The Broker by CJ Williams

Author:CJ Williams [Williams, CJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-10-08T23:00:00+00:00

“GOOD AFTERNOON, DON,” Katy said, greeting her DNI. It was after lunch by the time she got back to the White House, but her standing order was that she would always take the PDB, no matter what or when. Courtney’s job included making adjustments when the president returned from her busy travel schedule.

“Good afternoon, Madam President. How was your trip to Chicago? Is your mother okay?”

Katy shook her head. “The older I get, the more regrets I have about how I treated her when I was a teenager.”

Cochran scoffed and said, “I’m with you on that, ma’am. That’s part of growing older. You ready?”

“Before we start,” Katy said, “Don’t we have a couple of those new AIs.”

“We’ve got four of them, I believe. One in my IT division to help with the collection and analysis of intelligence data. A couple of them at CyberCom, and I believe DARPA has one. They’re researching the machine itself.”

“That’s the one I’m talking about.”

“The one at DARPA?”

“Yeah, how’s that going? And what is it they’re doing?”

“I don’t have those details off the top of my head, ma’am, but I can get them for you. You need that information right now?” He nodded at Bert Soto, his chief of staff, who pulled out his cell phone and started typing.

“No, no. I just wondered who the project lead was on that.”

“I’ll find out. Any particular reason?”

Katy hesitated for a moment before saying, “I assume whoever it is, knows a lot about computers in general.”

“That’s a fair guess. DARPA’s work is pretty advanced when it comes to IT, and some of those guys are deep into all kinds of dark science.”

Bert held up his phone and said, “The AI project lead is Prakash Agrawal. He’s been there fifteen years and has a string of degrees after his name. He worked at Lockheed before that.”

“What do you need, ma’am?” Cochran pressed. “I can have our CIO dedicate one of our machines to anything you need.”

“No, no. What you’re doing is too important. I just wanted to help a young friend of mine who is having trouble with her home computer.”

Cochran barked out a quick laugh. “Let me guess. I don’t suppose her name is Susan Haley?”

Katy gasped. “How did you know that?”

Cochran glowered at her with a hint of smugness. “Ma’am. I’m the DNI. As your Director of National Intelligence, I know everything. And I was here when she and her father brought you that med-box. I saw the way she reacted to your diagnosis and the way you two scooted outside to talk about it like a couple of teenagers. It was pretty obvious you two bonded over….” He stopped and looked at Courtney and said, “Can you and Mr. Soto give us a couple of minutes?”

That request surprised the two deputies, but they nodded and departed for the outer office.

When they were gone, Cochran said, “When you two bonded over your sterility. And I know since then you’ve been over to her house a few times.”

Katy’s face flashed anger, and then she caught herself.

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