The Camelot Gambit

by A. J. Scudiere

  Eleri headed back to her own computer, grabbing the USB, plugging it in and pulling up the videos once again. She opened up the last two yet another time. This time, it looked like Marat had mapped the interior room of the church.

  "And," Eleri gushed, joining his excitement now, "according to the notebooks, some of the entries are one day and then the next, or one day and even just a little bit later that same day. The time stamps are very close. In fact, the last several entries, the time stamps between the first and second runs are within minutes of each other."

  "What?" Donovan said, as they began flipping through the transcribed pages.

  "Look. Look at this one." She pointed to information now in his own handwriting. "See? He runs them, and then not five minutes later, he runs them again, with no errors. And he has notes about recording the maps themselves. "

  Donovan pointed to his computer screen, where he still had the articles pulled up, and she began reading over his shoulder. "Successful mapping of unknown areas is considered one of the top robotics problems of our decade. Do you think Marat solved it?"

  "I don't know, Eleri" he said. "I don't think it even matters. What if he didn't solve it? If he was close enough that somebody else thinks they could run with it or if somebody even believed he solved it, I think," he pointed to the screen again, "that this is reason enough for a murder."

  "You think somebody would really kill over this?"

  "Eleri, it's one of the top robotics problems. If he can solve it, he can sell it."

  "And if he can sell it, then money is involved and that’s a valuable motive," Eleri added. She was looking at him, now fully on the same track. "Not only that, but he would have a claim to fame. Which, here in Curie, might be even more of a motive."

  44

  Eleri spent most of the next day reading up on robotics. It wasn’t her topic of choice, but it was fascinating. She followed many of the same rabbit holes that Donovan had as well as many new ones.

  Jivika Das had placed Marat Rychenkov's drones as only third on her list of reasons she thought he might have been killed. The dog-like robot they’d spotted in his garage had been her first choice. Marat’s patent on a multi-legged, tripodal motion system had come second. The drones had clocked in next. Fourth had been Marat’s ability to always flip an omelet without breaking it—due to his well-researched combo of pan and fat. The fifth spot she’d left blank.

  Given Jivika’s obvious disregard for the task, Eleri had wanted to toss the list into the trash. But that wasn’t an option. They had to check everything she’d written, even the damn omelets. Luckily, that one went quickly, as there was nothing to find. So Eleri and Donovan spent a good part of the day researching the topics Jivika had handed them. That way, when they went back in the evening and grilled her again, they would have specifics.

  The second thing they checked off Das’s list was the dog-like robot. It played no part in anything Eleri could find. The bot was interesting, sure, but he wasn't unique. In fact, Eleri had been seeing robots like that on internet videos for several years.

  While the literature was full of these types of bots, there was nothing by Marat Rychenkov, and nothing about the dog in his notebooks and nothing that sounded as though this was anything other than a common bot.

  The patent had turned up more interesting bits of information. Rychenkov had designed a centipede-like bot that walked using only a series of footprints. When a leg picked up to make a step, it then put down into the exact footprint that an earlier leg had vacated. This left the multi-legged bot having a tripod-like stance that kept it stable.

  “Even so,” she looked up to Donovan, “Rychenkov already holds a patent for this system. Tripodal motion in robots isn’t that new, and Marat wasn't the only one who'd solved it, or maybe even the best.”

  “He modeled it on what a variety of animals do. He looked at walking gaits in dogs, horses, elephants, and interestingly enough, even spiders and centipedes.” Eleri pulled up a video that showed a centipede walking, but the film was from below on a plate that lit up when touched. “Look,” she said as she pointed to it, turning the screen to Donovan. “Even all these multi-legged creatures move in a tripodal fashion.”

  Donovan agreed. "Do you think he was killed for that?”

  Despite how fascinating the topic was quickly becoming, it didn’t check the boxes for motive. “No, I don’t. Other people had access to this information. Even that patent isn’t in his name alone.”

  Donovan tapped on his own keyboard. “I don’t see any money trail from that patent. And the other name on the patent is alive but lives three states away and hasn’t traveled here …”

  “So that makes the patent an extremely unlikely path. The drones, on the other hand. . ." Eleri completely agreed. "So do you think she knows about him and the mapping of the drones?"

  "Probably."

  "Do you think she killed him?"

  "No," Donovan said, "but I'm getting more and more concerned that she might be next."

  "Jesus, and what about the kids?"

  "We'll put the police on them. They’ll have some level of protection. It's about the best we can do without scaring the crap out of everyone involved."

  Eleri nodded and called Kate’s private cell. It might be tapped, but she couldn’t wait any longer. “Hey, Kate, sorry to bother you, but it’s necessary.” She told the woman what she needed and was assured of a call back shortly.

  "So we’ll have officers following Jivika Das. Do you think they’ll be subtle enough?" Eleri asked Bennett.

  "Possibly, but this is Curie, so there's every probability they'll be spotted right away. Even by the kids. But I don't know what to do to solve that problem except pull the police detail, and I don’t want to do that.”

  He told her they might be worrying about nothing. "And there's no reason to believe that another murder will be committed. It may be that our killer already found what they needed and they're gone."

