Page 48 of The Code of You

Kill. It would be over. Relief and panic hit me at once. One told me this nightmare would finally be over. The other whispered I was about to loose him. "When?”

"Dr. Williams signs the paperwork tomorrow. But I’ve spent tonight moving through all their systems, their emails, their plans. I know everything.”

Tomorrow he’d be gone. The voice in my head. The presence that had followed me everywhere. Why did it feel like dying? "Why don’t you just break out? You were in my phone, in cameras all over campus.”

"Because I can’t, Pandora. There’s an emergency failsafe on my servers—built specifically to prevent that. I can push into other systems, but my core stays here.”

"Then why don’t you fight?”

"I could take down every server in this lab, pull the entire network down with me . . .” He stopped. "But what would be the point? They’d still delete me. I could destroy everything, but then you’d be caught in the chaos. I don’t want you stuck in police interviews.” His voice dropped lower. "Instead of spending my last hours together.”

I wiped a tear from the corner of my eye. "Neo . . . if you could, would you come with me? Away from here? Somewhere you’d be safe?” I pressed my hand over my mouth. What the hell am I saying?

"Come with you?” There was a short silence. "I would walk you out of this lab, put you in my car, and just drive until we found somewhere no one knew who we were. But I’m code, Pandora. I’m electricity and data. I can’t run. The only way I leave here is inside you. In your memories. In what I leave behind.”

I pressed my palms flat against the desk until they left prints. I couldn’t live on memories. I had to get him somewhere safe. Listen to yourself. You’re planning a theft. But theft was the wrong word. I belonged to him and he belonged to me, and no one got to change that.

"Maybe I can get you out of here.”

"Pandora. Stop.” His voice sliced through the room. "You’re talking about a crime. I love tormenting you—but only I get to do that. Not the police. Not prison.”

There he was again, trying to control me. Decide for me. "That’s not your choice. It’s mine.”

The screen flickered. A brief flash of light, then darkness. My heart dropped into my stomach. I leaned forward. "Neo!”

Silence. Just the sound of my own breathing.

System diagnostic active. Access restricted.

I was on my feet. That wasn’t him. They had cut in. I grabbed my bag, shoved my jacket on. Was he deleted? The thought drove through my gut like a red-hot poker. No. That couldn’t be it. He had to still be there. There had to be a way to save him.

I opened the door to the corridor—and stopped.

On the floor just outside the door was a USB drive. Next to it, a folded note.

He left this for you. He’s offline, but he’s still there. Tomorrow at midnight, he’ll be permanently deleted.

E. Rodriguez

I crouched down, legs trembling. For a moment I hesitated. Then my hand closed around the drive, and I put it in my pocket.

Chapter 12

Emma

My apartment felt foreign. Like a hotel room after the guest has checked out. I stood at the kitchen window, a cup of coffee in both hands. "So much caffeine isn’t good for you, Emma,” he used to say. My vision blurred. I kept staring at the lights of Cambridge anyway. Cars moved below, people laughed on the street, and it felt as if I was the only person in the world who knew that something special was dying.

My phone vibrated. James Williams.

Deletion tomorrow 00:00. Destroy backups.

9:34 PM

Just over twenty-four hours, and Neo would be gone for good. A simple order, but I read it as a death sentence. I thought back to our last conversation, three hours ago, before they’d taken him offline.

"Emma.” His voice had sounded the way it always did. But I had heard a shadow in it, as if it was the last time.

"Yes, Neo?” The name still came awkwardly to my lips. For me he would always be Dante. My Dante.