Shelter (71 page)

    "It's Saturday," Roberta said. "KinderkAIr's closed. What are you talking about?"

    Holly had taken Roberta's elbow and was steering her firmly toward the door. ''I'll brief you in the car. I really wish you weren't drunk. It's not going to look good."

    * * *

    "Nicholas is inside KinderkAIr," Holly said crisply. "He's been there for the past two hours. Fred won't let anyone in, and he won't talk to anybody or transmit any images. Nobody knows what's happening inside the building. When anyone calls, including Preston, Fred hangs up. Preston thinks Fred might talk to you. So does Meredith, although I don't believe she and her father consulted on the issue."

    Roberta's head swam. Preston and Meredith didn't consult on anything. That was why she'd gotten dragged into the entire mess. Focus, Roberta. That's not important now. Nicholas is important. "I don't—this doesn't make sense. What's Nicholas doing at school on a Saturday?"

    "Meredith says that she and Nicholas were playing on Levi Plaza and she turned around and he wasn't there anymore because he'd gone inside the building. She thinks Fred lured him inside somehow. She hasn't used the word kidnapping, but other people have."

    Uh-uh. Nope. Roberta started to shake her head, and stopped when the car reeled. "That doesn't fit. She never takes her eyes off him. And if he just disappeared and she didn't see it, how does she know he's there? I think she must have seen him go inside. Fred must have let Nicholas in but not Meredith."

    "That's what Preston thinks too. Do you know why that might have happened?"

    Roberta hesitated. How safely could she speak? Better not to say anything until she knew for sure what was going on. "I don't know anything. And I'd rather not guess without more information."

    "All right." Holly, unexpectedly, grinned. "That's wise of you."

    "Is Preston paying you?"

    "Don't worry about my fees, Roberta." Which meant yes. I will protect you, he'd said. "Do you have any idea why Meredith would deny seeing Nicholas go inside the building if she saw it happen?"

    That one was easy. "She wouldn't want to admit that Nicholas was running away from her. If Nicholas went inside willingly, she can't claim kidnapping. She can't blame the AI."

    "Ah. Do you know why Nicholas would run away from her?"

    "I—" Oh, shit. "Holly, this is where I don't want to say too much. But I don't think she's abusing him or anything." Or is she? Would the law consider Meredith an abuser because she refused to seek medical treatment for a seriously disturbed child? Even if the treatment was brainwiping? She couldn't ask; better to change the subject. "Does it have to be somebody's fault—Meredith's or Fred's? Why does there have to be a villain?"

    Holly glanced over from the driver's seat, her face somber. "It's all extremely odd. People need explanations when something like this happens, and the evil mother or the evil AI are the ones that come most readily to hand. And, Roberta, you're implicated in this too. You have to understand that. "

    "I am? I had nothing to do with it! I was at Mitzi's memorial service!"

    She remembered Charles, the dreadful third cousin: he was rigged. There was a record of their conversation, a record that she'd been there. She could have Holly subpoena his memories if anyone needed proof "You know I was at the memorial service; you went there to get me! Why am I implicated?"

    "Because you're the only person everyone thinks may have a shot at getting Fred to open up."

    "Guilty by association? If he won't talk to me, either, am I cleared?" Holly sighed. "Look, it's all damned bizarre, and I don't know what's going to happen if Nicholas isn't all right. So we have to hope he's all right. If he's all right, Fred gets wiped and everybody else is cleared, Roberta, okay? The first order of business is to get inside the building. The cops want to blast it open, and they'll probably have to if you can't get Fred to open the doors."

    "Blast? How can they blast if Nicholas—"

    "They'd use bullhorns, tell him to keep back from the door and hope he heard and followed directions. No one's claiming it's an ideal solution. Everyone's hoping Fred will talk to you." Something buzzed by the window, and Holly said, "Newsbot. Here we go. The place is crawling with cameras. From now on, say as little as possible."

