The Asshole App (Expanded Version) ✅ Wattys2023

𝟦𝟧 𝖫𝗈𝗋𝗂

Lori Jacobs flashed her credentials at the security perimeter and walked through the front entrance. Inside, CENTIEN's Security headquarters were eerily quiet. She was puzzled by the lack of personnel. The high-tech room was usually populated like a busy hive. Now it was vacant, save for one man, sitting at the security console. The double-agent, Darrow.

She walked around a cleaning cart that had been recovered from the forty-ninth floor. It looked out of place, left in the center of the space like an operating gurney. She frowned as colored lights blinked in the darkened room. Automated systems had completely replaced their human counterparts. Her gaze shifted to the wall, covered with a bank of surveillance monitors. Onscreen, she saw Evelyn, Lear, and a stout man she didn't recognize, inside Sinclair's office. She froze when she saw a mechanical dog, thrashing under a heavy metal cabinet. She recognized the lethal DARPA model she had helped to create.

"What's going on? Big Dog will kill them."

"We've taken care of the intruders. Go home, Jacobs. This isn't your concern." His back to her, Darrow's attention remained focused on the monitor.

"What the hell does that mean?" Lori swallowed nervously. "I've committed espionage and treason against my government. I'm up to my neck in it." Walking closer, she looked over his shoulder. Chewing her fingernail, she saw the mechanical dog and Evelyn struggle as she tried to deactivate the DARPA weapon. She imagined the carnage that would ensue as he tore them to shreds. "Call the dog off, this is cold-blooded murder.

She grabbed the back of Darrow's chair and shook it. "What side of history are you going to be on?" She demanded. "The one that massacres innocent civilians?"

"There's no side. I'm an opportunist," Darrow pulled a Glock out and pointed it at her face. "Leave, or I'll shoot you." When he saw Lori submissively raise her hands and back away, he dispassionately returned his gaze to the screen.

"Well, I'm taking a side, motherfucker." The senior VP grabbed Vince's gun from the cart. She racked the pump-action shot gun, registering the unmistakable sound of a shells filling the double chamber. Most people ran like hell when they heard that sound, but Darrow didn't flinch. "Evie and Lear are my friends. I could easily put a bullet in your head right now and splatter your brains across the console, but that would be a waste of ammunition." She blasted the console above him, then spun on her heels and raced to the elevator. Her retinol scan didn't work on the glass elevator's security panel. Whoever controlled the apparatus had cut off her access to the upper levels.

"Damn." She had wasted too much time talking.
Nervously, she crouched and snuggled the rifle butt into her shoulder. She spun and faced the hallway.

I'll take a few of these interloping psychopaths out before I die.

Hearing a grating clicking noise, she pointed her gun at the ceiling. She gaped as a black Cobra slithered out of the air shaft. Sinclair's reptilian avatar reared up in front of her. A black metallic hood fanned open around the snake's head as it opened its mouth to shoot an infrared, red laser at the elevator's recognition software. The lift's doors opened.

Son of a bitch. Sinclair did have a parallel operating system buried in the coding.

She nodded at the shimmering snake. "Thanks, whatever you are. You're on the right side of history."