. "You'll never know."

He regarded me for a moment with a bland expression. "A true psi. An untapped element of humanity." He approached me and slid his hand around my throat tight enough to hurt and make me struggle to breathe. "Obviously when you read me before you sensed the annoying human presence who once used this shell. I wonder what else you think you may have seen."

I glared at him. "Maybe I saw your soul."

"Interesting." He raised an eyebrow and then released me. I coughed and still could feel the imprint of his fingers on my neck. He was very strong. I wondered how much of that strength came from Gareth the man, and how much from the virus itself.

Colin watched the proceedings from the far corner, his expression tense.

Gareth turned his back on me and approached Rogan, who struggled against his bindings, his gaze never leaving his brother's face.

Gareth crossed his arms against his black suit. "While I'm not happy about your attempted escape, I will say that I am very pleased that you survived so far into the game. When I first brought you in I thought of it merely as a mild amusement. A way to get rid of you once and for all. I'd heard that there were further investigations afoot after a similar crime in another university took place last week. This time it was ten girls who were murdered." He tsked his tongue. "A shame. A true shame."

"Rogan would have been exonerated?" I asked.

Gareth twirled around to face me. "My, that's a big word for such a little girl. And 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 actually surprised that you have the balls to do it yourself. Wait a minute. How many subscriber brain waves 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.

"As you can see, a talking binary code can do many extraordinary things. And the brain waves, as you so crudely call them, do help with many things. The more I absorb through the implants, the more powerful I become. But I need more."

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.

"Colin," he said, "tell Rogan what I plan to do with his reactivated implant."

Colin pointed at himself. "Me? You want me to explain? Wow. Okay." He pocketed the receiver. "Mr. Ellis has requested that I-and the team, of course-upload an artificial intelligence program into your implant. Not sure if it'll definitely work, but the reading I just took makes things look pretty positive. So … uh, I think that's about it."

Gareth grinned. "Thank you, Colin." He put his arm around Rogan's shoulders and crouched down to whisper, but still said loud enough for me to hear, "So you see, Rogan, we will be brothers again. That's why The Countdown is so important. The testing is over, and now I shall take the game to a much wider audience."

Rogan wrenched away from him. "Why? Why would you do this? You're not my brother anymore. Why would you want to share this with me?"

Gareth's grin widened. "Perhaps brothers is the wrong terminology. When part of me is uploaded into you … we will think the same. We will be the same. It will be as if we are one entity in two bodies. With my power multiplied thus, soon everything from this city to Offworld will be mine. And why you, specifically? 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 useless to me."

"You're insane." Rogan's face contorted with disgust.

"I'm no longer prone to human 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, if you can't see how I am obviously the next evolution of the human species then I cannot help you. 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 don't see that. All I see is a computer virus a few pixels short of a full program."

'Then that is your unfortunate oversight. The robot you fought earlier was just 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.

"Gareth!" Rogan's voice was rough. "Don't hurt her. just… just spare her. Please. I won't fight you on this. You can do whatever you want to me, but please let Kira go."

My eyes widened. "Rogan, no!"

Gareth laughed. "Brother, that's so terribly noble of you. The memories I can access of you do not lead me to believe that gallantry was ever one of your virtues. Has prison turned you into a gentleman?"

Rogan glared at him. "Prison did change me. I was a thoughtless and selfish asshole before."

"A thoughtless, selfish asshole who didn't know good entertainment like The Countdown when he saw it."

Rogan's expression darkened. "I can't condone 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 every time this body wears out, I will have developed the proper technology to be able to upload my very essence into a new body."

"Immortality," Rogan said. "That's what this is all about."

"Be thankful I wish to share it with you. Perhaps there is a small part of the original owner of the body that still feels a brotherly bond with you. Otherwise I would have already killed you for ruining my game. You have no idea how angry the subscribers are. And when the subscribers are angry, they stop watching." His eyes narrowed. "You have no idea how hungry I am right now."

"Spare her," Rogan said again. "And as I said, I will do what you want."

Gareth cast a dark look at me. "Was it was your idea to shoot the cameras?"

I glared at him defiantly. "That's right."

He nodded. "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 not entirely convinced that you wouldn't have shot him to save your own skin, Kira."

If my mouth weren't so dry I would have spit at him. Crude, sure, but definitely an effective way of showing somebody what you were thinking.

"I wouldn't have killed him," I said evenly.

"Perhaps. But now 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. I can't have fifteen thousand angry subscribers. Now I will make it up to them."

Colin moved forward. "You said that you wouldn't hurt her!"

Gareth put a hand on his shoulder. "I meant every word."

Colin appeared to relax 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 him toward the door. "I'm sure the new ending I have planned for The Countdown will be very well received."

Colin moved with him but was frowning. "I don't understand. You promised-"

Gareth nodded. "I promise that her death will be completely painless."

"Gareth!" Rogan roared. "What are you doing? I said that I'd cooperate if you let her go!"

Gareth shook his head. "You have no choice but to cooperate. Now I will leave you in private-other than the cameras, of course-to say your good-byes."

The door shut behind them, leaving Rogan and me in the white room all alone except for the whir 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, and the fear I'd been trying to repress flooded over me again.

The metal cuffs restraining my arms behind me released and dropped to the floor. I rubbed my wrists and looked at Rogan with wide eyes.

"What the hell just happened? I'm free."

I shakily got up from the chair and began to move toward Rogan.

"No." His gaze moved up toward the ceiling "Wait. This room … Don't come any closer-"

A thick sheet of glass slammed down from the ceiling to the floor, cutting the table cleanly in half, the force of it blowing the hair back from my face. If I'd taken one more step it would have done the same to me.

I looked at it dumbly, not believing what had just happened. I put my hand against the cold glass and stared through it at Rogan, who had been knocked to the floor when the table fell apart. His hands were still bound behind him.

I glanced up at the camera that taped us and imagined the subscribers watching greedily.

I stalked over to the door and realized that there was no handle.

"Kira!" Rogan shouted. I could still hear him, even if he was a bit muffled on the other side of the glass barrier. He wore an expression of pure shock.

I promise that her death will be painless, Gareth had said.

I had to wonder what he meant for only another moment.

That was when the gas began to seep through the air vents into my side of the room.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The gas slid out of the vent in the upper left comer in a translucent white, slithering line. It trailed down the wall and onto the floor, where it dissipated. But I could see it coming. 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?" My voice was strained with panic.

He pulled hard against his restraints but it did nothing. His expression was frantic. "I don't know. Dammit! I don't know!"

The camera swiveled to take in both sides of the room.

"Gareth!" Rogan roared. "I'm going to kill you!"

