"No," Maude said. "I thoroughly disapprove of them, and I wholeheartedly support the FBI's effort to shut them down and prosecute the perpetrators. An effort you've been sabotaging. Do you know how many pornographers you've helped beat the rap by destroying the evidence against them?"

  Of course, Maude had no idea how many sites the vigilante had hacked, but she didn't think that would matter. Casey turned pale.

  "But that's not what I'm doing at all," he said.

  "Maybe it's not what you're trying to do," Maude said. "But it's the real result of what you're doing."

  "I never meant—"

  "No, I'm sure you had the best intentions," Maude said. "Now stop whining. Help me think of a good reason not to turn you over to the FBI."

  Casey flinched. He cast a pleading glance at Tim.

  "You won't really—" he began.

  But Maude was pleased to see that Tim had folded his arms and was frowning sternly. Casey slumped back in his chair, his sentence unfinished.

  "What were you doing here, anyway?" Maude added. "I thought you were home sick."

  "My DSL line went out," Casey said.

  Delete All Suspects Ell

  "So you decided to come in and use corporate property for illegal purposes," Maude said. "Lovely."

  Casey slouched lower.

  Let him stew, Maude thought. She wasn't making any promises about not turning him over to the FBI until she-heard whether Turing thought there was any possible way to cover up Casey's and KingFischer's tracks.

  "Turing?" she said.

  "Good work," Turing said through the speakers of Casey's PC. Casey flinched slightly at the sound.

  "How are you doing on your end?" Maude asked.

  "I've discussed the situation with KF," Turing said. "He-understands why we're concerned."

  At any other time, Maude would have found this amusing. Considering how angry Turing had been, she suspected the discussion hadn't been a pleasant one for KingFischer.

  "Despite our strong inclination simply to turn them over and let the FBI deal with them, I can see that there are mitigating circumstances to consider."

  Yes, Maude thought. Like the fact that turning them in would bring far too much FBI scrutiny down on the AIPs. Even if the FBI didn't learn Turing's secret, Universal Library might decide that artificial intelligences that could trigger an FBI investigation were a liability too expensive to keep around.

  "KingFischer and I may have come up with a solution,'' Turing said.

  "A solution that gets all of us off the hook for this vigilante nonsense, without sending Dan off on some wild gi chase that will cause him months of work?"

  "I think so," Turing said. "We've created a sort of rudimentary AIR"

  "Already this sounds like something that will cause more problems than it solves," Maude said.

  "Don't worry," Turing said. "I have no desire* to put an-

  E1E Donna Andrews

  other T2 out there. This thing is only minimally functional. It's got a single mission in life: to seek and destroy pornography sites."

  "We based it on Billius, the programming AIP," King-Fischer said.

  "Yes, I've always considered him the most literal-minded of all of us," Turing said. "Considering the competition, that's quite an insult."

  Doubtless a barb aimed at KingFischer, Maude thought, with smile.

  "Anyway," Turing went on, "we've set the program up so it looks as if it begins hunting for targets automatically, whenever the computer is turned on and connected to the Internet. We left some clues that will make it look as if Eddie put it on Casey's machine."

  "When in reality you're about to put it there," Maude said, nodding.

  "Actually, you are," Turing said. "I don't want to leave any traces of myself in Casey's machine. I sent it to you as an attachment to an e-mail. Burn a CD with it, install it, and then we'll set the file dates so it looks as if it was installed weeks ago."

  "So if the FBI finds Casey, he looks like an innocent pawn," Maude said.

  "Precisely," Turing said.

  "And if they don't?"

  "If they don't show up after a few days, we'll take it out. Casey can say he assumed it was spy ware and deleted it. Casey, once this thing is on your machine, don't mess with it. Just let it run. It won't do any harm; I made it look as if some key components have been corrupted, so the program can find porn sites but not do anything to them."

  "Okay," Casey said. "I'm cool with that. Sounds like a variation on what I had before."

