Read Online Varken Rise by Tracy Cooper-Posey - Free Book Online Page A

“I’m afraid he really did do it,” he told Connell. “We’ve been over the evidence, too. Catherine is very good with biologics. It’s conclusive. Ninety-three percent.”
    Connell’s mouth opened, yet he did not speak. Then he appeared to pull himself together. “ Why ?”
    “That is a question we would like to answer for ourselves,” Catherine told him. “Until we can speak with Bedivere, we can only guess.”
    “Then talk to Bedivere!” Connell said, as if it was blatantly obvious that this was the next step to take.
    “We can’t find him,” Catherine said. “He’s gone to ground.”
    Connell glanced around the room, taking in the strangers who were working at their own portable terminals, or moving through from the drop shaft to the private wings where Kemp’s room was. He leaned forward and dropped his voice. “I bet I can find him.”
    Catherine realized she was smiling. Just a little. “Not if he doesn’t want to be found,” she told him.
    “He would hide from us?” Connell asked. “We are his friends and he knows that. We can look for him in ways and places that no one else can.”
    Brant raised his brows. “He might be right at that, too,” he said. “Bedivere would feel safe responding to the Varkan.”
    Connell nodded as if the decision had been made. “I will talk to everyone else,” he declared.
    “Carefully,” Catherine urged him. “Only speak to those you trust completely. The Varkan you know. AIs are very good at mimicking awareness, so you should be wary of any strangers trying to talk to you about Bedivere.”
    Connell closed his eye in a slow wink. “I will be careful!”
    Within minutes, the media streams and feeds exploded with the news of the murder. It did not take long after that for speculation to begin about Bedivere’s mental state. Catherine listened to reporters bandying about words like “dementia” and “rogue”, and ancient concepts including “nervous breakdown” and “emotional crisis”. She tried not to listen too closely or take it on board in a personal way. It was difficult.
    Lilly watched with growing disgust. “I wonder how long it will take them to start questioning the safety of any computer?”
    “Not long, I imagine,” Catherine said dryly. She studied Lilly. “When they do, though, they will only be saying what you’re thinking.”
    “That is where you’re wrong.” Lilly gave her a small smile. “In ten years of negotiations with Cadfael College, you haven’t noticed what side of the table I’ve been sitting on? I may have been raised to believe that computers were evil and would kill us all if we let them free. Then I met Bedivere. I no more believe he has gone rogue than you do. I’m beginning to think that computers do not go rogue. I don’t think the concept is a possibility.”
    “Kemp was very convincing,” Catherine said.
    “Enough to have you doubting Bedivere himself,” Lilly said softly. “Don’t give into the doubts, Cat. When Bedivere reaches out for help, you want to be able to help him.”
    “He won’t reach out,” Catherine said. “There’s a reason that he didn’t come to me straight after it happened. As long as that reason holds, he won’t let me find him.”
    * * * * *
    Journalistic fear-mongering incubated for three days, then it seemed as though the entire core world systems started screaming hysterically about computers gone wild and calling for the disassembly or harnessing of every computer before they indulged in genocide.
    Catherine had stopped watching the feeds. She checked them once a day for actual updates, of which there was usually none. Bedivere had disappeared.
    When the planetary governor of Darwin, in the Sykora system, called for the core worlds to cooperate in a universal shackling of computers, Catherine found herself unable to shut down the feeds. She and Lilly and Brant sat around the table watching the display while the food went cold.
    “He’s proposing we all