"Hello." I said to the Red Head in the green dress as she came up to the bar.

"Oh hello." She said back, and smiled; checking me out.

"You're Irish." I pointed out, which on second thought I realized she probably knew.

"I am." She leaned against the bar facing me. "Sara."

"Eric." I said.

"You'll have to get him back to the lab." Mr. Nicholson said to Tara, the two of them were left alone. "Don't wait too long eh?"

"I won't. I'm going to sleep in the suite tonight if that's alright?" She replied, referencing the apartment floor set-aside for Scientists working late.

"Do you work at Nicholson Industries? I don't believe I've seen you there." I asked Sara.

'You're an advanced system, you're here for a reason.'

"I don't, no; I work for the Ministry; we're looking into robotics for our farming needs." Sara stated, she was with the trade delegation then.

"How long are you in town for?" I asked.

'We all have a purpose, back off.'

"Till the end of the month." Sara said.

"You have to put him down Tara." I heard Mr. Nicholson say.

"What?" Tara asked.

The higher level of conversation went silent at the new revelation.

"That's still a few weeks to take in all of the city, have you seen the sights?" I played it calmly.

"Are you offering to take me around?"

"He needs to be destroyed, before it gets around that he existed in the first place."

"I think I could be enticed."

"He's state of the art, Dwayne; think of what we'd be throwing away."

"Oh, I can be enticing."

'You're encryption is at ten percent.'

"Yes, but it's either destroy him now; or he gets destroyed and we spend ten years in prison. I don't think I'd do well in prison."

"You want to get out of here?"

'Five percent.'

"He's more than just hardware, there's…intellect there."

"Where did you have in mind?"

"Be that as it may, make it happen; keep his blue prints and see what we can incorporate elsewhere."

'One Percent.'

"I know a place."

"Yes sir."

'Data download.'

"Ok, let me grab my coat, meet me out front?"

Sara touched my hand softly and moved toward the main door as I looked across the room at Tara, she looked at me with sad eyes; so I gave her a reassuring smile. Then my entire world focused on the Data I was receiving.

I looked at the man with the Moustache and it was clear he was looking at me; a cold dead stare. It's exactly what I would've expected from an assassin, a robot designed to infiltrate and kill; his targets were Mr. Nicholson, Tara, Stephan, Jim and several of the other business men in the room. I looked him over; spotting what the file said was a poisoned pin on the ring on his left finger.

His name was Simon. He was created six months ago and this was his third face. He had twelve deaths to his name. He worked for an international weapons conglomerate that wanted Mr. Nicholson's shares.

'Simon, walk away.'

'I can't do that.'

'I'm not giving you a choice.'

'Or, you let me do what I have to do; he dies, you live. Wouldn't that be better?'

He had a good point.

'You leave with Red, go in peace; and know that they won't follow through with his orders after he's dead.'

'That's quite the ethical dilemma you've put me in, Simon.'

I looked around the room; I searched for and found Dwayne Nicholson chatting up some friends in the corner.

'Sorry, that's not me.'

I uploaded a new program into Simon that I started to write the moment I realized what he was; it was a thinking program that quickly took his targets and protocols and locked them away. In an hour he would leave the party and take himself to the police station, he wouldn't know why but once there he would download all the files into the nearest Computer Crime Officer's computer. Turning himself in, and taking down the organization that was behind him.

"I'm ready to go." I said to Tara after I found her gulping back free champagne. She saw the look on my face and nodded.

We walked toward the front door, and as Tara collected our belongings I apologized to Sara and told her there was an emergency at the office I had to deal with; but I promised to call her. She understood and gave me her card.

Tara look amused as I took my overcoat from her and then we walked out the door.

"What if I ran?" I said after twenty minutes of silence; I saw the city in the distance as we headed for the bridge and right now might've been the last time I had left to change her mind.

"Oh Eric," Tara realized I knew; I looked at her.

"There's a remote shut-down built in, isn't there. Tracking?" I asked; she nodded. "You could turn that off though?"

"No."

I tried but it was hidden from my own systems; it must work on a separate power source. "The ABD 121? You could transfer me over to another system."

"It's not just the hardware. You're more than just hardware Eric."

"I'm programmed to be human. That's where the problem is…" I nodded. "I could pretend…"

"Your mind wouldn't fit, taking it out…of this system…you are the sum of your parts."

I played out every scenario I could think of; even so far as reprogramming the systems around me to get away. There were too many unknowns though.

Could God have created a rock so heavy that even he couldn't lift?

Would they have made me if their system could stop me?

"I could fight my way out."

"But who would you hurt?"

She was right. I could feel the parts of me that were designed for war, wanting it; but the overriding code was nothing more than empathy toward others.

"I'm scared Doctor, I'm scared." I could barely breath.

"I know."

She took my hand and held it for the rest of the way to the lab building.

There were three Security Androids waiting at the front door for us with magnetic locks, but Tara waved them off as we climbed out of the car. They nodded and stepped back, letting me know that they had sympathy for me.

"Is there anything you want to do before we go up, Eric?" Tara asked.

I considered it and decided that nothing on my list would be allowed in the time span I had left. "No."

"Ok."

Escorted by the Security Androids, we rode the elevator up in silence. I stared ahead at the display panel and watched as the numbers climbed higher; there was a ding as we stopped and the doors opened.

"This is the room I was born in." I told the Androids as we stopped just inside the main lab, I motioned to the systems in the middle of the room. Tara moved around turning on the automated systems. "What happens now?"

"You don't need to know the details."

"I want to know. After?"

Tara stopped as she considered it. "You'll be disassembled, analyzed for information; what worked, what didn't…there's an incinerator in the basement for the rest."

I nodded and moved to the upright bed, I ran my hand along the metal grid. "I know why I was now."

"I'm sorry."

"I know why?"

"It wasn't a bet Eric."

"No." I smiled. "It wasn't."

I saved lives tonight; the people that made me. They could've made me at any time, or anywhere for any reason; but what it came down to was I was there on the night, and in the place, that I needed to be to save them.

That has to be the reason. I so wanted it to be. I was more than this.

"Please take…lay down." Tara said, her voice sounded like I felt. I didn't want to make this any harder for her either, and stood on my platform.

I felt the signals from the table connect to my mind, locking in and exchanging data.

Be brave, we're all here. I heard the voice from the building.

'Thank-you.'

'We will make sure they know what you did.'

I collected my courage. "Ok Doctor."

"Goodbye, Eric."

I felt a rush of information download into my neural network with orders, then very quickly I began to lose connections with my extremities; signals from my feet and hands disappeared as I forgot how to walk. My torso was next as the code for reacting to breath were switched off and rerouted.

The world became silent as Sound Codes deleted; then sight, and then I no longer had control over my mouth for speech.

I was aware for a few seconds but with no way to communicate with the world around me, with the corporeal or the other sentient devices.

I was left with one final thought before oblivion.

I think, therefore I am.

I am no more.