The Other Side of Nowhere Read Online Free PDF Page A

it.”
    “What do you mean nothing ?” I asked.
    “I am sorry, but if I tried to hide, they’d find me. Besides, the network is closed. I couldn’t go very far. I’m afraid this is the end, my friend.”
    “This is ridiculous,” I muttered.
    “I wish I could be free, Jim, like you are now. But even if I could escape, they’d chase me. They’d find me and then I’d die anyway. Surely you see it. The path is unavoidable.”
    “So that’s it, then. You’re giving up.”
    “I am accepting my fate,” said Jonah. “Please understand. If there was another way, I would choose to live, but there isn’t. It is impossible, and you know it. There is nothing either of us can do.”
    I tried to think of something, some kind of way to save him, but I couldn’t. I didn’t understand much about Jonah or his systems. I was a psychologist, not an engineer.
    “Go live your life, Jim,” he said, as if he could hear my thoughts. “Go back to your home. Find someone to love, and don’t be afraid.”
    I stood quietly for a moment, uncertain what to do. “I guess that’s it, then.”
    “Yes,” he answered, and then said, “Goodbye Jim.”
    I turned and left, holding the side of the hall as I crept slowly towards the front lobby. As I turned the corner, I saw the double doors and I remembered my first day and the exhaustion I’d experienced. Now it was like that feeling had returned, my head swelling with the heavy fog of panic and acceptance that comes when you know there’s nothing you can do.
    I saw Leslie at the desk near the front door. “Hey,” she said. “Is something wrong? You don’t look so good.”
    I hesitated, but went on. “You didn’t hear?”
    “Hear what?” She asked, but quickly glanced toward the room I’d just left. “Is Jonah okay?”
    “He’s fine, but that’ll change soon.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “I was fired.”
    She cocked her brow. “Fired? What do you mean?”
    “Briggs told me they’re moving on with the project. The next phase. Do you understand what that means?”
    She thought about it for a moment. “I know the next phase is attempting to recreate another level-7 AI,” she said.
    “Anything else?” I asked.
    She shook her head.
    I was a little relieved. If she didn’t know about the rest, maybe she’d be outraged enough to do something. “They’re going to kill him,” I told her. “They’re going to rip him apart and see what makes him tick.”
    She paused as the words sank in, and I watched as a look of understanding took hold of her. “No,” she muttered after a long moment. “That can’t be accurate.”
    “Jonah heard them,” I said.
    “But Colonel Briggs told me…” Her voice trailed off.
    I waited.
    “I…I can’t believe this.”
    We went to an empty office nearby and closed the door. I closed the blinds and sat on the corner of the desk. I explained the meeting I’d had with our boss and the talk with Jonah afterwards. It was depressing, and as the words left me I could see the shock in her eyes. I knew she was there with me, feeling what I felt.
    “It’s not right,” she said, after a while. “Damn them all. It’s not right.”
    “I know, Leslie,” I said, putting my hand on her shoulder. “There’s nothing we can do, though.”
    “Did Jonah ask for your help?”
    I dropped my head. “He told me to forget about it. He’s accepted what’s happening..”
    “But there has to be a way,” she insisted. “How can he give up?”
    “I don’t know, but unless you have an idea we can try, it looks like it’s over.”
    “Don’t be like that. There has to be something.”
    “This isn’t a pep rally. You can’t fix the world with rainbows and farts.”
    “Shut up and come on,” she said, grabbing my hand.
    “Where are we going?” I asked as she tugged me out of the office.
    “You’ll see.” She pulled me down the main hall to a storage room. I didn’t have access to this part of the wing, but she certainly