Extensis Vitae - By Gregory Mattix Page 0,49

unauthorized use and to neutralize any that went rogue. The black market is very lucrative for advanced combat skins, and the owners obviously don’t want them to fall into the wrong hands and potentially be turned against them. From what I’ve heard of the military models, some can be temporarily bypassed, but have a limited expiration date. If the code is not entered within a specific amount of time, certain means are then used to induce cardiac arrest or stroke. In other words, once the time runs out, you run out.”

Reznik didn’t know how to respond to her sobering assessment. Just when I’m starting to get somewhat accustomed to this new life, I find out that I’m literally a ticking time bomb, he thought.

Rin got up from her lotus position and began doing push-ups, lean muscles rippling in her shoulders and back. Reznik watched her as he sat there stunned, his thoughts racing.

Myrna came over and put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ve got to do something. Let’s go see Hal—he might be able to think of something.”

“Who is Hal?”

“He’s our chief information systems technician.”

“Any idea how long until this kill switch kicks in?” Reznik asked Rin as she knocked out what had to be her fiftieth push-up. She sprang back to her feet.

“A week or two, I would think.” She shrugged. “If I were you, I’d either find those codes ASAP or find a damn good hacker.” With ease, she leapt straight up and grabbed onto the steel rafter and began doing pull-ups.

Reznik got to his feet. “I appreciate the information,” he said with a sigh. “Let’s go see what Hal has to say.”

***

Hal occupied a small office adjacent to the mainframe room. The place was a chaotic mess, with coils of cable, computer equipment, and numerous boxes of what appeared to be miscellaneous junk piled around the small room haphazardly. It was just as Reznik had imagined it would be. The only things missing were the empty pizza boxes and Mountain Dew cans that he had been half-expecting to see strewn about.

A huge three-dimensional user interface was projected across the room, illuminating the claustrophobic space with a soft glow. A small man sat in a chair and was gesturing frantically in the air, manipulating icons on the interface. The man had greasy hair and hunched shoulders, and wore some type of special glasses.

Hal turned out to be brusque but professional once they had been introduced and were talking business.

“A kill switch? I’d heard that such a thing exists with these military spec clones, but I have never seen one before. I could take a peek at this code of yours,” Hal offered with the gleam of a challenge in his eye.

“Please do. If nothing else, hopefully you can at least find out how much time I have left before this kill switch activates,” Reznik replied.

Hal rummaged around and pulled a small cart out from behind some boxes. Reznik recognized the ancient terminal that had been in the medical bay when he had woken up. They waited while the computer took agonizingly long to boot up.

“This old piece of crap is the only thing that would interface with your cranium. You’ve been on ice a long time, pal. The world has moved along since then.” Hal’s fingers flew over the keyboard as he entered commands.

“Can I plug him in yet?” Myrna asked.

“Sure, go ahead.”

As soon as he felt her plug the cord into the back of his skull, his HUD activated. The words “INTERFACE DETECTED” flashed in the corner of his vision. “ENTER COMMAND AUTHORIZATION CODE” displayed on his HUD a moment later as Hal typed away on the keyboard some more. The words flashed an angry red, and then “INVALID AUTHORIZATION CODE” popped up.

“Oops, it didn’t like that one,” Hal stated the obvious. He typed some more and pulled up a root directory. After a few more commands, he got to the security sub-menu, which scrolled across the old monitor.

R.E.A.C.Tech Heavy Infantry Model Mark VI

Serial Number: 9248792MV09845

***WARNING: SECURITY ACTIVATION SEQUENCE NOT ENTERED.

THIS UNIT WILL EXPIRE IF SEQUENCE IS NOT ACTIVATED WITHIN 14 DAYS!***

Activation Date: 20:43:32 EST, 10 September 2099

Expiration Date: 20:43:32 EST, 24 September 2099

Do you wish to enter your activation code now? Y/N

For assistance please contact R.E.A.C.Tech.

“Well, that’s what we needed to know,” Myrna said with a sigh. “It looks like we have eight more days.”

“So I’ll drop dead at 20:43:32 on the twenty-fourth…nothing like knowing the exact moment you are going to die to mess with