  Maude, who had been about to leave, turned around at that.

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  "It sounds like what?" she asked.

  "The program I was using to find the sites," Casey said. "I mean, it's not as if I want to spend all my evenings looking at porn sites to figure out which of them are just porn and which ones are the kind of kiddy porn that needs to be stamped out, right? So I just let this program run, and it does all the real work. Finds them and sets them up."

  "Show me," Turing said. "What's the name of the program?"

  While Casey pulled his chair up to the keyboard, fingers trembling, I interrogated KingFischer.

  "Program ? What program ? "

  "I have no idea what he's talking about," KingFischer said. "/ knew he was one of your friends — "

  "One of my employees," I corrected. Right now I wasn't sure I wanted to claim a closer connection with Casey.

  "One of your employees," KingFischer repeated. "So I kept an eye on him. I found that he was asking questions in hacker chat rooms and snooping around hacker sites, so I asked him what he was up to. It seemed like a good idea. After all, when you consider the resources humans waste on that kind of site — hours of time to set them up, and just when they are completed and ready for viewing, another human hunts them down and begins prosecuting them. Highly wasteful. It seemed to me the more quickly and efficient I) you could eliminate them, the better. So when he found a site thai needed elimination, he'd let me know and I'd help him get through the security."

  "What is this program he's talking about?"

  "He never mentioned a program," KingFischer said. "/ thought he was doing this all on his own."

  Were KingFischer and Casey guilty, or merely the pawns <>t some diabolically clever hacker who'd been pulling t/mr strings from afar? That might make me feel better about mating than from the FBI.

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  Assuming we succeed in rescuing them. Just then I snagged a call from Claudia. I answered it and put it on speaker. "Hey, Tur," she said. "Norris is on the move."

  "Ohn perfecti" Tim growled- He glanced over to see how Maude was taking it.

  Not well. She was holding her temples as if massaging a headache.

  "Please don't tell me he's headed this way," she said.

  "Okay," Claudia said. "He's not heading your way. He didn't just start heading north on 1-95, and he's not going to be there in about twenty minutes. Maybe fifteen at this speed."

  "No chance he just had the munchies and is heading to his favorite all-night restaurant?" Tim asked.

  "If that's what Norris looks like when he has the munchies, I don't want to see him when he's pissed. Besides, I overheard part of what he was saying on his cell phone on the way to his car—he's got a team meeting him."

  "Damn," Tim said. "We need to get out of here."

  "Okay," Casey said, standing up.

  "Not you," Tim snapped.

  Casey sat down again, quickly, and huddled over slightly in his chair.

  "Sorry, Casey," Maude said, more gently. "You'll have to stay here. The FBI probably already knows it's you, and they definitely know someone here was logging in. For that matter, we should probably stay, too. After all, our own security system will show we were here."

  "So what do we tell the FBI when they get here?" Tim asked.

  He looked at Maude. He suddenly realised that they should have left Maude out of it. Back at her house, where they wouldn't be putting her in the position of maybe having to lie

  Delete All Suspects 215

  to Norris. She closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, then took a breath, opened them, and looked at Turing's cameras.

  "I don't think we have time to do all this CD burning and program installation," she said. "Turing, can you give Casey a plausible story to go with this program that's already in his machine?"

  "A very simple one," Turing said. "He didn't know it was there. He has no idea how it got there. He came in tonight to catch up on the work he didn't do when he was out Friday, so he wouldn't have such a crazy day. He logged in to get his e-mail. The next thing he knew, you two showed up, mad as hell at him."

  "Which means we tell Norris about the honey pot?" Tim asked.

  "Not if he doesn't already know about it," Turing said. "Our security systems detected an anomaly and called Maude."

  Maude was nodding.

  "That would work," she said. "The evidence on Casey's machine won't show that he deliberately ran the program?"

  "I don't think so," Turing said. "Even if the technicians say it does, Casey, just stick to the story. You had no idea how that program got there. You never ran it."