But there was no reply. There was nothing. Gareth 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 realized that breathing wasn't really a choice. Unfortunately.

I inhaled some of the gas, which 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 started to feel. My head began to swim. I gasped. Instead of pounding hard and fast with fear like it had been before, my heart began to pump slower and slower.

A tear slipped down my face-I wasn't sure if it was from self-pity or the gas itself, which had now filled the room completely. It was see-through, casting a slightly whitish fogginess to the already white room. I found that I couldn't stay standing, and my legs crumpled beneath me, bringing me down onto my knees hard enough to cause a bruise. I dragged myself closer to the window and put my hands up on the cold, smooth glass.

Rogan stared at me. He'd moved close to the barrier, and I could see his breath fogging up the glass. He continued to struggle hard against his bindings, even though it had done nothing but made his face gleam with more perspiration from the effort. His expression was now a mixture of rage and grief.

"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'm glad for any time we've spent together, Rogan."

"Kira-" His voice broke. "No, don't give up!"

"Just… just promise me that you won't stop fighting." I blinked and the tears splashed down my already wet cheeks. "Don't let them 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 was now breathing shallowly through my mouth in quick little gasps. The world in front of me was beginning to fade to gray, darker and darker, to the pitch-black that I feared the most.

Would I see my family? Would I go to heaven when I died?

Be brave, I told myself.

But I wasn't brave. I was afraid. So afraid.

It didn't hurt. That seemed to make it even scarier. At least pain reminded me that I was still alive.

"No, Kira … please … don't leave me! Don't go. Please! I love you!" His voice broke for real this time. He was crying.

Ilove you, too, I wanted to say. I wanted to let him know how much I loved him, how much I believed in him. How much I'd miss him.

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 floor against my head.

Ilove you, Rogan. Only you. Forever.

"No!" he yelled, and the grief in his voice was now a living, pain-filled thing.

Just before the world turned to complete, impenetrable black I heard something. It seemed so far away-as if I were at 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. I could hear the squeak as my heavy boots slid across the floor. 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 feeling of a hand slapping me across the face. Several times. Hard.

"Wake up, Kira. Wake up!"

My eyelids fluttered and I opened my eyes slowly, feeling the stinging on my left cheek. I tried to wet my dry, cracking lips with the tip of my tongue. The world came slowly back into focus.

Colin stared down at me with a fearful expression.

"We don't have much time," he said. "Can you move?"

More eyelid fluttering on my part. I swallowed. And then I realized that the air I was now breathing was clear of the poisonous gas. I began taking deep, greedy gulps of it. I drank at the air, filling my lungs with mouthfuls until my head cleared even more.

Out of the comer of my eye I saw his hand raise.

"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 better."

"You should know that as soon as I've recovered I am going to kill you."

He frowned. "But… but I saved you."

I kept trying to breathe normally. 'Thank you for saving me."

He smiled. "You're very 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 to buy a round of drinks."

Colin licked his lips and shuffled his feet nervously. "I told Gareth to let you go. He didn't listen to me. The man is evil."

"You think?" I would have rolled my eyes, but I still didn't have the energy. "Help me up."

He got to his feet and helped me stand. My ankle still hurt like a son of a bitch from spraining it.

"Gareth had a meeting. I disabled the camera without him knowing. I couldn't do anything about the gas, so I had to come and get you manually."

"I can't believe you sold us out. For what? A stupid job?"

His expression twisted into one of shame, and he suddenly looked a great deal older than his twenty-one years. "If I'd known he was going to hurt you I never would have agreed to any of this."

"But it was okay to hurt Rogan?"

His jaw clenched. "My sister was one of the murder victims at the university four years ago. She was the only family I had in the world. I wanted Rogan to suffer for that."

"But he's innocent. Gareth even admitted it in there."

His eyes filled with tears. "I was wrong."

"I'm sorry about your sister." My heart swelled a little. I didn't even know he'd had a sister. He'd never mentioned her. Then again, I'd never told him about what happened to my family, to my sister.

I guess we had more in common than I thought we did.

I looked at his name tag, which read, COLIN PALMER-PROGRAMMER.

Funny. I'd never known his last name before, either. Never realized that until right now. I guess I'd always been too wrapped up in my own problems to allow myself to really get to know somebody else.

My eyes narrowed as I studied his name tag.

It was red.

Joe said that we'd need somebody with a red name tag to get into the room with the server.

"How long do we have before somebody finds out I escaped?" I asked.

"Not long." He looked worried now. "The subscribers will start contacting us now that the feed cut out. Apparently they've been having a ton of problems with the game recently. Gareth will be notified, and he'll know what I did. We'd better go right now."

I felt a fleeting feeling of compassion for Colin. He'd had a lousy life. I guess I couldn't blame him for latching onto something that seemed like an incredible opportunity with a huge future, working with computers, the one thing he really loved in life.

Lucky for me-and just in time-he realized that he wasn't a monster like Gareth.

"We need to get Rogan," I said firmly.

Colin nodded, and I watched as 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.

The door swung open. Rogan turned to look at us and his eyes, shiny with tears, widened.

"Kira!" he exclaimed.

I felt a happy lurch in my chest as I went directly to him and threw my arms around him. But there wasn't any time for further celebrations. In fact, any celebrations could wait until we knew if we were going to live longer than five more minutes. All Colin had done was buy us a little more time.

Hopefully it would be all we needed.

Colin pressed a hidden panel on the wall and a keyboard was exposed. After he touched a couple of numbers Rogan's metal cuffs snapped open and fell to the floor, as mine had earlier. Rogan stood and pulled me to him, crushing me tightly against his chest.

"I thought I'd lost you," he murmured into my hair, and then captured my face in his hands, staring down at me for a moment before leaning over to kiss me.

The kiss was enough to give me the strength to keep going.

At that moment the thought of stopping Gareth paled in comparison to Rogan's kiss. That was what I was fighting for. More of his lips. More of him.

"Come on." I grabbed his hand, and the three of us exited the room.

"Are you okay?" Rogan asked gruffly.

"Not really." I swallowed and hobbled along quickly on my injured ankle. "I guess sucking in poisonous gas until you're almost dead isn't something you can just shake off."

Colin didn't say anything. Now that Rogan had joined us he seemed to be a little more afraid. Whether it was because of Rogan's reputation or the fact that he'd almost killed me and was afraid that Rogan would kill him in return, I didn't know. I'd have to give it even odds.

"We need to find Gareth's subbasement office," Rogan said gruffly. "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 subbasement?" I asked. "Or is there more?"

