The young fellow nodded, a slow smile starting to spread across his face. “Most of them.”
“And what do you think they could learn from the command and communication circuitry and processors of a remote-operated Arat Kur unit equipped with an extensive expert-system backup?”
The young man’s smile was now very wide. “A whole lot, bule. They’d get a real good look at Arat Kur engineering. Prob’ly begin to play with Arat Kur programming languages. Either way, this is what they’d need to get started on that kind of work.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
Captain Moerdani looked up from his watch, said something in the flowing-water syllables that were characteristic of Javanese. Several of his men nodded, hefted their rifles up into assault carries, and spread out into the street, ready to scout the route of withdrawal. Then the captain turned toward Caine. “We’re leaving as soon as young Hadi is done cutting out the key components. You, too. You’re coming with us.”
Caine shook his head. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea for you and your men, Captain.”
“Why is that?”
“The Arat Kur might come after me. Hard.”
“Hmm. Yes. I’ll want to ask you some questions about that later. But whatever interest they have in you, they clearly want to capture, not kill you.”
“Yes, well, they’re probably the only ones who don’t want me dead. On the other hand, your army, the clones, the Hkh’Rkh—”
“The what?”
“Uh, the Sloths. They all want to kill me.”
Teguh smiled at him. “That means you’ll fit right in with us, bule.” Teguh looked up the fifteen-centimeter difference in their height. “Well, you almost fit in. Just hunch over some, and you’ll be fine. Now let’s get outta here.”
When Darzhee Kut’s shuttle landed in the courtyard of Jakarta’s Presidential Palace, Urzueth Ragh was waiting. It was clear from his posture that he had unpleasant news.
Darzhee Kut bobbed at him. “What sad notes would you sing to me, rock-sibling?”
“Chaos and crashing, Darzhee Kut. I have failed. The human ambassador, Caine Riordan, has escaped.”
“Yes, I know. I received reports from our human partners. But their phrasing is that Riordan attacked President Ruap and then fled. You say escaped, which implies that he did not merely depart, but was imprisoned at the time he did so. What occurred between him and our human allies?”
Urzueth told him. Darzhee Kut flexed restless mandibles. “Hu’urs Khraam was hasty, I think, to accept Senior Liaison Astor-Smath’s offer to provide Caine Riordan’s accommodations.”
“I have thought the same thing, rock-sibling. I did not know it before I witnessed the exchanges between them this afternoon, but I suspect that Riordan’s first night in CoDevCo’s care might very well have been his last.”
Darzhee Kut bobbed slightly. “It is pertinent to recall the many nearly fatal mishaps and mysterious attacks Riordan has endured in the past year. If he should be apprehended, it is imperative—imperative, Urzueth Ragh—that he be brought to our compound. As he requested.”
“We sing the same song, to the note. I will go and pass the necessary word and then meet you at Hu’urs Khraam’s briefing within the hour.”
“Just so.” Darzhee exhaled his familiar farewell and proceeded into the residential wing of the presidential compound—
—but got no farther than the vestibule. Two technicians from the Remote Security Assets section were waiting there. “Speaker Kut,” said the smaller and slightly older one. “During our watch it is customary that we report any noteworthy successes, failures, anomalies to our superiors. They then indicate to whom we should direct news of such an event. Today we had a most unusual event, and our superior indicated that we must report it to you. Directly. Without revealing it to any of our nestmates.”
Darzhee Kut grew cautious. “I thank you for your discretion. Now, what manner of event was this?”
“It was a failure, sir. Or an anomaly. Actually, both.”
“Please explain.”
“We lost an automated patrol and security unit today, Speaker Kut, under unusual circumstances. Here is the report.” He deferentially passed a data tablet to Darzhee Kut who scanned down, and, before reaching the end, knew what he would see. “So you later discerned that the human you sent it to capture was Caine Riordan. And this was achieved with the biometric technology provided by the megacorporations? Excellent. You are sure that, at the end of the incident, Riordan was still alive?”
“Yes, Speaker.”
“You have done excellent work. I thank you for your attentiveness.”
“Speaker Kut, there was a further anomaly we did not add to the report, but which you may see below, in this separate file.”
“Why did you not include this further anomaly in the official report?”
“Firstly, because we only learned of it after our shift of duty was concluded. But on consideration, we reasoned that it should not be shared in any data medium that may be seen by many eyes. Perhaps not all of which belong to our own species.”
Overcoming his surprise at the subtlety of the technician, and faintly trepidatious as well, Darzhee bobbed his appreciation and asked, “What was this anomaly?”
“It involves the fate of the expert system security unit we lost, Speaker Kut. There were evidently other humans waiting in or near the building in which it was ambushed. Because after they disabled the unit, they disassembled it.”
“They what?”
“Disassembled it, Speaker Kut. Partially. Although inoperative, the unit’s electronics were mostly intact, and the humans removed them.”
Darzhee Kut resisted the urge to retract his antennae. “I thank you for your report. I shall include parts of it in my briefing to First Delegate Khraam. Know that you have served the Wholenest most admirably in this matter and your names will be sung in harmony with the presentation of this datum. But be warned. You must share it no further. You have touched upon a sensitive matter that must be handled discreetly.”
“Of course, Speaker Kut. We are honored to have our voices sung.”
“And so they shall be.” With a polite bob, Darzhee Kut turned, and felt the world spin and reorient all in a single second. Caine Riordan had started the day in a safe ambassador’s berth, had almost been killed planetside, had escaped, had then met up with local rebels, was then almost recovered, but then—
Although Darzhee Kut lacked the facts to prove it, he knew that Riordan had not merely fled from the unit that was destroyed, and had not merely tried to distract if from the rebels it had trapped at the end of that dead-end street. He had put himself out as bait. He had correctly reasoned that the Arat Kur were watching for him, that the unit would attempt to capture him, and that he could thus lure it into a trap that left it intact enough for the insurgents to lobotomize it. By now, they had surely passed the unit’s command and control package to their own experts for analysis.