“I think so. Look at him now, what do you think?”
“I think I don’t want to play poker with you, Commodore.”
“Do you ladies think you may be able to make some progress with our friend here, now that we know what his issue is?”
Haffi said, “I think we have plenty to open him up, Commodore. If nothing else, we can make him watch that hilarious recording of you schooling him. Better yet, we could let him watch himself being beaten by a boy who isn’t even grown, yet.” I could see Leffi squirming as she spoke. There wasn’t any doubt she had his number. I said, “Well, I’ve done all the damage I can, here. I guess I’ll see what else needs poked into today.” Greg walked up with the pieces of the knife Leffi had thrown at him. “I only see one bullet hole. I thought both of you shot?”
I said, “I must need to get to the range more often. That has to be your Mother’s.” He said, “Thanks, Mom.”
Jane said, “Anytime, Hon. Now get back to your exercises. Just because Pete is busy is no reason to slack off.”
As I left, I noticed Leffi watching me, like he was trying to figure me out. I wasn’t sure what to make of that, but I was sure that Jane and Beatriz could handle whatever mischief he cooked up. As I started down the hall, I realized how close I was to Frank’s place. I was out of excuses, so I went by to see what he was up to. When I knocked, Julie came out to greet me. “Hello, Commodore. Coming by to check in on Frank?”
“I was out and about, thought I might as well, before you all blindsided me again.”
“He’s still working on something, but he won’t tell me what. I would have thought he would have had something ready to go to prototype by now.”
“Is he getting enough rest?”
“Eight out of every twenty-four, Sir.”
“That’s good to hear, Julie. Keep up the good work.”
“Thanks, Boss.”
“See you around.” I turned and walked away. I really didn’t have time for this crap today. Once I was out of earshot, I asked Gene, “Page Andre and a squad of Marines to my location, please. Also, get Shorty down here. The transit carrying Andre and his fellows arrived first. “What’s up, Boss?”
“I’m not sure, but Julie gave me a distress word when I was talking to her a minute ago. I have to assume Frank has gotten into her programming again. Do you have a nighty-night with you?”
“Yes, Boss. We carry them as standard equipment these days.” Shorty arrived. I asked, “Since you are the same model as Taz, I’m assuming you are something of a hacker?”
“I scored higher than him on the test, when we were training. What do you need, Boss?”
“One of our research team doesn’t like to sleep when he should. He keeps getting into his nanny bot’s programming, and making her let him by with it. We thought we had him squared away, but he seems to have gotten to her again.”
“Pardon me, Boss, but why is it that you think he has?”
“I was just talking to her, and she gave me a distress word.”
“I see. You want me to get whatever he has running out of her system, and tighten up her security, so that nothing like this can happen again?”
“If you can. Taz thought he had it taken care of, and here we are. We may need to come up with a new system for taking care of him.”
Andre asked, “How do you want us to handle this?”
“Hit him hard, stunners only. Once he’s down, give him a nighty-night, and put him to bed.”
“If he’s programmed Julie to resist?”
“Do your best to restrain her without damage. If you have to damage her, try to avoid anything that Scotti can’t fix.”
“Understood, Boss. We’ll do our best.” They hit the door, and took Frank down. Luckily, he hadn’t thought to tell Julie to resist, so she didn’t give them any problem. I followed them in. Julie said, “Thanks, Boss. I wasn’t sure you picked up my signal.”
“Loud and clear, Julie. It took a minute to get a team together and decide how to take him down.”
“I’m still willing to do whatever you want me to do, Boss, but I’ve failed at this twice now, and I’m not sure my programming can be made secure enough to keep him out.”
“Let Shorty have a look. He claims he’s a better hacker than Taz, I guess we’ll see.” Shorty connected with Julie and studied the problem. When he unhooked, he said, “Boss, the hack he used to get her to do what he wanted is some pretty slick work. I can get it out, but it will take some time to plug the hole he used to get in.”
I asked, “Will twelve hours be enough time? I don’t want him awake before then, anyhow.”
Shorty replied, “I’ll take her down to Engineering and get started, I’ll let you know when I have a better idea how long it will take.”
“Good enough. Andre, I need you to leave a couple of your guys here, to make sure he stays where he is for the next
