The Wired Man

26

Entry Re: Rebecca Hollandsworth

"We've got him surrounded."

"Good. I'm almost there. Don't take him until then I arrive," Rebecca said before breaking link.

She wanted to greet the prick who had caused her so much trouble in person. She relaxed back into the seat of the car and unpinned her hair. It was over, and tomorrow this whole thing would be a bad memory.

An incoming link from Gary flashed across her display.

"We have the man, Gary," she said. "If you even care."

Gary was pale and the good news did nothing to lift the look of pure terror from his face.

"What's wrong?"

"The system is priming for shutdown."

Rebecca's body went numb. "What the hell are you telling me for? Do something!"

"We can't. It's locked us out."

Rebecca pulled her weapon out from its holster and threw it on the seat next to her. "How much time do we have?"

"Minutes."

She cut the link and picked her gun up off the seat. She chambered a round and took out the magazine. The shiny brass casings sat stacked and ready to go. As she slammed it back in and re-holstered the weapon, her entire display flickered and a semitransparent video overlaid onto her vision. The figure of Robert faded into view.

"Greetings, select individuals."

He was sitting at a large, oak desk with an umbrella drink in his left hand. Rebecca wanted to be mad or at least annoyed when she saw him again, but all she felt was a residual longing. All the long corporate plane rides they enjoyed together in their little bed in the back, the long nights fighting the board, and then the war. He had taken a bullet in the chest for her. She remembered sitting outside the medical tent nervously waiting. What had happened?

His pathetic desire to sacrifice all they had worked for. His idea that he could give the power back to the people. She had been forced to get rid of him. She couldn't let him destroy their greatest creation, their baby.

"If you are seeing this, it means I am dead, and you are one of the special few I have chosen to address personally post mortem so to speak."

Rebecca felt her heartstrings clipped out from under her. Shock burrowed into her stomach and she doubled over. She always dreamed of bringing him in, of sitting him down, making him understand that people needed the system and that his ideas were foolish. They had tried the old way, his way. The wars, the famines, the rampant corruption had proven that humans cannot be left to their own devices. None of that mattered now, though. The system had removed her love from the equation, and now it came rushing back, but it was too late. He was gone.

"Please postpone the lamenting until after this message as I have something important to relay to you."

Rebecca lay down on the seat next to her, and she could feel the slick wetness of her tears against the fake leather rub a rash onto her cheek.

"As you all surely know by now, there is an incident boiling, and if it isn't over by now I must ask you to do something for me." Robert took a big gulp from the glass and tossed the tiny umbrella on the desk. "I trusted you all once, and I'm trusting you now. Let it finish. I'm not going to explain myself because you wouldn't understand, but I am going to ask you to trust me."

Robert finished the drink and stood.

"And Rebecca."

Rebecca immediately shot out of the grief-ridden vertigo that held her and sat up. She looked at the man standing in front of her.

"Don't beat yourself up; this has been in the works for years. There's nothing you could have done," Robert said. "And I did love you. I hoped you loved me, too."

He took picked up a letter opener on the desk and twirled it in his palm.

"I must be going now. Take care everyone. Oh, and if you find my body, I'd like to be cremated."

Her display blinked back on, and Rebecca sat still as the car blurred down the streets of old downtown. He was gone and now she was alone. The one person who had faith in her, and she betrayed him. Rebecca felt another wave of grief as she curled into the fetal position and began crying. What have I done?