Difficult Choice

Difficult Choice


Emma's POV

The needle went into my arm like fire.
I tried to scream, but the leather strap across my mouth stopped any sound from coming out. Dr. Sarah Martinez stood over me, smiling as she pushed the burning liquid into my veins.
"Don't fight it, Emma," she said softly. "This will all be over soon."
My vision started getting blurry. My thoughts felt like they were moving through thick mud. But I could still hear everything going around me.
"Programming sequence initiating," said a computer voice.
"Good," Dr. Martinez said. "How long until completion?"
"Five hours and thirty-two minutes," the computer answered.
I tried to move my arms, but they were strapped down tight. I tried to think clearly, but whatever she'd shot me with was making my brain fuzzy.
"You're probably wondering what's happening to you," Dr. Martinez said, checking the machines around my table. "Let me explain while you can still understand."
She pulled up a chair next to me.
"In a few hours, you won't be Emma Martinez anymore," she said. "You'll be Weapon X-1, the first successful human killer program. You'll look like Emma, sound like Emma, even think you're Emma. But you'll also have a kill switch in your brain."
I tried to shake my head, but I couldn't move.
"When I say the activation phrase, you'll become a perfect killing machine," Dr. Martinez continued. "You'll hunt down anyone I tell you to hunt. You'll kill anyone I tell you to kill. And the best part? You won't even know you're doing it."
The cuffs on my wrists were getting loose. Dr. Martinez hadn't noticed, but my battles were slowly working them free.
"Your first targets will be Marcus Webb and Jessica Chen," she said. "The two people who care about you most. Isn't that poetic?"
That's when I realized something. The drugs she'd given me weren't working right. My vision was cleaning up instead of getting worse. My thoughts were getting clearer instead of fuzzier.
Maybe this was part of the programming Dr. Sarah Martinez had stated before. Maybe I really did have skills I didn't know about.
"Then you'll eliminate Vincent Cross, Alexander Cross, and Director Johnson," Dr. Martinez continued, not realizing I was becoming more alert. "Everyone who knows about this project will die, leaving only me in control."
My right hand came free from its constraints.
"After that, you'll be deployed against foreign targets," she said. "Enemy spies, terrorist leaders, anyone the government wants eliminated but can't officially touch."
I stayed perfectly still, claiming to be unconscious while I worked on my left hand.
"You'll be the perfect tool, Emma. No one will ever suspect a young woman like you of being dangerous."
My left hand came free.
"The programming should be about sixty percent complete by now," Dr. Martinez said, checking her computer. "Let me just verify your brain activity."
She turned toward the monitor, and that's when I struck.
I sat up fast and grabbed her throat with both hands.
"The programming isn't working," I said.
Dr. Martinez's eyes went wide with shock. "That's impossible. The drugs should have you completely asleep."
"Maybe I'm not as easy to control as you thought," I said, squeezing tighter.
She tried to reach for an alarm button, but I knocked her hand away.
"You want to know what's really impossible?" I asked. "The fact that you thought you could turn me into a weapon and I wouldn't fight back."
"Emma, listen to me," she gasped. "If you kill me, you'll never know the truth about who you really are."
"I know exactly who I am," I said. "I'm the person who's going to stop you."
But then Dr. Martinez smiled, even though I was choking her.
"Are you?" she asked. "Or are you doing exactly what I programmed you to do?"
I loosened my grip slightly. "What do you mean?"
"I mean the programming worked perfectly," she said. "You think you're fighting back, but really, you're following your instructions."
"That's not true."
"Isn't it?" Dr. Martinez reached into her pocket and pulled out a small gadget. "This is the real starting switch, Emma. I've been testing your answers this whole time."
My blood went cold. "Testing how?"
"Everything that's happened in the last few hours was planned," she said. "Your escape from Vincent's boat, your talk with Marcus, even your resistance to the drugs. It's all part of your training."
I let go of her throat and backed away from the table.
"You're lying."
