The Vandal's Shadow

obvious? Helping Hand did it. You should be talking to them."

  "Why do you say that?"

  "Okay, let me do your job for you. Pendant and Helping Hand are direct competitors, but not the good-natured kind. Three weeks ago, they tried to sabotage Pendant's Organics Division, but failed. And releasing one from the facility is just what they wanted to do."

  "We're aware of this already," Kask said. "I understand they're competitors, but how and why would Helping Hand destroy a bio-bot, in particular?"

  Warner sighed. "Helping Hand is desperately afraid of the coming revolution. They want to keep the current metal and plastic standard. Do you realize they don't employ a single biologist in their company? Not one. They're still living in the stone age, literally. Problem for them is, the age of flesh has already begun."

  Kask brought up a photograph on his arm-comp. He angled it for Warner to see--a dark pattern overlaying the Sundial of Human Involvement. "Though it seems that flesh has some vulnerabilities."

  Warner frowned at the picture. "Bio-bots are self-repairing. They don't wear out as quickly as standard mechanisms. They may seem soft, but you can engineer them to be as tough as you want. That was just a cleaning robot. Still, to blow it apart like that is no trivial feat. But Helping Hand certainly has the technology."

  "Lethal weaponry is illegal in Global Unity," Hakihea stated emphatically.

  "Many years ago, Helping Hand was a military contractor. They sold some devices of great power to GU peace-keepers. I'm sure they store a few scary things in their basement."

  "Any idea what?"

  Warner sighed through his nose and shook his head. "Something which tears molecules away from each other. If you sequenced DNA from the remains, obviously the weapon doesn't split the molecules themselves."

  "How big or heavy do you suppose a weapon like that would have to be?"

  Warner shrugged. "It depends on the design. I can't predict its size based on energy output alone."

  "Do you know this woman? Her name is Evelyn Cai." Kask showed him the photograph.

  "No," Warner said. His eyes narrowed. "Why?"

  "She's a person of interest in our investigation."

  "You mean a suspect?"

  "Not necessarily. More like a witness, we think. But she's not very forthcoming, so we're trying to find out everything we can."

  Warner was silent, swiveling his chair to look out the dark window.

  "Were you alone here all night?" Kask asked.

  "Yes. Why?"

  "Mr. Warner, did you have any contact with the moles from Helping Hand while you were at Pendant?" Hakihea asked quickly.

  "In Organics Division, I imagine just about everyone did. I left shortly before they were caught, so I never found out who they were. I don't keep in contact with anyone from my old team, either, so don't expect me to have the inside scoop." He rotated his chair again to face forward. Hakihea looked at Kask.

  "You're pretty angry at Pendant, aren't you?" Kask said to Warner.

  "It's no secret. They're idiots."

  "But at least they're trying to move toward this 'organics revolution', while Helping Hand wants to stymie it, according to you."

  "Yeah, you've got it right. Helping Hand is evil, but Pendant is stupid. I'm not a fan of either quality."

  "I didn't quite catch why Pendant is so stupid. Seems like they have some incredible, ground-breaking accomplishments."

  "Yeah, because I worked for them. Now they'll find some way to break my golden egg. I guarantee you, in five years or so that company will be out of business. You just watch."

  "And what about you? What will happen to you and your revolution by that time?"

  "Oh, I'll be releasing my own products. Don't you worry, everything is on track. In a century's time, you won't recognize the human world. Steel and plastic will remain only as skeletal temples of history, overgrown by a jungle of bio-tech."

  "So are you saying the bio-bots at Pendant were created by you? Because President Wright seemed to indicate that you were needlessly contrarian, and that everything which happened at the company was a result of his directives."

  "That's typical of his self-aggrandizing lies. He's a politician. You realize he just spends most of the day jabbering on the phone with his other executive friends in the company? They live off the hard work of the researchers and take credit for things they don't understand."

  "Hm. It seemed he got on rather well with the scientists when we were there," Hakihea said.

  "Oh yeah? Who?"

  "Like, uh ... well, a Dr. Fearson is the only name I remember."

  Warner waved a dismissive hand again. "He's not even in Organics. Just another legacy robotics guy. His smile is as fake as Wright's intellect." Hakihea nodded without agreeing. Kask was staring at a photograph of waterfalls at Milford Sound. "So are you two done wasting my time?"

