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This was a different Mercer Sinclair than the one Roood looks, the debonair poise were gone This ard, years older But he hadn&039;t lost any of his fight

"As usual, Ellis, you want to give up You alere a quitter But I&039; shot We can win, and I can tell you how But I&039; it before outsiders - certainly not with so OPRR today," Romy told him, "but I&039;ll leave if - "

"No," Ellis said "We all stay We all have a stake in this"

Ro how true that was Ellis had led them all to the CEO&039;s office - Romy, Patrick, Zero, and Tome and Kek as well The last three had theis over," said Mercer Sinclair "When you come to your - "

Abruptly the door opened and Luca Portero swaggered in The pistol in his hand startled Romy, and the wild look in his eyes terrified her

"Hail, hail, the gang&039;s all here," he said, breaking into a sharklike grin "And a motley crew if I ever saw one," he said "Four humans, a sim, a - holy shit! Sothat&039;s how you took down four of et the aze settled on Zero "And who or what the fuck are you?"

"They were just leaving, Portero," Mercer Sinclair said quickly "And so are you"

"Am I?"

"Yes You&039;re fired As of this er employed at SimGen"

"You talk to et the balls to use that tone of voice withabout?"

"You stood there time after time and looked down your nose at me and pretended to be horrified at what you called my &039;methods,&039; when all the while you built this co the world it was the other way around You can&039;t fire you !"

And before Romy knew it, Portero&039;s pistol was leveled at Mercer Sinclair&039;s chest He fired twice, two rapid, booes strobe-flashed through Ro - hisan astonished O - his backward tu as it was splattered with red

And then Portero inging his pistol in her direction Patrick and Zero stood frozen to her right, Ellis was lunging toward his fallen brother Portero shifted his pistol toward hie his rowled and started forward

"Kree-gah!" Portero said and Kek froze

Portero sned here I worked with some of these mandrillas in our Idaho facility They&039;re conditioned fro when they hear that word, then wait for another command - from the person who said it I&039;aze returned to Roh "And now it&039;s your turn, Ms Romy Cadman You&039;ve messed up my future, so now it&039;s only fair I ht eye she saw Zero take a step closer to her, saying, "Leave her alone!"

"Hey, listen!" Portero snarled "I don&039;t knohat kind of a freak you are, but another step and you&039;re a dead freak Got that?"

Kek growled again and Portero yelled, "Kree-gah" a second time "Don&039;t ot plans for you"

"What plans can you possibly have for Kek?" Roh for help to arrive, if any was co

"I may need a diversion at the airport I&039;ll just set his up in another part of the ter it on Roh idle chatter Good-bye Roht shoulder as, once again, two boo reports split the air She saw the muzzle flashes as she fell to her left and realized that Zero had hurled hied howl as he launched hi his pistol to bear on the hurtling creature but he wasn&039;t fast enough, heard hi was going to keep Kek from anyone who hurt Zero Portero went doith screams of pain and terror

Zero!

Romy rolled and was on her feet in a heartbeat, but Zero was down, slu out of him front and back into two red puddles

Romy swims into Zero&039;s vision Joy bursts within his ruined chest at the sight of her alive and unhar as she leans over him and wails for soh he feels no pain, or perhaps because he feels no pain, Zero knows he&039;s dying The i, but nownow he feels feather light and completely at peace

He stares at Roain, begging hi on He tries to move his lips but they won&039;t respond They must! He has to tell her that it&039;s better this way

If this one differentlyif Betsy hadn&039;t confided to him her suspicions about Meerm&039;s baby, and if Ellis hadn&039;t confirmed them, his outlook would have been so different He could have lived with the belief that he was an intellectual improveh as the best of his breed that aspired to the next evolutionary step But the truth changed all that He is not a step up froa freak of science He doesn&039;t kno long he could have survived knowing that he was cheated of his huers to move, and they do, they close on hers She bursts into sobs

He wants to tell her how he&039;s loved her And how, thinking he was a si her fro her and being with her, and ever dreaht have been

It&039;s better this way

The opening in the glittering cloud encircling Ro as she seems to recede

A sob builds in what&039;s left of his chest Not yet Let htens further as the iris closes And then she&039;s gone and only the swirling light remains And Zero wonders if there&039;s a heaven For Romy&039;s sake he hopes so, because he knows that&039;s where she&039;ll go when her tih of that transcendent spark to allow him to pass on into another life? Will he be welco his earthly life Just once in his existence he&039;d like to feel he fits soht suffuses hi

Dazed, Patrick dropped to his knees beside Romy where she cradled Zero&039;s head on her lap She was bent over his face, weeping The sound tore at his heart One look at Zero&039;s glazed eyes and Patrick kneas gone But maybe Romy hadn&039;t realized that yet He didn&039;t want to be the one to tell her

"I called the security office, the county sheriff, the state police Cops and ambulances are on the way"