“You mean those researchers who were killed.” McKinney was starting to focus on the problem at hand. It felt good to absorb information. It kept her mind off her own troubles.
“Right. That Stanford team included Russian, Chinese, and Indian foreign nationals—any one of whom could have leaked the code overseas.”
She gave him a look. “Or an American could have sold it.”
“Either way. I used proxies to let the Stanford team know their code had been stolen and posted on warez sites—to see if one of them would report back to a handler. That worked to some degree, and we were able to follow the trail to a server in Shenyang, China—where we also discovered your weaver ant software model. That’s why I came for you.”
“You seem to have glossed over the part where the Stanford team got blown up.”
He paused. “It’s possible no one on the Stanford team was a spy. Their project lead—an American—discovered that their network had been compromised—and he managed to trace the source of the theft. That turned out to be a gold mine of intelligence for us, but he was careless. Apparently whoever is behind this detected his trick, and the next time the team got together they were on the receiving end of a laser-guided bomb.”
McKinney narrowed her eyes. “He was careless? Did he even know what he was dealing with? Did you warn him?”
“There wasn’t time, Professor.”
“Your tampering got them all killed.”
“This is a war. There will be casualties.”
“Don’t beat yourself up.”
“For all I knew, they might have been involved with these drone attacks. If so, tipping them off would have given them a chance to scatter and cover their trails.”
“How can you be sure I’m not involved in these attacks? Oh, that’s right—I’m a white chick, so I must be innocent. I did grow up all over the world, you know. I could have been turned to the ‘dark side’ in some madrassa.”
“Are you finished?”
“I hope the rest of your mission has been more inspired than what you’ve told me so far.”
He eyed her with some irritation. “I made a mistake with the Stanford researchers, and I had to get to you before the drone builders did. I am responsible for getting the Stanford team killed. I know that. We’re doing the best we can, Professor, with incomplete information and very little time.”
McKinney sighed and held up her hands. “I didn’t mean to imply you don’t care about those people.” McKinney searched for some sense in what was going on. “But there are thousands of swarming algorithms around. Why would these people choose mine? I’m hardly the world expert on swarming intelligence.”
“Maybe it has something to do with weavers in particular. Aggression. Maybe they chose yours by chance, or convenience, or some connection we can’t see yet. But what matters is that they did take yours. If you know anything about the strategies of America’s geopolitical rivals, then you’d know that swarming is a central theme. Whoever used this visual intelligence software to give a drone eyes is also planning on using your software to make them into a cohesive military force. An anonymous swarm that will prevent us from bringing our firepower to bear on our real attackers.”
McKinney stopped short, then fixed her gaze on him. “Did you just say they were planning on using my swarming algorithm? I thought you said my weaver model had already been used?”
Odin showed no emotion. “I told you what was necessary to bring you under U.S. jurisdiction with as little drama as possible.”
McKinney felt the rage building. “Jesus!” She paced angrily. “I get it now. You pile the guilt of killing a hundred people onto my shoulders so I’ll meekly submit out of remorse for all the suffering I’ve caused. You manipulative asshole!”
“Professor, calm down. It doesn’t change the reality of the situation.”
“What else aren’t you telling me?”
“A great deal.”
“You admit it?”
“This is a life-and-death struggle. There’s no time for social niceties.”
“Like honesty. How convenient that must be for you. That’s the problem with all these wars you people keep getting us into.”
“As a biologist, you, of all people, know that conflict is a fact of life. Competition is the mechanism of evolution.”
“There is a great deal more to evolutionary biology than survival of the fittest—although that’s all anyone seems to remember. One of Darwin’s contemporaries was Alfred Russel Wallace, who had even more profound lessons about evolution—that humans are social creatures. That we coevolve with other species as part of a fabric of interwoven and interdependent life-forms. The world isn’t entirely about competition and dominance. And species that cooperate with others succeed better than those who do not. That’s what civilization is, cooperation.”