He heard a tiny, intermittent whir. Looking up, trying to track the sound, he spotted a pair of slim, flat cases with glassy eyes mounted high up near the ceiling at the front of the room, like surveillance cameras. Both were tracking back and forth, trying to follow all three humans in the room at once.
"Alita," Jaime said. "Are those things what I think they are?"
"Security lasers," she said, confirming his fear. "I don't know why they aren't firing, though. There should be plenty of power."
If there was power enough for the AP railgun mags outside, there was power enough to fry any unauthorized intruder. "Alita? Do you think those are what lolled Fowler?"
"I doubt it, Major. Those things can punch a hole through you, but they wouldn't do ... that" She nodded at the fragments on the deck. Shari, standing nearby, gave a stifled sob, and sank into one of the observer chairs.
Jaime moved to the console and began studying the array of switches and manual overrides there. Forcing himself to ignore the year-old brown stains on the synthleather seat, he sat down and fingered a touch pad. In seconds, the room grew cooler, and the smell, already less noticeable now after they'd endured it for several moments, began to fade.
"Hector!" he called out. "Open File Rising!"
"File Rising is open," a voice replied from somewhere overhead. Unfiltered by the machine's external speakers, it was male and precisely inflected, a pleasing baritone, the voice, perhaps, of a holovid newscaster. "Hello, Major Graham."
"Hector, disable the security lasers in the Battle Center, please."
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William H. Keith, Jr.
"I'm sorry. Major Graham, but I can't do that."
Jaime felt a dark, scared chill at the back of his head. "Why not, Hector?"
"I am not yet in complete control of all systems operations," the Bolo replied in maddeningly matter-of-fact tones. "There is a part of myself that is still trying to kill you."
"What.. . r He looked again at the lasers mounted on the wall. They continued pivoting back and forth, and he could hear the tiny snap of closing relays as they triggered.
"So far, I have been able to bleed off the inductors each time they cycle to full power, but I recommend that you take physical precautions before he finds a way to get around my efforts...."
Jaime was already on his feet, grasping the power gun by its still-warm muzzle like a hammer, swinging it hard again and again until the butt plate smashed the first laser's plastic casing, and the internal circuitry spilled like tangled, black spaghetti. The second laser had pivoted to follow his movements and was aimed now directly at his head, clicking helplessly. In another few seconds, that laser too, was smashed.
"Any other little surprises we should know about?" Jaime asked the Bolo.
"Not at this time. However, my own efforts would be greatly facilitated if you could eliminate aў" The voice stopped, cut off in midsentence.
"Hector? What's wrong?"
"I ... am . . . having . . . difficulty . . . culty . . . culty..."
Which might mean the homicidal fraction of the Bolo's mind was getting the upper hand, or simply that it was keeping Hector from saying what he was trying to say. The Battle Center, for the moment, was tomb-silent, but Jaime could sense a titanic struggle
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taking place all around him, a battle, in fact, for control of the Bolo's AI.
