Danny the bus driver: Earning some points

Bus driver Danny was coasting along the highway, aiming to drive way over to the other side of the city to pick up some pensioners for their weekly bingo session. His radio intercom buzzed.

"Danny, there is an evacuation in progress because of a suspected nuclear bomb. Are you willing to turn around and drive to the River School to help get a hundred kids to safety?"

Danny did not recognise the voice. But the subject certainly sounded serious enough.

He was divorced, his kids were grown up and scattered around the world.

"Risking one old and cranky gasbag to save a hundred kids? It looks like I don't have any choice." was his mumbled comment to himself.

"Yes, turning my bus now."

Danny had just earned himself a few extra points for his final judgement.

River Island Police Operations Centre:

As a benefit of their office, the two generals had immediate access to helicopters. Consequently, they were both able to present themselves to Janet at the police station not all that long after. During their flight, they entered the appropriate passwords and accessed their combat computer systems. By the time they landed on the helipad on top of the police station, they had merged the two, and were already issuing joint commands.

They were led to the operations room. Janet was up front, marker squeaking as she rapidly scribbled notes on the white board. Various officers were in hastily dragged up chairs and computer terminals, busily talking on phones and controlling computer applications. The two generals put their combat system computers terminals on an empty table, and got down to work.

"We're emptying the school right now, and directing the vehicles to go straight out down the highway. We need more personnel along the way, to block side streets."

"Right, give me the access numbers to your communications systems, and I will start diverting troops." said General McIver.

"Then there's the hospital..."

"I'll get my men to there as fast as possible." said General Patterson.

"We are aiming for a total evacuation within a kilometre and a half around the factory. The police are flat out searching the area for anyone left behind. We're also phoning every mobile phone that is in that zone. But further out, we can only concentrate on the easy to evacuate areas." said Janet.

Charlie interrupted.

"That's right. I've just set up a cordon around both of the major shopping centres. If you generals can send in some more troops? There are public announcements in each centre, telling everyone to get out, to pack as many people as possible into their cars, and to drive outwards. We need troops to explain all of this, over and over again, to the people. Also to make sure that they can't drive anywhere but straight out."

The generals directed more of their troops.

The Pink and the Blue troops will be ending up totally intermingled and all working for a common cause.

Molly: Playing her part

For conveying a lot of information in a short period of time, the implanted radio unit was extremely useful.

Molly was convening a group of senior citizens, with the aim of forming a Senior-Junior book reading club. There were plenty of seniors with time on their hands, and plenty of children whose parents didn't have time, so why not bring the two together for some easy to do remedial reading? The seniors present were not quite sure how this could be made to work, and Molly, augmented by Earth Watch Prime's background knowledge, was addressing these matters.

Between one word and the next, she received a full update on the current situation, shoved directly into her short term memory. It only caused a brief stab of pain behind her eyes before her mind cleared again. For verisimilitude, she looked at her mobile phone, and then seamlessly switched to arranging with the seniors to help evacuate the nursery school next door.

She waved off the last car, packed full of little children and their teacher, consulted briefly with Prime, and then she ran to an office unit just down the street and started to coordinate their evacuation.

Naturally, she had no intention of evacuating herself.

Jeffery:

At the River School, the first batch of students had already been packed into a couple of buses and dispatched. Danny drove his bus up and opened the door.

"The next group please!" said a teacher.

They had grabbed the students as they had exited the building and shoved them into blocks of a hundred or so. Most students compiled, those who were rambunctious and didn't play along with the requests to bunch up were just ignored by the teachers. If they did not want to obey requests to get them out as soon as possible, then just concentrate on the ones that did, was the teacher's thinking.

Jeffery stood in the next block waiting to go. He had already rung his father, only to find out that dad was involved in the evacuation of the shopping centre he worked in. So he was not likely to get out any time soon himself. Jeffery glumly watched as the first of his group of students poured into the bus. And right behind him, in the following group, he recognised one of the boys, a younger boy that he had bullied in the past. Impulsively he stepped out, grabbed the boy and shoved him into the spot he had just vacated.

"Here, you can take my place."

"Ah, thanks?"

The teacher did not bother reacting. Just shove the kids into the bus and close the door.

