Lyon and Ryland watched the images on-screen. She had uploaded the android servant's memories to Ryland's portable navigation unit so that he could see them as well. It was surreal, watching Mrs. Archard screaming and cowering in fear while absolutely nothing appeared to be happening. Even more surreal was watching the plants go from lush and healthy to dead in an instant.
It was positively creepy, the RAcaseal had to admit.
"Do you know what this reminds me of?" Ryland asked, tapping the screen.
"No."
"The effect of a Photon life-draining effect."
Lyon considered that. Ironically, this was one of the examples Ryland had cited of why "Photon" and "magic" were the same thing. Certain Photon weapons could drain Photon energy from a target, then change that energy to healing just as a monomate did and restore the wielder. Likewise, certain very rare weapons and armor would drain the user's life to power certain attacks.
"You have a point."
"And here's another point for you. A ghost wouldn't have a physical body, right?"
"Right."
"It's pure energy—pure Photon energy, I'd say."
"You said something about there being a point in this?"
"That android was a pre-Photon model, not only her AI but the body she was in," Ryland ignored Lyon's quip. "She didn't have a single Photon-based sensing device—so she couldn't see the ghost or its attacks. If you'd been there, I'd wager it would be different."
"Maybe so," Lyon agreed. "Of course, that assumes there was ever anything to begin with. Doctoring that android's memory would have been child's play."
"Was it doctored?"
Lyon shrugged.
"Who can say? That level of technology is so basic, it's easy to remove all but the faintest traces of tampering."
Ryland sighed.
"You're so prosaic, Lyon. Why is it that you can't simply believe what our client is telling us—other than the fact that about half the time our clients do lie to us and the other half they keep back some key information because they're embarrassed or because they consider it to be on a 'need-to-know' basis."
"Other than that? Because she's already lied once."
Ryland stopped in his tracks, just before reaching the elevator.
"How do you know that?"
"As long as I was connected to her android, I took a look around its memory. That, by the way, is how I know that it would be easy to hack or plant false data."
The Force was looking at her with something like horror.
"Lyon, how could you do that?"
She shrugged again. It was a very effective non-verbal communication, she'd found.
"I was curious."
"You all but raped her mind!"
Lyon sighed.
"Be logical, Ryland."
"Logical? I'm talking about basic morality, not about logic!"
"Morality is not alien to logic; it serves as a premise in reaching conclusions. It is your other premises that are flawed." She stepped onto the elevator. Why were they having this argument now? "Firstly, that android is not a she, it is an it. Only its external appearance resembles a human female; it has neither female biology nor gender-based thought patterns. Secondly, the word 'rape' is inappropriate because it implies that the android has the emotional capacity to feel violated and abused, or the sensation capacity to suffer, which it does not. It is only a machine."
"You're 'only a machine.' I'd have thought you'd have more sympathy."
"It is because I am an android that I can perceive the precise difference between AIs that are and AIs that are not 'people' rather than objects."
She laid a hand on his shoulder, a gesture meant to imply bonding, a connection of minds and interests.
"Ryland, one of the things that I like about having you as a partner is that you do treat we AIs as people, that you respect my existence as an individual. Many people don't, being unable to see past the creation process to the end result. This is especially rare in Forces, probably because your training enters into areas no android can reach. However, now and again you go too far in the opposite direction, anthropomorphizing things that are not human."
He looked up at her for a long minute, his green eyes meeting her blue ones.
"All right," he said. "My gut doesn't like it, but my head is telling me that you understand the fine points better than I ever could, and my heart trusts you."
Lyon had always wondered why humans metaphorically assigned different cognitive functions to organs that had nothing to do with thinking. She filed the observation away and flagged it so she could tweak Ryland later if he became annoying on some appropriate point.
The elevator took them smoothly to the aerocar deck.
"So what was the lie you discovered?"
"The marriage was not so hearts-and-flowers as she'd have us believe. The android's memory contained a number of arguments between Mr. and Mrs. Archard. There was no violence, but emotionally it was...not pretty. I can transmit the data if you wish."
"Not just now."
"Coward."
"Yep," he admitted frankly.
"Among her specific accusations was infidelity. This appears to be supported, as Mr. Archard on more than one occasions made datalink calls to his mistress."
"The android has all this in memory?"
"It did. Both of the Archards seemed shockingly lax about the fact that what was essentially an active recording device was sitting in their apartment. They should have ordered it into privacy mode. Of course, every month that model performs a core dump since memory space isn't infinite, but even so, it's very poor practice for a scientist and a political official."
"Could the memory data be faked?"
"Definitely. The problem would be in constructing such a large number of synthetic datafiles. It would take time and trouble, and a careful analysis could probably detect signs of tampering, not from the android but from flaws in the memory data itself."
"I see." Ryland tapped his fingertips together. "It could be shock and grief rather than lying, you know."
Lyon considered that.
"You mean that Mrs. Archard might be deluding herself that her marriage was in better shape than it really was because she can't cope with the truth?"
"Or because she loved him, regardless of whether or not he deserved it. If they were having problems, though, it would go a long way towards explaining the ghost. The restless dead don't usually spring from a calm, contented life. On the other hand, if there has been data tampering, it suggests there might be someone out to harm Mrs. Archard, perhaps by driving her mad."
Ryland sighed bitterly.
"You wanted it to be a real haunting." Lyon knew her partner too well to miss that.
"Yes, I did. I know it sounds childish, but I don't want this case to be a plot to drive her mad."
"Ryland, why would anyone capable of elaborate data forgery and of rigging the ghost effects go to all that trouble? Even given that someone has that motive—itself pure speculation—wouldn't it be simpler to murder Mrs. Archard?"
She'd thought that would cheer him up, the argument against the faked-haunting theory, but it didn't. His response told her why.
"I'd thought of that, but there could be reasons."
"Such as?"
"The word of an insane person is inherently untrustworthy. Mrs. Archard is in a sensitive position. Perhaps she's filed reports that threaten someone's plot. Killing her wouldn't accomplish anything; she'd have to be discredited."
Lyon considered that. Ryland had a point. If Mrs. Archard had accused someone of wrongdoing, then she died, it would lend credence to her accusations. Far better to be able to dismiss her claims as the ravings of a paranoiac.
When one considered the number of plots and intrigues going on between the Administration, the military, and the Lab, to say nothing of personal agendas and the activities of shady, even criminal groups, the speculation began to seem plausible, even probable.
"Do you want me to initiate a data analysis?" she asked.
Ryland stopped, laying his hand on their aerocar door.
"I think there might be an easier way. You said that Archard made PDL calls to his mistress in front of the android?"
"Yes."
"Well, why don't you go talk to her directly?"
"You mean, verify the data by verifying the existence of the mistress?"
Ryland nodded.
"Exactly."
"She could be an impostor. An elaborate charade involving hours of forged data would take that step."
"It's considerably harder to fake human emotion rather than data. A human—particularly someone who isn't a professional actor—will make mistakes." He grinned suddenly and added, "We organics are essentially analog technology, you know. Copies and imitations don't have the high fidelity we want to achieve. You'll figure it out."
"You keep saying 'you' instead of 'we.' Why?"
"I'm going to go back to Mrs. Archard's residence. Did you notice the time index of the attacks? There's a pattern."
She hadn't noticed. A quick check of the data revealed it at once, though.
"The attacks were on the 16th, the 24th, and the 28th. Eight days, then four. Do you anticipate another one today?"
"I do. I want to stay here and protect our client, Lyon, because from what I can tell by her actions on these records, the attacks aren't just getting closer together, they're getting worse."