“It’s not Homeland Security’s job to police the preserve,” Sysigns said. “In fact, we’re expressly forbidden to.”
Colonel Brandis jumped in, recognizing that Homeland Security had allowed themselves to be on the defensive and shifting the briefing back in the intended direction. “If Chief Laughton is such an outstanding policeman, then he can tell us what he’s doing about policing the humans who are murdering each other and attacking robots from the safety of the preserve.”
“There’s no evidence that there have been any attacks from the preserve,” the commissioner said, unable to hold back his anger.
“We actually have very good evidence that Killer Apps originated here,” Brandis said.
“Killer Apps?” Laughton said.
“That’s what they’re calling the virus,” Mark Sysigns said.
“In fact,” Brandis continued, “digital markers left in the victims suggest very strongly that Killer Apps is a Sam and Smythe program, and Kir of the HHS is very aware of that intelligence.” He directed the end of that at Kir.
“And we think it was robots who killed Sam and Smythe,” Kir said. “No doubt after they did the work for robot terrorists.”
“Nobody’s claiming anything about terrorists,” Sysigns said.
Laughton watched the robots argue, relieved that they seemed to have forgotten him.
Grace Pattermann said, “The president has no doubts that this is a human attack launched from the perceived safety of the preserve, exactly the kind of unlawfulness that people feared when the preserve was being debated by the last administration.”
“And I have no doubt that this is a robot-led attack meant to undermine public support for the preserve,” Kir said. “Perhaps not even a private attack.”
The accusation hung over everything for a moment.
Colonel Brandis said, “We’re not here to debate politics. Now, I’m prepared to set up a cordon, and the Coast Guard has already begun to set up a blockade—”
“We’re moving ships into position,” Captain Sysigns said. “We need perhaps twenty-four hours.”
“Like a physical barrier matters to a computer program,” Kir said. “A program that’s already off-preserve! This is just the president’s excuse to turn the preserve into the prison he wants. Are there trucks with rolls of wire fences waiting out on the highway?”
“Kir. Enough,” Grace Pattermann said, silencing the room.
Agent Spectra focused her attention on Chief Laughton and said, “Well, maybe Chief Laughton can give us a reason to not take such drastic measures. Isn’t that the purpose of this meeting?”
Everyone turned to the chief. Laughton had to resist the feeling in the back of his throat that he had to retch. He tried to get a signal from Kir, but he couldn’t read any advice in his partner’s face. “I understand that you’ve lost an alarming number of robots in a short period of time,” he said. “We’re doing our best—”
“No,” Colonel Brandis said. “What are you doing?”
Kir said, “We’re solving a murder.”
Brandis ignored him, keeping his eyes on Laughton.
“We believe Smythe was murdered because he had the antivirus.”
“Because they’d written the virus,” Colonel Brandis said. “These men were radical orgo terrorists.”
Grace Pattermann said, “There’ve been no terrorist claims—”
“I don’t need a claim to know what terrorism is,” Brandis said.
“We’ll leave that to you,” Laughton said, surprising himself by his impertinence. “All I can say is that we think Smythe had the antivirus, and we’re pretty sure that McCardy has it now.”
“Good,” Agent Asimov said. “Tell us what you’ve got, and we’ll track these orgos down.”
“Not on the preserve you won’t,” Grace Pattermann said. “You’re here as guests of the preserve only.”
“It’s in everyone’s best interest to have as many people working on this as possible,” Agent Spectra said.
“You work on containing on your end. The commissioner and Chief Laughton with Kir as the HHS representative will take care of the preserve. This meeting is a courtesy.”
“We’ll see how long that lasts,” Colonel Brandis said. “The president has already authorized the military and the Coast Guard to close the preserve borders.”
“You can’t—” the commissioner started.
“He has,” Captain Sysigns said.
Kir pointed at the other robots in the room. “You’ll take no action until this has been confirmed by Congress.”
“Kir,” Grace Pattermann said, losing patience with her subordinate. “You head the Criminal Division at the HHS. You’re not a member of the administration.”
“Do you represent the president in this room or the HHS?”
Colonel Brandis said, “I still haven’t heard the human tell us anything important.”
“You don’t think an antivirus is important?” Kir said.
“An alleged antivirus with no apparent proof?”
Chief Laughton felt like he was going to collapse. The commissioner was bright red.
Kir played a recording of an air horn at top volume, and the room fell silent. “Chief Laughton and I are close to finding these people and the antivirus, but we can’t do that with a bunch of robots causing hysteria in the humans, and that means no robots on the preserve, and no robot forces amassing on the borders of the preserve.”
“You can’t expect us to let these orgos—”
Kir interrupted Colonel Brandis, “Humans. You want the commissioner and chief here to call you a bunch of metals?”
“These humans should have been rounded up decades ago,” Lieutenant Cray said beside Colonel Brandis. “It’s time to just end this whole charade.”
Laughton felt like it was all getting away from him—the comfort of easy authority, the calm of living without a daily threat—these things were being crushed. “Twenty-four hours!” he yelled.
Everyone looked at him.
“Twenty-four hours and I’ll have the antivirus. All of you, your departments, whatever, give me twenty-four hours.”
“With what intelligence—” Agent Spectra started.
“Twenty-four hours,” Kir said. “Then we can take this up in Washington.”
“You’ll just scare everyone into a panic,” Laughton said, “if you start closing the borders and moving ships in the harbor.”
The room fell silent. It was hard to believe that the robots weren’t messaging each other, and they most likely were within their own delegations, no one wanting to show their hand to anyone else, let alone the orgos in the room.
Captain Sysigns said, “I’m not moving my ships. They’re already there. That barricade is only going to get tighter.”
Grace Pattermann spoke at last. She must have been doing extreme calculations. Since snapping at Kir, she had seemingly withdrawn from the conversation. “Twenty-four hours.”
Colonel Brandis threw his hands up. “This is ridiculous. We’re under attack, and you want to let them keep at it.”