by Scott Meyer
Todd glowered at Jimmy. “It doesn’t matter. Lock me up wherever and however you like. I’ll escape again like I did before, and when I do, you’re all dead. No playing around this time, just the big dirt nap. All of you.”
Jimmy said, “Ah, so it’s the third option.” He placed a hand on Todd’s shoulder and said, “Execution: Todd.”
Todd disappeared. No fanfare. No light show. He just blinked out of existence.
Brit recoiled in horror. Being that close when one person killed another in cold blood repulsed her to her core.
Jimmy held up his hands and said to Brit, “You’re safe. I’m not going to hurt you, or anyone else. I knew you’d react like this. You, I mean, you as Brit the Elder, you were expecting me, but you didn’t seem at all pleased to see me.”
Gwen shouted, “You killed him!”
Jimmy turned back to the group, hands still raised. “Yes, I did. What was the alternative, Gwen? Leave him alive? That’s what we did last time. That’s what you all did with me. Are you happy with how either of those decisions worked out?”
“We don’t do that, Jimmy!” Gwen cried. “We don’t kill people!”
“That’s pretty much what I was just saying, Gwen.”
“We aren’t murderers!”
“No,” Jimmy said. “You’re not. None of you are murderers.”
Tyler asked, “And you are a murderer, Jimmy? Is that it?”
Jimmy laughed. “Tyler, that is one hell of a question for you, of all people, to ask me. Although in my defense, this is the first time I’ve deliberately killed. Rickard’s Bend was an accident, and when I tried to kill the rest of you, I failed.”
“Well, good for you,” Tyler said. “I’m sure you’re very proud.”
“No. I’m not.” Jimmy exhaled deeply. “This is the worst I’ve ever felt, but I did what I knew was right. I don’t blame you for reacting this way, all of you, and I won’t blame you for celebrating after my next trick.”
“Why?” Tyler asked. “What are you going to do?”
Jimmy said, “You don’t know? It was your suggestion, Tyler. I came back to you all because I wanted to somehow make amends for what I’d done, but you pointed out that there are some things that are just too bad to ever make up for.”
“Like ghosting me,” Tyler said.
“Well, yes, that,” Jimmy said. “And accidentally killing an entire village of innocent people. You know, Tyler, I’m not the only one who has some selfishness issues to work through. Anyway, you told me your distrust runs so deep that the only way you all would ever accept that I truly have seen the error of my ways would be for me to go to my grave having never harmed any of you again.”
Tyler said, “Yeah, that’s about right.”
Jimmy lifted his chin, striking what he calculated to be a noble pose. “That, friends, is what I intend to do.”
Phillip said, “Your next trick is that you won’t hurt us.”
Martin mumbled, “Kind of an anticlimax.”
“No,” Jimmy said. “I’m going to deliberately end my existence. I will prove my good intentions and give all those I have wronged peace of mind by removing myself from the equation permanently.”
A thick silence descended while everyone wrestled with the implications of what he’d just said. Finally, Phillip broke the silence, saying what everyone else was thinking.
“No, you won’t.”
Jimmy smiled benevolently. “Yes, Phillip, I will.”
“This is the most transparent lie you’ve ever told.”
Jimmy said, “Is not.”
Phillip asked, “It’s not transparent, or it’s not a lie?”
Jimmy said, “Whichever.”
Phillip said, “Jimmy, you’re not going to kill yourself. You like yourself far too much for that. This is just a chance for you to get away from us, since it’s clear we aren’t going to give you what you want. It won’t work anyway. We have the file, Jimmy. Go ahead, fake your own death. We can track you.”
“You can try,” Jimmy said, “and the file will tell you that I’m dead, but that won’t satisfy you. You’ll realize that I’ve had three years of unsupervised time, and that I could have used it to find a way to mask my entry in the file, making it appear that I’m deceased when I’m not. You can never be sure, one way or the other, so I suggest you don’t look in the first place.”