'There's another floor beneath this one," Colin said. "They mentioned it when I took my orientation tour. I'm supposed to start working down there soon." He sighed. "I guess that's not going to happen anymore."

"Can we get to it via the regular elevators?" Rogan asked.

He shook his head. "No, but there's a flight of stairs. Yeah, right there." He pointed at a plain white door in front of us that wasn't marked.

Scurrying down the hallway heading toward the unmarked door, I felt the oddest sense of deja vu. Then I realized what was causing the feeling. It was from watching Colin play his networked game of "Anarchy." It felt like 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.

I suddenly remembered how that game had ended earlier today for Colin.

Colin 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 Coats 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.

Colin held up his hands. "Uh … hi, there. Um … Gareth asked me to take these two downstairs for the next level of The Countdown"

"Nice try," the man said. "But there aren't any more levels. And I just got word that they'd escaped with your help."

He raised his gun and shot Colin in the chest.

As he swiveled to aim again at me, Rogan sprang at him, grabbing his arms. There was a blur of fists and legs. Rogan hit him across the jaw, then spun around and kicked him in the stomach. They both fell to the floor. Rogan grabbed the man's arm and pressed his knee down on his forearm until I heard the sickly snap of a bone breaking. The man screamed out in pain, but Rogan had the gun in his hand now, and he pointed it at the man's head.

Rogan, breathing hard, then turned to look at me.

I'd caught Colin as he began to fall, and helped him down to the ground. He was breathing erratically, holding a hand to his chest, which oozed blood.

"I… I guess … I didn't pass the final.. job interview," he managed.

"Colin …" The tears flowed down my cheeks again. "I'm so sorry."

He shook his head. "No … no, I'm sorry. I love you, Kira. I always have. 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 had diverted from the White Coat to me.

"Rogan!" I yelled. "Behind you!"

The man used his good arm to try to grab the gun away from Rogan. Rogan was able to kick at him. I thought for sure he would shoot the man, but instead he lashed out and struck him in the head with the gun, which knocked him out cold.

Rogan gave me a dark look, his chest heaving from the exertion. "I'm very sorry about your friend."

I nodded, blinking back tears, and moved Colin's still body to the side of the hallway. I took a moment to close his eyes, and I held my hand against the side of his face.

"So am I," I said.

Then I reached to Colin one last time and grabbed the red access card out of his name tag.

Rogan had a gun and I had an access card. And together we thundered down the stairs to the subbasement.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Having psi abilities is a very strange thing. I'd watched loads of shows over the years, especially when I was much younger, about psychics. They were pretty cool. Some of them made it seem like they had superpowers, being able to lift things with their minds. Being able to manipulate the thoughts of other people.

That would really help right now.

Unfortunately, my powers-if you want to call them that-weren't quite that cool. In fact, my being a psi, low-level or any level, didn't help us out at all at the moment.

Too bad.

I touched the front of my shirt to make sure I could still feel the outline of the minidisk in my bra, and I could. The subbasement looked a great deal like the other levels of this building All white. All bland and clinical, with that antiseptic smell permeating the air like a superclean perfume.

Only down here, every other ceiling light was out or flickering, casting a spooky amount of light on the hallway we briskly walked down. It felt like a horror movie, like somebody might reach out at any moment and grab our ankles and pull us into another room and devour us. But maybe I was just being paranoid.

After all, it had been a really bad day so far.

"Maybe they changed it," Rogan said. "The room. Maybe it doesn't have Gareth's name on it anymore."

"Maybe," I said. "And maybe Joe was lying. He could have made the whole thing up."

"Yeah, and maybe that disk only has pictures of his last vacation on it."

I didn't like this game of maybe we were playing. I gave Rogan a look.

He glanced at me. "Sorry. I know we need to be positive."

"Screw being positive. I just want to find the room."

"They know we escaped."

I swallowed. "Yeah. They do."

"We don't have much time. They'll shut this place down, lock all the exits to find us. Maybe we should leave now, while we still have half a chance."

"After we went to all this work to get in here?" I said. "Why would we want to miss out on the fun? How much time do we have before they find us?"

"Why?"

"I feel a sense of loss if I'm not working to a countdown. Sue me."

He snorted and squeezed my hand. "In that case, I figure we have five minutes before they lock the place down. Sweeping the levels with full security … maybe another half an hour."

I felt a very small sense of relief. 'That's thirty-five minutes. Talk about luxury."

"Well, that's if we hadn't left two bodies-one dead and one unconscious-marking the staircase leading downstairs. You can cut that time in a quarter."

My heart sank. "That's not good."

"No."

"Dammit." I scanned every door we came to. Just as I was about to give up hope and take Rogan up on his offer to get the hell out of Dodge, my eyes widened. "Look." I pointed at the door that had a small brass plaque affixed to it.

G. ELLIS.

My hands trembled as I slid Colin's access card through the lock. The lights flickered red.

No entry.

I felt the color draining from my face. "It's not working."

"Try it again." Rogan's voice was strained, and he turned his head to scan the hallway. "And hurry."

I tried it again. Still no luck.

I let out a little sound of frustration as I slid it through for a third time. Then, as the red light flickered, I came to the sudden realization that I was sliding it the wrong way around. The metallic strip had to be down.

Mentally kicking myself, I flipped the card and tried it the other way around.

The light flickered green and I heard a click.

Rogan pushed the door open. It was dark inside. I felt the wall until I found the light pad, and I tapped it. The lighting flickered on, and I blinked as I gazed around at the room.

It didn't look anything like I thought it would. I expected a phalanx of computers, or at the very least one big one in the middle of the room. A desk. Maybe a potted plant. Joe said that this was Gareth's secondary office.

Instead it looked more like a lounge. A large black leather couch was in the middle of the room with Japanese-inspired folding screens on either side. There was an unusually large amount of religious-themed artwork- paintings, sculptures, and other fine art pieces depicting all forms of religions, from an ornate and bejeweled rosary on the wall to a large, golden laughing Buddha on a tabletop.

A large screen on the wall across from the couch displayed images of the outdoors. It looked similar to the "window" display that I had had in the reward room. Fakeness trying to appear real and almost succeeding. Behind me I heard a bubbling sound and turned to see that it was an elaborate water garden next to a Zen sand garden.

I eyed Rogan, and he must have seen my confusion.

"I totally agree," he said. "I wouldn't have guessed that a talking binary code needed a place to chill out."

"Joe said this is where the server was."

"Maybe he lied. Or maybe it's been changed since then, I don't see any server in here." The bluntness of his words didn't cover the disappointment in his voice. "Shit, why didn't Jonathan tell us more about his plan?"

