‘Eldon, I’m killing Jimmy today. Do you want to come and watch?’ Ethan said to the monitor.

‘What do you have planned?’

‘Well, I figured whatever’s going on, he must have fucked you pretty bad, so I chose radiation exposure in one of the reactors. I can draw it out as long as you want. It’s just a matter of setting the right exposure. A few days? A week? Whatever’.

‘That would cause excruciating pain Ethan’.

‘Well, it’s up to you. I can zap the shit out of him and kill him instantly if that’s what you want’.

‘ No a few days will be good’.

‘Alright, drop by. We’ll go for lunch after.’ Ethan knew Eldon wouldn’t come over. Eldon’s power had become so great he was getting paranoid. His security detail had doubled overnight. He never left his apartments, let alone the building. Ethan wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t spending all his time in the highly secured war room now.

‘No, I’m too busy. Just make sure there’s a camera on him at all times. Oh, and I’ll send Johann over to watch the proceedings. So, around 11:00 AM?’

‘Works for me’.

‘Hey listen Ethan. You taken steps to prove yourself today. I’m proud of you’.

‘Thanks Eldon. That means a lot’.

11:00 AM arrived, and Ethan and Johann stood waiting for Ethan’s men to bring Jimmy to a chamber with a dense glass front. Johann would have to see Jimmy get zapped.

‘So what we’re going to do here Johann is radiate him. Now I think what we’re going to see is some immediate burns, and then the dying part comes from busting up his insides’.

Johann nodded. He was checking out the chamber structure, tapped the glass with his knuckles. Just then, two men dragging Jimmy between them, brought him to the chamber. Jimmy was kicking and screaming. As soon as he saw Ethan and Johann, he started pleading.

‘Please, Ethan,’ he cried. ‘Whatever Eldon thinks is going on, tell him I can explain it. I haven’t done anything’.

Getting nothing from Ethan, he turned his attention to Johann. ‘Johann. Come on bro. You know I wouldn’t do anything.’

They were at the chamber door. Johann walked over to Jimmy and grabbed him by his upper arm. ‘Listen you piece of shit,’ he said squeezing and shaking Jimmy hard. You’re going to get what your deserve, and I’m going to watch you die’. Then he pushed Jimmy away, and gestured for the men to put him into the chamber.

Johann walked back and straightened his tie. ‘That felt good’.

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‘That’s good,’ Ethan thought. ‘I was worried it might feel like a robot.’

The men closed the door on Jimmy.

‘Now to give us a visual of the radiation contamination, I’m releasing steam as well as the radiation. Now he should experience internal as well as external exposure so when the steam dissipates, we should see some skin lesions’.

Steam started to rise from the floor. Jimmy responded appropriately, by dancing up and down trying to avoid it, focused solely on the gas and screaming for his life.

‘Johann watched the steam rise from the floors and momentarily fill the chamber. He grunted his approval.

‘Now Johann,’ Ethan said, turning to Johann. ‘I implanted a chip into his wrist and it’ll send you all his vitals from now until he dies. It’s going to take a few days to a week, so you don’t have to be here 24/7, and you’ll still know what’s going on. I’m going to send you a link’ he found it on his phone and sent it. ‘Now you can monitor it from your phone. It will send you an alert when he only has a few hours left. Now, be patient. It’s going to take a few days, but you’ll know what’s going on the whole time.

Johann grunted, with his ‘we’ll see’ attitude, and checked his phone for the link. He pressed on the link. ‘He’s dead.’

‘What’s that?’ Ethan asked, looking to Johann.

‘He’s dead.’

‘Nooo,’ Ethan said in disbelief, starring at Johann, who was blankly looking back at him. ‘You must be wrong’. Neither thought to turn around and see what Jimmy was doing.

Sure enough, when they did, Jimmy was lying prone on the floor looking dead as a doornail. Ethan grabbed a passing worker. ‘Throw on a radiation suit and see if he’s dead. Try to find a pulse, and cut off some of his hair and put it in a vial.

The guy got suited up and went in and kicked Jimmy. The body absorbed the kick lifelessly. Then he put a boot down on Jimmy’s chest. Nothing. The man made a gesture with his thumb running it across his throat to indicate Jimmy was dead.

Ethan couldn’t believe it. He pointed to his wrist to indicate the guy should feel for a pulse. The man bent down and after a moment looked up and shook his head.

‘You were dead in less than 5 minutes. That’s all you could hold out for? 5 minutes? We agreed you were going to wait at least 3 days.’

‘Well, I got hungry.’

‘In 5 minutes?’

‘Yeah. I have low blood sugar.’

‘But why did we plan all this Jimmy? The whole idea was you were going to simulate Da’s death. He wasn’t programmed so you were going to send him the appropriate response instructions through your microchip. It was the only way we could do this now that your AI’s corrupt. The whole ideas was to convince Eldon you died, because he watched you die. The deal was three days! That was the plan. Instead he watched what was quite possible the worst death scene I’ve ever seen. Falling to your knees and clutching your throat. Why would you be clutching your throat when you’re dying from radiation poisoning?’

Jimmy was about to explain, but Ethan held up his hand to silence him. ‘Now, I look like an idiot. Eldon notices everytime I fail, you know.’ he said.

‘Yeah, but that meant I‘d have to be sitting here transmitting my thoughts all the time. It’s impossible to focus on something for three days nonstop’. Jimmy replied. ‘Oh, now my skins burning. Oh, now I’m so horrified. Oh, and now I’m coughing up blood. No way man’.

‘Couldn’t you just have him pass out whenever you wanted to take a break?'

Jimmy thought about that for a few seconds. ‘Yeah, I guess I could have done that’.

‘ It was a simple thing for you to do and come across as real. ‘Ethan said angrily. ‘What do you think Dawn?’

‘What I think is it happened. Jimmy’s an idiot, which you should have known all along, and now we have to get past it. Just tell Eldon the interaction between the radiation and the steam must have created a chemical bond that concentrated the effect. Something like that. Anyway, I have to go. It looks like I made friends with Alicia’.