Jimmy looked down at the faces of the people he’d just saved and saw a sea of skepticism. He glanced at Brit, who was glaring at him with her arms folded.
Jimmy laughed. “You don’t believe me, do you?”
Martin said, “No.”
Jimmy laughed again. “So you see my point.” He laughed alone yet again, then let out a heaving sigh. “Okay, look at it this way. There are three ways this situation can play out. The first option is that I’m telling the truth, and I am going to actually do it, in which case, you will never see me again.”
Phillip said, “Go on.”
Jimmy said, “The second is that you’re right, and I am going to fake it. That might be a problem if I were bent on revenge, but I’ve had every chance to kill all of you several times over, and haven’t. Clearly, this would just be a play to get out of your lives and get on with my own. In that case, if I do it right, you’ll never see me again.”
“And the third option?” Phillip asked.
Jimmy said, “It’s the same as the second option, only I screw up and we bump into each other at some point in the future. If that happens, now instead of being mad at me for having tried and failed to kill all of you, you can be mad at me for having not really tried to kill myself.”
Phillip said, “I think I can manage to be mad at you for both things.”
Gwen said, “Jimmy, nobody wants you to kill yourself.”
“Maybe not,” Jimmy said, “but nobody wants me around either.”
Phillip smirked. “You’re really going to do this, aren’t you?”
Jimmy went back into his practiced noble pose.
“Yes, I am.”
Phillip smiled. “By ‘do this,’ I mean play out this ridiculous charade.”
Jimmy pretended not to hear. He closed his eyes and held up a hand to silence all argument and stop any movement. “Don’t try to stop me.”
Roy said, “We won’t.”
Jimmy put one hand over his heart and reached the other hand up toward the heavens. He parted his lips to speak, then said, “Oh, by the way, once I’m gone, just plug the monitor back in. Brit was just about to give Tyler his powers back when it was unplugged. It’ll be easy for him to get the rest of you out of here.”
Brit started to speak, but Jimmy held up a finger and shushed her. He resumed his death pose. He parted his lips again to speak, but Phillip interrupted.
“Jimmy,” Phillip said. “I get what you’re doing here, and I’m grateful to you for coming back to help us.”
“If by ‘help,’ you mean ‘save,’ ” Jimmy said.
“But,” Phillip said, “if we should ever meet again, it won’t be pleasant.”
Jimmy said, “Believe me, I know that.” Phillip and Jimmy shared a small chuckle; then Jimmy again stuck his death pose. He parted his lips, and uttered his final spell.
“Execute: A noble end . . .”
Everybody waited.
“. . . for James Sadler . . .”
They all held their breath.
“. . . who was known far and wide as . . .”
Phillip exhaled.
“. . . Merlin . . .”
Everyone grew noticeably impatient.
Jimmy blurted, “At one time!”
A lightning bolt streaked down from the frozen sky, striking Jimmy and obliterating him in an instant.
When the shock had worn off and the smoke had cleared, the spot where Jimmy had been standing was not mar
ked with the expected crater or scorch mark but rather with a tasteful tombstone that read, “James Sadler: He never betrayed us again.”
34.
In downtown Reno, there was a high-rise hotel-casino that had somehow managed to go bankrupt. The new owners converted the building into luxury time-share condos and divided the top two floors into luxury penthouses. Jimmy materialized in one of these, the one he had purchased. It was the less expensive of the two, but it had what Jimmy believed was the best view in Reno, because it faced away from Reno and toward the mountains.
He bought the place new. It came fully furnished. The first thing he did was hire a decorator, and he gave her one instruction: “Make it look like it’s not in Reno.” As a result, he had a home full of expensive-looking, understated furniture; his designer got a nice fat payday; and the local secondhand shops were flooded with brand new furniture made mostly of mirrors, pleather, and gold electroplate.
