Cato would not look at him. “I’m not speaking to you.”
“It’ll be good publicity for the museum, throngs of kids.”
Wordless, Cato hurried to the door, the winds of his lab coat brushing Sniper’s thighs with chill.
“Ockham approved, you know.” Would Sniper here have sounded cold or smug? “It was necessary. We can’t afford to have the President not trust us.”
“¡Never do anything like that again!”
“¿Or what? ¿What will you do, huh?”
What could Cato do? He hurled the door aside, eager to slam it behind him, but froze on the threshold, confronted with a figure there, about to knock. “Weichun?”
I have not met the security captain who smiled from the doorstep, but she is Cato and Eureka’s cousin, so imagine Cato, but in a Humanist uniform, black to make the bright Olympic rings of its embroidered patches brighter. “Good morning, Cato. Everyone. We’ve had call for a security drill.”
“Now?” Cato wriggled with the urge to bolt. “We just had one.”
“I think the higher-ups want to triple check, after the break-in.”
“Can I just—”
“Good call,” Sniper cut in. “We’re right at shift change, so I’m not even on duty yet. A disruptive moment is the best time for a test.” Likely the living doll apologized with a roguish smile for his lack of pants, and likely the captain did not mind one jot. “07:17 local 11:17 UT, I’ll clock in now. Eureka, message Ockham and Lesley upstairs, let them know it’s a drill.”
<done.>
Thisbe dragged herself up off the couch. “I’ll head downstairs.”
“Good. I’ll start the clock at 07:18 on my mark … Cato, you were here when the drill was called so here you stay.”
“Fine!” Cato spun and stomped back to his lab in a huff that made even this obedience rebellion. “Test my security, my security is perfect…”
Sniper smiled at Cato’s murmur, as at the sweet babbling of a toddler. “On my mark, then … Mark!”
I have never seen the house spring into action, lights and sirens, bolting doors, the robots pouring forth from walls and corners like the wrathful march of ants. I have once seen from a distance the sudden blackening of the sky as the cars race in, guards upon guards, some in the city’s police uniforms of white and gray-blue, some in Humanist colors, a second wave in civvies, rushed in from beds and sofas in the surrounding tiers of bash’houses whose residents are proud to add their names to the roster of Mukta’s defenders. Ockham’s prophecies were sound: fifty guards in two minutes and three hundred in five, who joined the automated system and the few guards always on duty in the computers’ humming depths. Soon every room in the bash’house had a guard, and coordinated squads took up their places, each on its appointed tier of the computers which climbed down and down beneath the city’s depths, like the vast, true body of the iceberg, a glimpse of which will make the horror-stricken sailor dream of monsters. Troops filled the trench outside too, chatting, cheerful in their proud routine, but Thisbe had showed us where their perimeter falls, so we dug Bridger’s dwelling far beyond.
<¡We’re going to break our record!> Cato boasted to the house over their tracker link.
Sniper: <Thisbe, ¿is someone down there with you? I’m getting a stray signal.>
Cato: <It’s that sensayer again. ¡I knew it!>
Thisbe: <Yes, our sensayer is back again. Carlyle. I called them.>
Sniper: <¿Again?>
Eureka: <¡smitten! ¡i knew it!>
Thisbe: <I appreciate the vote of confidence, Eureka, but it’s really just a session. They’re very good.>
Eureka: <i’m sure.>
Thisbe: <Not like that.>
Ockham: <Everyone carry on with the drill like all’s normal.>
Sniper: <¿What? ¿Is there a problem?>
Ockham: <The police called. Not our police. Romanova. Polylaws.>
Thisbe: <¿Making a fuss?>
Ockham: <Someone’s using the Canner Device.>
Thisbe: <¿The Canner Device?>
Ockham: <They’ve been watching for it. Someone activated it. Here, right here in the house.>
Eureka: <¿just now?>
Ockham: <Eleven minutes ago.>
Cato: <¿Eleven? ¿Just before the drill?>
Thisbe: <Getting my boots now.>
Sniper: <¿Who ordered this drill?>
Cato: <I … can’t confirm … >
Ockham: <Cato, take over the automated systems. Don’t let anyone know we’re taking action, just have something aimed at every non bash’member in the house. If anyone tries to leave, move, or access equipment, then slow them down, make doors stick, lights fail, robots seem to malfunction. Don’t let anyone realize you’re doing anything, but slow them down.>
Cato: <On it.>
Ockham: <Cardie, keep on as officer on duty. Go down with the drill captain and start checking off the levels one by one.>
Sniper: <On it. ¿Whose gray pants are these behind the couch, and can I borrow them?>
Lesley: <Mine, go ahead.>
Ockham: <Eureka, assemble a master list of everyone who’s here. See if there have been substitutions. No one should be here who hasn’t had a background check a kilometer deep.>
Thisbe: <I didn’t see any unfamiliar faces.>
Sniper: <Me neither.>
Eureka: <all ids check out.>
Sniper: <Entering green wing elevator now. Ockham, ¿where are you?>
Ockham: <Still upstairs with Lesley. We won’t move until we know what’s happening.>
Cato: <I see twelve people out of position, mostly near each other, four groups of three, moving … moving fast, upper tiers, just under the house, they look like they’re searching.>
Ockham: <ID them.>
Cato: <On it. ¿Should I take them out? I have clear shots on all twelve.>
Ockham: <¿Are they a threat to the system where they are?>
Cato: <No, they’re nowhere near controls. Not a vulnerable area. Whatever they want, it isn’t the system. They’re definitely searching. Systematically.>
Sniper: <¿Who are they?>
Cato: <<ATTACHMENT>>
Thisbe: <Cato, ¿do you see the Canner Device? ¿Do they have it?>
Cato: <If anyone knew what a Canner Device looked like, that question might mean something.>
Thisbe: <They might be searching for the device, if it was used here.>
Cato: <You brought Mycroft here in the first place, Thisbe.>
Lesley: <Bicker later. Cato, ¿do they have any tech you can’t identify?>
Cato: <Checking. Nothing extraordinary.>