Because these chapters are so short you're getting two of them today. As always the standard disclaimer applies: I do not own the Happy Tree Friends; they are the property of Mondo Media. I own only my own characters and this story. Now here's chapter 31:

31 – NARROWING DOWN THE LIST

"I refuse to believe that anyone on the Council could be a traitor." Mayor King said firmly, "we know what XL-Jack-3 is; we know what his ultimate goal is. I can't imagine why anyone in this room would help him."

"I didn't say it was someone in this room" said Tony Ride mildly, "but there's a leak somewhere."

"How many city residents (besides us) have access to the necessary information?" asked Toothy.

"Not many" said Robot, "only people who are high up in the engineering or security staffs."

"Can we get a list of all such people?" asked Tony Ride.

"I have one here" said Robot producing it for everyone on the Council to see. There were not that many names on it, maybe a hundred or so, and that included the Council members themselves.

"All right" said Tony Ride, "let's accept the Mayor's belief that none of us are traitors. That leaves now about 90 names. Who else can we eliminate?"

"All animals" said Toothy promptly, "no animal is, or has ever been, part of the Marauders, not even under compulsion." No one disputed this as everyone knew that it was true. All of the animal names were immediately removed from the list.

"Okay" said Tony Ride after that was done, "that drops us down to 60 names. Can we eliminate anyone else?"

"It is very unlikely that any A.I. would betray us" said Robot, "we all think logically, and we know what the logical conclusion of XL-Jack-3 is. It is not logical for us to support him."

"Unless" said Tony Ride, "some are malfunctioning?"

"That is always possible" conceded Robot, "although highly unlikely."

"Granted, but let's not rule it out just yet."

"Can't the A.I. Data Central Processor give us a clue?" asked Virgil suddenly.

Robot thought that over. The A.I. Data Central Processor (or AIDCP.) was a unique feature of A.I. life which allowed for the pooling of all of the life-form's resources. It was a computer, but more than that it was a data holder which had been designed to hold an infinite amount of information. The A.I.s used it as a common memory source. It was their inviolate custom, at the end of each day, to copy all of their thoughts and their memories of everything that had happened in the last 24 hours into the AIDCP where it was stored. The knowledge gained was often then correlated with other already gathered memories, building on what had already been gathered, making it easier to solve problems through a sort of communal information center than it would be through individual efforts

Anyone in the city could access the AIDCP to do research or get answers to questions, but the identities of the A.I.s who generated specific information was kept strictly confidential, and private memories were kept private. This was because once an A.I. interfaced with the system EVERYTHING in its mind that was not already in the AIDCP was automatically copied into it, whether the A.I. wanted that or not. No secrets of any kind could be held back from it, and in order to protect the A.I. right of privacy strict controls were maintained on who had access to such private information. The only person in the city who could access that information without restriction was Robot himself and he rarely, if ever, did that. However, recognizing the urgency of this situation, he did agree to check the records of entries for the past few months.

"This will not take long" Robot said as he left the meeting room. And indeed he was back within 15 minutes. No one was surprised by this, knowing the speed at which Robot could process information.

"I know the identities of every A.I. in this city" he said, "and according to the AIDCP none of them have failed to check in to the system in months. Since the only way to keep a secret from the AIDCP is to not interface with it at all, I must state firmly that our traitor, whoever it may be, is definitely not an A.I."

"Which leaves only the humans" said Tony Ride grimly.

(To Be Continued)