Danny and his bus disappeared down the road.

Jeffery wandered down the rows and took up a position in the last group. His face was red from embarrassment.

Don't worry, no one will ever know, anyway.

Of course, in actual fact, his actions were noticed. Just not by anybody on this mortal plane.

Lex:

Prime currently had the means to simultaneously phone 128 people at once. Leaving some channels spare to communicate with the police and the army, he was methodically calculating who were the best to contact, who were the most likely to take notice of him and to carry away to safety the most people. The lucky ones got a phone call.

Lex was sitting at home, enjoying a film on his entertainment centre. He idly wondered what all of the police sirens were about, but he was not one to watch the news channels, so he was not aware of the crisis. For some reason, Prime refrained from giving him a call. Even though Lex's house was just one kilometre from ground zero.

Four Teenagers:

The hands of the big wall clock in the ops room were inexorably ticking around. The minute hand had now marked out forty minutes since the start.

The two implanting units had fully covered the bomb. They no longer appeared to be doing anything.

"These are woefully inadequate for the task on hand. They're designed to drill microscopic holes through a human skull, then interface with the nerves and brain cells inside. I'm now forcing them to drill through the multiple layers of protection of the bomb, steel and high strength plastics, and forcing them to interact with electronic circuits. I'm managing, but only just. If only I hadn't sent down my spare radio implanting unit. I could have rapidly modified it to disable bombs like this, then delivered it to you in sufficient time. Unfortunately, it takes too long to make one from scratch and too long to fetch the spare and get it to me. So I have to do the best with what I've got." said Horatio.

"Will you be able to completely disable the bomb?" said James.

"Probably not in the time given, although it will be close. However, I'm targeting the ignition system. There's about a hundred little explosive disks arranged in a sphere around the nuclear payload. They each have an ignition line that goes back to the control circuitry. The timing of the ignition pulse to explode the disks must be extremely precise and exact; to create a perfectly uniform explosive front that slams into the payload in perfect balance. This leads to a uniform compression of the central core, which then creates the correct conditions for a nuclear chain reaction. If I disable just a few of these ignition lines, the compression will be irregular, and the nuclear explosion will be compromised. Disconnect a few more, and all that you have left is a chemical explosion with radioactive debris." said Horatio.

"Err, right. So there will be a big explosion, but chemical only?" said Rebecca.

"Yes, anything within a hundred metres will be adversely affected, and the radioactive plume will drift out over the river in the general direction of the school."

"Oh"

"Ah, so why are we still here?" said Pink.

"There is still a job to be done."

Danny the bus driver: Earning some more points

Bus driver Danny brought his bus to a halt, squealing the tyres only slightly.

"Right, get out and follow the police!"

A hundred students, some confused, some fearful, some skylarking around, currently packed in like sardines, poured out of the bus. Many were on their phones, trying to contact their families.

Troops and police ran around, shepherding them all down into the subway station, then they also followed. His intercom spoke-

"Danny, there is still some students left, and we might have twenty minutes. Or we might not."

Danny turned the bus around and headed back towards the school.

"Am I really doing this? Who do I think I am, some sort of hero?" was his thinking. He accrued some more points.

Molly:

Molly had just finished the evacuation of the office unit. She politely ignored the offers of a lift and watched the last car speed off down the road, and then moved on to some private residences.

Police Operations Room:

In the operations room, the tension was rising. People kept looking at their watches. Or phone screens. Or the big clock on the wall.

They also kept on working flat out.

Charlie made an announcement.

"The immediate surrounds of the factory have been cleared, except for the four teenagers still at the site. For some reason they refuse to budge."

"But there's no way they can disable the bomb!" said one of the generals.

"We can't do anything about them now. Our police forces are withdrawing from the area. The school has almost been evacuated. As soon as the last student leaves, the troops and police officers out there will also be leaving."

Everybody in the room had already realised that they will not be leaving. They were still too busy co-ordinating too many other evacuations.

Both Charlie and Janet received a simultaneous call on their phones.

"Don't mention my name to the others, but tell everyone and pass on the news. There is going to be sonic boom followed by a flash of light straight above the factory. This is not; repeat not, the bomb going off. It's part of my efforts to disarm it."

