Code Breakers: Alpha Read Online Free PDF Page A

that. I’ll be—”
    “Just like us,” Petal said.
    Mags communicated to him, “Thank you for your sacrifice, Gerry. You have just one day left. Please inform the Council of your funeral arrangements.”
    “It’s changed ya internal clock, man. The algorithm’s next. Think about ya contact list. Everyone on that list could have their numbers up. Ya family, friends, colleagues. Is it worth it?”
    Gerry considered Gabe’s words while trying to ignore that he potentially had just one day left to live. Going off the grid was almost as bad as dying. He would lose the ability to work, to support his family. He’d be an outlaw.
    He would have to leave his family behind. His entire life as he knew it would be over. The alternative was either death or this demon taking entire sections of society off the exemption list. Too much to risk. How could he willingly allow that to happen? His city, the only place he’d ever known, was precious. It was a virtual utopia—for good or bad—and he couldn’t just idly watch its destruction, regardless of the downsides.
    Not much of a choice, though: his own life and an end to his suffering, or possibly an entire city’s stability. As difficult as it was, he realised in truth it was an easy decision when he thought about it: he couldn’t let the whole city down. Sure, the place had problems. The Family were maniacal with their control, but people still had good lives, safe lives.
    The image of his daughters and wife conjured in his mind. He couldn’t let them suffer if he had the choice to stop it. Picturing them that morning around the breakfast table, he ignored the pain that stabbed at his heart and made the decision. He logged in at super-root level, meaning he could access the parts of his AIA that controlled how it worked at a fundamental level. It wasn’t something anyone could do.
    He’d realised he had this ability while testing potential exploits at Cemprom. During the experimentation, he’d created a secret login procedure to his AIA, mostly out of curiosity. Like everyone in the city, he had no desire to leave the network. But this time he had a damned good reason.
    Once logged in, he activated a piece of code that, as far as he knew, no one had executed before. He was just a few seconds away from living without the essential life support of the network.
    Gerry closed his eyes, squeezed in the tears. Hesitated.
    “Do it, man, do it now!” Gabe said.
    “Let her go, Gez,” Petal added. “Let her fly.”
    He could feel the colossal blackness manipulating Mags, trying to log him out. Trying to prevent him from entering the fatal code. But he was at the base. Nothing could stand in the way of his release, the cease of support, the release of society, of being one of many.
    Using his mind-interface, he moved a cursor over a representation of a door with ‘EXIT’ marked on its surface. All he had to do was open the door and walk his avatar out. The AIA would be uninstalled. The demon would no longer be in charge of his destiny. Mags would be free to exist in her limited silicon shell. Without a human to assist, he wondered what she would do. Just how much independent thought did they have?
    He closed his eyes and concentrated on the interface. The door remained closed. It shrank and moved to the right of his view. A grid of thumbnail images of his family replaced it, and he scrolled through each one. He attempted to burn their happy, smiling faces into his brain. He would no longer be able to carry them with him once Mags was gone.
    He cried uncontrollably.
    Tears flowed down his face like small pebbles down a hill. Each image blinked out of view. The demon. It was wiping the photographs—his memories!
    He reached out and gripped the handle of the symbolic door and pushed it open. Bright light flooded into his interface, and a cautionary paragraph of text hovered into view. It was the usual stuff : This process is not reversible… are you sure you wish to delete…