Nolan nodded. Stevie gave the thumbs-up sign.
Kendra and Jessie ran toward them from the hillside, still carrying their weapons.
“What the hell happened?” Kendra asked Lynch as she grabbed his arm. “I was scared to death.”
“They were waiting for us,” Lynch said. “They took Archie.”
“We saw that,” Jessie said. “Why?”
“They want to use him for something,” Stevie said. “We don’t know what. Whatever it is, you can bet it’s bad.”
“Actually . . .” Nolan said. “I overheard a few things in thepast few days. But right now, I just want to get as far away from here as we can. Could we do that, please?”
“We can. Give me just a minute.” Lynch moved swiftly to the place where Dekker had collapsed. He checked the body and then headed back toward Nolan.
Kendra came toward him and touched his arm. “Why?” she asked softly.
He shrugged. “I had to be sure. Dekker was the one who spent many of his happiest hours interrogating me in that gas station. I’m not about to walk away from him until I’m absolutely certain he can’t do it to anyone else.” Then he smiled and turned toward Nolan. “You said you wanted to blow this joint? Let’smove.”
They were back at the cabin in less than half an hour. Jessie treated the wounds where the arm and leg restraints had dug into Nolan’s skin, and they gave him bottles of water to stave off dehydration.
After a few minutes, Kendra couldn’t stand it any longer and had to get down to business. “Sorry to disturb you, Dr. Nolan . . . But what exactly did you hear?”
Nolan was silent for a long moment. When he finally did speak, it was with quiet deliberation. “It was just a few things here and there. They needed Archie, and nothing else would do.” His voice had a subtle rasp, and Kendra couldn’t decide if it was his usual speaking voice or a product of his ordeal. “They were under a severe time crunch, and there was one thing I was sure about. They were always planning to take the robot to London.”
“London?” Stevie repeated. “What’s there?”
“They never said. At least, not anywhere I could hear them talking. But they were excited. And whatever was going to happen it was going to take place on Saturday.”
“Tomorrow,” Kendra whispered.
Nolan thought for a moment. “Yes. I guess I’ve lost track of the days. I honestly thought they were going to kill me because I was useless to them. At first, they had a lot of questions about Archie and his decision-making algorithms. They didn’t believe me when I said I had almost nothing to do with Archie, and certainly nothing to do with his software. They couldn’t believe a teenager could be responsible. I was torn between being proud of your work and cursing it because it might get both of us killed.”
Stevie reached out and took his hand. “I’m sorry it was so bad for you, Dad.”
“I was sorry, too, part of the time,” he replied. “But I had time to think while I was down there. Maybe I learned a few things.” His hand tightened on hers. “I found myself thinking back to the time you were a little girl and remembering how we used to fix meals together. You seemed to like doing that even more than when I taught you lessons. I liked it, too. I thought a lot about things like that while I was down there. It was much more soothing to daydream like that than listen to those guys talking about what they’d do to me if Korkil wasn’t pleased with the answers he was getting from me.”
“Bastards!” Stevie growled.
Nolan laughed and shook his head. “That little girl I remembered would never have said that word.”
“Because those bastards weren’t around back then,” Stevie said. “I’ve learned a lot since then.” She grinned. “Some of it you even taught me.”
“I’m beginning to think I might have been teaching you the wrong things.”
“Impossible,” Stevie said firmly. “You and I both know that you can’t ever be taught too little. It just has to be filtered occasionally.”
“Then perhaps my filter isn’t as thorough as I’d want it to be.” He reached out and squeezed her hand. “We’ll discuss it sometime.”
Stevie was silent for a moment. “I think I’d like that. When you have the time.”
“I’ll make the time.” He turned back to Lynch. “At any rate, as the days wore on, they were less interested in Archie’s inner workings and stopped asking me. They’d gotten what they needed from your lab the night they took me, Stevie. It just took them a while to sort through it all and understand what makes Archie tick.”
“They knew how to disable him,” Stevie said bitterly. “They used that stun rifle to electrocute him with just enough juice to cause a total shutdown.”
“But not enough to cause permanent damage?” Lynch asked.
“No. I built in a protection circuit to keep that from happening. But if they have my lab files, they may have everything they need to reprogram him.”