Confused but feeling like they had no choice, they relayed this message.

"What the fuck is going on? What flashes of light?" said one of the generals.

"Sonic booms? We don't have any military flights anywhere near here!" said the other.

Earth Watch Prime:

Horatio was talking to the teenagers.

"The good news is that enough of the ignition links have been disabled, so the bomb won't go nuclear."

"The bad news is that I probably won't be able to disconnect them all, so there will be a radioactively dirty chemical explosion."

"I had nowhere near enough time to make a specialised bomb disarming unit, but by cannibalising some of my manufacturing plant I was able to make something that will contain the radioactive debris of the explosion. It is already falling through the atmosphere above your head, and the delivery rocket will be arriving about five minutes before the estimated time of explosion. Which is just enough time to do what I want."

"So right now, stay inside, turn away from the door, and clamp your hands over your ears and close your eyes. There's going to be a loud bang, but not from the bomb."

Earth Watch Prime's crash manufacturing process had produced what he wanted. He then squeezed the result into his delivery rocket, incidentally leaving the articulated robot behind. There was not enough room to fit it in also. The rocket left the confines of the main vessel, pointed its nose straight down, and fired its rockets. Normally the delivery vehicle would have a reasonably leisurely trip down, brake to a gentle stop just above ground level, and land. Then it would reverse the process to go back up.

There was not the time. The rocket accelerated straight downwards at full power to build up speed, flipped over to point its nose back to where it had come, and kept falling. By the time it had gotten to the lower atmosphere and air resistance was building up, it had achieved quite a respectable speed. Due to the supersonic speed its tail was glowing red hot as it compressed the air it was falling into. At the last possible moment, it fired its engines again. Glowing orange from super heated air and its engine exhaust, it braked heavily at 10G and managed to slow itself down to zero, just as the ground came up to meet it.

Four Teenagers:

To those in the factory, with their hands clamped to their heads, there was a long silence. Followed by a horribly loud crack as the rocket slammed into the ground. Next was the sonic boom from the compressed air of the rockets descent. It started off as a wave of pressure hitting them. The factory walls and roof rattled and shook from the landing blast. Then the noise settled down to a continual roar that kept on echoing, as the sonic boom from many kilometres of air arrived in a continuous progress that only gradually started to fade.

[Ok Pink, get moving!] said Prime.

She was the only one who could do the first part, since she could withstand higher temperatures than the others could manage. She ran of the building towards the rocket, still glowing hot. Explosive bolts fired and part of the rocket's side came free, exposing the contraption that Earth Watch Prime had hastily constructed. It slid out of the rocket and ploughed into the ground. Pink grabbed its front and dragged it into the factory.

"Let's see, this could be the results of an illegitimate mating between a washing machine and a small pipe organ, with the random contents of a chemical factory thrown for good measure, all held together by a hodgepodge of alien high tech control modules." said Blue.

[Not far wrong,] said Prime. [The alien high tech really is that, it's parts I had to cannibalise from my own manufacturing plant.]

Pink dragged its weight into the factory. As soon as it came to rest, the other three started their tasks.

There were coils of thick tubing attached to the contraption. Rebecca grabbed one such coil, unwound it, took the free end, and laid it outside. She weighted down its end with some convenient bricks and planks. The exhaust pipe of the machine, to get rid of its waste heat. She repeated the process for another pipe and also wound it and placed its end outside, away from the first one. The air inlet pipe.

Pink, being able to also withstand high electrical voltages without being fried, uncoiled an electrical cable from the machine, took it to the now open metre box, and started to make connections.

"This meter box is locked and not to be connected without approval from the electrical supply company." read a label hanging from the main switch

Pink ripped it off and turned the switch on.

James dragged another pipe to the fire hydrant, connected it, and turned the water on.

Blue took the remaining pipe, fitted it to the gas mains, and turned the gas on.

Immediately the contraption started to make an amazingly loud racket, and out of its end it spewed an enormous amount of grey foam, which splashed around the factory floor and started to rapidly fill up the whole area. Produced from a combination of water, air and gas, powered by the electric mains, using chunks of nanomachinery ripped from Earth Watch Prime's physical systems to do the chemical synthesis.