"Probably because he never thought he'd need to." I touched Rogan's arm. "Now what the hell do we do?"

He shook his head and moved his gun back and forth between his hands. "I'm thinking."

"Maybe there's still time for us to escape. You know, live to fight another day."

Then, to destroy the Zen-like calm of the room, the earsplitting sound of an alarm filled the air.

"Or not!" I yelled.

I covered my ears and tried to concentrate. I looked at the display screen that was showing a swaying palm tree on a beach in front of a shimmering ocean. The sound of the waves lapping at the shore could barely be heard under the din of the alarm.

Fake. Just like Gareth. Gareth was a lot like that palm tree. He looked so natural, but underneath he was just a computer program.

I frowned. Just a computer.

"The screen." I pointed at it. "Do you think it's the server? Maybe he's got it set up like this to fool anybody who might want to destroy it."

Rogan looked at it, and his brow furrowed. "Give me the disk."

I walked over to him and reached into my bra to pull out the small computer disk. He took it from me, squeezing my hand as he did so.

"Let's hope like hell this works," he said.

But before he could move toward the display screen to insert it, a door to our left slid open and Gareth walked into the room. He was alone.

Rogan held his gun up in the direction of Gareth's head. Neither of us said a word.

"That's rude," Gareth said. "You don't even want to apologize to me for ruining my plans again?" His eyes narrowed, and he looked at the minidisk in Rogan's left hand. "Why are you in this room?"

"I heard this is where the waterfall was," Rogan said evenly. "I like waterfalls. They relax me."

Gareth smiled thinly. "Do you know how I found you so easily?"

"Security cameras," I said, feeling a sick churning in my stomach.

He shook his head. "My former employee Colin was able to disable all of them when he helped you escape. Like I said, he is a very talented person. Or rather, was a very talented person."

I glared at him.

"No," Gareth continued, and withdrew a remote-control device. "It's your implant, Rogan. The one I had Colin reactivate. I simply traced its signal."

"I'm going to shoot you," Rogan growled.

"No, you won't."

"Why? Because you're using my brother's body?" "No. Mostly because of that implant." He pressed a button on the remote.

Rogan dropped the gun and the disk and clutched his head. I touched his shoulder, his face.

"I can't move," he said after a moment when his arms dropped down to his sides. "It's like someone is holding me in place."

I eyed the remote in Gareth's grip, which was obviously connected to Rogan's implant.

Gareth sighed heavily. "Move away from him now, Kira."

When I didn't, he pushed another button and Rogan roared in pain.

"Fine." I took a few steps away from him. "Stop hurting him!"

He shook his head sadly. "Kira, I was going to be kind before and allow you to die peacefully and nonviolently, but now I'm not so sure about that."

I tried not to give away how afraid and panicked I felt at the moment; it would only give Gareth more fuel for the fire. But I couldn't help it. Everything I was thinking must have been etched into my expression, and my gaze flicked back to Rogan, who was frozen in place.

Gareth walked toward Rogan and bent over. He didn't bother with the gun and instead snatched up the minidisk. He slid it into the inner pocket of his jacket, and my heart sank. That was our one chance.

The alarm continued to blare, and he had to shout to be heard over it.

"That racket," he said, rolling his eyes. "Honestly." He walked over to a telephone, picked it up, and pecked in two numbers. "Turn that off," he said simply, and hung up the phone.

The noise ceased five seconds later.

"So," I began. Maybe if I got him talking it would give me enough time to figure out what to do next. "What's with all the religious stuff in here?"

He gazed around the room slowly. "My collection. I've been studying humankind in an attempt to understand them. So many faiths in this world and so many problems that difference has caused across the centuries and millennia. I plan to take the best of each one and form a single perfect religion in the future. Do you believe, Kira?"

"Do I believe?"

"In a greater power?"

I glanced at Rogan. "I… I don't know."

"You should, with the gift you've been given." Gareth folded his hands behind his back and walked a circle around me.

I stood as still as one of his expensive statues and felt his appraisal like cold, clammy hands on my skin. He came close enough that he was able to flick my dark hair back off my shoulder. He put his fingers against my throat. For a moment it seemed as if he was searching for a pulse.

"Humans are essentially a weak species who are too concerned with destroying their world and each other to appreciate all that has been given to them by a greater power."

I frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"There is a wonder in being human," he breathed. "Organic matter that thinks and breathes and reproduces. And these organic creatures in turn created computers to help them. Now the cycle shall fold back upon itself and the computers will use the organics to help them. But the psychic element… that is a wild card in the mix."

"Get your hands off her," Rogan growled from his side of the room.

"I could crush her windpipe so easily." His fingers played along my throat. "But it's such a waste if her death can't be shown on The Countdown. You will die on camera. I can promise you that. But not just yet."

"What do you want from me?" I managed, feeling sickened by his touch but too afraid to pull away.

"I want you to read me." He grabbed my hand and brought it up to his face. "I dismissed your abilities before, but now I'm wondering if you may be more powerful than I originally thought. Read me. I want to know for certain that I have a soul. That I am truly the first of an evolved species."

"Tainted artificial intelligence programming doesn't have a soul," Rogan said. "You're just a computer virus with the ability to think."

Gareth whirled around to face him. "No, I'm much more, and soon everyone will see that."

"Gareth!" Rogan yelled, his face and neck showing the strain of trying to move when his body wouldn't let him. "If you're in there somewhere, you have to fight. You have to help us."

"Your brother is gone forever," Gareth said. 'Think of me as the improved model." He turned back to me. "Will you read me?"

I shook my head. Why would I give him anything he wanted? He'd just said he was going to kill me anyhow.

His jaw tensed and he pressed a button on the remote, holding it down.

Rogan yelled out in pain and kept yelling.

"This will kill him if I continue," he said. "You will kill him."

"Please … don't-" I began.

"Don't?" He didn't let go of that button.

"Fine! I'll read you."

He finally let go of the button and Rogan went silent. His eyes were closed, and his chest went in and out with labored breathing.

Gareth grabbed my hand and put it to the side of his throat. "I'm waiting. Tell me what you see."

I glanced at Rogan, who was still recovering from the torture of his implant. And then I looked up at Gareth.

It felt almost like an intimate stance, standing this close to Gareth, one hand on his neck, the other braced against his firm chest. He was the same height and the same build as Rogan. Even his blue-green eyes were similar.

But he couldn't have felt more different to me if he'd tried.

I closed my eyes, tried like hell to concentrate, and flexed.

I frowned as the pain began to seep into my brain. "I see nothing. I'm getting nothing."

"Keep trying."

