Klasky looked surprised. “Are you defending what the general did? Depending on your point of view, he either carried out an extrajudicial execution of the murderer in your homicide investigation, or he destroyed the murder weapon.”
“I’m aware,” said Brodie.
Klasky shook his head. “The only insight we gained was to the limits of the general’s impulse control. The bots are not programmed to protect themselves outside of the battlespace unless specifically ordered to do so.”
Taylor said, “The bots are also not programmed to bash a person’s head into a concrete wall.”
Klasky had no reply to that.
CHAPTER 28
KLASKY, BRODIE, AND TAYLOR ARRIVEDat the administrative building, where a young male MP corporal named Hicks was at the guard station. The corporal saluted the three officers.
They entered the building and walked into Colonel Howe’s office, which was, as expected, tidy and spartan. The colonel sat behind an uncluttered wooden desk. Behind her were some framed military photos, commendations, and several detailed maps of Camp Hayden and the surrounding federal lands.
Howe gestured to a couple of seats across the desk. “Please sit.”
The two agents sat. The colonel said to Klasky, “Thank you, Major. You’re dismissed.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He said to Brodie and Taylor, “I will be in the after-action review room once you’re done here.” He left and shut the door.
Howe cleared her throat and got down to business. “I spoke with Major General Ramsay about the status of our operations at Camp Hayden, your investigation, and the tragic incident this morning with Specialist Kemp. The major general was, as you can imagine, highly concerned, and saddened by the loss of life. He is heavily invested in the work we are doing here, and it is his position that the training and testing we are conducting is, without question, the most important experimental research and training project in the entire U.S. military. I share his view. The field of autonomous robotics and artificial intelligence is the new Space Race, and we cannot lose.”
Brodie had the feeling that this preamble was leading to something they didn’t want to hear.
Howe continued, “I cannot, and I will not, allow this entire operation to be delayed or aborted because of the paranoid fantasies and arrogant whims of one man, even if that man is a brigadier general.”
Taylor said, “We understand your position on General Morgan. Did General Ramsay authorize your taking of command?”
Howe replied, “He did.”
She let that hang in the air a moment, then continued, “General Ramsay agrees that what Morgan did was extremely reckless, and potentially harmful to CID’s investigation. But he also acknowledges the great stresses and hardships we are all operating under and what he believes to be General Morgan’s unwavering commitment to the larger goals of Army Futures Command. Therefore, Morgan will be subject to an internal review upon the completion of your investigation.” She added, “That is, of course, unless your final report alleges criminal activity that leads to charges against General Morgan. The major general respectfully requests that Morgan’s discipline be handled from within the command, given the highly classified nature of the work we are doing here.”
Brodie said, “The major general should stick to his job.”
Howe pursed her lips. “It was a request from a two-star general, Mr. Brodie. Certainly not an order. Do with it what you will.”
Taylor said, “CID does not take rank or special requests into consideration when reporting its findings.”
Howe looked at her. “I’m sure you don’t, Ms. Taylor. But there is a club that you and I will never be in, whose founding charter includes an unwritten and unspoken list of privileges.” She smiled, which was a first, and said, “The boys’ club.”
Taylor had no response to that.
Brodie, for his part, couldn’t care less about the internal power struggles of Camp Hayden’s officer corps and its implications for gender equality, so long as he could get the killer robots out of this nuthouse. “We can revisit this later. Is Major General Ramsay fielding our request to transfer custody of the D-17s?”
“No.”
“No?”
“Your CO, Brigadier General Dombroski, relayed your request to the Provost Marshal General, who then got in touch with Ramsay. No one at the highest echelons was enthusiastic about coordinating a relocation of this top-secret equipment. General Ramsay told me that if it could be done at all, it could not be done quickly.”
Brodie said, “And then you, of course, emphasized the urgency of this.”
Howe looked him in the eyes. “They are staying here. That was my recommendation, and the major general was relieved to hear it. I took command to restore order. And I have.”
“Time will tell, Colonel. But the price of failure is a hell of a lot higher with those things around. And it is not appropriate for us to rely so heavily on the expertise of someone deeply embedded within Camp Hayden’s research program.”
“Ms. Dixon is a brilliant computer scientist.”