  "Just one more question," Kask said. "Would you consider the destruction of this bio-bot to be a case of murder or vandalism?"

  "Vandalism, of course. Why would you ask such a stupid question?"

  "It may affect how we treat this case, before any charging of a guilty party is made," Kask said. "I was thinking that perhaps it would be akin to cetaceanicide, but my colleague disagrees."

  "Ridiculous. Whales and dolphins are social creatures, with friends and family. And they're way more intelligent."

  "Are you implying that people who don't have friends and family have less moral worth? Or people with lower intellect?"

  "Of course not! I was just saying ..." Warner trailed off, frowning. He glanced at one of his photographs for a moment. "Look, I don't think people should make moral judgments. They can create moral theories, of course, checked by proof machines, but judgments should be left to A.I. Perhaps you ought to go ask the Wellington Mayoral Processing Unit about such philosophical subjects. I'm too busy with practical matters."

  Kask nodded. "Thanks for your time." He headed for the door.

  "Thank you very much," Hakihea added hastily after a moment, and then followed Kask. Warner scowled at their backs as they left.

  Once they were back in the corridor with the door slid shut, Hakihea said "Well?"

  Kask stopped and put on his fedora. "Well what?"

  "What do you think?" Hakihea edged away from Warner's door.

  "I think we need to talk to Helping Hand as soon as possible. But first I--"

  "I mean about Warner," Hakihea interrupted.

  "I think lots of things about Warner. You'll have to be more specific." Kask moved toward the elevator again.

  "Okay, here's my idea. Warner saw the attacks by Helping Hand as an opportunity. He probably planned this whole thing around the same time the spies were being fired from Pendant." They passed from the mottled, green light of the corridor and into the blue strip-lights of the elevator. "Weeks in advance, he could have planted the timed virus which deactivated the security cameras." Kask crossed his arms and looked out at the rising city. "Though he must have been in communication with whomever it is on the inside to let out the bio-bot. And Warner could have been waiting just outside, ready to lead the thing to the Carter Observatory." They exited the elevator and headed for the docking platform. "Once he got it there, he blasted it with the molecule-separator thing! And since then he's had plenty of time to get back to his apartment."

  Kask halted on the platform and turned to Hakihea. "So it's a conspiracy of at least two people? Who is his inside man?"

  Hakihea shrugged, his dark hair flattened on one side by the night wind. "We have to look at the list Mr. Wright gave us, and try to figure which one is a false identity. That would be the remaining Helping Hand mole."

  "Don't you think it's much more likely that this is solely the work of Helping Hand? They did try this same action three weeks ago. The difference is that they succeeded tonight. There's no need to introduce extra actors into the equation."

  "Come on, you don't think Warner's guilty? The guy is a lunatic!"

  "R
eally? I didn't notice."

  "Ha .... Wait, you are being sarcastic, aren't you?"

  "Not at all," Kask said.

  "Did you see how messy his flat is? And his hair? Not to mention his nutty ideas!" Hakihea punctuated each sentence with a wave of his arms.

  "I try not to judge suspects on the state of their hair. And as for his ideas, I don't know enough about the subject to know whether they're reasonable or not, but in any case it has no bearing on guilt or innocence."

  "Okay Kask, what's your theory then?"

  "Theory on what?"

  "How the vandals did it!"

  "I don't have one, of course." Kask held the brim of his hat against the wind.

  "Why not?"

  "I haven't really thought about it."

  "Then what have you been doing the whole night?"

  "Gathering facts. Which is what you should be doing as well." He turned his back to Hakihea and walked close to the transporter, but stopped short of getting in. He began typing a search string into his arm-comp.

  Hakihea looked over Kask's shoulder.

  "What are you doing?" Hakihea asked.

  "I need two things from you. A police-level permission code so that I can search a private citizen on public cameras--and then I'd like you to call your lab guys and ask if they pulled the data from Evelyn Cai's drone yet." Kask held out his arm so Hakihea could enter a code into the panel.

  "You're tracking Cai through facial recognition?" he asked as he entered some numbers on the projected keypad.

  "Yes. I want to know her movements since she left Carter Observatory." Kask watched the progress of the image scans on his arm-comp. "Aren't you calling them?"

  "The lab techs are sleeping. It's the middle of