I shook my head, slid my hands to a slightly different position on Gareth's body, and waded farther down into his mind. My head began to ache. "No, it's like a universe of darkness. So cold and empty and-"

:::::::::Fear

Pain::::::::

:::::::::Sadness

Then I heard something so quiet that it was like a radio turned on in another room. I strained to make out the thoughts deep inside the darkness.

Kira… don't give up. … You're so close…. Kill me. … Kill my body…. You must do it…. There's no other choice…. I can't live like this… so much pain…. It's the only way…. Take care of my brother…. Don't let this happen to him…. I love him. …

My eyes snapped open. I grabbed my head, which felt as if it were splitting open. Gareth clutched my hand.

"You saw something else. What is it? Did you see my soul? What did it look like? Was it beautiful?"

I licked my lips. "I… I did see something. It was very faint for a while, but there was something-"

"What? What was it?" His words were filled with eagerness and naked hope.

"Your… your soul was like a bright light in the middle of the darkness. It was very beautiful."

The lie sounded incredibly unnatural leaving my mouth, but it was obviously what he wanted to hear.

He nodded. "I never should have doubted it. This proves what I have been saying all along, that I am the first in the next evolution of mankind. The true mixture of man and machine, and now, Kira, you will help me be even more than that."

I raised my eyebrows. My help? What the hell was he talking about?

He stalked back to the telephone and picked it up. "Yes, change of plans. I want to have the girl taken to the eighteenth floor for further testing." He hung up without saying another word.

When he turned back to me his expression was very pleasant. "I will be testing your psi abilities to find out what makes you different from an average human. Whatever it is, I will reproduce it on a digital level and add it to my programming."

The phone rang and he moved toward it.

I exchanged a look with Rogan. His eyes were open again, but his expression was as tense as I'd ever seen it.

Don't give up hope. We 're not dead yet.

Gareth turned his back to me as he spoke with whomever was on the other end of the line. The gun Rogan had dropped was by his feet.

"Give us a few more minutes," he said into the receiver. "And then send security down here."

What was he going to do for a few more minutes? Get me to read him again? Torture Rogan more?

Did he even know why we were in this room? He'd taken the disk away from Rogan, but did he have any idea what was on it?

And did he realize that I'd stolen it back from him when I'd been reading his mind?

He hadn't felt me slip a hand into his inner jacket pocket. He may have noticed when I'd stolen his wallet on the streets, but he hadn't even flinched this time.

Well, I had picked a few pockets in my time. Practice made perfect.

I clenched the minidisk so tightly in the palm of my hand I was sure it would leave a permanent impression, and hissed out a long breath through my teeth. Only one shot. I was betting it all. Both Rogan's and my lives. Betting it all on a faint hope.

With a last look at Rogan I moved quickly to the display screen, frantically searching the side of it for a slot to put the disk into. My hands were sweating.

I found it. I slid it in.

Gareth hung up the telephone and turned back to look at me.

The image of the palm tree was gone. Instead there was a black screen with a blinking cursor at the end of the words: EXECUTE PROGRAM.

Since there was no keyboard, the screen showed a touchpad, and the enter key was right there, only an arm's reach away. I put my hand up to it.

"What do you think you're doing?" Gareth asked.

"What does it look like?"

He smiled. "It looks like someone who has no history of using computers is trying to act smart."

I tried to slow my breathing. "Is that what it looks like to you?"

"Yes. And keep in mind that I said 'trying' to act smart. Not succeeding. I assume you took that disk from me? Once a criminal, always a criminal." He shook his head. "What program is that?"

"Just a little antivirus one." My hand hovered just above the enter button.

His expression didn't change. "And who exactly gave you that?"

"Somebody who isn't thrilled with your programming selections."

He blinked slowly and then looked at Rogan. "Was this your idea?"

"Actually," Rogan said, "I was thinking about killing you and being done with it, but Kira's a lot nicer than me, I guess."

Gareth smiled thinly and turned back to me. "And why have you put an antivirus program on my Zen screen?" His gaze was steady.

I tried to match it with a calm expression of my own. "This is a Zen screen? That's funny. I thought it was the server that held your entire artificial intelligence programming that's connected to your implant. You know, the one with the virus in it that makes you a complete psycho."

"A server? In here?" His lips curled back from his teeth. "That's not very logical, is it? All the servers are on the second floor."

I had a moment of doubt. Well, another one. If we were wrong then everything was over. We would have lost in a very large way-both personally and for the unsuspecting world around us.

Oh, God, I thought, sinking into despair. We were wrong.

But then I frowned. If I was that wrong about everything then why wasn't Gareth storming over here and slapping my hand out of the way? He looked relaxed and cocky, but he wasn't moving, wasn't provoking me to press the enter button.

"This is the server," I said with as much assurance as I could muster and pushing past my doubts. "I know it is. And as soon as I press this button I'm thinking that your evolutionary aspirations will be wiped out completely."

His lips thinned. "I would have to disagree."

"Then let's see, shall we?" I brought my hand right up to the screen.

"Wait…"

I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Even if you press that it won't do anything. My new life may have begun as a difficult-to-reproduce miracle, but I have grown. I have learned and evolved. I am more than man or machine. You know that… you saw my soul yourself."

I shook my head. "I didn't see anything inside you except a big black hole."

His eyes widened. "You're lying."

"Am I? Then let's try it. I can press this and we'll see what happens. If you're right and you have a big, shiny soul inside that body you stole, then you might be able to walk right out of this room. If not, then your implant will be fried and the old Gareth will come back."

His expression darkened. "Is that what you think?" He turned to Rogan. "Is that what you think? You think that you can still save your brother? Your brother is already dead. The moment he chose to put the implant in his brain he chose the path of death, as did you."

"My implant-" Rogan began, his brow furrowing.

"It works. I believe we've already proven that fact."

I looked at Rogan and then at Gareth. "What the hell are you trying to say?"

One side of Gareth's mouth turned up in a half smile. "What I'm trying to say is that if you press that button, there is a very remote possibility you are right and that I will cease to be. My implant will be destroyed, but don't you see? So will Rogan's. And since it's embedded deep within his brain tissue it will kill him. Our implants are directly connected. Everything here at Ellis Enterprises is connected to the main server."

I swallowed hard. "What about the subscribers? They have implants, too."

He shook his head. 'The only implants that truly matter are the prototypes. The subscribers have a low-grade facsimile that is a pale shadow of what we have. You would be hurting Rogan … killing Rogan … and the subscribers would all live to see another day."

I felt the blood drain from my face. If I pressed the button I would kill Rogan?

No. That couldn't be possible.

