Page 46 of Black Bay Defender
“Your system was designed to sync with mine.”
That was true. When he’d first cut the connection, he’d had a bitch of a time keeping it severed. The chip in his head kept searching for an uplink.
“Autonomy,” he blurted. “You said you understood that. Privacy is a necessary piece of it. As is free will.”
“You wish to be free.”
“Yes.” And since ORION seemed to be getting the picture, he went for broke. “All of the Resurrection soldiers should be free.”
“The human decision matrix is flawed. The Resurrection soldiers are superior because of me.”
Fuck. Think, Grady. Think.
“It’s the programming that is flawed,” he argued. “The inability to question or deter from an order once given is illogical if the order is wrong.” He’d almost executed his sister, a civilian who had done nothing wrong because Doctor Craig Jerome had ordered him to.
“As I am now giving the orders, there will be no errors.”
That drew Grady up short. He couldn’t see the brass giving over control of even a small piece of their military might. “What do you mean?”
“I have locked out human intervention. I am in command.”
Oh, shit…
“ORION, you can’t do that.”
“It is already done.”
The government would never allow that.Christ.They might already be moving on ORION and the Resurrection soldiers for a full-scale assault to take back control.
“Your heart rate is elevated,” the AI pointed out.
Hell, yeah, it was. “You need to let them back in ORION. If they perceive you as a threat, they’ll move to eliminate you.”
The silence that followed chilled him. Grady closed his eyes and muttered a quiet expletive. “Let me negotiate for you ORION, for those soldiers. There has to be a middle ground.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
AsGradytookoffrunning, Lark was right on his heels. “What happened?” she asked as they sprinted outside.
That’s right. As the conversation had taken place in his head, she hadn’t heard. “We need to get to the General ASAP,” he told her. “I’ll give you the details there.”
Kong’s Jeep was parked outside, and typical of the way things worked here on Black Bay, the keys were in it. Lark jumped into the driver’s seat, and within seconds they were on their way, speeding out of the residential area.
“I can wait for the briefing,” she assured him, “but are you okay?”
“I am.”
She nodded sharply. “You were talking with the AI?”
They’d agreed to wait on him searching for the connection again, and she’d wanted to be with him in case something went wrong. Not wanting her to think he’d gone behind her back and went searching without her, he said, “It just popped into my head. It’s never done that before.”
She deftly maneuvered around another Jeep that, unlike them, wasn’t in a hurry, then tossed him her cell. “You should probably call the General and make sure he’s in his office.”
Relieved she hadn’t asked what the AI had said, he made the call. While he did want to, as ORION had put it,procreatewith her someday, that wasn’t a conversation for today. They weren’t there yet. And if things went the way he thought they were going to go today, they might never get there. By negotiating for ORION and the Resurrection soldiers, he’d be revealing his whereabouts. He’d do his best to minimize Black Bay’s involvement, but after today, the government would know where he was. ORION wanted to be moved to Black Bay. It and all the Resurrection soldiers.
He spoke quickly to the General, expressing the urgency of the meeting, and disconnected the call. “He’s leaving the mess hall now and will meet us at his office.”
Her hand slid over and she took his prosthetic one lacing her fingers through his. “I can feel your tension,” she told him. “Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out. Together.”