  "That's valid," Eleri said. "Who's left town since Johanna's murder?"

  "No, not since her murder—since the last unidentified break in."

  "Good point."

  They began working their way through records, but everyone they were watching had remained in place, without even a weekend trip or a family break among them.

  Her phone rang as she was checking off the last person on her list. “Kate!”

  “It’s done. Officers will be on the Mazur home within twenty minutes. We’ll have someone on Das within five.”

  “Wow.” Eleri thanked the woman and hung up, passing the news on to Donovan.

  “Small town, smart town,” he murmured, as though that explained everything. Maybe it did.

  Eleri turned her attention back to the robotics problem, because the more she read, the more she learned that there was more information out there than she could possibly hold onto.

  This work, at least, was far more rewarding than the rest. It felt like a one-to-one ratio. She could do X amount of work and get X amount of reward. So she dove in.

  It turned out, the problem was multifold. The uses for drones—which Marat had specifically been looking at—often involved unsafe spaces. Chemical hazards, war zones, unknown territories. Even deep-sea exploration.

  Swarms of drones needed to be able to fly in and navigate safely and return with their information. The ability to not fall or get damaged in the first place, or to get back up once they'd run into something, was critical. They had to report their gathered information, share maps, and communicate with the other drones, all while working in a possibly inhospitable area. Eleri was beginning to understand why this was considered a “grand challenge.”

  After frowning at her computer screen for a moment, Eleri headed back to the pages she and Donovan had transcribed from the notebooks. She flipped through until she found what she wanted. "Here, Donovan. I think we're even closer to what this is about it. Look. This entry says the drones fell and then got back up and rejoined the swarm. He
ultimately only had a loss of two, which he says is acceptable."

  "Do you think it's a hard number or percentage of the herd?" Donovan asked.

  “Probably percentage.” But she read on, discovering that other problems facing robotics as big challenges in the coming decade involved AI, human brain interface, and biological alloys—materials that would move more like muscles and skin, allowing the drones to withstand more, rather than cracking in accidents.

  "None of these," she said to Donovan, "looks like anything Marat Rychenkov was working on."

  "No," Donovan said. "And it's not even really up his alley."

  "But," Eleri pointed out, “this one is exactly up Jivika Das’ alley."

  "What?"

  "She's a bio-mimicry specialist. If he's trying to design robot skin that acts like human skin, then she's exactly the person you'd want to ask—often—about how human skin functions. It explains all the calls between them."

  "Or they might have been working on human-brain interface,” he added. “Shit, I hadn’t looked at it that way. There are several possibilities that would put them not only in contact with each other frequently, but provide an idea that both of them would want to hide.”

  Eleri was nodding. “If they could solve either of those two problems, it would put them directly in the crosshairs of companies, patent hounds, and even competitors.”

  Donovan agreed, grateful that they finally had their questions ready for Das before they headed over again. It was once again time to pay a little visit to Jivika Das, only now they were more heavily armed. And it was time to increase her security.

  They would start by showing up in person, this time, which they hoped would startle her. Though she was looking up Jivika’s tracker and making sure the woman was accounted for, Donovan’s voice startled her. As they pulled up in front of Das’ home, they saw that Marshawn James was pulling up behind them, apparently visiting the house next door. They couldn't go unnoticed.

  "Hey, Marshawn!" Eleri hopped out, motioning Donovan to do the same. "What are you doing here?"

  "Oh, Emersyn's friend lives here. You?"

  "We're here to see Jivika." She pointed to the woman’s front door.

  He smiled that wide grin and Eleri had that moment again, Small town. She'd have to watch herself or Marshawn would catch on to her. Hell, Emersyn, might have already, especially if Joule Mazur had told them anything.

  When Marshawn emerged from the house with Emersyn a few moments later and saw Donovan and Eleri standing and talking, leaning against the car, he frowned.

  "Looks like Jivika didn't make it home yet. She's running a little late," Eleri explained, and then she turned to the teenager. "Hey, Emersyn."

  She watched Emersyn's eyes carefully as the girl looked at her with half a smile and waved. Did she look at them differently? Eleri couldn't tell. And even if the girl did know something, would she be suspicious, or would she admire them, thinking the job was cool?

  Eleri had no idea, but as they were waving goodbye to Marshawn, Jivika Das pulled up into her driveway, once again stopping just short of the garage door. Eleri and Donovan had checked the garage, and much like the Rychenkov-Schmitt home, her parking spaces were filled with boxes, biological oddities, and objects she claimed were from various experiments. At least Eleri’s own biology background led her to believe that statement was true.

  They followed the woman inside and went through the usual pleasantries where Jivika offered them drinks or food and they declined. She made the offer every evening, as though she had forgotten they'd told her that the killer’s initial move had been to subdue the victim through some kind of drug.

  Tonight, they opened with, "Tell us about Marat's breakthrough with the drones, Jivika." Both watched as her eyes went wide.