"Now start running!" said Horatio. In their minds was the escape path, straight down the hill, around some trees, then over an embankment wall and huddle at the bottom. "You have two minutes - oh, shit! You have ten seconds, the bomb circuitry has started its final countdown, my time estimation was off!"

The containment foam-generating machine became even noisier and a wave of foam surged across the factor area, soon hitting the roof.

And Pink snatched up Blue and Rebecca in one arm, and James in the other, and began running.

"Argh! Blue, you're squashing me!" said Rebecca.

Blue couldn't reply out loud, he really was being squashed against Rebecca by Pink's hold, so much that his couldn't breathe properly.

[Pink, you can't possibly run fast enough with all three of us...] said Blue by radio, or he started to, before realised that she actually was running far faster than they could individually.

[Pink can't reply at the moment, she is devoting her full computing resources to making sure she doesn't trip over. It's dangerous, even for her, to run at this speed.] Prime didn't say this to the three others, he put it directly into their short term memories. There was not enough time to speak it.

[And what's that humming noise that is raising in tone?] said James.

[Pink's main hydraulic pumps, working at well above their rated capacity.] was Horatio's reply.

Three seconds to go.

Earth Watch Prime sent the appropriate signal, and the delivery rocket glowed cherry red as its self-destruct charges went off. It melted down into a pile of non-descript slag.

Pink ran up to the embankment wall, jumped and was over and down the side and braking to stop safely at the bottom. She almost made it, too.

There was a crackling splatting noise and Pink jerked and lost control, dropping the three humans and sprawling into the ground in an untidy mess. The humans managed to land reasonably safely, but with bruises and swearing.

Everything stopped moving. A second's silence. And then a loud thump, followed by... Actually nothing.

[Busy] went their radio implants. A few seconds later, the busy signal disappeared.

Jeffery:

Danny was driving the bus as fast as he thought was safe. There were a couple of police cars in front of him, lights flashing. They passed, in a blur, side streets with uniformed soldiers standing by, making sure the bus had a clear passage. Jeffrey sat at a window seat, right behind the driver, nose on the glass window.

How are they going to get to safety?

"Danny!" said the intercom. "Slow down, turn into that car park, and drive behind that building!"

There was a moment of calm silence, two police cars and a bus parked in the shade of a tall building.

"Ok, everyone can relax. The bomb has gone off, but only as a chemical bomb. The radioactive fallout has all been contained. Emergency over." said the intercom.

Jeffery slumped into his seat, letting the tension go from his body. He was interested to see Danny doing the exact same thing.

"Wait for a bit and I will tell you what to do now." said the intercom.

Police Operations Room:

One of the helicopters currently sitting on the roof of the police station had a spy camera mounted. So Prime had called the pilot directly and asked him to point it straight at the factory, and to focus it so that the factory filled the screen. Accordingly, a view of the factory, across a couple of kilometres, was visible on the one of the main screens in the ops room. So as the last ten seconds ticked down, all personnel had stopped doing their jobs and just watched. They could see four figures, just blobs of pixels at that range, run out of the factory and disappear below the tree line.

Picture a toy house into which a child puts a grey balloon, then pumps up the balloon. The balloon expands and pushes out the walls and roof of the house, so as to end up with the dismantled pieces of house hanging all over a large bulbous mass of the balloon.

This is what happened to the factory, only it happened instantly. One second the factory was sitting there, the next second had the factory's walls and roof broken into segments and haphazardly strewn all over a large, irregularly shaped, grey mass. Looking like a mushroom that had sprouted without warning, except not as smooth.

Silence.

"Good work, everyone. The crisis is over. The bomb was sufficiently disarmed so the explosion was a chemical explosion, with no nuclear reaction happening. And the containment foam managed, just, to hold all of the radioactive bits from being blasted all over the suburb. So, thankfully, there is no radioactive contamination." said Prime, speaking to the people in the ops room.

"That's impossible!" said one of the generals.

"We must examine the site as soon as possible!" said the other.

Four Teenagers:

Horatio appeared in front of the teenagers, leaning leisurely against some railing that had not been there a moment before, a brandy sniffer in his hand.