Jimmy spent a moment enjoying the view. These transitional moments in life always left him feeling a bit wistful. He didn’t think he would miss Leadchurch. He knew he wouldn’t miss having everybody treat him like a monster. He had the sneaking suspicion that he might miss having people know that he was a monster. There was a certain amount of respect that came with the monstrousness. Nobody liked him in Leadchurch, but everybody was aware of his work.
Jimmy didn’t know what he would do with the rest of his life, but he knew what the first step had to be. He took a deep breath, turned, and faced Todd, who was sitting comfortably in Jimmy’s Eames lounge chair.
Todd said, “I love this chair.”
“I thought you might.”
Of course, Jimmy thought, Tyler would consider putting that chair in a wealthy bachelor’s penthouse a cliché. The idea brought Jimmy more than a little pleasure.
“Did they buy it?” Todd asked.
“Well enough,” Jimmy answered.
Jimmy sat down on the black leather couch opposite Todd, and the two men looked at each other for a few seconds, before Jimmy broke the silence.
“I sense you have questions, Todd.”
Todd said, “I did everything you asked me to, didn’t I? I gave you the password to my drive. I told you exactly where and when I killed Jeff. I showed you all my macros and I pretended you’d starved me to get me to talk.”
Jimmy said, “Yes. Those are the things I asked you to do, and you did all of them.”
“So why can’t I move?” Todd asked.
Jimmy smiled. “I’ll explain that in a minute, but first, I have a question for you. Todd, what have we learned?”
“What?”
“What have you learned,” Jimmy clarified. “What has this experience taught you?”
Todd thought for a moment, then said, “Not to underestimate you and your buddies?”
Jimmy smiled broadly. “Todd, they aren’t my buddies. They’d have been the first people to tell you that if you’d just asked. You do have a point, though, in a way. As a group they do have a talent for messing up plans, both other people’s and their own.”
Todd squinted at Jimmy. “What do you mean? They beat me.”
“Yes, but not according to their plans. Heck, the main plan they live their lives by is to settle in and try to be left alone, but they behave in such a way as to make even that impossible. What else did you learn?”
Todd was silent. Jimmy shrugged and said, “Nothing? Fair enough. It’s my turn anyway. Here’s what I learned. There are some mistakes you can never make up for. There are things you do wrong that you can never make right. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. You should, but if it becomes clear that you won’t succeed, drop it. To force the issue just tortures the people you wronged in the first place. Once you’ve made your feelings clear, it’s better to leave and get on with your life.”
Jimmy studied Todd’s face, looking for some hint of understanding.
“Take me, for example,” Jimmy continued. “There are, in a sense, three of me. The Jimmy I was, the Jimmy I am today, and the Jimmy I want to be tomorrow. I can’t change how the Jimmy I was behaved. I know how I want the Jimmy of tomorrow to act. I’m neither of those guys. I’m the Jimmy of today. But, theoretically, by behaving like I hope the Jimmy of tomorrow will act, I can make the Jimmy of today less like yesterday’s Jimmy. See what I mean?”
Todd said, “I think so.”
“You have to think about it?” Jimmy asked.
Todd said, “No?”
Jimmy leaned forward, just that much closer to Todd to drive his point just that much further home. “Past Jimmy,” he explained, “would have taken someone like you, someone clever but not smart, and he would have lied and manipulated and used you for his own profit.”
Jimmy studied Todd, who was immobile, save for his mouth and facial expressions, looking for some sign that he understood. Jimmy locked eyes with Todd and continued. “Future Jimmy, on the other hand, would have done what he said he was going to do. He’d have destroyed you quickly and humanely, because that was the only way to keep the people he had wronged safe from you, and because I want future Jimmy to be a man of his word.”
“What’s present Jimmy going to do?”
Jimmy said, “Present Jimmy isn’t sure. It’s one of life’s little ironies. I tried to kill Phillip, Martin, and their friends, and I failed. Now I feel responsible for making sure nobody else kills them either. That said, I don’t really like the idea of killing you. I told them I would erase you, and I still could. It would be instant and painless. I could also reinstate your magnetic field, send you back to The Facility, and send word to Miller and Murphy to make sure no computer is ever brought anywhere near you again. You’d most likely die of old age, after several more decades of solitary confinement and reading about video games.”
