Mark Tiedemann - Mirage

"If I understand everything you've told me so far," Mia continued, "that means that Bogard could only have malfunctioned if it had been ordered to do so. If it had been given a set of operational parameters that allowed it to perceive reality a little bit differently."

"I suppose… yes, that's logical. But-"

"So someone told it to fail. That's the only way it could have. Correct? Because it's been performing flawlessly for me."

Derec shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not sure I completely follow."

"Somehow, someone convinced Bogard that Eliton was in no danger. Someone programmed it to ignore the real situation."

"But it went into full protect mode. It enshielded Eliton."

"Bogard was linked to the RI's sensory net at the time."

Derec stared at her for a long time, then nodded. "Bogard would have been affected by the same thing that altered the RI's realtime perception. But it still enshielded Eliton…"

"It looked to me like Eliton had ordered Bogard to go protect Humadros."

"Eliton would have needed the override codes. He didn't have them, did he?"

"No… unless someone gave them to him." Mia rapped her fist on the arm of her chair. "I have to get access to the Service datum."

"There may be a way to do that. But I have to debrief Bogard before we go much further. You have to release it to me."

Mia knew he was right. Bogard carried information they needed and she did not have the skills to get to it. But she still walked painfully and badly, and she felt more vulnerable than she ever had in her life.

Bogard could not protect her forever, though. The only way to feel safe again, on her own, would be to solve this. For that, Derec needed Bogard. She had to hand it over to him.

Do Spacers feel this way all the time? she wondered. Vulnerable without their robots? Lost, insecure, incapable? Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to get rid of them…

The thought shocked her. Robots were tools. If people had allowed themselves to become so overdependent on them that they could no longer function without them, was that the fault of the tool? Hardly. But it was always easier to change an environment than change the people who lived in it. Getting rid of robots was far easier than making the necessary-and probably beneficial-changes in people.

But what do I know? I'm just a cop, not a philosopher.

"Very well, Mr. Avery," she said. She turned to the robot. "Bogard?" Mia knocked on Ariel's bedroom door. She heard nothing and nearly returned to the living room when it opened. Ariel had changed her clothes. She had an appointment with the representative from the Settler's Coalition this afternoon, Mia remembered.

"Sorry," Ariel said.

"For what?"

Ariel shrugged, smiled, scowled, and turned away with a look of disgust, all within the space of a second. "I get a little irrational on certain subjects. I hate losing control in front of people."

"You enjoy it in private?"

Ariel looked startled, then laughed. She came out and went into the living room. She stopped and looked around. "Where are they?"

"I, uh, turned Bogard over to Derec. It was time."

Ariel nodded thoughtfully. "You know, this is the only thing Derec and I have ever disagreed on."

"I'm sure."

Ariel smiled wryly. "You're very politic. But I'm talking about serious issues, not the annoying debris that clutters up anyone's life."

"Besides bodyguard work, what else would such a robot be good for?"

"Good for? Nothing." Ariel paused. "No, that's not fair. Quite a few situations would suit a robot that was able to more loosely interpret the Three Laws. Starships rarely have mi. xed bridge crews. Usually, the robotic contingents are on stand-by till needed. It's still dangerous to travel space. Exploration, certain kinds of lab work, some heavy industries. It's feasible that where now we have to either leave it all to robots or all to people, a robot like Bogard would make it possible for a mi. xed presence. Police work, certainly. Forensics robots are lab technicians that are specifically programmed to ignore the fact that a corpse was once a human being in the sense of a person in need of protection. But those are very limited refinements, nothing like what Derec has done."

"You really disapprove," Mia said.

"It really scares me."

Silence stretched between them. Mia could find no worthwhile response to her friend's admission. She shrugged.

"We have plenty to keep us busy. You got another interesting call while you and Derec were gone." Mia ran a query through the public datum on the garage. The place was serviced under general contract by a maintenance firm called Cyvan. Cyvan Services did upkeep on a variety of storage facilities and a few government buildings. They were owned by a holding company, though: Glovax Diversified. It took time to find out who owned Glovax, but the answer, even though she would have guessed another, did not surprise her.

"Imbitek. Just like the ambulance."

"Imbitek bought the ambulance?" Ariel asked.

"Not directly. It took me the whole time you were gone to track that one down. The bid was submitted by Holden Transport and Combined Services, who took possession. But the credits came from Lexington-Siever Financial. Holden Transport banks with them, but it's not their primary account, just a short term cache for incidental expenditures. It was certainly large enough for this purchase, but the credits were replenished the next day from another in the same institution-a private account for one Nis Garvander, who sits on the board of directors of Glovax Diversified. Three days after the transfer of funds, Garvander closed his account down."

"Glovax…" Ariel mused. "So we're right back at Imbitek."

"Looks that way."

Ariel tapped her lips. "But this is still circumstantial, isn't it? After all, Imbitek suffered casualties. How come DyNan didn't?"

"Good question. Rega Looms certainly looks like the more obvious suspect."

"Which might be exactly why DyNan took no hits."

Mia looked at Ariel. "You're thinking they were set up."

Ariel nodded. Mia respected Ariel's perceptiveness. She would have made a good security specialist.

"But," Mia said, "we shouldn't discount DyNan completely. I'm trying to find out if there have been any funds exchanged between the two companies. It's still possible that DyNan engineered everything and left this trail just so we'd find it."

"I could never be a cop," Ariel said, shaking her head. "It must drive you crazy to suspect everyone all the time."

"Oh, it's not that bad. I don't suspect you."

Ariel grinned. "Thanks. It would help if we knew why this happened."

"Motive. Both those firms have motive. Positronics could directly impact their markets, and in DyNan's case there's a moral aspect."

"I don't believe anyone seriously thinks positronics will ever have the presence on Earth it once had. I've talked to Alda Mikels a couple of times. He's far too sensible to think that way."

Mia gestured at the crate with the positronic brain. "What about that?"

"Certain people will always buy things that are illegal, just to be daring. There's no doubt that Earth has enough of a market to sustain an illicit trade in positronics, but it would never support a legitimate traffic."

"But it would have an impact on interstellar trade, wouldn't it? I mean, Mikels wants to export his products. Competition with positronics isn't a big deal here, but on Settler worlds and Spacer worlds?"

Ariel pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Hmm. But the conference would have addressed those issues."

"If he trusted the outcome."

"And Rega Looms?"

"He doesn't even think we should be in space."

Ariel fell silent, deep in thought, and Mia turned her attention to the datum. The ambulance log Ariel and Derec had retrieved gave little enough information, but it was sufficient for them to construct the scenario. The false ambulance team arrived, got hold of Eliton's body, and took it back to the garage. The travel time recorded allowed for no other possibility. So they at least knew that the body lying in the morgue adjacent to Reed Hospital Complex was not Eliton's.