CIA Headquarters, Tysons Corner, Virginia
Two days later
It was the most extraordinary meeting Louis Massina had ever attended, and it took place in a room that had only four simple wooden folding chairs, each padded at their feet. The floor and ceiling were cement, as were the walls. These were isolated from the rest of the building by different layers of material, including a copper envelope that made it impossible to either transmit or receive electronic signals inside. To get here, Massina had submitted to two different searches and been escorted, even inside the men’s room.
When he walked in, three men were already waiting. He knew none of them, and they didn’t introduce themselves. All wore business suits but no ties. He sat in the open chair, a man on each side, and one across.
“We’re very familiar with your work on robots,” said the man across from him. “It’s quite amazing.”
“We try. I have a good team.”
“We’d like to enlist your help,” continued the man. “We have a situation overseas where we think one or more of your robots would be very useful. We’re trying to save the life of someone who might be helpful to the West. He’d be grateful, and so would we.”
“Who?” asked Massina.
“We need a commitment from you before we give you any more information,” said the man. “As I’m sure you can understand, this is a matter of very high national security. And frankly, if it were known that we wanted to rescue this man, he would most likely be put to death immediately.”
“I see.”
“You would not be at risk, neither you nor your people. We would take over one of your robots and—”
“Excuse me, but let me understand what we’re talking about. If you’re looking to buy one of the robots that we sell commercially, that’s not a problem. But if you’re talking about something else . . .”
The man who had been talking looked at the man on his left. The man reached into his suit jacket and took out a piece of paper.
“This robot. Or something similar.”
It was Peter.
“That’s an experimental bot. I’m afraid only my people can operate it.”
“That might be possible,” said the man on Massina’s right. “Given the time constraints, it might be the best solution. But there would be a certain danger involved. And I have to emphasize the amount of secrecy involved. We wouldn’t want your device falling into the wrong hands.”
“I agree.”
“If you decided to work with us,” said the man across from him, “the government would compensate you fairly. We would have to work out a lot of details, but if there’s no interest, or if you think this is not the sort of area you’d prefer to get involved in, then let’s all walk out of this room as we came. Friends.”
I’m not sure we came as friends, Massina thought.
“Anyone on your staff who was involved would need to pass extensive background checks,” said the man on the right. “Of course, we would do everything we could to keep you safe, and your device safe. But there would be no guarantees. We would destroy it if things didn’t work right.”
Massina decided the seats had been arranged to make him think the man opposite him was in charge, but it seemed more likely it was this man on his right. They were all self-assured, all confident, and they certainly spoke like leaders used to having people agree with them. But the others glanced at this man a certain way.
Do my managers look at me that way?
“Explosives could be rigged in the device,” said Massina, “timed to go off unless a command was given. And the programming is already set to erase itself within a certain period of time, as a security precaution; we download it with each use.”
A recent innovation, given the Russian interest.
“But my company would have to be adequately compensated for our risk,” added Massina.
“We would absolutely agree,” said the man across from him. “If you need time to decide, we can give you twelve hours.”
Massina looked at the man on his right, the one he thought was really in charge. “Answer one question: Does this involve the Russian intelligence service in any way?”
“It does. Not directly. But if we can rescue the man we’re talking about, then they will be harmed severely.”
“I’m in,” said Massina. “What are the details?”