Daemon

in any event it phoned me just before the attack.’
    Ross piped in. ‘And no other radio or cell phone traffic worked on the estate.’
    Trear considered this, calculating the impact of this information on the case. He looked more serious the more he thought about it. He shot a glance at Decker. ‘We cut off electrical power to the house, right?’
    Decker nodded slowly. ‘Yes, but the acoustic team says there’s a motor running in an outbuilding. Probably a generator.’
    ‘Damn. We’ve got to take that house as soon as possible.’
    Ross stepped past Sebeck and right up to Trear. ‘You’re not thinking of defying the Daemon’s demands, are you?’
    ‘
Defying?
’ He pointed at Ross but looked at Decker. ‘Who does he belong to?’
    Decker was gingerly touching his bandaged head. ‘That’s Jon Ross. The consultant we brought in for questioning from Alcyone Insurance.’
    Sebeck added, ‘He discovered the Daemon.’
    ‘No, I didn’t.’ Ross turned to Trear. ‘Look, just don’t storm the estate.’
    ‘Sobol’s not in charge, Mr Ross. He can make all the demands he wants. It won’t affect my plans in the least.’
    ‘Agent Trear, I think this is another trap.’
    Trear rolled his eyes. ‘No kidding. The whole house is a trap.’ He looked to Sebeck. ‘Detective, please escort Mr Ross out.’
    Ross persisted. ‘I just don’t think the house contains critical information. It wouldn’t make sense – from a technological standpoint – for Sobol to store his plans there.’
    ‘No one’s accusing Sobol of making sense, Mr Ross.’
    ‘I think this event was designed to announce the Daemon’s arrival to the world, and to set the stage for something to come. It’s finished here.’
    Trear digested that for a moment. ‘And what makes you think this?’
    ‘Because that’s the way Sobol thinks.’
    ‘How would you know that? You’re not a psychologist.’
    ‘I’ve played Sobol’s games. A lot. His AI succeeds because it doesn’t anticipate you – it
manipulates
you.’
    Trear didn’t dismiss it immediately.
    Nearby, Agent Straub glanced at his watch. ‘The press briefing was scheduled to start four minutes ago, sir.’
    Trear looked to Ross again. ‘Why should I take you seriously, Mr Ross? You’re a wandering computer consultant who doesn’t even keep a permanent address – and you play video games. Does that qualify you to deconstruct the motivations of Matthew Sobol?’
    Ross couldn’t think of an immediate response. Put that way, it sounded bad even to him.
    Trear continued. ‘I appreciate that you want to help. But what you see here is not our entire investigation. Sobol was under psychiatric care for nearly a year before his death. As we speak, I have criminal psychologists conferring with his doctors and reviewing thousands of pages of medical notes –all to build a profile of Sobol’s changing motivations as his illness progressed. His goals. His fears. We’ve used this approach with great success in countless cases – and usually with far less raw data to work with. So I think we know a lot more about Sobol’s motivations than you.’
    He waited for his words to sink in. ‘This is a serious situation. Six good men died today – leaving behind wives and children. These were people Detective Sebeck, Agent Decker, and I knew. Others were maimed and injured. This isn’t a game. If we guess wrong, many more people could die – and not just here.’
    Sebeck spoke up. ‘Agent Trear, I’ve seen Jon work. He helped me understand how Sobol killed Pavlos at the canyon scene, and he shut down the Daemon over at Alcyone Insurance when it first appeared. If it wasn’t for him, this situation might be even worse. I think somebody technical should listen to what Jon has to say.’
    Trear nodded appreciatively.
    Agent Straub cleared his throat. ‘Sir, if we want to make the evening news window, we’ve got to hold a press conference.’
    Trear looked at him. ‘Straub, this scene is being covered 24/7 by every news channel on the planet. Don’t worry about the news window.’ Trear turned away and pulled a pen from his suit jacket. He started scribbling on a memo pad on a nearby conference table. ‘Look …’ He tore the page off and handed it to Sebeck. ‘Bring Mr Ross down to CyberStorm’s corporate headquarters and ask for Agent Andrew Corland. He’s head of the FBI Cyber Division. They’re examining the CyberStorm corporate network and interviewing