"You can all relax now. The containment foam held, there's no radioactive contamination."

"The busy signal was when I devoted my full resources to looking at the factory with every last instruments I had, to see what was going on."

"After all of that, this is a bit of an anticlimax." said James.

"I assure you, sir, that you would not have wanted it to be any other way." said Horatio.

"And what's wrong with Pink!" said Blue. He had just noticed that she was sprawled out on the ground, looking - somewhat weird.

"I'm all right, everyone." said Pink. "But I've blown my number three main hydraulic pump, and it took out some of my hydraulic lines. So until I get a replacement body, I'm kind of incapacitated."

And indeed, she was. She struggled to sit up, but was not able to stand. Her entire left hand side was drooping, the muscle tone on that side was totally gone.

"You look terrible. Does it hurt?" said Rebecca.

"It did at the start, then I turned off my pain reception to that area. I'm so glad that this one of the ways I'm not human." said Pink.

"And how are we to get you back home?" said James.

Horatio had walked over to Pink, knelt next to Pink and patted her back.

"I'll get police officers Charlie or Janet to give you all a ride." he said. "In the meanwhile, if perhaps Blue could carry her out to the road?"

"This is great! I get to be carried everywhere and get lots of hugs!" said Pink.

It was easy to be light-hearted about it all, since she would be getting a replacement body soon, no problems.

"Hmm, actually there is a slight problem," said Horatio. "The delivery rocket's last journey was strictly one way, it didn't have any fuel left for the return voyage, so I triggered its self destruct charge just before the bomb went off. And I do not have a spare. And, since I have to rebuild my manufacturing capabilities, it's going to be about three weeks before I can build a new one."

"Oh" said Pink.

"Never mind" said Blue. "We will just hide you from sight while you wait. A small price to pay."

"Hmm, again. You haven't realised yet, have you? You're going to be famous for a while."

"Err, why?" said Blue.

"Well, because Pink, plus you others, will appear to be the discoverers of the bomb, and somehow disarmed it. You saved the lives of about thirty to fifty thousand people, you know. Everyone is going to want to have a talk with you. Pink's disability, which is so obviously not human, is going to be a bit of a problem. Although, we all have to admit, nowhere near as bad a problem as the bomb was."

"This is going to be a pain." said Blue.

He picked up Pink and held her in his arms, and they all walked to the road. Blue sat down, holding Pink against him, and they waited.

"Not the carrying Pink around, mind you, but keeping the public at bay."

"Also, Pink, your school uniform is practically in tatters and your hair styling is totally ruined!" said Rebecca.

"Eeek!" said Pink.

Janet and Charlie:

Janet in the police ops room had just received a call from Prime. After it finished, she addressed the crowd.

"If I could have your attention please! Sorry, generals, but since there is no longer a military emergency I'm exercising my police powers. I, and Charlie, are going to the factory site right now to do an initial appraisal and see those four teenagers. I request that the military don't crowd us. Give us a bit of space. But don't worry, give half an hour or so and I'm sure I'll invite you out as well." said Janet.

Grumbles from the generals.

"Ok, ok", said one.

"We'll spend the time handing the control of this crisis down the command chain." said the other.

Four Teenagers:

The teenagers waiting on the roadside were still having their discussion with Horatio.

"There is one possible way of getting Pink back up and running. It would involve using a top of the line 3D printer to print some piping and connectors, and then someone has to, in effect; operate on Pink to divert a few pipes, insert some extra valves, and to isolate the blown pump."

A gasp of horror from Pink. "You mean some of my physical systems will be using human produced parts! They could fail at any time!"

"But your body has already failed, Pink. And as I said, it's the best 3D printer commercially available. Which means it is adequate, just barely, to the task at hand." said Horatio.

Sigh. "I suppose I have no choice. But my body is not designed to be serviceable in the field. How are you going to fix me, and who's going to be doing the fixing?" said Pink.

"No, your body isn't field serviceable. But think of it. Human bodies aren't designed to be field serviceable, either, are they? None the less, humans manage to replace all sorts of things in their bodies."

Four teenagers thought through the implications of this. Then three pairs of eyes all turned to looked at the fourth teenager.

