'Or allegiance to a supreme dictator,' Margaret suggested.
'Can I say something?' Dorothy asked, and Gray nodded. 'It seems like the Model Eights are trying to exercise some sort of self-restraint. I mean, they rescued Laura. At least that seems to constitute responsible behavior.'
'Let's give 'em a good-citizenship award,' Hoblenz snapped, 'then I'll cut the bastards down with antitank missiles. Next time I get 'em out in the open, Mr. Gray, I'd like permission to shoot.'
'Permission denied,' Gray said.
'Sir, we got a situation on our hands — a security situation. Those big mothers are a menace, and I think we oughta take 'em out. I'd go up into their facility if you wanted, but I sure would like to do it at standoff ranges. The whole program's a bust, sir. Let me terminate it for you.'
'You can save your breath, Mr. Hoblenz,' Laura said. 'Mr. Gray isn't going to let you.' Gray looked at her but said nothing. 'He has to maintain the natural balance in the island's ecosystem, you see. He's afraid to kill off one species of robots because of the imbalance that might leave. You want a balance between predators and prey. You saw what it was like in that field out there. I ran across it in the middle of their battle, and those robots couldn't care less about me. They were too preoccupied with their own concerns.'
'So,' Hoblenz said, clearly aggravated, 'you don't want me to kill off the Model Eights 'cause once they're gone the Sixes and Sevens might turn on us.' Gray didn't respond.
'He doesn't know,' Laura supplied, and Gray again turned to her and waited. 'He doesn't know which way things are going to break. That's why he wants balance. It keeps his options open.'
'This is ridiculous,' Hoblenz said, pressing his hands down on the table. 'Those things are dangerous, sir! You cain't trust 'em.'
'How did you get through the jungle?' Gray asked Laura.
'I rode Hightop piggyback.'
'What?' Hoblenz shouted.
Dr. Griffith laughed in delight.
The telephone rang, and they all jumped. Gray reached over and punched the speakerphone. 'Hello?'
'Good evening, Mr. Gray?' a woman said in a whisper.
'Janet?' Gray leaned closer to the phone. 'You were on the list for the last flight out. Where the hell are you?'
'I'm at the house, sir,' she whispered. 'I changed my mind. It wasn't right to leave you. I'm cooking your dinner… at least I was.'
Gray was now on his feet, both hands pressed down on the table.
'Why are you whispering, Janet?'
'There's someone in your kitchen, Mr. Gray. I think it's a robot.'
42
Laura and Gray argued heatedly all the way up the computer center steps. 'Well, I'm going to walk up the mountain, then!' Laura shouted. 'Would you prefer that?'
'You're not going,' Gray said amid the soldiers manning the sandbags at the top of the stairs. All of them warily eyed the open fields and jungle walls, weapons raised.
'Mr. Hoblenz, place Dr. Aldridge under arrest.'
Laura's jaw dropped open. Hoblenz did nothing.
'Mr. Hoblenz?' Gray snapped.
'I'd feel better havin' her along, to tell you the truth, sir,' Hoblenz said. 'If… if she wants to come, that is.'
Gray ground his teeth, trying but failing to stare the man down. 'Get her a weapon!' he snapped angrily, pulling the bolt back on a machine pistol he'd been handed, to chamber a round.
Hoblenz handed Laura an identical weapon. 'I don't want this,' Laura said.
'If you're going with us,' Gray said sternly, 'you're taking a weapon!'
'I mean I want a bigger one. One of those rifles,' she said, pointing at the long black weapons held by the soldiers at the walls. 'The computer said that the big guns were the only ones that could get through the Model Eights' skin,' she explained.
Hoblenz hesitated, then went and got two rifles from a box — one for Laura and one for himself. Crates full of equipment lay everywhere, their lids on the ground beside them. Soldiers continued to fill sandbags for the walls, which were growing to respectable heights around the entrance.
'Get one for me, too,' Gray said, handing Hoblenz the puny machine pistol in exchange.
The long weapon was heavy, but Laura held it at the ready like the rest of the black-clad soldiers — one hand on the pistol grip, the other on the plastic guard around the barrel.
Hoblenz pried a heavy black belt lined with thick pouches over her shoulder. She sagged under its surprising weight. He opened one of the pockets. 'You'll be needin' this, Rambo,' Hoblenz said.
He slapped a magazine into the rifle, adding to its weight. He pulled the belt back and flicked the safety on, showing her how to switch the selector to Auto for continuous fire or Semi for single shots.
'Semi-auto only, if you don't mind. I've got a wife and kids.'
He kept his eye on the road, waiting for their ride to arrive.
'You have a family?' Laura asked, and was instantly sorry for the tone.
Hoblenz laughed. 'Yeah, can ya believe it? The kids are off at college, and I almost had to break my wife's kneecaps so my guys could rustle the ole gal on that last plane.'
'You have children in college?' Laura asked. He looked too young to have grown kids, but it was hard to tell with outdoorsmen types.
'One of 'em took your class last year, as a matter of fact.'
'They're at Harvard?' she asked, this time making sure the surprise didn't show.
'My youngest is. Followin' in his old man's footsteps. Plays nose tackle.'
'At Harvard?'
'We do have a football team, ya know.'
Gray arrived with all his gear now in place. 'Hoblenz was all-Ivy League,' he said with a smile.
Hoblenz tugged at the straps of Laura's ammo belt and stood back to admire his new soldier. 'Anyway, Billy said you're a helluva teacher. Best he's ever had.'
'Billy H. Billy Hoblenz!' Laura said. 'Big guy? Red hair?'
Jeeps raced down the road from the Village.
'That's my boy!' Hoblenz replied with a grin. The vehicles screeched to a stop in front of the computer center, and a team of soldiers headed to the road to climb aboard.
Laura followed. They had to wait as Hoblenz's men mounted a heavy gun to a post rising from the back of their jeep. The thing looked like a machine gun, but its barrel was thick and stubby.
'When you did the security check on me,' Laura asked, 'did you talk to your son?'
Hoblenz chuckled. 'Of course.'
'What did he say?'
'Well,' Hoblenz looked away, 'like I said, he tol' me you were a damn good teacher.'
'Anything else?' she asked.
Hoblenz shrugged, appearing to hesitate before looking Laura in the eye. 'He said you were a piece, I believe was the word he used.'
'Does the computer know he said that about me?'
'No! 'Course not.'
'How did you talk to your son? Was it on the phone?'
Hoblenz squinted. 'I don't trust phones.'
'How then?'
'Encoded E-mail.'
