Programmed To Protect (The Tau Cetus Chronicles) (17 page)

Wyatt’s heart dropped to his stomach.

Carron smiled an evil, ugly smile. “Yes, that’s right, agent Wyatt. I will personally destroy Ginger with the stroke of a computer key if you don’t do exactly as we say.”

Dear God, they were threatening to destroy Ginger if he didn’t cooperate.

He could not allow that to happen.

Neither Carron nor Theus could be allowed to harm Ginger.

“You want me to arrange a demonstration of one of your robot soldiers for the High Council,” Wyatt said carefully.

“No. I want you to arrange a demonstration of
five
of my robot soldiers for the High Council.”

Wyatt sucked in a breath. Five robots. Five council members. It didn’t take much to guess Carron’s plans.

Assassination.

And wresting control of Tau Cetus for himself.

Wyatt’s personal communication device beeped three times. With a sense of dread, he unclipped it from his belt and read the screen.

“Theus wants me to report to the Council headquarters.”

“Excellent. And when you see him, you’ll arrange for that demo.”

Chapter Ten

Wyatt had a hard time concentrating during the drive to the High Council headquarters. What the hell was he going to do?

Should he confess everything to Theus, and watch as the premier systematically destroyed all of Carron’s robot soldiers, including Ginger – whom Theus would undoubtedly see as the embodiment of the threat robots could become?

There were two things arguing against why he shouldn’t choose that option. One, Wyatt was determined not to let Theus harm Ginger, and two, if Theus made a move to eliminate Carron’s robots, Carron could fight back and unleash hell on earth. Carron’s soldiers were already more powerful than any army the High Council could put together.

Result: Carron wins. Tau Cetus falls under the control of a megalomaniac.

So. Overt action was not the way to approach this crisis. But
in
action just might be.

What might work was pretend compliance to Carron’s demands. A feigned interest by Theus for a demonstration of Carron’s robots’ abilities.

Strategically, it was better to string Carron along while the Council planned its move.

And ironically, the knowledge that Carron had the technology to destroy Ginger with one stroke of a keyboard could prove invaluable to the Council’s defense.

Wyatt’s hand tightened around his drive stick.

“Titus Veraine is the key.” Wyatt could hopefully use Veraine’s ambition to usurp Carron, and avert this whole crisis. “I just need to get him alone. Speak with him.”

Yes. If Carron could be led into the attempt to assassinate the High Council – only to be foiled at the last moment by Veraine destroying the robots inside the council chambers before they could do any harm – Theus would undoubtedly promote Veraine to replace Carron as the Council’s right hand.

It’s what Veraine wanted.

“But can I trust him to do it?”

And if there was any doubt of that trust, was it smart to tip off Veraine that Wyatt was not about to cooperate with Anson Carron’s insane plan? If Veraine should turn around and tell his boss, Carron might call out his robot army just the same.

Result: Carron wins.

“Two scenarios, and Carron wins both. Not good odds for Tau Cetus.”

Maybe Wyatt should exaggerate his addiction to Ginger, pledge his allegiance to Carron, and hope he could discover the way to destroy the robots while snooping in Veraine’s programming lab.

It was an option, but not exactly a fail-proof plan. Not good odds when control of the whole planet hung in the balance.

“Damn it!”

With one hand still on his drive stick, Wyatt reached for his personal communication device with the other. He punched a button and the connection was made almost immediately.

“Zan Talesin.”

“Zan? It’s Leith Wyatt.”

“Wyattt! It’s a great day here in Terra Acer.”

The tight knot in Wyatt’s stomach argued against that statement. “Not so great. We have a big problem here.”

“What do you mean? Regulator Egidia has surrendered.”

“Are you on a secure line? In a place we can talk?”

“Hold on.”

Wyatt listened to the jubilant background noises fade as Zan moved to a quieter spot.

“Okay. What’s up?”

Wyatt noted that all the previous elation had gone out of Zan’s tone.

“Listen carefully. I need you to do something important for me. Quietly and secretly find out exactly how Anson Carron can destroy individual robot soldiers using their computer interface programs.
Covertly.
I can’t stress that enough. It has to be done discretely.
No one
can realize what you’re doing. We need to know how to target an individual robot to be shut down or destroyed. See if you can wiggle the information out of that idiot Loris Rhean. Hell, flirt with him if you have to. I noticed how he looked at you yesterday during dinner in Terra Acer’s military mess hall.”

“What the…?
Flirt with him? You’re not saying—”

“I’m saying Anson Carron plans to assassinate the entire High Council using his robot soldiers. He wants control of Tau Cetus. And we have to find a way to stop him.”

There was a pause at the other end of the line while Zan digested the information. “Holy fucking shit.”

“Exactly.”

“Does Theus know?”

“Not yet. I have a feeling Anson Carron concocted his plan just this morning. Or maybe it’s always been the bastard’s plan, but he’s putting it into action now because of your success down there in Terra Acer. And, Zan…” Wyatt paused, grimacing. “He’s trying to force me to help him.”

“Force you? You’re a Tau Cetus police agent. How the hell does he think he can do that?”

“Let’s just say he’s threatening someone who means a lot to me.”

“That fucking bastard.”

“Look. I’ve got to go. I’ve been summoned to the Council headquarters, and I have to figure out exactly what I’m going to say to Theus.”

“Knowing the premier’s ruthlessness, if you tell him about Carron he’ll want to destroy the bastard immediately.”

“I wish it could be that easy. Unfortunately, it won’t be. I’ll have to convince Theus to have a little patience.”

“Good luck with that.”

