Free Program 12 by Nicole Sobon Page B

hurt.
    Relax , she mouthed.
    But the scream was already erupting from my lips.
    Jessica closed her eyes, and for a second, I could have sworn I saw her begin to shake . She was beginning to break. Because she knew what was coming. “No,” she whispered. “This can’t be happening right now.”
    I was supposed to remain still. During standby mode, my Program was to enter sleep mode. I shouldn’t have been able to scream – my body should have been asleep. But I did scream . And Charles McVeigh had heard me. There was no hiding the truth anymore: my Program, his precious Twelve, had bee n altered without his approval.
    “When did this happen?” McVeigh stormed over to where Jessica was and shoved her against the Security Tub e. “Who did this?” he demanded.
    “I don’t know.”
    “Don’t you dare lie to me, miss.” He turned his head to glance over at me. I could see the hatred in his eyes. The fear of knowing I could very well destroy everything he had built. He gripped Jessica’s coat tightly and slammed her head against the tube. “I’ll ask yo u again, when did this happen?”
    Jessica shook her head. “Does it really matter?” She asked. “We both know what you’re going to do. Why don’t you just get it over with already?”
    He laughed and loosened his grip on her coat. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
    “Yes,” she stated. “It was me. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
    “Todd, come and help me over here, will you?” McVeigh moved his hand around Jessica’s throat. A menac ing smile formed upon his lips.
    “How may I be of assistance, sir?” Douglas Todd f olded his arms behind his back.
    “She’d make a fine Program, don’t you th ink?” he smirked.
    “A fine Program indeed.” Todd moved in closer and gr abbed a hold of her left wrist.
    McVeigh released her to Todd, who tied her wrists with wire, and moved over to my Pod.
    “Should I wai t, sir?” Todd asked, eyeing me.
    “No, no, you go on. I’ll take care of this problem on my own.” The way he stressed "problem", as if I were some sort of disgrace to the world, was a clear i ndication of what was in store.
    We’d been warned about deactivation. When my Program functioned properly, up until this morning, I would have done anything to make McVeigh happy. I would have listened to the threats of deactivation. I would have been scared of the outside world still. I would have done everything that was expected of me. But now, with my old life forcing its way back inside, I didn’t care about his threats.
    He’d killed me once already.
    What di d it matter if he did it again?
    “It’s a shame really.” He moved to the side of the Pod and yanked out the power cord. “You really could have been something specia l.”
    McVeigh pulled open the Pod do or. “You’re useless to me now.”
    “Is that so?” I asked. “Not tha t I truly care what you think.”
    He gripped me by my throat, pulling me closer to him. I wanted to scream in agony as he yanked my hard-drive out of the slot in my Pod. But I didn’t. I couldn’t dare show him that I was weak. “You were everything I hoped for when I took over this business. You,” he shoved his free hand into my chest. “You were pe rfect. Do you understand that?”
    “Yes,” I said. “I was perfect. But then you killed me. Do you remember that?”
     
    McVeigh removed his hand from my throat and walked over to the Security Tube. “Hayden?” he tapped on the glass. “Cou ld you come here for a second?”
    The boy looked nervous. “Y-y- yes, sir. I’ll be right there.”
    He exited the tube and stood beside McVeigh, who was leaning against the tube, hands folded at his wai st. “You’re new here, correct?”
    “Correct.” The boy glanced over at me and smiled.
    “Do you understand what we are trying to do here?”
    “I was told that we’re building a b etter society,” Hayden replied.
    “A better society?” McVeigh scoffed. “Here, at Vesta Corp, we aim to build a