Chase approached me from behind and rested a hand on my shoulder. I leaned into his touch, having recognized him from the way his feet shuffled on the floor.

"You need to get some rest," he said.

I glared at the symbols that blurred on the screen and rubbed my eyes. "I can't. I have a sick man in the dunge—basement, whatever."

"Maybe you'll think better with a clear head." Chase walked around my chair and leaned against the desk at my right. He folded his arms, his eyes serious. "I don't know how much longer we can do this. The testing time gets shorter each time. Soon, we won't be able to remove it the chip all."

And without access to his chip, Gabriel would be lost.

"I'm not giving up on him," I said stubbornly and looked up at Chase. "He's awake, isn't he?"

"Yes, but he can use a few minutes of peace."

"Did he eat anything today?" I asked.

"Not since the morning."

I glanced at the clock in the corner of the screen. It was close to midnight. "Well, at least he won't throw up on me." I got up, ready for another session while at the same time dreading it.

The walls danced around me, and Chase reached out with both hands to steady me. "Did you eat anything today?"

"Sure." I nodded at the Mars bar wrappings discarded on the corner of the desk.

Chase shook his head. "I don't know who I should be more worried about, you or him."

I smiled, touched by his concern. "I'm fine. I'm stronger than I look."

He didn't argue, but given the way he was looking at me while walking to the stairs, I figured out he didn't quite believe me. Welcome to the club.

I stopped at the bottom of the steps to catch my breath for a moment and considered asking Del to have an elevator installed. I had been up and down those stairs so many times during the past few days that I was sick of them.

"Finally!" Alec said, coming out in the corridor. "He doesn't believe me when I tell him you're fine. And can you fix him already? It's so boring down here."

Stifling a sigh, I left the guys in the corridor and entered the room. "Hello, Gabriel."

He was covered in sweat and shaking, but conscious.

Del pointed discreetly at the monitors. Elevated heart rate and way too much brain activity. Not good.

Gabriel struggled to focus his eyes on me. "You're here."

"Of course I'm here." I gave him an encouraging smile.

His eyes wandered on the bare walls, the machines surrounding him, the restrains, and then shot back at me. "Why am I here?"

"Don't you remember?" I asked, stepping closer to the bed. "Do you know who I am? How we met?"

"I came to you to help me with the chip…"

"Anything else?"

"Not really…" He shifted on the bed and pulled on the restraints.

"Well, we fixed that problem, but apparently it wasn't the only one," I told him. "You're currently running a program that's targeting me, so until we figure out a way to stop it, we can't let you go."

He grimaced and closed his eyes for a moment. "Why can't I remember?"

"Chase said it's either because of the head trauma or because the short term memory gets lost in between reboots."

"Reboots?" He groaned. "Can someone turn off that God damned noise?"

"Sorry, can't do that. You already blew up two computers, one stereo, and twenty-six—"

"Twenty-seven," Del corrected.

"—light bulbs." This whole adventure was becoming quite expensive. "Oh, and if you turn off the hot water while Demetrius is showering one more time, he threatened to kick you out of the house and dump you in a ditch somewhere. I'd pay attention if I were you. He was rather serious."

"No playing with the shower roger that." He winced and groaned again.

Del handed me a wet towel, and I wiped Gabriel's forehead with it. He was burning up.

"Sorry about the pain," I said. "The chip gets pretty vindictive when left on its own. We need to flood it with data to keep it busy."

"You're flooding my brain, too," he said between gritted teeth.

"I know." I winced. "I wish there was a way to separate them, but there isn't. I'm afraid I won't be able to keep my promise."

"Promise…?" His hands clenched and unclenched by his sides.

"You asked me to promise I'll take out the chip if I can't fix it. So far, I can't, but it turns out you can't live without it. You go into shock if it's removed longer than two hours. It used to be four."

"It's getting worse," he said.

"Yes." I sighed and looked away. "The problem is … the chip is useless outside your brain, and while in there, we can't properly access it. So we're down to rebooting you again and again in hope that the program will end or at least something will change. Unfortunately, you're not running Windows so…"

A faint chuckle came from Del's part.

"Then just end it." Gabriel's voice cracked, and his whole body contorted in pain.

I placed a hand on his arm and squeezed it lightly. "There's still time." Not much but…

"What's the point?" He gasped. "They say the whole purpose of life … is to build memories … unlike the last time, now I have them … and what good do they do?" He groaned, and his eyes lost focus. "I won't be used … won't be used … to kill people."

I squeezed his arm and stood by his side while Del sent more and more data packages.

When the groans turned into screams, I ran out of the room and slammed into Chase who was waiting right outside the door. He pulled me into his arms and held me against his chest.

"I can't do this. I can't. It's torture," I mumbled into his shoulder.

Chase rested his head against mine and soothingly ran his fingers through my hair. "You're right. It is torture. But it's the best shot he's got."

"What if it doesn't work?" I whimpered.

"Then … we've done our best."

"And if our best isn't good enough?" I struggled to suppress a shudder.

"What if it is?" Alec asked.

Both Chase and I turned to look at him.

"He mentioned a memory loss," Alec said. "That episode was only aired last night."

"Then how did he—" I gasped. "He lied! He does receive updates."

"Isn't this enough of a breakthrough to beat this sucker?" Alec grinned.

"It could be … if there's a module that connects to the outside world by itself, I can get in." I pulled away from Chase and grinned back. "It must be the same module that receives the orders. There would be too much of a security risk to have two. And if I can locate it, maybe it can be removed. It doesn't seem to be part of the initial design so the chip should still be able to function without it. This might work!" I hugged Chase and yelled, "Del, call Cammie! We'll need her help with this!"