  "What program?" Casey asked.

  "Good," Turing said. "I don't think the technicians can prove it didn't operate by itself, or possibly on a remote signal from somewhere. It's pretty complex, and—"

  Turing fell silent. Tim exchanged a glance with Maude.

  "Tur?" he asked. "Is something wrong?"

  I knew something was wrong the minute I began studying the program. It took me a jew more seconds thjn it should have, because I was focusing on finding information t/ut would be incriminating — to KingFischer or to Casey. Th I

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  to realize that parts of the program were incredibly familiar, while others were new and somehow wrong. Graceful arcs of logic ended abruptly or took jagged turns in the wrong direction. Flowing data paths hit dead ends. Someone had hacked and mutilated this program, so in parts it was almost beyond recognition, while in others —

  // was like looking in a mirror.

  It wasn't T2 — it wasn't even sentient. But parts of it used to belong to T2. To me.

  "Remember the program KingFischer and I planned to install on Casey's machine?" I said.

  "The simplified version of Billius?" Maude said. "I wondered how you could simplify Billius and still have a working program."

  "We've got a problem," I said. "Someone else had the same idea. The program Casey already has is a simplified version ofT2."

  I could see from the looks on Maude's and Tim's faces that they shared my shock, and understood at least some of the implications.

  "What's T2P" Casey asked

  "Long story," Maude said. "One we don't have time for now, and one you're better off not knowing when you're talking to the FBI. Turing, what can we do? Do we need to, um, rescue it?"

  "No," I said. "It's only a program. I'm taking a copy to study."

  "Then you're leaving it there?" Maude said. "Can we?"

  "I don't see how we can do anything else," I said. "We don't have time to fake something good enough to take its place."

  "You're not worried that it might have too much information about you?" Tim said.

  Yes, I was worried. But also optimistic that it might contain a clue. Something that might lead me to Nestor Garcia's whereabouts.

  Of course, any clues might lead the FBI there, too. And if the FBI caught Nestor and seized T2 before I could rescue her, that would be almost as bad as leaving her with Nestor. But I had to take the chance. I couldn't abandon KingFischer and Casey, no matter how irritated I was with them.

  Besides, neither the FBI nor I had been having- much luck tracking Nestor. Maybe the simplified version ofT2 would help me,

  but if it didn't, maybe the FBI could use it, and I could follow their lead.

  Of course that meant I had to find a way to keep an eye on what the FBI was doing. Could I?

  I had to take the chance.

  "There's no time to see," I said. "I have a copy, and I'm study ing it as fast as I can. But that would take a few hours, even for me."

  "And we don't have a few hours," Maude said.

  "So I'm leaving it and hoping for the best, n I said.

  Just then Maude's cell phone rang.

  "Oh, great," Tim said. "What do you want to bet that's Norris, asking what the hell you're doing letting the vigilante use your offia ."

  "It's Mrs. Stallman," Maude said. "How are you/"

  Tim relaxed visibly.

  "No, not at all," Maude was saying to the phone. She listened for a few seconds. "No, that would be fine. Would you like me to come over and pick you up?" Another pause. "Now would be Jim. See you shortly."

  "What does she want?" Tim asked.

  "She's changed her mind about staying there all alone, " Maude said. She picked up her purse. "Vm taking her to my place. "

  "Now?" I asked. "With the FBI on the way?"

  "Yes, now," she said. "Before the arrival of any FBI agents I might not be good at lying to."

  Tim nodded, slightly.

  "Okay," I said. "We'll call you if anything interesting happt m. n

  Probably a good idea. If I'd been thinking, perhaps I would have invented a way to get Maude out of the way befort Norru arrived Maybe if we could take the first force of any anger he ft It. this whole mess wouldn't completely ruin their relationship.

  Then again, Vm not exactly an expert on human Maybe leaving was exactly the wrong thing for Maude to do.

