“How could they do something so evil,” Gabriel asked. His eyes were actually
burning with unshed tears. Abuse of a child was something that hit very close to home.
“I am going to ask you to do something for me, and you are not going to like it.
But it is something that needs to be done, or we are going to fail in our mission, and an entire world of people will die because of it.”
“Hello,” Allison rasped a little louder this time. “I heard the door open. Is anyone there?”
“What do you want me to do,” Gabriel asked, though he had a pretty good idea.
“I need you to kill her. Or more accurately, destroy her brain.”
Squeezing his eyes shut, Gabriel tried very hard to keep from crying. Kill her?
Kill a defenseless little girl that had been severely victimized? How could he do that? Of all the horrible things that he’d done in his life, killing this poor little girl was worse than any of them. How was he supposed to earn his redemption if he went around murdering abused children?
“No. I can’t do that. I won’t do that.”
“Please,” Allison called, sounding close to tears. “If there’s someone there.
Please. Kill me.”
“God,” Gabriel cried. “How could these people do that to her! Children are
supposed to play, and climb trees, and skin their knees, not—not this!”
“Listen to me closely, Gabriel,” Allie said calmly, but firmly. “I can feel some of what you are feeling right now. I would do this myself if I still had hands to do it with, but they took them from me and I can never go back. Trust me when I tell you that you will be doing her the greatest favor of her life. She spends day after day shrieking for death. That is why her voice is so raspy. Please, Gabriel. I know that you do not want to do this, but it is something that must be done. I am begging you to grant her the mercy of ending her constant torture. You are not the one that is killing her, it is the bastards that did this to her. If there is a god somewhere out there, waiting to judge you for your sins, I will personally speak to him on your behalf.”
“Nothing will make me do that,” Gabriel cried.
“Right now, she has completely lost all control of her bodily functions,” Allie explained. “The parts of her brain that process sight and motor control have been removed and replaced with a network hub that all of those cables connect to. She is blind, terrified, paralyzed and in more pain that you will ever experience. Her body has become dependant on the computers and machinery keeping her alive. You cannot save her from this. The computer keeps trying to pull her consciousness away and she keeps holding on with everything she has. Soon it will not be enough. Eventually her personality, memories, and consciousness will completely transfer to the computers and her body will die. Killing her now will save her from that hell. It hurts, Gabriel. It hurts like nothing you have ever felt before, to have your mind ripped right out of your body while you are still alive and conscious.
“She is alone in the dark, in more pain than you can imagine, and scared to death.
She hasn’t slept in two years. Killing her is not murder. Trust me, Gabriel. It is mercy.
I begged, and begged, and begged to die, and no one ever listened to me. Please, Gabriel.
You are doing her the biggest favor of her life.”
Turning, Gabriel forced himself to look at Allison on the rack. She looked so pathetic stripped naked, shivering, with tubes sticking into every orifice but her mouth.
“Please,” she cried. Tears began streaming from her sightless eyes. “I want to die. Just kill me.”
“She can never be human again. All she has to look forward to is pain, and six hundred lonely years of waiting for you to come along and give another chance to end it before it begins.”
Gabriel was shocked to find his hand on the butt of his pistol.
“Listen to me, Gabriel. If you do not do this, this is what will happen. Even as we speak the unconscious part of her mind is working on the encryption I put in place over security. By the time you get to the containment field she will have broken through, and she will learn from what I did last time. She knows my tricks now, and will defeat them in seconds next time. We may be theoretically equal in intelligence, but as I am now, I have far less computing power than she does. You cannot reason with her.
Already, the programming that dictates most of my behavior is taking root. The second you reach the containment field, she will lock you out of the controls and send a security squad to kill you. Your mission will fail, and the future will die.”
Gabriel walked into the room and slowly approached the girl at the center. He knew that it was wrong. He knew that he could never find a more evil thing to do if he lived a thousand years. But what if Allie was telling him the truth? He couldn’t leave a child to suffer like that. He knew what it was like to be abused, and if she could never be freed from the computers again, the next best thing was death. It was better that one child died than an entire world. If god had any mercy, he’d be forgiven for what he was about to do, but if he did not, Gabriel would accept his punishment because he knew full well that he deserved it.
“Hi there,” he said in a soothing voice. “My name is Gabriel. What’s yours?”
“Allison. You’re not supposed to be in here, are you Gabriel?”
“No Allison, I’m not.”
“Are you the one that set off the alarm earlier? And locked me out of Gate Jump Control and Security?”
“Yes. That was me.”
“Did you come to kill me?”
“I don’t know how I should answer that question.”
Gabriel reached out and cupped Allison’s cheek. She flinched away from him at first but then leaned into it, tears streaming from her sightless eyes.
“Please,” Allison begged. “Please, Gabriel. It hurts. I can feel my mind being ripped right out of my body. Why are they doing this to me? What did I do wrong? I never hurt anyone. I told them I was sorry I stole bread, but I was starving.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong, little one,” Gabriel said as he drew a pistol. “I’m so, so sorry. The people that did this to you are evil, evil men.”
“Please,” Allison said.
“Please,” Allie repeated.
“Just kill me, please,” Allison cried.
“Are you sure that’s what you want,” Gabriel asked.
“Yes,” Allison said.
“Positive,” Allie added.
“I’m sorry, Allison,” Gabriel said. A tear ran down his face, as he bent to kiss her lightly on the forehead. “I’m so, so sorry.”
Pulling back the hammer on his pistol, Gabriel placed it against Allison’s
forehead between her sightless, eerily staring eyes.
“Thank you,” Allison and Allie said as one.
“God forgive me,” Gabriel gasped as he pulled the trigger.
The explosion from the shell seemed loudest of any he’d ever fired. The warm
blood seemed to burn as it splattered his face. Something inside him broke when he realized he’d actually done it. He felt crushed under the weight of the sin he’d been talked into believing was mercy. Dropping to his knees, he refused to look at his handiwork.
“You did the right thing,” Allie said.
“Go to hell,” Gabriel replied.
“I understand your anger. I manipulated you to get something I wanted. If I
could have done it myself, believe me, I would have, but it had to be done. It is better that one dying girl dies, rather than an entire world full of people.”