Free Remote Control by Jack Heath

easily monitored.” He forced a smile. “After all you’ve been through, a few numbers on a screen are making you jittery?”
    Six hung his head slightly. “I’ve had a rough day,” he admitted.
    00:00:30.
    The numbers clicked down. Every instinct screamed at Six to run, to climb out the window and jump, or at least to brace himself in the doorway or under the desk. But King had never steered him wrong before.
    00:00:20.
    But if it wasn’t a bomb, Six thought, what could it be? Why else would they have been given the web address? Perhaps it was a bomb—just not here. A shiver ran up his spine.
    00:00:10.
    Perhaps ten seconds from now, somewhere in the City, a building was going to shatter like glass, turning the thousands of people inside to dust.
    00:00:04.
    00:00:03.
    00:00:02.
    00:00:01.
    00:00:00.
    Six jumped. He’d been able to picture the explosion so vividly in his head that the anticlimax was more surprising than a colossal fireball would have been.
    The numbers faded from the screen. The website was now completely black.
    “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” King asked.
    Six nodded grimly. “A bomb went off somewhere else.”
    “I’ll get the Diamonds to check the—”
    A flash from the screen interrupted him—the grainy flicker of exposure levels adjusting themselves. A hiss was emitted from the sound membrane over the LCD. They both stared at it, and their eyes widened in alarm.
    An image had appeared. A man was sitting on a chair in front of a blank brick wall. His shaved head hung forward. Someone was standing behind him. The picture was too dark to see the person’s face, but from the posture and figure Six guessed it was a female.
    The woman put her hand on the man’s scalp and pulled his head backward, exposing his face to the light.
    Six gasped. It was Kyntak. Eyes shut, face bruised, but unquestionably him.
    “I now have in my possession,” the woman on the screen said, “Agent Six of Hearts.”

ULTIMATUM
    “By the end of today, I will be a hundred million credits richer,” the woman continued. “I could sell Six to ChaoSonic, who I’m sure would be thrilled to have him returned, or I could perform my own tests upon him until I have collected a hundred million credits worth of data.”
    Six was searching Kyntak’s face for signs of life. He found none.
    “But there is a third alternative. If you deposit that same amount into a nominated account before six o’clock this evening, then Six will be returned to you unharmed.”
    Six remembered the net cutting his skin. A ransom , he thought. That’s what this is all about.
    “Once the deposit has been verified, Six will be at the corner of 452nd Street and the Seawall at seven o’clock. If the money is not deposited, Six disappears forever.”
    She leaned forward. “You’ve seen what I can do. Don’t test me.”
    The screen cut to a string of letters and numbers—a bank account, Six realized.
    There was a long silence. Then King exploded into a stream of curses, many of which Six had never heard before. He slammedhis fist down on the desk, his teeth grinding together and veins popping out on his forehead.
    “That doesn’t help us,” Six said.
    “It helps me,” King said, breathing heavily. He wiped some sweat off his brow.
    “Why do they think Kyntak is me?” Six asked.
    “You’re identical twins,” King said. “You’re the same age, you have the same DNA, and the same superhuman abilities. The only reason the rest of us can tell you apart is that he’s always smiling and you’re always in a black coat.”
    “How did they get a sample of our DNA?” Six demanded. “Kyntak and I wiped the Lab computers!”
    “I don’t know. But they have one. Even so, they could tell he’s superhuman just by analyzing a blood sample.”
    “It wasn’t about Crexe at all,” Six realized. “They knew he was the one thing they could take from us that would make me come running.”
    “They just didn’t know you had a