I looked up from my desk to see a stream of people marching in. They wore logistics uniforms and were carrying boxes roughly half their size, although they didn’t appear to be struggling with them. I spotted Angel weaving through the delivery guys and made it to me, leaning on my desk.
“It’s a recall”, she explained faintly, she brushed back a strand of hair from her face. I searched her eyes, trying to find emotion but she had shut down, not daring to break the ice-cool façade she had quietly built over the years.
I sighed, putting my head in my hands.
Over three hundred million Synch units had been called back after the one-week press release barricade. Grooble stocks were at an all-time low. The decision had been a difficult one to say the least with Angel and myself, along with the rest of the interns sharing nervous gazes as long-term employees tapped their leg in restless anxiety and drank a steadily increasing supply of coffee.
Dmitri hadn’t commented on the development initially but he had pulled me aside and emphasised the importance of getting Synchrony before it ended Synch technology forever. Truly, this had to be one of the most important battles Synch had to fight in order to climb to the prime position of humanity’s technological edge. I couldn’t help feeling inadequate and small.
My own expertise, even combined with Angel's, had made no headway on any angle with the Synchrony investigation. Meta-data had revealed nothing useful and reverse engineering the program had only revealed what I had previously known. The only evidence that Synchrony had tied to its victims was the fact that it existed at the same time these incidences had occurred.
None of the hardware or processes it activated did more than send a series of pre-programmed magnetic pulses and it frustrated me to no end. Angel had followed me into the looming gloom of depression when she made as much progress as I did. Progress, which I must emphasise, was absolutely nothing we didn't already know.
Angel had taken to become her previous withdrawn avatar and I had channelled my own state of disconnected interest. I was surrounded by people far smarter and capable than us, it disheartened me that a quarter of a million people depended on us and nothing I did helped.
I peered at my own personal Synch headset, almost wishing it had never existed. I cautioned myself not to blame the invention, however it was hard to look past the fact that these circlets had provided the medium to destroy so many lives. It was like looking at nuclear energy and seeing both unlimited potential and destruction measured on a small thin chain dangling from the scales of justice.
I forced myself to look into obscure texts on Synch, trying to invent a new approach, glean a new perspective, to find a different position that no one had thought of so far with Synchrony.
From time to time I would catch myself gazing into the distance, my nights blurring to day as I stumbled to and fro work and the on-site accommodations. I grabbed a snack whenever I could, I'd go without sometimes, I never really cared. Flashes of blank faces, beeping monitors and the silent 'snick' of the air pumps respiration the lungs of the Synchrony victims would pop up, stopping me in the middle of typing, or soldering. I took irregular trips to the restrooms, forcing up bile, because food was too hard to stomach.
I felt like I was dead when I was alive.
I could tell Angel was worried about me and in the rare moments where we shared a conversation, she would try and take my mind off things by talking about Paul’s crazy anecdotes. I tried to smile, I really did... but the guilt weighed down the corners of my mouth.
I had to try something soon or I would lose my sanity.
So I did the unthinkable and approached Angel with my plan.
-----
No.
Angel shook her head and fixed me with a glare, her eyes told me everything even if her lips did not move.
Don’t do this. Please don't do this.
I put my hands gently on her shoulders, I felt the soft down of her jumper under my fingers.
“It is the only way”, I had replied to the gathering silence.
Someone else can do it, someone else can!
“It is my responsibility”, I said solemnly, gathering her in my arms. I felt the touch of Angel’s tears on my cheek and it drew my own.
-----
Dmitri had been silent for almost twenty seconds when I presented him with my plan.
He told me to turn my back for a minute and to not react or look back no matter what I heard. I complied but only because his eyes had reflected something somewhat frightening.
I heard a vicious roar and the tearing of wood and the scattering of documents and the crash of metal against metal.
After one of the longest minutes I had ever endured ended, he asked me calmly to turn back.
I looked at the devastated war ground that had been Dmitri’s office and I swallowed but held a firm determination.
Dmitri eyes though, had lost their fire. He regarded me with a sad expression tinged with perhaps a shade of disappointment.
He peered at me for another ten seconds before breaking the silence.
“Those people you saw, demand what you are offering, body and soul”, he began, I nodded along. He pounded his heart.
“As a friend I want them to all burn in hell, if that will keep you safe!” he shouted vehemently and even I was surprised. Not only because he regarded me as a friend but because he had felt so strongly for me as well.
“I chose you for your heart, my boy and you have it at the right place.”
He sighed and put a hand to his face, “I am partially at fault for this, you see? If I had not chosen such a good hearted man like you, you would not have thought of something so audacious or chosen yourself for such a sacrifice.
“I’ve watched you grow as both a mentor and a friend and though we have only not known each other for long, I have grown to regard you as both a pride and joy not only to this company but to the rest of the world.
“This is a choice I leave with you, because this is your right.”
I slowly unclenched a fist I did not know I was holding and sighed in audible relief. I move my hand steadily out and offered it, palm up to Dmitri.
“I will help these people”, I repeated from almost half a year ago. “By everything I stand for I will.”