said Davis, “Something to do with how they track it. The Navy wanted to call it a ULT or ‘Unidentified Land-based Threat’; the President, I believe, calls it the ‘Thing.’ But I think we all agree it’s a robot.”
Daniel looked at the picture closely. It had been taken from above, the arms and legs were in mid-stride. It almost looked casual.
“An autonomous machine”, said Davis, “that resembles a human and carry’s out tasks on command. That’s the dictionary definition.”
“Whose command?” said Daniel.
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Toby put his hand in his pockets. “A question I have no answer for as I don’t believe this particular robot is from the planet earth. So unless you have upset any extra-terrestrials I have no idea why it’s doing what it’s doing. But, we’ve noticed patterns which may help us. Mr Davis, the next slide.”
The image faded and was replaced with a map of North America with some red lines plotting an angled path which Daniel immediately recognised. It was much the same as his own journey; only it wasn't his footsteps he was looking at. The line was currently half way between Miami and Cuba.
“It never stops,” continued Toby. “It always travels at the same velocity, pretty much, no matter what is in front of it. Even now, it’s walking along the sea bed, dealing with around 50,000lbs per square inch of pressure at the same speed as if it were walking across your back yard.
But it does seem to be lacking somewhat higher intelligence. It follows Daniel but does not see we have been moving him. It always takes the most direct route and, as yet, has been unable to predict any of our changes. So, perhaps we are dealing with some semi-sentient entity. Or maybe just a strange and terrifying computer program? Either way, this is not an intelligent being as we know it. True, some basic artificial intelligence must be at work but we don’t know what.”
Jones sat back and scratched his head, “I’m not sure how any of what you just said helps us though?”
“We can predict what it’s going to do; which means we can keep Daniel safe for as long as we need to.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, Detective Jones, we can keep moving him about and keep the thing at the bottom of the ocean whilst we work out what to do with it. To be blunt.”
“Move me about?”
Davis turned to regard Daniel and offered something approaching a smile. “We’ve worked out we could fly you to and from Europe every three months and the robot would stay at the bottom of the North Atlantic. We’ve already got buy-in from the Brits and the Spanish.”
“The French are proving a little more…French” said Toby, through a skewed smirk.
“And that’s my life?” Daniel sat back.
“It’s a life,” said Toby, “and a safe one. We won’t be abandoning you; we just need more time.”
Daniel rested his head on the table, stared down through his legs at the carpet on the floor. Gloom, dread and helplessness crept around his mind, letting themselves be known. They opened a door somewhere inside and ushered ‘hope’ on its way.
What could they do ? Even if he agreed to all this they’d already tried tanks and rockets. Time? What would they do with time? It couldn’t be stopped.
But then, maybe he needed some time too. He had to get his head straight, get some space. He needed to be away from all these officials and soldiers.
He got up, nodded and said, “When do I leave?”
Toby looked at Davis who checked his phone. “We have a flight scheduled in four hours. Straight to London. You’ll be there later tonight and we’ll be taking you to a secure facility.”
“No,” said Daniel. Toby and Davis shared a look as he stood up. “Firstly, if he’ll come, I’d like Detective Jones to accompany me.” He looked down, pleadingly, at the Jones who shifted in his seat as he gave it some thought.
“Three months? If I can clear it with my captain, I don’t see why