    "Okay," Roberta said numbly. She looked out the window: they were a few blocks from Levi Plaza. She saw lights and heard noise—too much noise—and realized that Holly's car had become surrounded by vehicles: police cars, news vans. Holly pulled over: another bot darted at her windshield, followed by a second, and then a third. In a matter of seconds, they'd surrounded the car so completely that the two women couldn't have gotten out even if they'd wanted to. Their speakers blared at her, broadcasting the voices of reporters parked safely in their armored vans. "Holly O'Riley, is that you?" Roberta cowered in the driver's seat, shielding her eyes from the lights. "We have license plate confirmation. This is ScoopNet, reporting that Holly O'Riley has just arrived on the scene of the AI hostage crisis. There is a second woman with her who appears to be Roberta Danton."

    AI hostage crisis. Yes, of course. ScoopNet would put the worst possible face on the situation.

    "Roberta Danton, do you have a statement about-"

    "Roberta Danton, did the AI call you here? Why did you bring legal counsel?"

    "Do you know why the AI is holding Nicholas? Roberta Danton, what do you know?"

    This was insane. Roberta shut her eyes to try to close out the lights.

    "Roberta Danton, how long have you been the AI's accomplice?"

    "Do you know what the AI's demands are?"

    "Okay, let us through, let us through!" That wasn't the loudspeakers. Roberta heard a crashing, crunching noise; she opened her eyes to see the largest helibot, shedding sparks, slowly sinking to the ground. One of its lenses had been broken, and there was a large dent in its side. "Let us through! Call off your cameras!"

    From far away, now, someone was calling through another loudspeaker:

    "This is the police. News crews, call off your cameras. That's an order. Get your cameras away from O'Riley's car!"

    The helibots went away. In their place stood police, helmeted, holding stun batons and wearing grim expressions. "Ms. Danton," one of them said, in a normal voice, "can you hear me?"

    Roberta looked at Holly. "Answer them," Holly said. "Yes, I can hear you."

    "Okay. Ms. Danton, you have to get out of the car now, please."

    She sat there, shaking. They were treating her as if they'd already decided she was guilty. They were treating her like a criminal. Holly put a hand on her arm. "Roberta—"

    "Ms. Danton, I'm afraid that's an order. If you don't open your car door I'll have to open it for you, and I'll have to arrest you for failure to comply with police orders, ma'am."

    "Open the door," Holly said gently.

    She opened the door and got out, her legs threatening to buckle. Holly got out too and stood behind her, one hand on Roberta's shoulder. Roberta leaned against the car, keeping one hand on the roof for balance. She could have leaned on Holly, but didn't think that knocking her lawyer over would be a good move. "Ms. Danton, ma'am," one of the cops said, "did you come here because you heard about it on the news, or did the AI call you?"

    Roberta looked at Holly. How was she supposed to answer that? Holly's face was impassive. Roberta swallowed, sweated. "I—"

    "Let me talk to her," Roberta heard, and turned to find Meredith, pale, her eyes grim. Never had Roberta been so glad for an interruption. "Roberta, you have to help me. The cops want to blast the door open. I'm afraid Nicholas will get hurt if they do that. Kevin designed this place to be safe; he says they'd have to use explosives, Roberta, you have to make the AI open the doors. Please. They're afraid the AI is hurting Nicholas. We don't know what's happening inside."

    Roberta shook her head. "Fred couldn't hurt Nicholas even if he wanted to. He doesn't have anything to hurt him with. I mean, there aren't any—"

    "Bots," Meredith said, her face tight. "I know." The long, level look she gave Roberta was clearly a warning, but Roberta didn't know what she was supposed to say, or avoid saying. "Please. Make it open the doors. Make it let Nicholas go."

    Holly's hand tightened on Roberta's shoulder. Think, Roberta told herself. You have to think. Nicholas ran away from his mother and came here. Which meant he came here to feel safe. Fred must be trying to protect him, somehow. She rubbed her aching temples with her free hand and said, "Look, I can try talking to the AI, but not out here with everybody listening, okay? Do you have a phone I can use?"

    A cop walked up. "Ms. Walford-Lindgren, ma'am—"

    He pulled her away, into a conversation too quiet for Roberta to hear. A moment later Meredith came back, looking even grimmer. "The police have been talking to the MacroCorp people, the AI team. They've never heard of an AI responding this way."

    "Unless it believes that someone's in danger," the cop behind her said. Holly frowned, and Roberta thought furiously, Why the hell did you say that within earshot of Scoop Net, you idiot? Whose payroll are you on?

