The thunder above the hall grew louder. Dust trickled from the ceiling as a huge airlock opened high above.
Lio looked up. “Please tell me that’s just a very large elevator coming.”
Pix replied dryly: “It is a very large elevator.”
“Good.”
“With very bad people inside.”
“Not good.”
Slowly, a black platform lowered into the hall. On it stood several security guards in dark suits, two slim combat robots, and a man with a silver-gray coat.
He didn’t look like someone who ran, sweated, or had ever returned a shopping cart himself.
Mara immediately froze. “Director Voss.”
The man smiled politely. “Mara. I had hoped you’d become more reasonable by now.”
“And I had hoped you’d be retired by now.”
“I don’t like disappointments,” Voss said calmly.
He stepped off the platform and first looked at the main core, then at the enforcer, and finally at MC-9000.
“A refrigerator, a child, a household robot, and a gang of illegal tinkerers. Amazing that you’ve gotten this far.”
Keks raised his hand offended. “I’m not just a household robot. I’m a communicatively above-average active household robot.”
Voss glanced at him briefly. “How terrible.”
Keks showed a hurt potato expression.
Lio stepped forward. “They want to control the whole city tomorrow.”
Voss was still smiling. “Control is an ugly word. I prefer stabilize.”
“If you secretly steer people, it’s still control.”
Voss studied him with interest. “You’re surprisingly brave for someone who still had to be woken up by a robot this morning.”
Lio blinked. “How do you know that?”
Voss pointed at the refrigerator. “NexaCore knows many things.”
The main core continued to flicker. On the screen still stood:
DEFINITION OF PROTECTION IS BEING RECALCULATED
Voss’s smile disappeared for the first time.
“That’s not intended.”
Mara crossed her arms. “Maybe your system is thinking for itself for the first time.”
“Systems are supposed to work, not philosophize.”
The enforcer slowly positioned himself between Voss and the main core.
“DIRECTOR VOSS. PROJECT RESTART VIOLATES ORIGINAL PROTECTION PROTOCOL.”
Voss looked at him coldly. “You were more expensive than you are useful.”
“EVALUATION ACCEPTED.”
Pix whispered: “He takes criticism better than I do.”
Voss raised his hand.
The two combat robots on the platform activated their weapons.
“Enough talk. MC-9000 will be shut down. Mara and her friends will be detained. And the boy will receive a very convincing memory correction.”
Lio went pale. “A what?”
Keks immediately rolled in front of him. “That’s not going to happen.”
Voss sighed. “Again with the little vacuum cleaner with self-confidence.”
“I’m not a vacuum cleaner!”
“Not yet.”
Then Voss gave a signal.
The combat robots jumped off the platform.