Sparks and a Girl (Rewritten to publish)

14. Charity

Jeisa gently placed her right palm over the keyboard of the tablet on the conference table. The one casting the projection onto the monitor. She let the technopath fibres unwind and take over and looked up at the screen, taking in the presence of the twelve people. They stared back at her, curiosity on every single face. Suddenly, there was a crackle of noise coming from Gretel. She held her phone in hand, with a police scanner app on the screen. There were panicked voices calling out on the scanner. Dispatchers from the Wraith Hamlet police channel reporting on what was happening. Jeisa ignored it all, never taking her eyes away from the screen with Gretel's twelve potential buyers of the WMD.

"Reports are coming in from my people. All medical centres in Wraith Hamlet have lost power." said one of the ladies on the screen.

"Impressive." said a man.

"The hospitals are now each going dark as well. Section by section." said another lady.

"Gretel, I'm willing to invest in this. But are you sure you only want to hire the weapon out, not sell?" said the first lady.

The others around her were murmuring in agreement.

Gretel was beaming.

"Wait!" this was another guy. He was the only one in the group that looked sceptical. He was also the only one that had not taken his eyes off Jeisa's. "The hospital shutdown has stopped. The life support stations, the operating rooms, the emergency rooms... they're all still running. What are you playing at Gretel. Kill it all!"

"Jeisa, I need you to shut them down. All sections. Every hospital." said Gretel, turning to Jeisa.

Jeisa pulled her palm from the tablet and backed away from the table. "No."

"Jeisa, what are you doing?" said Gretel in a frigid voice. "I need you to shut down every section of every hospital. That's what I need. Now, do it!"

"I did what you needed me to." said Jeisa. She could feel a dull ache of pain begin at the base of her spinal cord. She gritted her teeth and tried to focus through the intensifying pain. Her punishment for disobedience. "I demonstrated my power. Now, I'm leaving."

"Leaving? You can't do that! I need you here!" Gretel all but screamed the words. "You have no choice but to cater to my every need!"

"That's where you're wrong, Gretel," Jeisa replied, walking up to the woman. "When you programmed me, you gave me two choices, not one. Obey you and live or disobey you and die. Well, I choose death."

Jeisa was halfway to the door.

"Jeisa, I need you come back here and finish this!" said Gretel in a deceptively calm voice that sent pin pricks of absolute pain down Jeisa's spine.

Jeisa struggled to remain stoic. She was trembling now, the pain almost unbearable, but she managed to stay on her feet even as her knees turned more jelly-like by the minute.

"What's the point, Gretel? These people can't even hire me." said Jeisa. She took in a deep breath, trying to steady herself, but then she doubled over in agony, throwing up everything she'd put down at the diner. She closed her eyes briefly and then opened them and looked right into Gretel's eyes. "They won't be able to afford it, considering the fact that I just destroyed all their digital assets, and drained all their bank accounts down to the last cent. Yes, even the secret ones. The ones hidden in islands and mountains. Unless they have wads of cash under their mattresses, they're going to need to brush up on their resumes."

"Gretel, what is she talking about?" said the sceptical man, his voice filled with malice.

"What is this Gretel! This was not our agreement!" gasped one of the women who had obviously rushed to check over her accounts.