Shirly sat at her desk staring at the computer screen. She had worked for years to complete this project, sacrificed time with children she never had, lost her chance at a husband, but it was all about to be worth it with a single push of a button. She looked around the empty office seeing chairs moved to the side and papers thrown about the room. Her partner Nick had stormed off earlier and took the staff with him. He did some damage to the computers and the staff had broken the room apart, but Shirly could still push this button here on her computer.
She was hesitant, but couldn’t figure out why. She knew she had to do this, not out of some selfish need to be right or some egotistical desire to be a hero, but to save the world. She was going to be the one to save the world and all she had to do was push one button.
H5N1 Global Exposure; Release Now?
Yes or No
A simple push and the clouds that they’d been seeding for the last 18 months would activate and drop the virus on billions of people. It wouldn’t kill everyone, that would be sadistic. No this would only take out a little more than half of the people on the planet. Enough to give the planet a chance and people along with it. She was more nervous now, bits of sweat dripping from her forehead.
When it was all theoretical it felt different. Susie had been in the 40 under 40 dozens of times through her college years and into her early research. People applauded her groundbreaking gene therapy research and had even given her a Nobel prize for creating new vaccine technologies. She never hid her intentions; she had always wanted to do gain of function research to create this virus. She had always wanted to save the world from people.
When she was a child, she was put in the front of the line for all the protests by her mother. She saw the evils of humanity through war and famine. She knew that mankind couldn’t save itself by the age of 12 when she saw the President of the US stumbling up and down the stairs and ignoring all of the problems man was creating. She had been at climate protests, marches for women, marches for this cause or that cause but she had never seen one person looking for a real solution to the people problem. Until she met Nick.
Shirly and Nick met in college at a protest for peace. They instantly recognized each other as people who really cared, who wanted to make real long-lasting change. Nick was a professor of philosophy at Columbia when Shirly was only a freshman, but the connection was instant. They had spent some time off and on trying to date each other, but it never could stick. Nick had tried to get Shirly to start a family with him, but that was decades ago at this point. Shirly had never wanted children when she was able, and now that she was almost 50, she would never really have the chance.
She moved the cursor over the Yes button with her mind connected through the Neuralink pausing as it sat over the final culmination of her years of work. Shirly couldn’t help but ask herself if there may be another way, some other thing she could do to save the planet. After all, all of her students had run away with Nick. Not one was left in the office. Sycophants and plagiarists looking for an easy way to fame by following her. None of them had the courage to finish the job. Everything was fine when it was in theory.
“Hey Shirl.” She heard the familiar voice from the man standing in the doorway. It was Nick holding a bottle of sparkling wine and two glasses.
“You came back.” She wiped a tear away that had mixed with the sweat. “I knew you’d come back.” She said. It’d be good not to be alone right now in her final moments before her greatest victory.
“Well, I knew you’d have a backup, you always do.” Nick smiled softly at her as he walked across the room. He had already popped the bottle and began pouring the two glasses. “I suppose it’s time to celebrate then, huh?” He said as he handed her the glass.
“I suppose it is. This feels right.” She said as she took the glass palming his hand in the process. She could see the tension in his eyes, like a man watching a meteor fall to Earth right on top of him.
“You’re still not sure, are you Nick?” Shirly took a sip of the sweet wine and closed her eyes. “It’s okay, I wasn’t sure either. Not until you came back to me.” She took another sip and opened her eyes to see Nick holding a gun, inches from her chest pointed directly at her heart. She giggled a little before turning away. “Really, Nick? You hate guns.”
“I hate a lot of things, but I’m not going to let you do this. Shut it down, now.” Nick pulled back the hammer on the Beretta to emphasize his point.
“Well, that makes things quite a bit easier.” Shirly said as she clicked YES. A quite buzz started as the system activated.
“No!” Nick screamed looking at the screen. “What have you done!” He put the gun on the desk as he frantically tried to stop the now inevitable process.
“It’s too late Nick. The command has already been sent. The rain is coming with the virus. No one can stop it now.” She finished the wine in her hand and put the glass down on the desk. “Don’t worry, love, I won’t let us suffer.”
Shirly grabbed the gun and gently pressed it up to Nicks temple. He stopped cold realizing the fight was over. He took a sip of the wine he’d poured and closed his eyes.
“I’ll see you later, Shirl.” He said right as the trigger pulled. Shirly was surprised by how little recoil she felt. This was her first time firing a gun. The blood sprayed across the desk in front of her in a strange pattern. She thought she saw a heart scrawled in the warm liquid. She sighed heavily before taking a sip from the large bottle Nick had brought in.
“See you soon, Nick.” An alarm began to sound in the background as Shirly brought the gun to her own temple. “See you soon.” She pulled the trigger.