'Phoboi Twelve is an Ap Com processor. Don't we have access to all the master codes? If we want, can't we defuse the explosives?'
'I've already thought of that. All the codes for Phoboi Twelve have been uploaded to our console. We are now in complete control of the processor. But that won't do us any good so long as Wolf Star has their androne in place.'
'They already have an androne down there? Can you tell who it is?' 'It's a demolition androne Wolf Star calls Aparecida. I've tracked her
salvage-rights declaration to the Commonality expediter on Vesta Prima. She's already filed for Ares Bund to sell Mr. Charlie's hippocampal gyrus, parietal and occipital lobes, and neocortex to four separate companies for use as functional wetware. Mr. Charlie doesn't know it, but he's already been legally dissected.'
'Then they're lying to him.' 'Baldly.'
'We've got to do something.' Mei floats before the transparent curve of the flight bubble and sees only a few barbs of starlight among the tattered
blackness of the waste clouds. 'Look-Mr. Charlie's brain is still encased in the core chamber of the ore processor, and we've got all the codes. Can't we selectively detonate the explosives so that the core chamber Is left intact?
Then we can pluck Mr. Charlie out of space on our flyby.' 'I can't do that.'
'What do you mean? We have the codes-'
'Aparecida is on Phoboi Twelve now. If I detonate the explosives, she will be destroyed. It is illegal for me to offensively destroy another androne.'
'Illegal?' Mei gives him a look of stupendous incredulity. 'Munk, we're going rogue. You said so yourself.'
'Yes. But my intent has never been to destroy anyone.'
'How the hell did you expect to get Mr. Charlie away from the Bund?'
'He is a sentient being, Jumper Nili. I have always expected he would elect to come with us. That's why I needed you to accompany me-to woo him to us with your humanity.'
'And the Bund? How did you expect to woo them?'
'I had hoped to get here before they docked. Wolf Star is a goliath-class prospector. I thought it would take longer for such a bulky vessel to moor.'
She levels a cold look at the androne and says, 'So we've lost out to a silicon miscalculation, is that it? Well, what do we do now?'
'Mr. Charlie has not yet agreed to go with Aparecida. If you approach him, we may still be able to convince him to come with us.'
'Forget that. Aparecida is a demolition androne who has already filed salvage rights. If I interfere, she can legally destroy me.'
'You will have to be careful and clever.'
'Me? Why don't you go in there and face down this demolition expert?'
'I am an androne.' He slightly lifts his thick, blackly iridescent arms to his sides as if to reveal himself. 'I cannot possibly be as persuasive to Mr.
Charlie as you would be.'
'Okay, okay-I have a better idea. Let me use the codes to explode Phoboi
Twelve and liberate Mr. Charlie.'
'If I give you the codes, I will be in violation of my primary programming. I
can't do that.' 'Can't-or won't?'
'For me, they are the same.'
'Really? I don't think so, Munk. You're not some solder-seamed handroid like Aparecida, patched together by the Commonality. The Maat created you. You were just bragging about your contra-parameter program that fires you with human wonder and capacity. Remember? That's why you're here. That's why you dragged me out here. You have free will. Use it.'
'I cannot.'
'You can. It's either that or we forget about Mr. Charlie and go back to Ap
Com. Is that what you want?'
'I must save Mr. Charlie. My C-P program insists-but not this way. We must
work together. There is no time for debate. Won't you help me? Go down to Phoboi Twelve. Aparecida does not yet know we are here. When you are in place, I will break radio silence and inform Mr. Charlie that Ares Bund is deceiving him. Then you will reveal yourself to him, and he will come with you.'
'And Aparecida?'
'Aparecida is three times your size, designed for destroying obsolete structures, not for pursuit. You can evade her.'
'Right. And if Mr. Charlie won't come with me? What then?'
'I control all the codes to the ore processor from here. I will unclasp the mag locks that fuse him to the core chamber. He is only a brain, after all, and even with the plasteel capsule housing him and his glucosupport pump, he won't weigh more than three kilos.'
