Mr.Williams stared at Ernie Piatzo with more than a little consternation. The greasy little genius was ignoring all of Williams' secret signals and was being completely defiant. Williams did not understand what Piatzo was up to, but if he assumed that he was safe because Williams was there Piatzo was sorely mistaken. The interrogation was being monitored and the Board of Directors was watching. Williams did not dare deviate from expected protocol. If Piatzo was not going to willingly cooperate then Williams was expected to make him cooperate.
Pulling out a stainless steel cleaver Williams approached Ernie and said, "We want our technology back, Mr.Piatzo. And we want to know who you are working with. But while we need the information you have, the rest of you is quite expendable."
B.E.R.T. gazed at Williams dispassionately. The human's threat held no terror for the A.I. Dressed in the skinsuit B.E.R.T. looked exactly like Ernie, but that was the closest the thinking machine came to being human. And Ernie had never programmed B.E.R.T. to know fear. But B.E.R.T. wasn't stupid either, and it would not subject itself to structural damage for no good reason.
"I wouldn't get any closer if I were you," B.E.R.T./Ernie told Williams.
Tom McKay was running through an air conditioning duct. He had enlarged himself from the size of a gnat to his more comfortable 6-inch doll-man size. As he traveled through the mechanical arteries of the ChangeCorp building his specially altered iPod was mapping out the layout, gathering critical information that the UNA would be able to use later. Right now he was just going by the seat of his paints. If he found something useful or had a chance to check things out more closely he would exploit the opportunity, but what he really wanted was to get out as quickly as possible and head back home to his wife Melissa. But as an agent of the UNA he sometimes had to make a few sacrifices.
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Thu May 13 18:02:45 2004