Program 13 Book One (25 page)

When the doors opened up, she grabbed hold of my right hand and followed
Colton
out the door to our room. It had been months since I’d seen Nadine, or Tommy for that matter, but she was the one person from my past that I had in my life still other than Hayden. I found comfort in that.

“Why are you here, Nadine? Why aren’t you back home?” I asked, puzzled as to what led her so far out from home.

“After he died, I just couldn’t stand to stay there anymore.” Her lips quivered as she spoke. “I needed to start over. That’s what they kept telling me. They said it’d be best if I moved on, but how do you move on from something like that?”

They
. She must be talking about McVeigh’s men. Who else would persuade her to leave? Were they keeping an eye on her, too? Did they know I’d find her? “You don’t,” I responded after noticing Nadine was staring at me, her eyes desperate for answers. “You can’t walk away from it, that’s the problem.” There was a double meaning behind my words, one I was thankful she wasn’t able to pick up on.
Colton
did though, and he shook his head in agreement.

We stopped in front of the room. Room 32.
Colton
lowered the handle on Nadine’s roller suitcase and inserted the key into the lock, opening the door. “After you.”

He let Nadine enter first. I followed in after her. His eyes met mine for a split second, it was clear he was angry. I’d managed to bring the past with us without even trying. He had every reason to be upset, after all this was exactly what we were trying to avoid.

“You said that you would explain it all to me. What exactly does that entail?” Nadine was staring out the window, her hands shaking, and mascara was streaming down her cheeks.

“Let me ask you something first.” I took a seat on the bed.
Colton
pulled out the office chair from the desk, taking a seat, and turned to look at Nadine. “You blame me for Tommy’s death, correct?” I asked Nadine.
Colton
’s eyes widened with surprise at the mention of Tommy’s name.

Nadine turned to face me, walking towards the bed hesitantly, and taking a seat on the edge, as far away from me as possible. “I don’t want to, but-”

I cut her off before she could continue. “You don’t want to, but you do.” Nadine nodded, ashamed of her thoughts. “In a way, his death is my fault, but I can promise you I did not hurt Tommy.”

“I don’t understand a word you’re saying, Emile.”

I was about to respond when
Colton
stood up from his chair and lifted his hand to stop me.

“There’s a lot you probably won’t understand, ma’am. What Emile is trying to tell you is that your son was killed because he was a part of her life. He was someone she cared deeply about. Charles McVeigh knew that by killing Tommy, he’d be able to send a warning to Emile.”

“McVeigh?” She was shaking her head, reaching for something inside her purse. “You mean this man?” She handed
Colton
a business card: Charles McVeigh, head scientist at Vesta Corp.
We give hope for the future
was his tagline.

Colton
laughed, handing the card over to me. “Yes, it’s the same man.”

“You’re trying to tell me that he killed my son?”

Neither of us responded. What were we supposed to say? That he was using the people he murdered to build a better society? She wouldn’t believe us. She’d probably run off, and although that might have worked in our favor, I couldn’t let her leave without answers.

“Oh
, no.” S
he began crying again.

Colton
spr
a
ng to his feet and took a seat beside her on the bed. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her head onto his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“He told me that Tommy’s body would be donated to science research. Was that part true?” She needed to hear the truth. I couldn’t deny her that.

“His body would be used for research, yes, but not the way you were led to believe. He would become like me.” I pointed at myself. “He’d become a Program.”

“A Program?” she asked, baffled.

“Remember how you thought she was dead?”
Colton
asked. She nodded, still confused as to what we were trying to say. “Well, she was. Charles McVeigh used her body as a host for a Program – a computer.”

“So you – you’re not human?” She reached her hand out to touch my arm. “Oh.”

“He’s trying to create a perfect society using his Programs. They have no true identity, they become whatever he wants them to become.” I walked over
to
the window. Nadine pulled out of
Colton
’s grasp to join me. “Hayden saved me, though. He brought me back.”

Colton
sighed. “And now we’re going to need to run in order for her to live, in order for all of us to live.”

  Nadine looked panicked. “Let me help you,” she whispered. “I bought a hou
se nearby. It’s under an alias. T
hey don’t know it. We can stay here tonight and head there in the morning.”

I knew it was a terrible idea. We were supposed to be leaving our past behind us, not full
y
embracing it. But she was a part of my pa
st that I wanted to hold onto.
She was my only reminder of Tommy, my only remaining connection. I couldn’t let that die, not yet.

31
SAVING GRACE

W
e were getting ready to settle in for the night.
Colton
and I pulled the NetBooks from our bags. He set his up on the bed so that I could use it in place of my Pod. Mine was set up on the computer desk. I’d opened Vesta Corp’s system to see what they’d been up to while we were away from a computer. They’d run a few searches to find out if we had any family members nearby the house Hayden left me, but their search came back negative. Did they honestly think we were stupid enough to run somewhere where they’d find us that easily?

“What’s with the computers?” Nadine asked.

“Well, this one is for Emile.”
Colton
gestured at my back. “Emile, can you lift your shirt a bit?” I pulled it up a tad to reveal the hard drive slot in my lower back. “She needs to connect to a computer daily in order to assure she runs at her full potential. Standby mode, or her resting period, allows her body to recharge much like sleep refuels a human.”

Nadine threw her hand over her mouth in horror. “What happened to you?”

“What didn’t?” I replied, taking a seat in the office chair.

