The Rendering Read Online Free PDF Page A

knives, no guns, no blood, no violence. You just try to connect these circuits before the time runs out. Thrilling. “Wait a second.”
    “Um,” I said.
    “Let me finish, or you’ll mess with my Net connection.”
    “I already hit Send,” I said. “Here it comes.”
    “Bug! I was at my high score.”
    And right then, the timer hit 00:00, and—
THE DETONATOR FIRED
    The floor collapsed

GET WITH THE PROGRAM
    Back to Aunt Margaret. Before the detonator fired, she escaped Roach, raced to processing lab three, and locked herself inside.
    She tried calling the cops, but all Center communications were frozen by that power-draining test on the skunks. She knew she didn’t have much time, so she launched her personal encryption and burrowed into the system, desperate to stop Roach.
    Desperate to keep him from getting the Protocol and the HostLink.
    Two minutes later, a pounding sounded in the hallway. Then silence for a few seconds, until the door burst inward and Roach’s mercenaries poured inside. Auntie M didn’t even look up from her computer. She just tapped a few more keys and hit Enter.
    The mercs pointed these futuristic-looking rifles at her—only the best for Roach’s army. Although I didn’t know it then, he’d spent the past few years working for shadowy corporations and Third World tyrants, multiplying his fortune and perfecting his own technologies. And designing weapons that violated every treaty and moral scruple.
    But the mercs didn’t fire; they grabbed Auntie M instead.
    “Do you have any idea who you’re working for?” she asked them.
    “The guy who signs our checks,” one said.
    “Roach isn’t just a guy, he’s a madman.”
    The merc shoved her. “Shut up.”
    “And if he gets away with this …” She shook her head. “He’s a madman with access to weapons the Pentagon’s never even seen.”
    “Yeah?” the mercenary said. “Then I’m gonna ask for a raise.”
    Before she could reply, Roach stepped inside, murmuring into his communicator: “What do you mean you can’t find the Protocol?”
    “It’s not here,” Hund’s voice said through the speaker.
    “We need that Memory Cube, Commander. It’s the key to everything.”
    Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of a Memory Cube; they’re not on the market yet and probably won’t be for another twenty years. I’ve seen a few around the Center, though. They’re about the size of a deck of cards and they store data like a hard drive or a USB stick. Except Memory Cubes are so advanced they make your laptop look like a number two pencil.
    “Then tell me where to find it,” Hund said.
    “One moment.” Roach clicked off his communicator and eyed my aunt. “You didn’t get far.”
    “You’re being videotaped, Roach,” my aunt said. “You’renot going to get away with this.” She was calm and unafraid. Amazing.
    “I already have,” Roach said. “I was right all along: my theory about uploading the human brain is correct. And soon, with my scanning booths and the HostLink, we’ll be digitizing entire organisms. Mind and body both.”
    “Your experiments almost killed the test subjects—”
    “Everything can be scanned in, Margaret,” he interrupted, eyes shining. “Not just a few stray impulses.
Everything.”
    “Even if that’s true, it’s not worth the risk.”
    “That’s always been your problem.” Roach sneered. “Lack of vision. I can digitize towns, states, entire countries. With the right tech, I’ll scan in the world. Think of it!”
    “I’ll tell you what I think,” Aunt Margaret said. “I think you’re insane.”
    “A perfect world! No human error. Everything reduced to code, eternal and pure. Imagine a world without hunger or pain or death. Without ugly messes and stupid mistakes. No muss, no fuss, no disgusting fleshy bodies.”
    She looked at him and—I swear this is true—said, “If you want to get rid of disgusting fleshy bodies, go to the gym more often.”
    He glared at her.