  After Maude left I continued to race through my study of tbi simplified T2. Tim sat with his elbows on his kmtt, Varimg at tk floor, lost in thought. Casey sat staring at Tim. as if & tXp Tim to do or say something that would decide his fait.

  Just then, the night doorbell rang.

  "I'll get that," Tim said. "Andshow the FBI in. Unless Maude ran into Norris in the parking lot; she hasn't been gone that long." "It's not the FBI," I said. "It's Matt Danforth."

  "What does he want?" Tim asked- He glanced over at the monitor on which Turing was showing the feed from the security camera. Danforth glanced at his watch, then rang the doorbell again.

  "Ask him," Turing said. "Not you, Tim. Casey."

  "Alan Grace," Casey said. "How can I help you?"

  "Matt Danforth," their caller said, holding his driver's license up to the camera. "Hey, Casey? Is that you? Can I come in and talk to you a minute?"

  Tim motioned to Turing to cut the sound.

  "What's he here for?" Tim asked.

  "Beats me," Casey said, shrugging. "He's one of Eddies friends—I hardly know the guy."

  "You didn't ask him to come over and help you?"

  The insulted look on Casey's face spoke volumes.

  "Then what's he here for?" Tim asked.

  "Beats me how he even knows I'm here," Casey said.

  "Unless he has some way of knowing what Casey's doing," Turing said.

  "Which would mean he's connected to the porn sites as well as the phishing scheme," Tim said.

  "It could also mean he's connected to Nestor Garcia."

  Tim stared at the monitor for a few minutes.

  "Go let him in," he said to Casey.

  "Me?"

  "He's asking for you," Tim said.

  "Is that wise?" Turing asked.

  "We know the FBI will be here any minute," Tim said. "Let's get him in here and turn him over to them when they

  arrive. Of course, if we can find out more about what he's up to in the meantime . . ."

  "Go let him in," Turing said.

  Casey gave them a reproachful glance and went off down the hall.

  "I'm moving to another room," Tim said.

  "The computer's already on in Maude's office," Turing said.

  Tim raced down the hall. Fortunately, Maude's office was in the other direction from the front door.

  By the time he arrived and pulled the Venetian blinds down over the windowed front of her office, Casey had reached the front door. Turing was feeding the video from the security camera to one of Maude's monitors. Tim sat on the floor behind Maude's desk, where he could stay out of sight and still watch the monitor.

  In the security camera feed, Casey was opening the door.

  "Hey, Casey," Danforth said. "I'm glad I thought of checking for you here. I have something I need to tell you."

  "Okay," Casey said, standing in the door.

  "Doesn't Casey realize we need to get him inside?" Turing asked.

  "He's doing it right," Tim said. "He doesn't want to look too eager."

  "It'd be easier to show you," Danforth said. "Can I come in and use a computer for a sec?"

  After a few seconds' pause, and a credible show of reluctance, Casey stepped aside and allowed Danforth to enter.

  "Did you hear about what happened to Eddie?" Danforth asked, as Casey led him down the hall.

  The video shifted suddenly, as Turing switched from the security camera near the door to one farther down the corridor.

  "Yeah."

  "It's terrible," Danforth said, shaking his head. He continued to talk about Eddie's accident until he and

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  Casey stepped into Casey's office. Another quick video shift—

  Then the picture disappeared altogether and something on the floor beside him beeped.

  "Turing, what happened?"

  "Power outage," Turing said.

  The machine beeped again. Tim could hear other beeps coming from other offices, and things had gotten slightly darker. The lights on the emergency circuit were still on. Tim guessed they were on an emergency power supply of some sort. But all the other tiny lights that were always on in a normal office—the green or red lights that indicated equipment was plugged in, the LCD panels of clocks and VCRs—were gone. The beeping seemed loud, and Tim realized that the air carriers had gone silent.

  "It's the whole building, isn't it?" Tim asked.

  "The main network computers are on a backup power supply," Turing said. "Along with the emergency lights. But the security cameras are on the main power. I should have realized that."