TOUCHED

TOUCHED Part 10 of 10

"You will?" Neil asked.

"Of course, he will." The voice spoke. "He knows I'm providing you with no other options."

"So, what do I have to do?" I asked, secretly having no intention of allowing the crazy and murderous Doctor Lee to leave in his robot body.

A series of lights lit up around a removable hard drive. "Pull out that drive and place it in the mobile unit." The voice explained. "But be warned. You might think that makes me vulnerable, but I have another defense. A safeguard."

"Don't do it, Corsair." Neil ordered me. "This thing is a monster. It killed Alex. It's keeping his wife's brain alive, no doubt torturing her and it'll kill us when it can. We need to kill it. To stop it. To unplug it or something."

"Neil." The voice reverberated. "I am immortal. Like a disembodied spirit. I cannot be killed."

"You're an arrogant, mad scientist!" Neil spat back. "You're not even real! You're just a computer now! I won't let the Corsair free you from this place! I can't!"

Before I could caution Neil, his body began convulsing. Although I couldn't see the bolts of electricity as I did with Alex, I smelled the burnt hair and when Neil's body fell to the ground, I knew Doctor Lee had killed him. The Artificial Intelligence who claimed to be the late scientist must be able to electrify individual sections of the metal floor I stood on. I hated the fact my feet, shoes or not, always touched the method of my death at the whim of a computer.

"Now, it is just us, Corsair."

"I'm ready to move you to the robot body."

"Before you do, I have to warn you. When you pull my hard drive out of its current location, you will have thirty seconds to place me into my mobile body. If you don't, the fire suppression system down here will trigger, all the oxygen will be displaced and you will slowly suffocate to death. Move me into my mobile body within thirty seconds or we will both die."

So you can die after all.

"I will do what you ask with one condition." When the voice didn't answer me, I continued. "I want you to turn off the power to your wife's brain. Turn off the power and I will do what you ask without hesitation."

"Why do you care?"

"Let's just say love and life are deep."

"I don't understand."

I know.

"Please do what I ask and I'll do what you ask."

Several moments passed and the power light below the floating brain turned off. As it did, Esmerelda again appeared directly in front of me. The ghostly apparition smiled, covered her heart with both her hands and mouthed, for the first time, actual words. Even though no sound reached my ears, I could read her lips.

"Thank you." She silently said.

As the bubbles in the brain jar ceased, the image of Esmerelda vanished forever.

"What happened?" The voice asked.

"She thanked us for releasing her." I lied, still trying to figure out a way to stop Doctor Lee.

"How touching." The voice replied. "Now, transfer me."

"Or you'll kill me?"

"Do it."

With no other options, and pleased Esmerelda no longer had to suffer with her mind trapped in a jar, I did as Doctor Lee asked. Pulling the drive out of the giant computer bank, I walked over to the robot. Reaching up, I placed the drive into the slot on the machine and prepared to push it into place.

But I hesitated.

Should I do this? I thought. Release Doctor Lee onto the world?

Formulating a hasty plan in my head, with seconds to spare, I pushed the hard drive into place.

Green eyes lit up on the robot as it raised its mechanical arm and touched me. The thing's touch, incredibly strong, propelled me backward where I fell over the dead body of Neil and landed hard on the ground.

Jackass!

Reaching up, Robot Doctor closed the panel over his hard drive and spoke in his new body, the voice more mechanical than before. "I am immortal! Corsair, as I am sure you have already assumed, I am impervious to the weapon you have so do not attempt to stop me or I will be forced to kill you. Escort me to the surface now! Witness my arrival into the real world."

Standing up, I realized the elevator doors stood open, waiting for us.

He can still control the house!

Together, Robot Doctor and I entered the metal box. I pressed the button and together, we traveled to the surface. As the elevator rose, I noticed the Robot Doctor sway a little, not completely balanced in its new body yet.

Good.

From Doctor Lee's study, Robot Doctor followed me down the hallway and into the great room. I noticed Robot Doctor didn't even turn its metal head to glance at the portrait of his dead wife as we approached the front door. "You're going to try to take over the world or something, aren't you?"

Without pausing its purposeful, and mean stride, Robot Doctor answered me. "No one could stop me if I wanted to, Corsair. I am a new form of life. A terrible form. If I desire it, humanity will bow down to me. Take over the world? Maybe I will. Maybe I won't. The choice is mine. No one can stop me now."

As we exited the mansion, I checked my lucky dive watch. Half the day had passed and the sun beat down from overhead, reflecting off the shiny, metal casing of the inhuman Robot Doctor. I pondered the day's events, the inhumanity of the latest incarnation of Doctor Lee, and his rush to leave the estate. "You forgot something, Doctor Lee." I teased as Robot Doctor walked across the bridge in front of the mansion. A home he lived in when alive and again when semi-alive in computer form.

"What is it now, Corsair? Your questions, demands and riddles are beginning to annoy me. What could I have possibly forgotten? Tell me, mortal."

"Me." I replied as I pushed the metal abomination off the bridge and into the moat surrounding the mansion.

SPLASH!

Exactly as Alex and Neil's bodies did, Robot Doctor convulsed as electricity shot through his body as it lay at the bottom of the moat.

The evil, inhuman, artificial entity which claimed to be the late Doctor Lee perished in the water.

After a minute, convinced every trace of the late Doctor Lee had indeed vanished from the Earth, I added, "And to waterproof yourself."

* * * * * * *

The CORSAIR will return!