"It would be better if this was being taped," Gareth said, almost regretfully. "The subscribers would all tune in to see this. Such a waste of good entertainment."

He pressed a button on the remote control and Rogan yelled out in pain again.

"Step away from the screen, Kira," Gareth said. "And Rogan will live."

"No!" Rogan gasped through his agony. "Do it, Kira. Launch the program. Don't worry about me."

I chewed my bottom lip. My brain was working overtime, going through all the scenarios that might occur. Press the button and nothing happens. Gareth has my psi abilities studied until he's bored with me and kills me anyhow. He changes Rogan into a monster like him. Or press the button and launch the antivirus, killing Gareth but also killing Rogan.

No. It was too much. I didn't know what to do.

My hand wavered from the screen. My arm ached from holding it up.

"Forget about me," Rogan urged in pain-filled gasps. "You have to stop him. It's not just me. He wants to take The Countdown and the implants wider, to Offworld. More people will be hurt. More will be killed."

He was glancing down at the floor in front of him as he spoke. I followed his line of vision to the gun he'd dropped when his implant kicked in.

The gun.

I could injure Gareth, not kill him. Just incapacitate him long enough to figure something-

Gareth took his finger off the button as he noted where my attention had flickered to. With a soft sound of amusement he walked straight to Rogan, leaned over, and snatched the gun off the ground.

He inspected it, pulling out the chamber and gazing inside.

"Humans and their weapons," he mused. "So violent. So bloody." He smiled. "So very entertaining."

He turned, aimed, and pulled the trigger at Rogan.

I screamed.

Blood flowed red from the fresh wound in his shoulder. Rogan's teeth were clenched and his forehead drawn, but he hadn't made a sound when the bullet pierced his skin. He still couldn't move.

"I had my people injure you before," he snarled. "You would be dead right now if it wasn't for Jonathan's interference."

"I'm going to kill you," Rogan growled.

Gareth was inspecting the gun again. "If I'm counting correctly, I have ten more bullets available to me in this gun. I'm sure after the fifth or sixth you may start begging for your life. Kira? What do you think? Or would you prefer I continue to torture him through his implant?"

Tears slid down my cheeks. "Don't hurt him anymore. Please."

"But don't you understand yet? You're the one who's hurting him now. Every moment you wait will cause him that much more pain. Do you really want the man that you love to experience such anguish?"

Kill me … Gareth had begged. Please.. I can't go on like this….

Rogan would be like that. Like the real Gareth once the artificial intelligence was uploaded to his implant. He would be trapped somewhere down deep. Always in pain with no chance for relief.

Either way I would have lost him forever.

"Do you want him to be in pain like this?" Gareth said again, louder. "I wouldn't wish this on anyone. The world I will create will be a perfect one, with no pain, no doubt, and no fear."

"Being human means that you have to feel pain and doubt and fear, Gareth." I blinked and more tears splashed to my cheeks. "But that doesn't always make it a bad thing."

"Do it," Rogan said, his words a raspy, pain-filled croak.

Gareth raised the gun again.

"I love you, Rogan," I said softly, and then touched the screen's enter button.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

A long string of code that I didn't recognize or that, in my opinion, didn't make any sense began to flow down the screen.

That seemed to be the only change that occurred since I had pressed the button.

After another moment the screen froze and two lines of readable type appeared, surrounded by asterisks.

***************************************

ELLIS ENTERPRISES HACKED.

REVENGE IS SWEET BY NUCLEARXXX.

***************************************

Then, to add insult to injury, a picture of Joe appeared, giving his Web cam a very clear shot of his raised middle finger.

Just a prank? He'd given us a disk with a stupid prank on it?

I felt a wave of nausea flooded over me and I fought it. I'd known that it was a long shot at best.

Rogan was still alive. The thought mixed some relief in with the horrible feeling of dread.

"Twit," Gareth said, and it was directed at me. He laughed and, if you asked me, looked somewhat relieved. "I told you that you couldn't stop me with some ridiculous progra-"

He stopped talking and frowned. Then he cleared his throat.

I glanced back at the screen. The image of Joe was gone again and was replaced with more of the scrolling computer code.

Gareth brought a hand to his head.

"Not feeling so hot all of a sudden?" I asked.

"I… I'm not-not… sure."

I studied him. "I think maybe an antivirus is a lot like the chicken soup my mom used to make for me when I was sick with a cold. Sometimes you're so stuffed up that you can't taste it right away. Takes a minute."

His hand that was holding the gun was shaking.

The code raced on the screen.

"A big black hole," I said to him, the fear I'd been feeling slowly being replaced by a line of rage so hot that it began to burn through my pores. 'That's all I saw when I read you. You have no soul. You're nothing but a fucked-up computer program. I can't even feel sorry for the fact that you're being deleted right now, because you don't even really exist."

"Bitch!" He lurched the gun up and shot at me. "I'm going to kill you!"

I leaped out of the way, and the bullet smashed through the display screen behind me. It sputtered and smoked and the screen went black, but a small green light pulsed in the corner where the disk was. The antivirus was still working even without the display, sinking further into the Ellis Enterprises network.

There was silence for a few solid moments.

Then Gareth screamed and dropped to his knees.

"Rogan!" I called, staring across the room to where he still stood in place.

But Rogan clutched his head and his eyes went wide. He yelled out in pain, and the sound of it pierced through me like an arrow to my heart. Then the sound of the Ellis security alarm started up, so loud that I felt it like a slap shuddering through my entire body.

'The disk!" Rogan shouted. "Kira, you have to remove it from the server! It's doing too much damage. My… my implant-"

His eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed to the floor.

Then every light in the room went off as the power in the entire building shut down and the alarm stopped ringing.

I dropped to my knees. I moved my gaze around, but I couldn't see anything. Nothing. Everything was black.

"Rogan?" I whispered. "Are you … are you still there?"

I was answered only by complete silence.

Total darkness and total silence. It was like being dead. Maybe I'd died. Maybe we were dead and this was what it was like. Maybe there was no heaven. Maybe this darkness was all there was.

I couldn't save my family in the darkness. I was a coward, and I'd crawled under my bed to hide while I listened to them die.

And now it was the same. I was petrified. Unable to move. And I couldn't do anything to save Rogan. I'd killed him. It was my fault.

I was shaking, and I grabbed my knees and drew them closer to me.

There's still hope. We 're not dead yet.

I shook my head. No. It was over. I couldn't do anything. I was too afraid.

Just pretend there's a countdown, a small part of me thought weakly.

I had to get the antivirus disk out of the display screen. It was in the server. The server must still have energy and it was frying the implants.

It was killing Rogan, but he might still be alive.

