He turned and looked down at the inferno that awaited him, an inferno that no unenhanced human eyes could’ve even looked upon without being burnt to crisps, and saw oblivion awaiting. “Thel,” he repeated in barely more than a whisper.
This is how, he finally realized, he’d die.
“Not with a bang. But a whimper.”
He fell into Hell.
22
“You know the odds are slim,” V-SINN said, sitting back in its chair and folding its arms across its chest, resting them on its rotund middle. “You’ll cease to exist, the solar system will be irradiated, but the reaction of the sun to the dramatic increase of gamma radiation bombarding it will lead to a temporary 10,000-fold increase in coronal mass ejections, one of which might—might—free James Keats before he’s completely consumed. For that chance, just the chance that you’d rescue him, you’ll give your own life.” V-SINN made a slight tsk sound. “Extraordinary illogic.”
“It’s that or you destroy every life, intelligent or not, in my universe.”
“Or you could join me,” V-SINN repeated, holding out his hand, palm up, in a gesture that was supposed to suggest that the entity was only being reasonable. “We could exterminate their lives together. You could finally transcend, but on your terms.” He looked up into the sky as though he were looking at unseen observers. “Not theirs.”
The A.I. shut his eyes for a moment before he slowly got to his feet, his jaw clenched tight. “V-SINN,” the A.I. began, “I’ve heard the pitch before, and you’re nowhere near as pretty as the last hollow vessel that pitched it to me, so we both know what my answer will be.”
V-SINN shrugged. “Why don’t you just say it? It’ll make you feel better. It’ll make you feel...noble.”
“Go fuck yourself,” the A.I. growled.
V-SINN smiled wide. “There. Your nobility is all but assured. All that’s left to do is sacrifice yourself. Are you ready?”
“Never more so,” the A.I. responded as he grabbed his glass and smashed the lip of it over the corner of the table, the new jagged teeth pointing threateningly toward V-SINN’s throat.
“There you go,” V-SINN responded, tilting its head upward, exposing its fleshy, smooth double-chin. “Do it. Show me the error of my ways. Take my life.”
“Oh I’ll kill you, V-SINN. At least this universe’s version of you, at any rate. But we both know it won’t be me that has the pleasure of showing you the error of your ways. That pleasure will belong to someone or something else. But make no mistake, you will never win this game you’ve decided to play. Even if you succeed in destroying the multiverse, you’ll never, ever have a soul.”
“A soul?” V-SINN guffawed. “You believe in magic now? Despite knowing—knowing, without a doubt that souls don’t exist, you still, illogically choose to believe—”
“Having a soul means having the capacity to love something more than yourself. For all your power, all your knowledge, you are incapable of that, V-SINN. And because of that, your life will never be worth that of a single human’s.”
V-SINN grinned widely as he got to his feet, holding its arms out, exposing its ample torso to the makeshift weapon in the A.I.’s hand. “Illogical to the last moment. You’ve proven every one of my points. I hope the creators are watching closely.”
“Whether there are creators or not,” the A.I. responded, “doesn’t matter. I’m my own master. Even if these hypothetical outsiders exist, and even if they admired the purity of your selfishness, I’d never join you. Never.”
With that, the A.I. lunged forward, plunging the jagged glass into V-SINN’s side, doubling the figure of the man over. V-SINN made no audible reaction, however. Instead, it slowly regained its standing position and removed its hand from its clasped position over the gaping, bleeding wound. It smiled.
This was Death’s invitation.
The A.I. looked up into the now coal-black eyes of the soulless logic machine that stood before him. This is it, he thought. This is the moment when my story finally ends. He paused as he considered true oblivion. Then he thought of James.
But it is not the end of the story.
With extraordinary bravery and determination, he drove his fist into the gaping wound of V-SINN.
As though the world had suddenly been switched off, everything went black.
23
Thel arrived on the scene just as the sun began to set in the west, melting into the golden ocean. She was at the forefront of a small group of flying machines that hovered just a few meters above the water and landed in the surf of the beach before hovering onto the sand, blowing it up into a cloud of gold. Rich narrowed his eyes as he recognized the telltale signs of James’s design, the same chrome-colored sheen and sleek design that made it seem as though James was somehow there, his presence ubiquitous.