Fade Out Page 0,86

again and concentrated, concentrated very hard, until she remembered that it had been hidden down on the bottom-left side.

When she opened her eyes, Ada was right there, inches from her face. Claire shrieked and jumped back, slamming her fist forward.

It went right through Ada's form. She wasn't able to stay physical anymore. Myrnin had really hurt her. She hadn't fixed the damage to her image, either - there were black wounds on her throat and hands, and a black stain covering most of her dress.

Her eyes were glowing silver.

"Stop," Ada said.

"No," Claire panted, closed her eyes, and stepped through her image. She found the key she was looking for, and pushed it.

One more.

"All right," Ada said. "Then I'll stop you."

Claire felt cold against her skin, and heard the hiss and clank of the computer grow loud, almost like chatter.

The lights went out, but the noise got louder - and louder.

Ada's cold fingers brushed the back of her neck.

Claire turned toward the darkness behind her. "So that's it?" she yelled. "That's all you've got? Turn off the lights? Scary! I'm totally shaking, you freak! What do you think I am, five and scared of the dark?"

"I think you're defeated," Ada said. "And I think I will kill you, when and how I wish." Ada had made herself physical again, but it wouldn't last. It couldn't. She was still bleeding from where Claire had hurt her, and now her neck and face were scarred and burned from the chain. Her head was at a strange angle, but she was still alive. She glowed a very faint, phosphorous kind of silver.

"You'll never find the key in the dark," Ada almost purred. "You're defeated. And now you die."

"You first," Claire said.

Claire reached behind her from blind instinct and memory, and slammed her palm down on a key. It almost went down, but then it popped up again.

Wrong.

Ada's ice-cold hands - not really hands anymore - closed around her neck. "Stupid girl," she said. "So close."

Ada's fingers squeezed, locking the breath in her throat, and Claire wildly hammered her palm down on the next key to the right.

It locked down with an almost physical snap.

As Claire's fingers slipped off the key, it clicked into place, and the clattering of the machine . . .

. . . stopped.

For a breathless second those cold fingers kept on strangling her, and then they softened, turned to mist . . .

And then they were gone.

A steady, quiet glow came up around her.

Lights.

Claire sank down, back to the keyboard, gasping in breaths through her bruised throat, and watched a silvery light flicker in midair, then take on form.

Ada, but not Ada.The same image, but immaculate, perfectly groomed, and with an entirely blank expression.

"Welcome," Ada said. "May I ask who you are?"

"Claire," she said. "My name is Claire."

"My name is - " Ada cocked her head and frowned. "I'm not quite sure. Addy?"

"Ada."

"Ah yes. Ada." Ada's flat image smiled, but it was a fake kind of smile, with nothing behind it. "I'm not feeling very well."

"You just got reset."

"No, I know all about that. I don't feel at all well, quite beyond that. There's something very wrong with my mind." Her image flickered, and a spasm of emotion flared across her perfect, blank face. "I'm scared, Claire. Can you fix me?"

"I - " Claire coughed. She was so tired, and she really, really hurt. "I don't know." She knew she sounded discouraged. "Maybe I don't want to."

"Oh," Ada said softly. "I see. I really am broken, aren't I?"

"Yes."

"And I can't be fixed."

"No," Claire said softly. "I'm sorry. I think - I think you've got brain damage. I don't think you're ever going to be right."

Ada was silent for a moment, watching her, and then she said, "I loved him, you know. I really did."

"I think he really loved you, too. That's why he tried to hang on to you all these years."

Ada nodded. "Please tell him that I still love him. And because I love him, I can't take the risk that I might hurt him again."

Claire had a very bad feeling. "What are you - "

"Just tell him." Ada smiled, and it was a real smile. A sweet one. "Good-bye, Claire."

And the panel at the wall blew up in arcs of electricity and flames and shredded metal, and Claire ducked and covered her head.

The lights went out.

Ada's image flickered in place for a moment, and then she said, very quietly, "Tell Myrnin I'm sorry I hurt him."

Then she was gone,