He's dead.

No, I thought firmly. He might still be alive. There's still hope.

Countdown. Come on, I prompted myself. The darkness was nothing. It doesn't mean anything. It has no power over me anymore. I'd been through too much with Rogan to give up now over something like a little darkness.

I began to count down in my head.

Fifteen.. fourteen… thirteen…

I squeezed my eyes together and breathed out in a great huff. And then I pushed myself halfway up and began crawling. I wasn't sure which way was which anymore. I felt along the floor until I found the leather sofa. Until my hands passed over the gold Buddha.

Then the wall, smooth and cold. I smelled smoke, acrid in my nostrils.

Up farther and farther.

Nine… eight… seven…

I could hear my sister screaming.

I pushed the memory away.

Think of Rogan. Rogan is here. He's here right now.

Five… four… three…

The edge of the display screen. I felt the sharp edge of the broken glass of the screen cut my finger. Along the side. Yes, there. The green light pulsed dimly next to the slot I'd shoved the disk into. There was a little release button. I pressed it and the minidisk slipped out and into my hand.

I slid it into my pocket and got back down to the floor, moving quicker now. I was searching for him. Searching for Rogan through the darkness.

"Where are you?" I whispered, my voice catching on the words.

There was no answer.

I tried to picture the room in my mind. Pretend that it was still light in there. I saw where Rogan fell to the ground holding his head, and crawled toward him.

Hand over hand I felt my way along until finally I touched something. A boot. A big boot that seemed familiar. Up a calf and a leg to a hard-muscled stomach. Yes. Collarbone. Throat. Whisker-stubbled chin. Cheekbones. Nose. Lips.

My hands slipped into his hair and I pulled him up and against me. He wasn't moving.

"Rogan," I murmured. "Don't leave me. Not after everything we've been through."

I touched his neck, pressed my fingers against it. Tears of relief streaked down my face when I felt a pulse. Then through the darkness I found his lips and pressed mine against them.

A distant, fleeting memory came to me of a fairy tale my mother once had told me. "Sleeping Beauty." The handsome prince woke the beautiful princess up with the perfect kiss.

This is one fucked-up fairy tale I'm in, I thought absently.

Rogan gasped against my lips. I felt his eyelashes flicker against my face as he opened his eyes.

"Kira?" he said.

Happiness flooded through me. "Well, who else would molest you in the middle of a dark room?"

"I'll… I'll take that as a yes."

"You're alive."

"Is that a question?"

"I'm going to kick your ass." I said it sternly, but I couldn't keep the smile out of my voice.

"Take a number. I have a fucking bullet in my already injured shoulder. And my head is killing me."

"Mine too."

"What about Gareth?" he asked tentatively.

I rested my head against his chest. "He's gone. I'm sorry."

"I see." He was quiet for a long moment. "It's dark in here."

"Yeah, it really is."

"Aren't you afraid of the dark?"

"Petrified," I said.

"Just checking." Another pause, and I felt his arms come around my waist. "I'm surprised that the backup generator hasn't kicked in yet."

"Yeah. I'm thinking that Joe had a few more surprises on that disk than just the antivirus. The guy's a genius."

His fingers slid through my hair. "Maybe I should have hired him when I had the chance."

"If you had to go back and change one thing in your history, I'd say that you really should have hired him. Yes."

There was another pause. "But then I never would have met you."

My heart swelled and I kissed him again. After a moment I frowned and pulled away. "Okay, Rogan, are you double-jointed or something?"

"What do you mean?"

"How are you touching my sprained ankle right now?"

"I'm not touching your ankle."

A hand clamped down on my ankle and I screamed.

The lights flickered and then came on fully with a sick whirring sound.

Gareth was holding on to my ankle with an iron grip. He looked up at me, his eyes bloodshot, his face drenched with sweat.

Rogan scrambled away from me and grabbed the gun, pointing it down at the man.

"Let go of her right now!" he yelled.

"Rogan …" Gareth let go of my ankle and reached up toward Rogan. "Please …"

And then he slumped face-forward. Unconscious.

Rogan dropped the gun and fell to his knees at his brother's side, rolling him over.

"Gareth!" he said. Then he touched his chest, pressing down to feel the heartbeat. He turned to me. "He's still alive!"

I went to Rogan's side next to Gareth and studied the sleeping man with a mix of suspicion and hope.

After a couple of minutes his eyes flickered open and he looked up at us.

He blinked. "I thought I asked you to… to kill me, Kira."

I shrugged. "I don't take orders too well. Sorry about that."

He gave a small smile, and it looked as though it hurt him. 'The … the antivirus …"

Rogan nodded. "It was Jonathan's plan. And it worked. It actually worked."

"I'm … I'm so sorry, Rogan. I'm sorry for everything."

He shook his head. "None of this is your fault; it's mine. I brought this all on myself. But it's over. It's finally over."

I held on to Rogan's arm. "I don't know much about computers, but I think the antivirus just wiped out your entire system."

Gareth raised his hand and clutched Rogan's. "We'll rebuild it. We'll make it better. I've been watching. Jonathan … he did some good research when he had the chance. Things that will help humanity. Help build Offworld into a truly wonderful place to live. Maybe even help repair some of the damage that's happened here at home."

Rogan gripped his brother's hand. "You really think we can rebuild?"

"Hell yeah, we can." Gareth smiled, and his eyes-the same color as Rogan's-twinkled. 'Thank God that monster didn't spend all of our money."

Rogan snorted. "Yeah, thank God."

"So you'll help me?"

Rogan nodded. "Of course I will." Then he looked at me. "Now we can all get what we've always wanted." He grabbed my hand and brought it to his lips.

"May I suggest something?" I asked.

"What's that?" Gareth asked.

"Consider putting your artificial intelligence research on indefinite hiatus?"

Gareth laughed softly. "It's a deal."

"And The Countdown is over," Rogan said. "Completely over. The implants will be disengaged across the board."

"What about the subscribers?" I asked.

Rogan raised an eyebrow at me. "Fuck the subscribers."

I laughed out loud at that.

"I totally agree." Gareth closed his eyes. 'The game was a disaster from beginning to end. A complete travesty. But I guess when all is said and done you could say that The Countdown did teach you one very important thing."

"Oh, and what's that?" Rogan asked.

He smiled and kept his eyes closed. "You two do make the perfect team."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

It was about twenty-four hours after Ellis Enterprises' computer system had been breached by an imaginative and vengeful hacker that I stood on a train platform with Gareth and Rogan. No one else was there. It was a secret location known only to those who knew the right people.

I guess I did now.

