The Path by Peter Riva

Author:Peter Riva
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yucca Publishing
Published: 2013-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

MY FAULT BECOMES HIS FAULT

There is no way to express my pleasure, sitting there on my rear. Cramer’s ass was in a sling, his sleeve recorder working normally, no doubt, Mary’s desk report circulating around Control. Me? I was finally in the clear. The creature was dead, everyone would accept that, but this little tiny doomsday device had been left as a tombstone, all to protect little Makerman who was, now I am sure, being carefully taken care of, regardless of what Control would like to do with him.

They couldn’t help it. If he wanted a rabbit to make him happy and they refused, a million of the little buggers would be cultured and delivered before they could say Harry Potter, or whoever was the owner of all those owls in a classic movie my kid had loved. Whatever, I was sure Makerman was actually being protected by Control, thinking it was doing so to protect the System and America from the wrath of the System.

As long as Fred and Cramer didn’t do anything stupid, their protection would seem an accident, like the skycrane suddenly swerving away from Makerman and only killing the driver. Who would have known the truth? It was simple, as long as Cramer didn’t get in too much trouble for the FAT screw-up. If Control tried to sanction him, any orders at Control would be thwarted, I was sure of that.

So I needed to put him out of his misery, a little. “Cramer, how unlike you to lose your temper . . . okay, calm down, I understand. I don’t actually think you touched the FAT. I think the System heard us counting, you were the one counting to me, remember, the System heard your voice only, anticipated what you were about to do and, without killing you I may add, followed the Asimov Commands and simply, merely, gently, removed you from the area of possible interaction it was now programmed to avoid. Me? I was the one who got the jolt, thank you very much. When I came to I just gave the command to exit and soon found myself smacked about by you. Fine thanks I get.” I had sneaked in the reason for any delay with that jolt stuff. I knew and was expecting it, so it hadn’t jolted me too hard—but they didn’t know that. How could they know I had been busy in those few nanoseconds? Passed out is completely plausible, unless someone was monitoring my body functions, but the door was closed and the System and I were alone.

Cramer lifted his sleeve, read. Nodded. “You two, shut up here and now. We’re going to debriefing at Control and no question or escape this time or I’ll drop you on the spot.”

Mary was shocked “Me, what have I got to do with it?”

“You could have given the door command and cut me off.”

“No way, the recorders . . .” then she remembered that they were all smashed with a chair by Cramer hours before.

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