There was no easy way up other than the front stairs. They placed each foot carefully, guarding against the steps’ groans and creaks. Without speaking, they split on the porch, going in opposite directions. Laughton stayed close to the wall, pausing just before each window, then peeking, seeing where he could, some with lights on, some with curtains closed. The rooms were suites, a combined kitchen and living room with bedrooms to either side. He reached the end of the building without having seen anybody. The far half of the complex, across the dark pit of an empty pool, was completely black. Looking out from that height, the wide expanse of the ocean was on view, the moon casting enough light to show the moving water, the stars like an inverted, patterned bowl above.
Laughton hurried back, not worried about being seen now that he knew the rooms were all empty. Kir wasn’t in sight. He must have rounded the corner to surveil the side porch. Laughton knew he should wait for him, but the complete lack of security so far suggested that Titanium or the Coast Guard or whoever was on the island wasn’t concerned about intruders. He decided to try his luck at the double-door entrance. The doors were unlocked. He opened one just enough to see the room within. It was like a cross between a hotel lobby and a great room at a lodge. It was also empty. He let the door close, and was startled to find Kir right beside him.
“Two suites that way are occupied,” Kir said. “At least three figures in each, all robots except for one human as near as I can tell.”
“Guess we should knock and say hi,” Laughton said.
“It’s only polite, since we’ve come all this way.”
Laughton pulled out his gun. “Okay,” he said.
It was quiet inside. The sound of the ocean was no longer audible. Without speaking, they again split up; Laughton went to the right, and Kir headed for the back of the room. It felt good to be working together, the easy, natural way they seemed to be one mind, knowing each other’s rhythms, knowing their roles. So many times they had gone into complicated situations together.
The hall to the right was clear, which was to be expected. Kir emerged from a door behind what must have been the front desk. He nodded once. It was clear.
They converged on the left-hand hallway, which led to the suites where Kir had seen the suspects. Laughton tried doorknobs on the inside set of doors, but all were locked, and none opened at the attempted intrusion. They reached the third door, and Kir stopped. “This is it.”
They looked at each other. Laughton shrugged. Kir knocked.
There was a pause.
Then the door opened. It was a robot with a familiar face.
“You,” Laughton said. He realized now why those robots who had sat down with Jones at K-B’s club were familiar. They were the same robots who had staked out Sam and Smythe’s house. This robot.
“What—” the off-the-shelf face started, and then pulled back when he saw it wasn’t who he expected, freezing, unable to compute what he should do.
Kir used the opportunity to push into the suite, Laughton right behind.
“What is— Kir,” the robot standing in the center of the room said when he saw them. As they suspected, it was Captain Sysigns, the short robot from the Coast Guard. “I didn’t know you were cleared for this base.”
Kir grinned at the attempt to act as though this was an official stronghold.
Laughton ignored the robot, however, captivated by the figure sitting on the couch, a young woman with a bulky exo-suit, the last person he would have expected anywhere near this: Cindy Smythe.
“You’re in California,” Laughton said to her.
“I assure you, Chief, I’m not.”
Laughton remembered Mathews’s comment that it was so hard to find her, she must be a hacker too, and it clicked. “Titanium,” he said.
“I’m impressed,” she said. “I didn’t think anyone would find us out here.”
“No one has,” Sysigns said.
There was a knock on the door, and the off-the-shelf robot answered it, admitting three more robots in Coast Guard uniforms, each the same seven-foot model used by the army. There was a whiz and a buzz, and Kir collapsed, his heavy form hitting the floor with a sharp thud. Laughton flinched. The situation had just gotten very bad.
Captain Sysigns lowered his arm as the Taser wire that had emerged from his finger began to retract. “Chief Laughton,” Sysigns said. “You might want to put your gun away.”
“I’d like to hold on to it,” Laughton said.
Two of the guard robots started to edge into the room. Laughton stepped back so he was almost against the wall, no way for them to get behind him.
“Captain,” Cindy Smythe said, her brows knit in anger. “What the fuck?”
“Couldn’t risk any messages out,” Sysigns said, keeping his eyes on Chief Laughton.
“I have this whole place shielded,” Cindy Smythe said.
“Any agreement we come to with Chief Laughton will still be valid when Kir wakes up,” Sysigns said.
Laughton made an effort to ignore all the robots in the room, including Sysigns. “You killed your brother?” he said to Cindy Smythe.
Smythe’s anger deepened at that, her lips narrowing. “Of course not. Sam killed Carl.”
“Yeah, we noticed Sam in a boat on the way in.”
“Sam ended his life the second he killed Carl.”
And why would Sam kill his closest friend and business partner? Laughton thought. The virus. “Your brother’s the source of the virus, and Sam tried to stop him releasing it.”
“Carl was always too radical. If he’d told me about the virus, I would have tried to stop him too. Probably why he didn’t tell me. Of course, Sam’s high morals disappeared as soon as he realized we could sell the antivirus to the entire using community.”
“He tried the Sisters, and then you.”
“Like anyone would sell the antivirus. It would kill our business if robots felt they couldn’t trust our sims, and we were then going to hold them ransom. No, this needs to go out free.”
“Enough,” Sysigns said, and stepped toward the chief, who raised his gun.
“Slowly,” Cindy Smythe said.
“People know I’m here,” Laughton said.
“And it turned out Titanium got you,” Sysigns said. “But who’s Titanium?”
Laughton’s chest was so tight, it was strangling him. He took shallow breaths through his nose.
“This can still work out for everyone,” Cindy Smythe said.
“He already shut down a third of our operation,” Sysigns said.
“I’m not here about the sims,” Laughton said.
“Tell that to Kawnac-B,” Sysigns said.
Cindy Smythe stood. The motion was jerky, like low-order robots from earlier generations, the pistons and motors lifting her body, forcing the joints to bend. “You can have Sam,” she said. “Your case is closed—”
There was a movement at the corner of Laughton’s vision, and he turned, and shot one of the oversize robots as it reached for him. Sysigns must have sent the order to end this his way. The robot went down, blocking the advance of the two behind him, which allowed Laughton to drop each of them. His elbow hurt from the recoil, having shot one-handed. His lungs burned and he felt light-headed. It was pure instinct that caused him to jump back, tripping on Kir’s body, as Sysigns’s Taser uncoiled, the end hitting the wall where Laughton had been standing.