"I was told, Garcia, that you wanted to infect an AI with the code. The code that just killed one of my best scientists with a goddamned coffee machine." He snapped angerly.
Atticus had his moments of hot-headedness. That's what lead him to the position he was in. He paced around the conference room a moment, aware of, but unconcerned about the myriad of coalition security guards and secret agents observing him.
A job still needed to be done, and it was too early to ruin the tentative co-operation just yet...
He sighed. "Before we do anything with the code, I want to know exactly what your plans are. What you have in your possession... And what your end goal is.
You've seen what this code can do. It can and will turn on you if you try to use it. I wouldn't be a bit suprised if it even has an appreciation of irony somewhere in itself."
---
"Tell me. What. Happened." Dr. White demanded.
The Coalition lieutenant was obviously surprised at the assertiveness of this man. Most of the other scientists were as he expected. Spineless, indirect, and whimpy. This one was none of those.
"Sir. I cannot reveal the details of the forensic analasy..."
"Then how do I know it wasn't you who poisoned him?"
The Coalition lieutenant narrowed his eyes. This 'scientist' was getting on his nerves now. He was making a nuisance of himself. Had he not been so critical to this research project, he would already be in a political brig.
"If we had wanted you dead. You would be dead three times over before ever setting foot on JiangXi. Do you think we'd go through all this effort, bring you to a highly classified facility, and grant you all this equipment just to start poisoning you on day one?"
The Lieutenant shook his head. Solving such matters diplomatically was not the usual coalition way, but his butt would be on the line if something went wrong with a project this big.
"We have no idea what killed him. It wasn't like anything we've seen before. No poison does that. There was no trace of nanobots. Nobody else was in the chamber with him.
His... color... just disappeared. Like throwing turpentine on a painting. That just dosen't plain happen..."
"And what about security camera evidence? Chemistry reports? I want proof!" Dr. White reported.
"I'm afraid, I cannot provide any. I do not have access to it."
Dr. White snorted angerly at the apparent uselessness of this conscript. "D'oh, fine! You're no help.... and you certainly aren't providing me any assurance that we're not just going to be put in-front of a firing squad when this is all over."
With that, Dr. White pivoted on his heel and stormed back to his lab. He truly hoped Dr. Komm had an exit strategy. A way out of this damnable facility on this radioactive hell of a planet.