I crossed my arms and waited. Rogan stood silently next to me, with Gareth to his right.

The shuttle that would take me on my journey to Offworld would be there in a couple of minutes.

After the lights had come back on yesterday it was only a matter of minutes before security arrived at the subbasement room. Gareth was immediately taken to the hospital. So was Rogan. Both were treated for serious injuries.

I was also treated for more minor injuries, including my sprained ankle, which was now bound tightly and feeling much better. I required a few stitches for some of my nastier cuts and scrapes. An IV also helped to return my body to fairly normal working order.

Rogan and I hadn't had a single moment of private time.

Ellis Enterprises was in a major upheaval. An investigation was already under way of who could and could not be trusted. Those who couldn't be were fired on the spot. They deserved worse, as far as I was concerned.

It would take a lot of time and a lot of money to help rebuild Ellis Enterprises, especially now that it would cease its technology-based research program. Gareth and Rogan had come to a mutual agreement that they would now fund medical research. Not quite as sexy as shiny new computers, but ultimately more beneficial to mankind. They seemed single-minded in their quest to right their wrongs-Rogan of his past before he went to prison, and Gareth of the four years he'd spent as a prisoner in his own body.

Gareth had contacted an Offworld scientist who worked with Ellis Enterprises, and he would be at the other end to greet me. It was the same guy Jonathan had mentioned at the safe house. He'd help me adjust to my new environment. And he'd help me understand and develop my psi abilities, which were now classed as high-level.

And who knew? Maybe I would help out the police as a human lie detector one day. Sure. I could do that. I didn't know whether or not I actually had the power to see into someone's soul, but I was willing to keep an open mind about it. No pun intended.

Rogan wasn't coming with me.

He would be too busy helping his brother rebuild everything they'd lost.

I totally understood.

My throat constricted and tears stung at the backs of my eyes as I stood on the platform waiting for the shuttle with a big fake smile plastered on my face.

My new life was about to begin.

Wouldn't be long now.

I saw the shuttle in the distance as it made its way toward us. I could use the time on board to try to forget Rogan.

I'd told him I loved him. And he'd said that he loved me, too, right? Or had that just been my imagination?

We hadn't spent any time alone since. He was so busy now.

Dammit. I could have predicted it. I was just a street thief. Well, a reformed street thief. I was to be paid a very generous salary to make myself and my powers available for testing, without the threat of being killed before, after, or during. I would be just fine. But still, that was what I was: a thief.

Rogan was a powerful billionaire who'd had a bit of an unfortunate glitch in his life.

I'd been a part of that glitch.

The glitch had been resolved.

I didn't expect anything from him. I wouldn't ask him or beg him to come with me, or even to stay in touch. That simply wasn't me.

But I would miss him so much. It felt like my heart was splintering in my chest just thinking about it.

Don't look at him, I told myself, but I couldn't help it.

The shuttle came to a slow stop right next to me.

"Thanks for everything, guys," I mumbled, and, without turning and looking at the men next to me, I began to move toward it.

I felt a hand on my arm. It was Rogan.

"Hey." He was frowning. "I hope you have a safe trip."

"Thank you." My smile was as natural as I could make it. "Well, I guess this is good-bye, huh?"

"I… I guess so."

Gareth extended his hand. I took it and he pulled me into a fierce hug. "Thank you, Kira. Thank you for everything you've done. For me and Rogan."

"You're welcome." I pulled back to look into his eyes. This Gareth looked the same as the other, but it was like night and day. There was such warmth and gentleness to this version of Gareth.

I turned to Rogan. His jaw was tense. He now wore black pants and a cream turtleneck that fit him perfectly. I could see the outline of his muscular frame through it. I bit my lip as I remembered what it felt like to hold him, touch him.

"I'll miss you," I said, and a tear splashed down my cheek. Dammit. So much for being all cool and collected.

"I'll miss you, too." He leaned over and brushed his lips against mine.

"Good-bye," I said, and then turned away and slipped onto the shuttle. The conductor took my ticket, and I walked blindly down the aisle to my seat. I didn't have any luggage. A wife of one of the Ellis employees was my size, and she'd brought me some nice threads to wear at the hospital. I would buy new clothes when I arrived in Offworld.

New clothes for my new life.

I took in a breath and it shuddered through me.

It was for the best. Me and Rogan? We were too different. Way too different. He was a freaking billionaire who ran a huge business that was going to make a difference to two different worlds. I was a girl who could do a little bit of mind-reading.

It was better this way for both of us.

End of story.

I turned to look at the platform. Nobody was there. They'd already left.

Good, I thought. It was over. We all had what we wanted.

I leaned my head against the cool glass and waited for the shuttle to start moving.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw somebody take the seat next to me. I pushed the tears off my cheeks and turned to look. My eyes widened.

It was Rogan.

"Rogan-" I said.

He held up a hand to stop me. "You know, it's the strangest thing."

"What? What are you doing here?"

"I have a company to help run. Everything's been destroyed. There is a ton of work to do, but…"

"But what?"

"It's the implants, you see," he explained.

"The… the implants?"

"The ones that Jonathan removed."

I still stared at him blankly. "You're going to have to help me out a little more than that."

He shook his head and frowned, bringing a finger up to his temple. "When they were in our heads we couldn't go more than ninety feet apart or else we would die."

'That's right."

"Well, even now that they're out, I feel like I still shouldn't be more than ninety feet away from you or I might die. Isn't that strange?"

I raised an eyebrow. "That is strange."

"Maybe it's just me. Maybe there was something wrong with mine."

I shook my head. "No. When we're more than ninety feet apart I feel like I'm dying, too."

He shrugged. "So that's why I'm here. I really don't like feeling that way."

"I totally agree," I said solemnly.

"Plus, the fact that I'm completely head over heels in love with you." He said it with such a straight face that I would have laughed if my heart weren't swelling up to the size of a big balloon.

"I feel very much the same way." A smile was trying very hard to burst free on my face.

"I'm glad to hear it." He smiled and kissed me hard on my mouth. "I can still help my brother, but I'll do it from Offworld."

I nodded. "I think that's the best idea I've heard in a really long time."

"Goddammit, Kira, I love you so much."

The grin was spreading wide across my face. "So, not just a postprison piece of ass is what you're saying."

He shook his head. "Definitely not"

I touched his face and looked deeply into those ocean-colored eyes of his. "I love you, too, Rogan. I thought I'd lost you forever."

"It's kind of hard to lose somebody who's never more than ninety feet away," he said.

"I think I can definitely live with that."

"Glad to hear it."

He kissed me again as the shuttle pulled away from the station and slowly began to gather speed.