The Fringe Wars

5.9

The Case of the Missing Bots

Tulan Port, Playa

Reyne was more than a bit surprised when Hadley returned an hour later with the items Boden had requested. At that time, Reyne's group was still talking with the construction crews in the stationhouse.

"I don't know what's going on, but I'm sure our Legacy Star bots were used in the attack," Hadley said as she handed a bot to Boden. "The manifests show five hundred spider bots arrived. I'm confident in that number because I manually looked over all supplies as they arrived. I ran pings on all the bots in operation, and the scans showed four hundred currently in operation, which means that we're missing one hundred bots."

"It seemed like a whole lot more than a hundred bots came after me," Reyne said as he remembered the attack. He shrugged. "But a hundred could be about right."

"Yes, but here's where it gets strange," she said. "Now, I oversaw my bots being sent to the docks this morning, and they seemed to be all there. I certainly would've noticed one hundred fewer bots out of two hundred and fifty. I called Simon to see if he noticed any of his bots missing, and he hadn't. And so I did a bit more digging, and I learned that only four hundred spider bots were initially deployed—two hundred to Simon and two hundred to me. I can only think that they were misappropriated sometime between being unloaded and being put into service."

"That's awfully convenient for you," Sixx said. "You didn't notice one hundred missing bots?"

She held out her hands. "My staff uncrated them. Yesterday was the first day of construction, things were hectic, and I guess I just didn't think of counting the bots as they were put into service. Believe me, Simon was just as surprised as I was to find that we're missing one hundred bots. We would've found the discrepancy soon enough. Production levels would be lower than they should be, but we haven't had a full day's stats to review yet."

Hadley then focused on Reyne. "I'm sorry for what happened to you. I want to see justice brought to whoever's behind this as much as you do, and I want things to work between us—between the Collective and the Alliance here at Tulan Port, I mean. Just let me know what I can do to help."

Reyne watched her for a moment. "I believe you, and I'm glad that you're helping us. But tell me, if the bots were stolen, how many people would have the software to be able to operate them?"

She replied. "Any Legacy Star employee, but they've all been thoroughly vetted for past felonies, and all of them volunteered for this project."

Boden stepped in. "These bots are pretty basic. Their operating software would be easy enough to download by just about anyone with some technical knowledge."

"Great. Then our list of suspects grows to anyone who had access to the crates," Reyne mused.

"Easy," Sixx said. "If what Hadley's telling us is true—and I'm not saying it is—we head down to the docks and review the camera feeds from when the bots arrived. Then we'll see who took the crate."

Hadley stiffened but didn't speak.

Reyne ignored Sixx and nodded to the bot in Boden's hands. "My guess is you won't find anything in there, since the others were taken a while back."

"Just the same, I think I'd better take a look," Boden said.

"You do that. But first, how about you go with Hadley and work through Legacy Star's personnel logs to look for any red flags." He paused and glanced at Hadley. "If that's okay with you?"

"Of course," Hadley said. "I'm happy to assist you in reviewing their work logs. However, I won't allow you to go through their confidential files. I respect their privacy."