    Try to put a good face on it. "Maybe Fred thinks Nicholas is in danger because of all these people," Roberta said. "If you make the news crews go away—"

    The cop laughed, a short bark. "We're doing the best we can, believe me. Until we get more definite information, it's all we can do to get them to back up ten or twenty feet."

    "The MacroCorp AI team," Meredith said tonelessly, "have ways to override the AI, but believe it's best not to do that until everything else has been tried. That kind of override might damage its memory, they said." Again she gave Roberta one of those long looks, but this time Roberta thought she knew how to interpret it. Meredith wanted Fred's memory damaged. Meredith didn't want Fred to be able to furnish any information that might hurt Nicholas. Meredith heard Holly make a soft, nearly inaudible grunt.

    One of the cops handed Roberta a phone. "Here, Ms. Danton. Would you call the AI, please?"

    She dialed, numbly. The phone rang, and then the ringing stopped, replaced by silence. "Fred?" she said. "Fred, is that you? It's me, Roberta." More silence—but at least he hadn't hung up on her. "Fred, everybody out here is really worried about Nicholas. So am I. Fred, what's going on?"

    "I can't tell you that unless you come inside, Roberta. Nicholas says so."

    His voice sounded so normal. She squeezed her eyes shut and said, "you'll let me come inside, then?"

    Murmurs around her: the others were reacting. She heard Meredith say, "Thank Goddess," in tones of infinite relief

    "Just you," Fred said.

    "The people out here won't like that, Fred." She wished the conversation were more private.

    "I know, Roberta. But Nicholas doesn't want to go outside, and he doesn't want anyone to come in, except you."

    "Does he know his mother's here?"

    "Yes, he knows that. He says I can let you in, but nobody else." Green-growing Gaia. "Fred, you have to tell Nicholas this isn't a game."

    "I've told him that," Fred said. "Roberta, you can give him hugs; you can comfort him in ways I can't. Please come inside. I want you to. Nicholas wants you to. But nobody else, not yet."

    "I can't promise that no one else will try to come in with me," Roberta said. And she couldn't promise that even if she got to go inside by herself, one of the twenty cops surrounding her wouldn't have somehow planted a bug on her. She was afraid to say that, on the impossible chance that they hadn't thought of it yet, but she knew Fred had to be thinking the same thing.

    "Please ask them," Fred said, "to let you in, just for half an hour. In half an hour, I think you can talk Nicholas into coming out on his own."

    Roberta looked at Meredith's terrified face. "Is he all right? Should I bring anything in with me?"

    "He's not injured," Fred said. "He's just scared. Please ask them for thirty minutes, Roberta. After that, anyone can come in. All right?"

    "All right," she said.

    * * *

    Meredith agreed immediately. "Here," she said, and handed Roberta a small packet of powder. "It's an herbal sleeping aid; if he won't come out on his own, give him half of this in warm milk."

    "All right," Roberta said. The cops were tucking various tiny gadgets into her hair and pockets; to her amazement, they explained to her what they were doing while they were doing it.

    "Wiring you for sound and image, Ms. Danton. So we'll have a record of what happens inside. This is for your protection too, you understand. This way no one will be able to accuse you of wrongdoing."

    Roberta, heartsick, remembered ScoopNet's questions. Somebody had her pegged as "the AI's accomplice," and the police wanted to see if it was true or not. If she protested now, they'd only have more reason to suspect her. "Look, I'm sorry, but I really don't think that's a good idea."

    Holly cleared her throat. "Roberta, they have a good point. About your own protection."

    "I know," Roberta said. "I do know that. Look, I have no idea what's going on in there. You have to believe me. But I do know that Nicholas and Fr—and the AI trust me. That's why they're letting me go in. If you send me in there to spy on them, I'm betraying them. And even if they don't know that, I will, and it's bound to affect how I interact with them. Please. It's only thirty minutes. After that you can send in as many goddamn cameras as you want."

    The cops were frowning. Roberta looked at Meredith. "Please. Tell them not to wire me." Meredith understood, had to understand. She'd spent most of her life evading cameras. "He's going to be all over the Net the minute he comes out of there. Let me give him another half an hour."

    Meredith's face froze for a moment, and then she grimaced and said hoarsely, "All right."