"Am I?" She held up the device. "This button will either deactivate your programming completely, or it will trigger your final kill protocol. Even I don't know which one it is anymore."
"Then don't press it."
"I have to press it," Dr. Martinez said. "Because if I don't, you'll kill me. And if I do press it, you'll either be free or you'll become the weapon I made you to be."
I stared at the object in her hand.
"There's a fifty-fifty chance this button will turn you into a killer, Emma," she said. "Do you feel lucky?"
That's when I heard gunshots outside the room. Someone was fighting their way toward us.
"Sounds like your friends found you," Dr. Martinez said. "Marcus and Vincent, working together. How sweet."
"Marcus is here?"
"He made a deal with Vincent to save you," she said. "But he's too late. The choice has to be made now."
More bangs, getting closer.
"Choose, Emma," Dr. Martinez said, holding up the device. "I press this button, or you kill me to stop me from pressing it. Either way, someone dies tonight."
"There has to be another choice."
"There isn't," she said. "That's what makes this so great. No matter what you choose, I win."
The door to the room burst open. Marcus and Vincent burst in, guns drawn.
"Emma!" Marcus shouted when he saw me standing free.
"Stay back!" Dr. Martinez yelled, holding the device higher. "One more step and I activate her kill protocol!"
Marcus froze. "Emma, are you okay?"
"I don't know," I said honestly. "I don't know what's real anymore."
"She's been programmed," Vincent said to Marcus. "But the programming isn't complete yet."
"How do you know?" Marcus asked.
"Because if it was complete, she would have killed Dr. Martinez by now," Vincent said.
Dr. Martinez laughed. "You still don't understand, do you? Emma was never the real threat. She was just the distraction."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"While everyone has been focused on you, I've been activating the real weapons," Dr. Martinez said. "The other prototypes I made years ago. They're already in position."
"What prototypes?" Marcus demanded.
"The ones that look exactly like people you trust," Dr. Martinez said. "Like Director Johnson. Like Rebecca Chen. Like your own mother, Marcus."
Marcus went pale. "My mother is dead."
"Is she?" Dr. Martinez smiled. "When was the last time you actually saw her body?"
That's when I understood what was really happening. Dr. Martinez hadn't been trying to turn me into a weapon. She'd been using me to keep everyone busy while her real weapons got into position.
"How many?" I asked.
"Twelve active prototypes," she said. "All in key government roles. All ready to eliminate anyone who threatens our mission."
"Our operation?" Vincent asked.
"You didn't think I was working alone, did you?" Dr. Martinez said. "This project has support at the highest levels of government."
She pressed the button on her tablet.
Nothing happened to me. I felt exactly the same.
"What did that do?" Marcus asked.
"It sent the activation signal to all twelve prototypes," Dr. Martinez said. "In sixty seconds, they'll begin hunting down everyone on their target lists."
"What target lists?" I asked.
Dr. Martinez smiled one last time before Vincent shot her.
As she fell to the floor, dying, she mumbled something that made my blood freeze.
"The target lists with your friends' names on them."
Her phone started buzzing with text messages. Vincent grabbed it and read them aloud.
"Target Johnson killed. Target Chen killed. Target Webb senior eliminated."
Marcus grabbed the phone and scrolled through more texts.
"Emma," he said, his voice shaking. "They're not just killing random people. They're killing everyone linked to this case."
"Who's left on the list?" I asked.
Marcus looked at me with terror in his eyes.
"You and me," he said.
That's when the lights went out.
In the darkness, I heard footsteps coming toward us. Multiple sets of footsteps.
"Vincent," I whispered. "How many prototypes did you say were active?"
"Twelve," he whispered back.
A voice spoke from the darkness. It sounded exactly like Marcus's voice.
"Hello, Marcus," it said. "It's time to come home."
Another voice spoke. This one sounded exactly like my voice.
"Hello, Emma," it said. "Ready to meet your replacement?"
I reached for Marcus's hand in the darkness, but when I found it, it was cold and still.
"Marcus?" I whispered.
No answer.
I was alone in the dark with twelve guns that could look and sound like anyone.
And I had no idea which sounds were real and which ones wanted to kill me.