‘Eldon, I’m killing Jimmy today. Do you want to come by and watch? Say a few last words?’ Ethan said over a face chat.

‘What are you planning?’

‘Accidental radiation exposure from one of the reactors. I can draw it out as long as you want. A few days? A week? Whatever. It’s just a matter of setting the right exposure’.

‘That would cause excruciating pain Ethan’.

‘Well, it’s up to you. I can zap him and kill him instantly if you’d prefer’.

‘ No a few days will be fine’.

‘Alright, drop by. We’ll take care of Jimmy, and you can inspect the facility while you’re here. See what we’re up to’. Ethan knew Eldon wouldn’t come, but he had to make the offer to show everything was legit.

The fact was, Eldon had been withdrawing more and more from society since he enacted war on Zhang. He was becoming very cautious, almost paranoid in his behavior. He no longer left the Freedom Tower, and his security detail had doubled overnight. Ethan wouldn’t be surprised if he was spending all his time, including sleeping, in his highly secured war room.

‘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. I’ll have him there within a couple of hours.’

‘Works for me’.

Johann arrived as promised and Ethan led him to a chamber with a dense glass front. Ethan had it designed with a window, because he knew someone representing Eldon would have to witness poisoning and report back to him.

‘So what we’re going to do here Johann is radiate him. Now don’t expect too much right off the bat. Eldon wants to draw this out for a few days, so all might see is some puking or he’ll shit himself. I don’t think we’ll see any skin burns right away. I’m told those will take a few days to appear’.

Johann grunted noncommittally. He was checking out the chamber structure, and tapping the glass with his knuckles. Just then, two men with 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 I did, tell him I can explain it. I haven’t done anything’.

Ethan didn't respond. He just looked at Jimmy blankly.

‘Johann. Come on bro. You know I wouldn’t do anything,’ Jimmy said, turning towards Johann.

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. You’re going to get what you deserve, and I’m here to see it happens’. Then he shoved Jimmy towards the door, and gestured for the men to put him into the chamber.

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

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

The men closed the door on Jimmy.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

‘Now because we can’t see the radiation, I’m releasing steam as well. That way we’ll get an idea of how much radiation enters the chamber, ’ Ethan said. ‘When the steam dissipates, Jimmy should already be showing signs of stress’.

Steam started to rise from the floor. Jimmy responded appropriately, by dancing up and down, screaming and begging.

Johann watched the steam rise from the floors and 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’ll send you the link.’

Ethan found the link and sent it. ‘Now you can monitor it from your phone, and it will send you alerts when he only has a few hours left, or dies. Now, you’re going to have to 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,’ he said.

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

‘He’s dead.’

‘Nooo,’ Ethan said in disbelief, looking up at Johann. ‘That must be wrong’.

Johann, who was looking at the chamber, nodded his head towards it, as if to say ‘see for yourself’. Ethan turned and saw Jimmy laid out on the floor looking dead.

Ethan grabbed a passing worker. ‘Throw on a radiation suit and see if he’s dead.’

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 and applied pressure. 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 placed an instrument on Jimmy’s chest. After a moment looked up and shook his head.

‘You were dead before the damn steam settled,’ Ethan exclaimed. ‘That’s all you could hold out for? 5 minutes if that? We agreed you were going to wait at least 3 days to die.’

‘Yeah, I decided that wasn’t going to work for me,’ Jimmy replied.

‘But why did we plan all this Jimmy? The whole idea was to provide Eldon with convincing evidence that I killed you. We were going to film it!

‘You were supposed to give Li prompts through your microchip, so everything looked authentic, and we could react if there were any changes. It was the perfect plan! Nothing could go wrong. A nice, clean, believable death.

‘And that death you pulled off!’ Ethan continued. ‘Dawn, have you seen it yet? It was the worst, most faked death I’ve ever seen in my life. Falling to your knees and clutching your throat. Why would you be clutching your throat when you’re dying from radiation poisoning? And then just before he dies Dawn, he rolls his eyes. Where did you get that from? Did you reference cartoons to come up with your final moments? I’m surprised you didn’t have two x’s painted on Li’s eyelids, so when you did die, everyone would know it’s all over’.

Jimmy was about to explain, but Ethan held up his hand to silence him. ‘This whole killing you was supposed to remove me from any suspicion Eldon might have towards me. I have never seen a more pathetic and suspicious death in my life.’

‘Yeah, but look at it from my point of view,’ Jimmy replied. ‘I would have had to sit around here for three days, moaning and suffering. Crying out for help. Looking in horror as my skin melted off my flesh. Come on, There’s no way I could have done three days of that. Ewe, now I’m coughing up blood. Now, I’m pounding on the glass, begging for mercy. Forget about it’.

‘Couldn’t you just have Li pass out most of the time? You probably only had to be awake a few hours a day.’

‘Well, sure, now that we’re looking at it in hindsight, I suppose I could have done that, but in the heat of the moment, it wasn’t so obvious. I was getting hungry, and I don’t think so well when I have low blood sugar’.

Ethan looked at Dawn with disbelief.

She sighed. ‘Well Ethan, welcome to my world of working with Jimmy. It’s happened. Now we have to deal with it. 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’.