Day Twenty-Three
At eleven at night, fear and apathy became too much for him.
A whole day of trying to understand iSA on his duplicate copy had made him even more convinced that he needed to destroy the original, to keep Beth from re-building whatever was left. He couldn’t sleep until it was done. He heard heli blades in every unexpected noise.
He gently slid out from Debbie’s arms, covered her shoulder with the sheet, and got dressed in the same clothes he’d been wearing since he left. He pocketed his phones, slung his laptop over his shoulder, and carefully crept out the smallest crack in the door he could afford.
A hand caught his arm before he could leave. He turned to see Debbie, sheet clung to her chest, watching him with bleary eyes.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I need to fix something,” he said.
“You found your strength?”
He leaned in the door and kissed her. She reached her other hand around his neck, tried to pull him in, but he resisted, stayed put.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’ve got to do this before it’s too late.”
She nodded, brushing his cheek softly.
“Good luck with her,” she said, and let him go.
He arrived at the building just before midnight, sliding down the hall to the apartment, eyes and ears ready for any hint of danger. He reached the door and removed his key from his pocket with trembling hands. A short prayer later, he unlocked the dead bolt and pushed it open.
The chain clanged gently against the door as he slid inside, closing it behind him. It was dark inside, the only light coming from around the corner, down by the desk. A blue glow, changing slightly, as if something were playing on the computer screen.
Raj ducked low, snaking down the hall, and paused at the corner, listening. No key presses, no clicks, no breathing… no buzzing.
He held his breath, not sure what he’d rather see when he moved next. Beth? Or an empty chair?
He peered around, and his breath left him. The chair was empty. The MacBook was churning away, running countless processes, text screaming off the top of the screen as iSA updated itself.
Raj crept towards the keyboard, hands ready, forgetting everything else, just trying to think of what he would do when he got there. Finally, his fingers dancing across the cool plastic keys, he remembered: destroy it all.
The terminal window opened, and he tried to remember the command, the trick that would do it. He switched to the root directory, listed files, saw the “Developer” directory, and began typing “rm -rf”… but froze. Was it the fan, or did he hear…?
He turned just in time to see the heli arc from the bedroom, buzz saws shearing the air. He threw himself to the ground, and the machine pulled up, narrow avoiding smashing into the wall.
Raj scurried across the floor as fast as he could move, keeping low, racing to the coffee table. He ducked underneath and lay on his back, breathing hard while the buzzer arced around the room above him. It paused, hovered briefly, and shot down towards him. With all his strength, he kicked the table up into the air, and it smashed into the heli, exploding in a burst of sparks and wood.
Raj raced to the bedroom, to the closet, the refuge… but he paused at the door, saw the MacBook, the video of him standing there, shot from above the bed, and he knew he was doomed.