Deep Black Road: The Head of the Snake

Chapter 28

This is fun! Suzanne thought as her processor churned through the mass of linked communications that she was carefully collecting. General Orkan's got me helping him search out officers in the Foredan CDA who might get in his way; then he quietly gets them reassigned someplace safe, just like the Family's been doing in politics.

And once he's ready, he's going to take over Foredan and secede from the Federation. Won't they be surprised!

He's already got most of the equipment and supplies he's going to need; and I'm making sure it stays secret. I love it!

She felt Ricky in the back of her mind, and thought, What's Ricky up to now? He's obviously back from wherever he went—General Orkan said the moon!—and now he's nearby.

Is he stalking me? Can a robotic person even want to do that? No, I'd sense it if he was.

What is he up to!? If only I could read his thoughts like I can his feelings. I'll have to flush him out and challenge him sometime.

She got an alert from her sorting program that it had found a potentially relevant item; so she reviewed it—a link from one of the officers in the southeast panhandle.

Then, instead of using her radio, she linked to General Orkan, "I've got one you're looking for, from Colonel John Evans of Fifteenth Division. He's made an unauthorized transfer of funds to his personal account."

"Thank you," came back General Orkan. "Now I've got enough on him to get him transferred. Carry on."

"Yes, sir. Oh, General?"

"Yes?"

"I think we'd better avoid using the radio for communications for a while." She realized with a jolt that General Orkan didn't know anything about her 'connection' with Ricky, so she carefully added, "What if Ricky eavesdrops on our conversations?"

"You don't trust him."

"No, sir. I think he knows too much."

"You're worrying unnecessarily. He can only speculate about what we're doing here; so I really doubt he's a meaningful threat to our activities. Why do you ask?"

"Um, oh, uh, I don't know. Maybe when he gets back from the moon, he'll check up on us."

"I don't believe he's that kind of person. If he did come looking for us, my guess is he'd simply want to be close to his kind."

"His 'kind'? Oh, you mean us?"

"Yes. Don't you sometimes find yourself missing the closeness we used to have as humans? I know I do now and then; and we, as robots, have nothing to replace it with. Ricky's already let slip to me that he's tried a relationship, which obviously failed. Between that and him becoming one of the Followers of the Anointed One, he's clearly showing the strain of having been robotized."

"You think?"

"Also, I have my reasons for us using the radio, so please don't use the link again unless absolutely necessary."

"Yes, sir. Sorry." She disconnected.

Ricky's had a relationship, she thought, and they've broken up. The moron! He must have been pretty desperate. And does that have anything to do with him becoming a Follower—trying to get over the heartache by religion? It makes sense; and it'd explain some of the weird vibes I've been getting from him lately.

Me? I don't miss being close to somebody. I've never been close enough to anyone to miss them.

Her program flagged another message; and she returned her attention to the job at hand.