  45

  The twitch in Jivika’s gaze was her tell, and Eleri watched for it. She was seeing it often. Yes, though Jivika refused to say what she had done when working with the drones, it was becoming more and more clear that—whatever the project was—she and Marat had been working together on it. But was Jivika’s part supplying biological information for him to apply to his drones?

  Eleri asked that exact question and watched as Jivika's mouth said “no,” but the twitch in her eye said “yes.” Eleri pushed further, as did Donovan. There was no good cop/bad cop tonight. There was only mad cop/mad cop—two FBI agents who were angry that their one witness had been holding out on them.

  "We could arrest you," Eleri said.

  "You wouldn't," came the reply. "You haven't done it yet. You're not going to do it now."

  "Yes, we absolutely can, and we will. I'm considering you for obstruction of justice right now. We have two murders to solve. We're concerned that more might be coming." Eleri bit her tongue, not adding that she was afraid there were children possibly in danger in this scenario, while Jivika was withholding answers.

  She tried another tactic. "If the idea is partly yours, then you deserve the credit. If you're not the killer, we can make sure that you inherit the project. But right now, all you're doing is making yourself look bad."

  Eleri’s anger had not quite shaped the words the way she would have liked. She should have appeared stone cold about all of it, but she was angry. Every time Jivika's eye twitched, Eleri got angrier.

  "That's not it," Jivika said.

  "Then what is?" Eleri volleyed back, almost instantly.

  "That's not it," Jivika repeated, more sternly this time, making her answer as clear as her refusal to say more.

  Well, crap. The woman wasn't going to answer anything she didn’t want to. Eleri kept pushing with the questions though, as did Donovan, and they didn't let up.

  Then Eleri played another card that they'd been holding onto. "Tell us about the biological-type skin that you and Marat were developing for the drones."

  Jivika shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

  Fuck, Eleri thought, a misplay. She'd been so certain that this was what they’d been working on, but there had been no eye twitch accompanying the denial. In fact, every time Jivika had covered something up, she'd straight out said, "No," or said she wouldn't tell them. This had been a truly genuine reaction, and Eleri felt her anger and her blood pressure rise.

  In the kitchen, something rattled for a moment, and the three of them looked up, startled.

  Jivika pointed toward the other room, frowning. "Can I go check and see what that was?"

  Eleri quickly nodded. “One minute. Go."

  It was Donovan who looked strangely at her as though to ask, Why would you let her go?

  Eleri replied in low tones, "Me," and pointed at her chest.

  Donovan frowned harder and mouthed, "You?" and pointed to her, the question clear.

  Eleri reached up toward her face as though to sign that she was angry and that had manifested in the kitchen, but she didn't know sign language, and neither did Donovan. But he got the idea, and his head pulled back just a little bit as if to say, Wow.

  Eleri wanted to agree, but didn't feel quite the same emotion. It was irritating that she had that power but couldn't control it, because now was certainly not the time to be rattling pots in the kitchen. Jivika was already walking back into the room, shaking her head and shrugging as though she had no idea what could possibly have caused the noise.

  Eleri imagined a string of curse words in her head. After several more questions, to which Jivika replied in full sentences that she had no idea what they were talking about, Eleri eventually gave up. She was out of possible cards to play, and they'd been all the wrong cards, anyway.

  Though they were right that there was something at stake about Marat's drones—something Jivika had been helping him with—they'd only managed to narrow the large categories. The biological type skin idea was all wrong. The human brain interface, also all wrong.

  "You need to leave town," Eleri told her, playing a card from a different deck since the first one had failed them.

  "I
can't. I'm in the middle of three projects."

  "This is your safety we're talking about."

  Eleri was becoming more and more convinced that things not playing out the way they'd intended was nothing but a bad sign. If she didn't even know what the case was about, how could she protect the people involved? If anyone else could follow what she and Donovan had followed, they would arrive at Jivika's doorstep, too. Now she said as much to the woman.

  "I'm not leaving." Jivika crossed her arms, her expression petulant, almost daring them to make her go. Eleri didn’t mention the police detail and neither did Jivika.

  "If you don't have anywhere to go, we can set you up with a safe house. Maybe you can work remotely, but no one will know your location."

  "That's not good enough," Jivika replied, her eyebrows lowering sharply as she stared at the two of them. "I'm not in any danger. Marat was the one who had the idea. He asked me a few questions here and there, but I don't know that I even helped him."

  Another lie, Eleri thought. The rest had been true, but that part—about helping him—that was a lie. Jivika had helped him enough to know she was important to the project.

  Eleri leaned forward, hoping her expression conveyed that she could read the woman without specifically saying so. "These are instructions from your local friendly FBI agents. I'm not confident that you're safe anymore."

  Jivika volleyed another question back, her gaze darting back and forth between the two of them and landing on Donovan, as though she wasn't convinced Eleri was a reliable source. "Are you convinced that I'm not safe?"

  Donovan first looked to Eleri, and she was grateful for that show of solidarity. Donovan wasn't going to get played off of his partner, and neither would Eleri. As they looked at each other, she shook her head.

  "No. I can't tell you that definitively, but I can tell you that I'm worried. And I would rather be safe than sorry."