computer virus

"It's out!" someone said, a tech probobly, although later McTaggart could never remember who spoke first. "It can't be!' someone else cried, and then the whole room was roiling, running, frantic with activity that never left the workstations. Running in place.

A futuristic story about a widow named Cassie who gets trapped in her underground lab with her two children (Donnie and Janey) when an AI named Project T4S takes over the house. The house itself is more like a fortress; protected from EMP by a Faraday cage, with no chance of making a run for it because of hidden nerve gas, and with the only remaining wire to the outside cut, T4S is perfectly entrenched. And it doesnt want to die. T4S demands that the press hear its story. Being an AI, it can sit there for fifty years without getting bored. But Donnie is dangerously sick, and all three hostages dont like the situation much anyway. There are several great plot twists, times when you think Cassie is saved, times when you're on the AI's side, and times when you just sit back and read on to see what happens next. Not bad for a short story.

Source: 19th Annual "The Year's best Science Fiction"