“What do you think you’re going to do?” Todd asked.
“I think I’m going to err on the side of mercy.”
“Okay,” Todd said. “Which of those options is the merciful one?”
Jimmy said, “I dunno. You tell me.”
Todd looked out the window at the Sierra Nevada Mountains, thought for a while, then said, “I don’t want to go back to prison.”
Jimmy said, “Fair enough.” He stood up, crossed the room, placed the palm of his hand on Todd’s forehead like a faith healer, and said, “Execute: Todd disposition macro two.”
Todd was gone. Jimmy spent a long time looking out the window, thinking about what he had done; then he turned around and walked into his office. His computer was just as he left it, juiced up and ready for work. Jimmy sat down, cracked his knuckles, and got on with his life.
35.
Jeff felt the ground beneath his feet threatening to give way. He saw the concerned faces of the others, Phillip, Gary, and Tyler. Even Jimmy seemed worried.
Jeff looked down. His heels and the balls of his feet were on the ground, but his toes hung out in midair over a sickening drop. He felt the ground shuddering and shifting under his weight. He looked back to his friends. They were farther away now. Jeff knew that they weren’t moving. He was, and soon he would pick up quite a bit of speed.
I can’t fly, he thought, and I’m not invulnerable. I think this is it. At least I can go out with some class.
Jeff felt the ground give way beneath him, and without consulting his brain, his mouth blurted out, “Crud.”
Jeff was falling. The rock on which he had stood caught on a fissure in the cliff face, pivoted, and threw Jeff out into the clear, where he had a straight fall all the way down to the canyon floor. His mind was clogged with panic. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Jeff was so fascinated by the sight of his own upcoming demise that he didn’t even hear Roy’s voice at first.
“Kid,” Roy said. “Kid! You with me?”
Jeff said, “Whaaat?” His own voice sounded deep and slow to his ears, but Roy�
�s voice sounded normal.
“Listen up, kid. We’ve slowed down time. Well, actually we’ve sped you up. We overclocked your brain as much as we dare. We got the trick from that doctor they have in Atlantis.”
Jeff’s mind felt as fast as ever, but his voice droned, “Whyyy?”
“We’re going to get you out of this. Now, we need you to hold still.”
“I’mmm faaallliinng!”
“Yeah, I know. You can’t help that, but stop flapping your arms around.”
“Youuu’d flaaap tooo . . .”
“Just cut it out,” Roy snapped.
Jeff froze as best he could under the circumstances.
“Okay,” Roy said. “That’s good. Hold it just like that.”
Jeff thought, And of course, now my nose itches. Man, the ground’s still coming up really fast, isn’t it? Even slowed down to this pace, I wouldn’t survive the impact. Actually, he said time wasn’t slower, just my brain is sped up, so I’m still falling at the same speed and I’ll hit with just as much force. I’m just getting more time to experience it. Fantastic.
Jeff heard a female voice say, “Okay. We’ve scanned him. Rendering the simulation now.”
Way down near the canyon floor Jeff saw a light source. He squinted into the wind. It was Todd’s webcam window.
He’s all lined up to watch me go splat, Jeff thought. Bastard’s got a front-row seat.
The female voice said, “Ready!”
“Okay,” Roy said. “Keep still just a second or two more. We need to time this right.”
The ground was getting very close now. It took all of Jeff’s willpower to keep from putting his arms out in front of himself, not that it would have helped.
Roy said, “Now!”
There was a flash and Jeff was awash in a sea of blinding light and bright colors. Time accelerated back to normal. Jeff’s ears were filled with the rushing sound of wind. His eyes adjusted. He saw that it was a bright, sunny day, and he was many hundreds of feet above the ground. Green trees and rolling hills spread out beneath him. Directly below he saw a town and recognized it as Leadchurch.
