CHAPTER 16
Uriah tried to hide his anxiety. “Would the classified information have anything to do with the cause of the pregnancy?”
“Yes, but rest assured that you are not the cause. The truth is something far stranger.”
He wasn’t sure whether to think the precedent of highly strange things made that doubtful, or even more likely. “All right then, you got what you wanted.” His voice faltered. “But you’re making a mistake. Changing my brain doesn’t serve any constructive purpose, because I’m not a threat to anyone who isn’t a bigger threat to innocent people.”
Zolnerowich went about her other business as if she hadn’t heard Uriah, who was briefly frustrated before saying, “Y’know, I get it. I really do. You have more power and responsibility than any human alive, and the public’ll feast on your nonexistent organs if you don’t give ‘em something to throw their moral outrage onto.”
She froze, and as she returned to other occupations Uriah stumbled over his next words. “I’m the perfect target. Certainly more believable to the outsider than the fine, upstanding gentleman that is Isaac Livingston. Who, to make matters worse, isn’t exactly a guy you can bring in and show them for closure as easily.”
“Because he is dead.”
“But you’re better than this, Governess, and you know it. You don’t need to scapegoat me to save your own skin, not when those people aren’t necessarily the ravenous barbarians you assume they are.”
Zolnerowich spoke with incredible contempt. “Drop the psychoanalysis, Mr. Uriah. I am not doing any of this for ulterior purposes, but for the fulfillment of my duty as a respectable leader who delivers justice. Give me one reason not to go through with your rehabilitation that isn’t – complete – horseshit.”
There were no words. This was truly the end of the road, and the most terrifying part was that the whole fiction was almost making sense. He swallowed. “Fine. What if I take a different option? Like, say, I help the Lunar government figure out what caused the Dethroning.”
“I see no reason to think you are more likely to find that than anyone else.”
“Let me rephrase that. I already have a rough idea of the cause, it’s the details I need to work out.”
She was only very slightly impressed. “What is that rough idea, pray tell?”
“Could we discuss this in private? As in, Jane, would you excuse us?” Jane left without questioning, which killed a part of him. He chose his next words carefully. “I can’t tell you yet, for reasons that would only make things worse if ya knew them.”
“You expect me to let you go without even knowing what you are looking for?”
“I do, because for now I can give you more pragmatic reasons. Let me paint the picture for you clearly, Governess.” He leaned back, hands interlocked behind his head. “I know Jane a lot better than you do, and to be frank, she’s the greatest threat in the world to you right now. She’s an emotional being whose sole purpose in life up to last week had been to serve a socially inept yet brilliant man named Marshall Patterson.
“But things are different now. She doesn’t admit it, but Jane sees me like she used to see no one but Marshall. That I have his body now only cinches the deal.”
“Just what is your evidence for this?”
“I was getting to that. Recall that Jane saved my life twice. Now, you know why she scares you. You’re probably watching her outside this room with your screen right now. It’s because she was made for Marshall, and she believes her loyalty is to him alone. To separate her from him is like getting between a potential martyr and his god. I’d go so far as to say her devotion to Marshall is more zealous than that martyr’s, only she wouldn’t die for him because she knows there’s no afterlife for robots.”
She now kept her eyes up, bringing a faint smile to Uriah’s face. “Get to the point.”
“That is to say, she would never do anything that didn’t fulfill her duty to Marshall. Unless a golden calf came along.” He leaned forward. “Zolnerowich, I am that golden calf. But there’s a twist. Her god’s been crucified. By whom, I don’t know. But suppose she were offered by the golden calf an opportunity to rescue her god from the grave. Would she take it, if by doing so she had to commit idolatry?”
“I suppose it would.”
“Right answer. So imagine someone like you comes along and attempts to rid me of my powers of resurrection.”
“Which I am not doing.”
“Imagine instead,” he said with a raised voice, “that I withhold my powers of resurrection because I know that by doing so, I will pose the aforementioned threat to a certain Governess Zolnerowich.”
“And that threat is …?”
He chuckled theatrically. “You don’t think disarming Jane’s hand-EM gun is gonna make her harmless, do you? She’s no ordinary robot. Livingston couldn’t control her like he could the other bots.”
“You mean it could not control itself.”
“Lady, I can’t prove to you that Jane didn’t hack those androids. You have her say-so on this matter, and I have the facts about what Marshall Patterson is capable of putting in his robot designs. But you don’t have to believe me on that score to know what Jane is capable of, and that if she loses that one hope of getting Marshall back, it’ll be World War Three.”
“What is this ‘hope of getting Marshall back’? Are you capable of necromancy, Mr. Uriah?”
“You could say that.” Zolnerowich stared at him as if to question his sanity, but he continued unperturbed. “Only there’s no magic involved. Did Mr. Ivanov tell you what he did with Marshall’s brain?”
“He does not know about how Marshall’s Libertas even got to you. He says there was another patsy involved, but he will not give us a name.”
So the puppeteer just doesn’t want me to know about that. Wonderful. “Suppose I find this brain, analyze it for the Dethroning source, and find a way to reverse it. Any technology powerful enough to kill almost everyone can probably revive almost everyone.”
“I am on pins and needles. Uriah, I was not planning for this meeting to take so long. Either prove your case, or accept Neurehab so that the rest of us can rebuild our society.”
He looked away, thinking. “Give me twenty-four hours. One day to look into this. If I succeed, I’ll not only be able to keep Jane from blowing up in all our faces, I can also bring Livingston back – and everyone else – and we can pretend this never happened.” Except Sabrina will never be the same.
“I can also give you an hour to find the fountain of youth if you want it.”
“Cut the crap, Governess.” As if his voice at that moment had some compelling power, Zolnerowich looked up from the inspection to which she had just returned. “These are unusual circumstances, so I think I have the right to this one day. This isn’t a request, it’s a demand. You don’t have a monopoly on the Lunar government.”
Zolnerowich looked up, shrugged, and said, “Exactly twenty-four hours as of now, and you will require Good Angels.”
“Fine, but I get to ask Jane for her help.”
“She is out there. Good luck, Mr. Uriah.” As she disconnected, the security bots seized Uriah and led him outside.