When Ben hadn’t called by noon Brian phoned him instead. No news. Slow progress. Stand by. Contact you the instant anything happened. Thanks a lot.

In the end he fell back on an old favorite, E. E. Smith, and reread four volumes, then some Benford robot stories before he went to bed.

It was noon of the second day before the phone rang again — he grabbed it up.

“Ben?”

“It’s Dr. Snaresbrook, Brian. I’ve just got to Megalobe and I would like to see you.”

“I’m, well, a little busy now, Doc.”

“No you are not. You are in your quarters by yourself and haven’t been out for two days. People are concerned, Brian, which is why I am here. Speaking as your physician I think that it is important that I see you now.”

“Later, maybe. I’ll phone you at the clinic.”

“I’m not in the clinic — but right downstairs in your building. I would like to come up.”

Brian started to protest — then resigned himself to the inevitable. “Give me five minutes to pull some clothes on.”

He pulled on his clothes, answered the door when the bell rang.

“You don’t look too bad,” the doctor said when he let her in. She looked him up and down professionally then took a diagnoster from her bag. “If I could have your arm, thank you.”

One touch against his skin was enough. The little machine buzzed happily to itself, then filled its display screen with numbers and letters.

“Coffee?” Brian asked. “I just made it fresh.”

“That would be very nice,” she said, squinting at the tiny screen. “Temperature, blood pressure, glucose, phospholamine. Everything normal except a slightly elevated alpha-reactinase. How is the head?”

He brushed his fingers through the red bristle. “Like always, no symptoms, no problems. I could have saved you a trip. What’s bothering me is not physical. It is just good old melancholia and depression.”

“Easy enough to understand. Cream, no sugar. Thanks.”

She settled into one of the dining chairs and stirred her cup, staring into it as though it were a crystal ball. “I’m not surprised. I should have seen this coming. You are working too hard, using your brain too hard, putting a strain on yourself. All work and no play.”

“Very little chance to play in the barracks — or the lab.”

“You are absolutely right — and something must be done about it. I blame myself for not stopping this even before it started. But we both have been so enthusiastic about your recovery, accessing your CPU, everything. And your work, it’s gone so well that you have been on an emotional high. Now you have come down with a thud. The murder at DigitTech and the dead end there were the last straw.”

“You know about that?”

“Ben swore me to secrecy, then told me about everything that happened. Which is why I came here at once. To help you.”

“And what do you prescribe, Doctor?”

“Just what you want. Out of here. Some rest and a major change of scene.”

“Great, but very little chance of that in the near future. I’m really just a prisoner here.”

“How do you know? Hasn’t the situation changed since the discovery of DigitTech? I believe that it has. I have told Ben to get here at once with all the details. I think that a big rethink is needed on security — and I am on your side.”

“You mean that!” Brian jumped to his feet, paced the room. “If I only could get out of this place! With you helping me we might just be able to work it.” He rubbed his jaw and felt the grate of his whiskers.

“Help yourself to more coffee,” he called out, heading for the bedroom. “I need a shave and a shower and some clean clothes. Won’t be long.”

Her smile faded when he left. She had no idea at all if the authorities could be convinced to give Brian a bit more freedom. But she was damn well going to press them for some changes. She had made a decision and had deliberately put herself on Brian’s side, given him the moral support he so badly needed. Even if it had been a cynical attempt to aid his mental health she sincerely wanted to help. Hell, it wasn’t cynical, it was logical. She had never married, her work was her life. But the Brian that she had brought back from the grave, given renewed life to, was just as much her responsibility as any biological child could ever have been. She was going to fight like a mother cat to see that he got some rights, privileges, pleasures.

She was just as angry as Brian was when Benicoff came in, all gloom and doom and status quo, nothing can be changed until more evidence is found. It was no accident that she sat on the couch next to Brian, aligned herself physically at his side, shaking an angry admonitory finger at Ben.

“That is just not good enough. When there were killers and gunmen out there, all right, I went along with all the security and everything for Brian’s sake. But all that has changed—”

“It hasn’t, Doctor, we still haven’t found the people behind this.”

“Bullshit — if you will pardon my French. Aren’t you forgetting that the threat to Brian’s life came about because he hadn’t been killed in the first attack here? His existence threatened the thieves’ future monopoly of artificial intelligence. But now you have tracked down this AI factory and found some damn bug-killer. Big deal! Now that Brian’s AI is ahead of theirs we can make our own bug-killers — better ones too. Am I getting across to you at all?”

“Makes great sense to me!” Brian said. “Instead of all the security and secrecy we should now be telling the world about our new advances in AI. Giving out publicity about how we will go into production soon and all the great changes that our smart new robots will bring about. Keep Bug-Off in business and let’s start manufacturing some AI products here in Megalobe — which I might remind you was why I was hired here in the first place. The monopoly is broken, the secret is out — so what reason do they have for still trying to kill me?”

“You’ve got a point—”

“That is the point. You’re in charge, you can make the decisions.”

“Whoa there, not so fast. I’m only in charge of the investigation of the Megalobe robbery. Security, as you must know, goes through your friend General Schorcht. Anything like this will have to be decided by him.”

“Then get to see him at once, get some freedom for Brian,” Snaresbrook said firmly. “As Brian’s personal physician that is my prescription for his continuing well-being.”

“I’m on your side!” Ben said, raising his hands in surrender. “I’ll get onto him soonest.”

“That’s grand,” Brian said enthusiastically. “But before you rush out — what is the status of the DigitTech investigation?”

“It’s all in this GRAM here, I thought you would want to run through it. But I can sum up. A lot of interesting details have come out. We are pretty sure that DigitTech was the front for the operation and that.Thomsen was the only one in the know about the Megalobe connection. About a year ago DigitTech was bought out for a lot of money, and that’s when Thomsen arrived to manage it. He has a pretty soiled past that was not mentioned to the company. A couple of bankruptcies and even an indictment — dropped for lack of evidence — for insider trading. He was a good businessman, but a little too greedy to keep honest.”

“The perfect guy to use as a front man.”

“Correct. The manufacturing side of the firm wasn’t altered much, personnel changes of course but no more than would be normal in any firm. What did change was on the research side. A new laboratory wing was built and work began on improved Expert Systems. At least that’s what everyone in the lab believes. They use the word AI all right, but none of them knew that their research was based on a stolen AI. Their work was just to build the AI into their bug blaster.’’

“But someone in the research lab had to know,” Snaresbrook said.

“Of course. And that person was a certain Dr. Bociort, who was in charge of the company’s robot research.”