Chapter 28
KLASKY, brODIE, AND TAYLOR ARRIVED at the administrative building, where a young male MP corporal named Hicks was at the guard station. The corporal saluted the three officers.
They entered the building and walked into Colonel Howe’s office, which was, as expected, tidy and spartan. The colonel sat behind an uncluttered wooden desk. Behind her were some framed military photos, commendations, and several detailed maps of Camp Hayden and the surrounding federal lands.
Howe gestured to a couple of seats across the desk. “Please sit.”
The two agents sat. The colonel said to Klasky, “Thank you, Major. You’re dismissed.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He said to Brodie and Taylor, “I will be in the after-action review room once you’re done here.” He left and shut the door.
Howe cleared her throat and got down to business.
“I spoke with Major General Ramsay about the status of our operations at Camp Hayden, your investigation, and the tragic incident this morning with Specialist Kemp. The major general was, as you can imagine, highly concerned, and saddened by the loss of life. He is heavily invested in the work we are doing here, and it is his position that the training and testing we are conducting is, without question, the most important experimental research and training project in the entire U.S. military. I share his view. The field of autonomous robotics and artificial intelligence is the new Space Race, and we cannot lose.”
Brodie had the feeling that this preamble was leading to something they didn’t want to hear.
Howe continued, “I cannot, and I will not, allow this entire operation to be delayed or aborted because of the paranoid fantasies and arrogant whims of one man, even if that man is a brigadier general.”
Taylor said, “We understand your position on General Morgan. Did General Ramsay authorize your taking of command?”
Howe replied, “He did.”
She let that hang in the air a moment, then continued, “General Ramsay agrees that what Morgan did was extremely reckless, and potentially harmful to CID’s investigation.
But he also acknowledges the great stresses and hardships we are all operating under and what he believes to be General Morgan’s unwavering commitment to the larger goals of Army Futures Command.
Therefore, Morgan will be subject to an internal review upon the completion of your investigation.
” She added, “That is, of course, unless your final report alleges criminal activity that leads to charges against General Morgan. The major general respectfully requests that Morgan’s discipline be handled from within the command, given the highly classified nature of the work we are doing here. ”
Brodie said, “The major general should stick to his job.”
Howe pursed her lips. “It was a request from a two-star general, Mr. Brodie. Certainly not an order. Do with it what you will.”
Taylor said, “CID does not take rank or special requests into consideration when reporting its findings.”
Howe looked at her. “I’m sure you don’t, Ms. Taylor. But there is a club that you and I will never be in, whose founding charter includes an unwritten and unspoken list of privileges.” She smiled, which was a first, and said, “The boys’ club.”
Taylor had no response to that.
Brodie, for his part, couldn’t care less about the internal power struggles of Camp Hayden’s officer corps and its implications for gender equality, so long as he could get the killer robots out of this nuthouse.
“We can revisit this later. Is Major General Ramsay fielding our request to transfer custody of the D-17s?”
“No.”
“No?”
“Your CO, Brigadier General Dombroski, relayed your request to the Provost Marshal General, who then got in touch with Ramsay. No one at the highest echelons was enthusiastic about coordinating a relocation of this top-secret equipment. General Ramsay told me that if it could be done at all, it could not be done quickly.”
Brodie said, “And then you, of course, emphasized the urgency of this.”
Howe looked him in the eyes. “They are staying here. That was my recommendation, and the major general was relieved to hear it. I took command to restore order. And I have.”
“Time will tell, Colonel. But the price of failure is a hell of a lot higher with those things around. And it is not appropriate for us to rely so heavily on the expertise of someone deeply embedded within Camp Hayden’s research program.”
“Ms. Dixon is a brilliant computer scientist.”
Taylor said, “She’s also one of the few people at this camp capable of writing and covertly installing a rogue piece of software.”
Howe stared at Maggie Taylor and did not reply.
Brodie leaned forward. “Colonel, someone spiked the punch. Praetorian. Whatever it is. Did it happen here? Or at Synotec? Or at DEVCOM headquarters? Or DARPA? You’ve got a faulty product with too many cooks and an almost indecipherable chain of custody.
So I don’t give a rat’s ass how brilliant Ms. Dixon is.
She might be a saboteur and therefore investigating herself.
And when that happens, the person doing the digging stalls as long as they can, and miraculously never finds the answer.
Add to the situation a very pissed-off brigadier general who might not accept the legitimacy of your command, and a Ranger platoon of speed freaks who would like nothing more than to rig the entire Vault with C4 and blow their tormentors to hell.
They’ve got plenty of reasons, all they need is the order, and I doubt they’ll care who it’s coming from, or that your seizure of command was legitimized by some two-star general they’ve never seen or met a thousand miles away in Austin. ”
Howe did not respond. She rapped her fingers on her polished wooden desk as she considered his words—or the best way to tell him to screw off. Then she said, “This is my call, and my judgment. Dixon is trustworthy.”
Having sex with a person can give you the false impression that you know them better than you do. Scott Brodie had been burned by that phenomenon once or twice. Maybe three times.
Taylor took the risk and said, “We would hate to think you are conferring special favor on anyone at this facility.”
Howe shot her a look, and in that look was a question: Do they know? She said, “That is not my practice, and it never has been. I assure you, Ms. Taylor, that I take my job as seriously as you do yours.”
“Of course, ma’am.”
Howe kept her eyes on Taylor a moment, then cleared her throat and looked back at Brodie.
“You are right about the general, and the Rangers. They resent Morgan on one level, but they are also loyal to their senior commanding officer, and I fear what they might do on his behalf. So, per my orders, all Rangers have been confined to barracks, and to their individual rooms. I also had the phone lines disconnected at all residences. Barracks and houses. Sergeant Mendez has taken charge of the camp’s armory and all other guard duties. ”
“How many MPs are on base?” asked Taylor.
“Eight,” replied Howe. Then she must have remembered the late Specialist Kemp and said, “Seven, actually.”
“There are sixty-two Rangers,” said Brodie. “Not good odds, Colonel, and not a fair position to put the MPs in.”
“They can handle it.” She retrieved two black walkies from her desk and slid them to the agents.
“New comms protocol. Klasky, Pickman, and I are Channel One. Sergeant Mendez and his MPs are Two, you’re Three, and the science team is Four.
Stay on Three and only switch if you need to initiate a communication. ”
The agents each took a walkie and Brodie said, “Ma’am, this is giving the impression of a mutiny. That’s what the soldiers will think.”
“I don’t give a damn what they think. So long as they don’t have their guns, or the ability to fraternize, or a way to contact anyone on or off base.”
“You’re overplaying your hand.”
“It’s the hand I was dealt. Leave the management of Camp Hayden to me, and I will leave the investigation to you. Stay on your walkies.” She stood, and the two agents followed suit. “We need a tight ship now. And if there’s a rat on board, find it.”