Three dots. Undoubtedly the app was checking my location, the local time, and what court I would end up in.Do not talk to the copscame the reply.The next step, if they decide to charge, will be arraignment. They’ll decide whether to set a bond or take you into custody. Is this your first offense?
I briefly considered telling the app that I was guilty of felony murder. But that would just confuse the program.Yes.
This time, the pause was longer.
Are there witnesses who saw the harassment?
That made me pause. I had honestly thought the app would skip over that part.
“Okay, this app is better than I thought it would be,” I said. “It wants to know about witnesses.”
Prefect stood at my shoulder, reading the chat. “Well, go ahead and answer.”
I did.Yes. Three women.
Did you get their information? Do you have any way to contact them?
I have their phone numbers, I answered. Prefect had made sure to get them, just in case.And the license plate of the security guard.
Three dots.Send over the plate number. I will see if any previous charges have been filed against him.
“Can Lawyerbot check plate numbers?” I asked.
Prefect was frowning. “No, it doesn’t have access to that kind of information. Or, rather, itshouldn’t. It’s designed to offer general advice, not to do research. That’s reserved for the lawyers working at the higher tiers.”
I was typing in the plate number already. “Well, let’s see if it does.”
We waited for about fifteen minutes before the three dots appeared again.
That security guard has had two restraining orders brought against him by previous girlfriends. Attached are copies of the orders, along with a formal reprimand from his old boss. You will use these to show a pattern of behavior. He could have injured those women. You were using appropriate force to disable his vehicle in order to protect them.
I gaped at the phone, then held it up. Prefect read over the message, his dark brows drawn tight.
“Well,” I said. “I think we’ve established two things.”
“First, the app has definitely been hacked,” said Prefect.
“Agreed,” I said. “But, more importantly, the basic tier of Lawyerbot isn’t an algorithm. That’s aperson.”
In the end, I didn’t need Lawyerbot to walk out of jail. Prefect made a call and had the arrest expunged,cleared out any evidence that I’d ever walked into the precinct, and then we grabbed dinner at a local Italian restaurant.
There aresomebenefits to working for the feds.
“What’s going to happen to that security guard now?” I asked, chewing a bite of my pizza. We’d taken a table in the restaurant’s courtyard. It was warm enough that the evening breeze was pleasant. And I’d had enough of the indoors for one day.
Prefect was eating pasta with military precision. He even cut his noodles with a knife and fork. My nonna would have been horrified.
“He’ll probably go back to work,” said Prefect.
I scowled. “And if his boss gets an email with those restraining orders and reprimand attached?”
He drank delicately from a glass of ice water. “Well, that would be unfortunate. For him.”
It was as close to permission as Prefect would ever give me.
“Anyway, while you were fixing my legal problems, I was digging into Lawyerbot,” I said. “I looked at its source code.”
“And how did you manage that?” asked Prefect mildly.