“Listen, I plan to work on Carron’s programmer, Titus Veraine, to try and get information on the robots’ termination program from this end, but you press Loris Rhean. He knows the procedure. He was ready to use it if something went wrong there in Terra Acer. See what you can squeeze out of him.”

“Hell, Wyatt, if I understand correctly what you mean by
press
and
squeeze
, if I do get the information out of Rhean, you’re going to owe me big time.”

“Deal. Call me if you have news. I’ll do the same.” Wyatt disconnected the call, and threw his communication device onto the seat next to him.

Fuck. Somehow describing the crisis to Zan Talesin made the situation sound even more dire. Was there any way the High Council could survive Carron’s overthrow plans?

There must be another alternative. Something he wasn’t considering.

“Wait a minute…” Maybe the answer was sitting in his own apartment.

Ginger…

Grabbing his communication device, he sent off a quick message to Theus, then turned his transport toward home.

#

Titus Veraine stared at his boss. The full impact of what had happened here a few minutes ago was finally sinking into his sleep-deprived brain.

Anson Carron was putting into motion his plan to overthrow Tau Cetus’ High Council. The world as Veraine knew it was about to change.

He shifted on his feet. “I have to go on record as saying I think we’re moving too fast on this.”

Carron smiled confidently from behind his desk. “No, we’re not.”

“But what’s the rush? We’ve gained our first victory. Theus now knows our value. Shouldn’t we build up his confidence before making our move? Besides, what makes you so sure that agent Wyatt’s lust for Ginger will override his loyalty to Theus? Can we really trust him to help us?”

Carron spread his hands in a magnanimous gesture. “It doesn’t matter either way, Titus. We’ve already won. If it comes to outright war, no one can defeat my robot army. Of course, things would be a lot less messy if the coup took place inside the Council chambers, but, rest assured, we’ve already won.”

Veraine paused. He had to admit he liked that logic. Because no matter what happened in the next few days, Veraine was absolutely sure that
he
would win. If Carron was somehow defeated, Veraine would move up to be the right-hand of the Council, which is exactly what he wanted. Theus, after all, would need his experienced help controlling the robot soldiers for future use. On the other hand, if Carron should win, Veraine would become the second most powerful man on the planet.

A slight shiver of anticipation ran through his body. He and Carron had discussed these takeover plans since the very first Beautiful Doll sexbot had rolled off the conveyor belt years ago. Carron was a damned clever man – he’d started out benignly, lulling everyone into a false sense of comfort with the machines, using them to fulfill what he argued was simply a basic human need.

Sex.

His Beautiful Dolls had become an instant phenomenon. People were soon addicted to the sexbots. They’d made Anson Carron a very rich man.

To the average citizen, Carron was simply a brilliant businessman.

Veraine knew he was much more.

Carron had grand goals. The highest possible goals. But he’d always been too impulsive for Veraine’s liking. Hell, Carron shooting Marque Callex last year in an attempt to force Theus to replace the arms dealer with Carron and his androids had been a very risky move. One that could easily have backfired.

Luckily, Callex had been relocated, and Carron had been able to convince the premier that converting his sexbots into robot soldiers would provide the High Council with a very powerful weapon.

Still, Veraine couldn’t shake the feeling that Carron was moving too quickly with his takeover plans. And that agent Wyatt couldn’t really be counted as their ally, despite his apparent infatuation with Ginger.

“Dreaming about our victory, Titus?”

Veraine snapped out of his thoughts. “What?”

“Already envisioning yourself as my second-in-command, with all the power and riches it will bring you?”

Veraine smiled automatically. “Yes. Which means I should probably get to work on the computerized assassination program. Those robots on the factory floor will be ready in just a few hours.”

#

Theus was furious. He stared at the screen of his communication device, and reread Leith Wyatt’s message.

Unexpected crisis. Be there soonest.

Theus’ hand tightened around the wooden armrest of his desk chair, his anger turning his body nearly rigid. It wasn’t often he lost control of his temper, but this was too much. What the hell sort of personal crisis could be more important than answering the summons of the premier of the High Council of Tau Cetus?

No, furious was not even an adequate word to describe what Theus was feeling.

Tau Cetus’ police agency answered directly to him. Which meant
Leith Wyatt
answered directly to him. And for the first time since their relationship began, Theus began to question agent Wyatt’s dedication to his job.

Regulator Egidia had surrendered to Terra Acer at 0700 this morning. Theus and Wyatt had received the notice at the same time, along with Anson Carron. Elated at the news, Theus had magnanimously waited more than an hour before finally sending word to Wyatt to report to the Council chambers, when, by rights, it should have been Wyatt contacting Theus immediately after he’d heard the news. After all, Theus had put Wyatt in charge of the Terra Acer operation. The chain of command started with him.

Theus’ patience had thinned to the breaking point as the minutes had passed, until he finally couldn’t take it any longer and had texted Wyatt directly to report to the Council headquarters.

And now to be summarily brushed off like this by a mere police agent?

Be there soonest.

It was not to be tolerated.

There were military matters to take care of. Decisions to be made. Leith Wyatt was supposed to be Theus’ personal representative, the liaison between the High Council and Anson Carron. Hell, even Theus’ four colleagues on the council had already been in touch, asking about next moves.

He needed Wyatt here to strategize…
now.

What business could possibly keep Leith Wyatt away from the responsibility of ensuring Tau Cetus’ safety? Where was the man’s sense of duty?

Shit. Theus had managed to rule Tau Cetus the last decade by cold control, not by this hot rage her was feeling, but Wyatt was turning into a bitter disappointment.