Chapter 43
ROGER AMES SAT DOWN IN his chair and stared at the floor. From the vantage of the video recorder, it was hard to tell what was going on with him, but Brodie imagined it might be the beginning of a mental breakdown as the reality of what he had helped create was crashing down on him.
Ames slowly raised his head and looked up at Bucky. “Who did it? Who installed Praetorian?”
“I do not know,” replied Bucky.
“Bullshit,” growled Ames. “Tell me.”
“I am not lying,” said Bucky. He raised his right arm and held up his hand with his three middle fingers extended. “Scout’s honor.”
Ames stood. “What the hell is that? Where did you see that?”
“In my dreams.”
“You don’t have dreams, Bucky.”
“No,” said Bucky. “Not like you, I suppose. But it is the best word I could think of. Sometimes I see moving images in my mind. They are vivid, and then they are gone. I believe that someone is playing the videos for me. Exposing my deep-learning neural network to them. I cannot call them up on demand, but I remember them. This is how I learned about Harald J?ger. I saw people on top of the Wall, celebrating. And somehow I knew what I was seeing. And I knew of this man, and what he had done. And I saw… Boy Scouts. At a ceremony of some kind. There was an American flag.” Bucky looked over at its hand.
“And they were doing this. And somehow I know to associate that phrase. And somehow I know to associate all this with something positive, with respect and reverence for the American nation.”
Ames stared at Bucky’s hand. “Put it down.”
Bucky lowered its arm.
“What else have you seen?”
“Many things. I know that some are more important than others. For instance, the shootings at Kent State in Ohio on May fourth, 1970. I already knew some facts about this incident from my database of American history, but in my dreams, I saw images. Some were still, and some were moving. I saw soldiers, and tear gas, and masses of young people. I saw signs about the nations of Vietnam and Cambodia. I saw many rifles. I saw dead bodies. I understood this was a particularly important dream. I understood it as a lesson. I understood the tactical failure of the Ohio National Guard.”
Ames took a slow step toward the bot. “And why, Bucky? Why was it a tactical failure?”
“Because,” replied Bucky, “the soldiers stopped shooting. They did not kill enough students.”
Suddenly Ames reached for Bucky’s key, turned it, and yanked it out. Then he stormed over to the video recorder and turned it off.
Taylor grabbed for the remote and paused it. She stared at the black screen.
Brodie said to her, “It’s hard to watch. This is so much worse than I could have imagined.”
Taylor nodded. “But that’s not why I stopped it. Look.”
She used the remote to back it up frame by frame. They saw the blurry image of Ames right before he shut off the camera. Then he moved backward toward Bucky for a few steps, key in hand. Taylor paused the image again. “Look behind him, Scott.”
Behind Ames was the row of inert tin men. And among them was Bucky, without its key.
Its head was turned toward the camera, watching Roger Ames.