“Can someone please tell me what’s going on here?” She threw her arms up in the arm and started to pace the room. “You haven’t exactly told me much.”

“You’re better off not knowin
g, trust me,
”
Colton
whispered.

And maybe she was, but she also deserved a chance at the truth. Her son was a part of this now. She was a part of this now. “No,” I said, springing to my feet. “What do you want to know?” 

Colton
ran over to me, trying to push me back into the chair. “Don’t do this,” he whispered. But I had to.

“What happened to you? The news said you died, and now you’re telling me that you were brought back as a Program? What the heck does any of that mean?” Nadine asked, trying to fight back tears.

“The news was telling the truth.” I met her puzzled eyes, taking in their desperation for answers as I continued. “I was murdered by Charles McVeigh and Douglas Todd, his brother and right hand man.” I could see Nadine’s face begin to lose its color at the mention of McVeigh and Todd. “They followed me down an alleyway and ran me over with their car. When they were sure I was dead, they placed me in their trunk and took off. The next day, they told my family that my body had been
brought to them by the police-
”

“After a horrible accident and that they needed their permission to release the body to their science program,” she said, cutting me off.

“Yes.” It was the same speech they’d given her about Tommy. But it wasn’t an accident and his body wasn’t going to be used as she’d thought. Nothing McVeigh had told her was the complete truth.

“After my parents released my body, against my brother’s wishes, McVeigh turned me into Program Thirteen. I can still feel her inside me; her Program is still installed on my core. She was a computer-generated person. There was nothing human about her, about me. She was everything he wanted her to be, and I took that away when I let Hayden bring me back.”

“And now he wants Emile,”
Colton
sighed.

I walked over to the bed and lay on my side so that
Colton
would be able to connect my hard drive to the NetBook. Nadine sat on the edge of the bed, watching and trying to force herself to breathe. “I think we’re good,” he said, pushing off the bed once the wires snapped in place.

I closed my eyes, and listened as they spoke, their voices becoming lower, distant.

“Is there anything human about her?” Nadine asked.

“You’d be surprised just how human she still is. The Program running right now is Emile.”

“They didn’t deserve this. Neither of them deserved this.” She lay back on the bed, her hand brushing against my leg. “Emile and Tommy, they had a future, but now look. What do they have now?”

I could hear as
Colton
began typing away on the NetBook, his fingers pounding against the keys. Their voices became lowered, before fading away all together. My eyelids fell closed, as my body began to shut down. And then I was under.

I could feel someone tugging at my back, but I still didn’t have complete control over my body. At least, not enough to check to see who it was.

“Using the NetBook for standby mode is handy and all, but unfortunately, there’s no timer to free you after eight hours.” He had pulled the wires out, releasing me from their hold. “I’m sorry,”
Colton
whispered, offering me his hand to stand up.

“Are we leaving now?” I asked, noticing that all of our bags were packed, everything but the NetBooks.

“Yes, Nadine is just getting changed and then we’re off. The longer we stay here, the easier it is for them to find us,” he reminded me.  And I knew that, but were we really any safer taking off with Nadine? She’d been clueless about McVeigh and what he'd done to me. How were we to know that she wasn’t being tracked?

After all, no one was safe.

Not if they knew me.

“Come on,” Nadine said as she exited the bathroom.

She grabbed the handle of her roller suitcase and led the way to the elevator.
Colton
and I followed behind her without saying a word. The quicker we got away, the better. There was no time to ask questions, we needed to keep running. She hit the “P” button once we were inside.

“I have a car parked in the parking garage. We’ll take that to the house.”

“Why were you leaving through the front of the building, then?” I asked her curiously.

“I had no reason to hide before. Now I do.” She glanced at
Colton
and me.

When the doors opened, Nadine walked out of the elevator first, making sure to check for anyone suspicious. Everything seemed okay, so she motioned for us to follow. We ran to a 2011 black Mazda cx-9 with tinted windows. 

“Get in.
” She pressed the unlock button on her keychain, swinging open the backdoors before jumping in the driver seat.

There was no one around, but I felt as though someone was watching us. As if someone was just waiting nearby, patiently waiting for us to make the slightest of mistakes. “Nadine, I need you to
drive fast
!” I was leaning on the driver seat, my hands gripping the headrest.
Colton
looked alarmed, turning to peek out the back window. Neither of us could see anyone, but that didn’t mean they weren’t watching.

“Relax,”
Colton
whispered, his hand reaching for mine. “I think we’re okay for now.”

But I knew even he didn’t believe that.

Nadine stepped on the gas, speeding out of the parking garage and onto the main street. People were staring, but I didn’t care.
Faster. Faster. Faster
. We needed to move. It was the only chance that we stood of staying alive.

“How far is your house?” I asked, noticing a few cop cars sitting behind us.

“We should be there within five minutes.” She was panicking. We needed to go, but we couldn’t risk getting pulled over. Not only would that make it easier for McVeigh’s men to find us, but it would make it extremely difficult for me to hide. And considering I was dead, I shouldn’t be riding around in speeding cars.

“Nadine, calm down.” I was trying to extinguish her worries, but it was hard when I was worried myself. “I need you to drive as carefully as possible. There are two cop cars behind us. If they were to pull us over for speeding, don't you think that could result in a bit of a problem?” I could hear her heart racing; she was beyond consolable at this point. What was I supposed to do?