"Why are you all looking at me..." said Rebecca, moving back a bit in surprise. ”Oh. My parents."

"Your parents are doctors. And one's a surgeon." said Blue.

"That reminds me." said Rebecca. She called her parents.

James called his father.

Janet and Charlie:

In the police car, lights flashing and siren wailing, as they sped over the causeway.

"Who the hell is Horatio, that he could detect this bomb and disarm it, anyway?" said Charlie.

"I've no idea. Is he a good guy or one of the baddies?" said Janet.

"And, furthermore, how was he able to access the police communications systems, and both of the military’s systems, with apparent ease. Not to mention, what is this containment foam business, anyway?" said Janet.

"And, don't forget, Esmeralda is somehow involved. I somehow don't think she would lend her support to anything the slightest bit shady, so I'm willing to bet that Horatio is one of the good guys." said Charlie.

"And then there was that sonic boom and flash of light."

They stopped speculating, since it was nothing but a waste of time.

Charlie exerted some self-control, and instead of screeching to a halt with locked wheels and running out to have a look at the factory site, he gently guided the car to a careful stop in front of the teenagers. They got out and looked up the slope. Unfortunately, the trees and the embankment obscured the sight of the factory.

"Horatio says that, while there is no trace of escaping radioactive containments, it is still a good idea to stay away from the location, until the military has thoroughly checked it out." said Blue.

"Right. And..." said Janet, before pausing.

Was she actually going to ask permission from the teenagers before giving the generals the go-ahead? Granted, Horatio, whoever he was, had been running the show and had requested that they get to the teenagers first, but still?

Fortunately, she didn't have to.

"Horatio says it’s now ok to call in the military. What he wants you to do is to take all of us back to Pink's house, and then we can have a discussion." said Blue.

"Ah, Ok". said Janet.

Blue wasn't using a mobile, so how did he know what Horatio wanted? was her thought.

Both Janet and Charlie, at last, had a look a Pink, currently leaning against Blue and being cradled by him.

"Aagh! What's wrong with Pink!" said Janet.

"Let's get home first?" said Blue.

The Two Generals: Did not see anything

The two generals got permission to proceed. They packed up their portable computer systems, and made their way to the helipad. Once there they discovered the two pilots, a man and a woman, were hugging each other and looking out over the river to the factory.

"Hmm?" said general McIver, "I didn't know you two knew each other?"

"We didn't. It's just that you didn't give us any orders, so we stayed here. Waiting for a possible nuclear blast..." said the woman.

"Oh. Sorry about that, we forgot." said General Paterson.

"Humph" said the man. "Also, I hope you don't mind, since, of course, we're from opposite sides of the river."

The generals looked at each other, and both shrugged their shoulders.

"Don't tell us, and we won't know." said one.

"Know what?" said the other.

The pilots separated, and flew the generals out to ground zero.

Janet and Charlie:

Pink's group were now in her lounge, the teenagers on two sofas, and the police officers standing, and Martha just then bringing in tea and coffee for the lot.

"You have lots of questions, but things are complicated. You know from our original description how Esmeralda will allow us to read a person's soul, or to allow that person to read ours?" said Pink.

"Yeah, we certainly do remember that bit." said Janet.

"Well, how about you two read Blue's and my souls?"

Janet and Charlie blinked. They looked at each other, then looked at Pink.

"We get to read your souls?" said Charlie.

"Yes. What do you have to lose? If Esmeralda doesn't exist, nothing will happen. If she does, then you get to know a lot about what happened, and as police officers in charge of this area, it's something you need to know." said Blue.

"Also, we're choosing not to read your souls in return. It's not necessary for us at this point, so we might as well give you some privacy." said Pink.

Ten minutes later.

"So you're a robot." said Janet, in wonder. She was kneeling in front of Pink as she slumped on the sofa, taking a close look at Pink's face. She held her hand, the one on her good side, and gently massaged it.

"Feels completely normal. Apart from the ataxia down one side, you look completely human. You're so amazing."

"Ah, thanks." said Pink.

Charlie shook his head in wonder. "You two, well actually now six, certainly have some powerful friends. Really powerful."

"Yes, they have." said Horatio, via Charlie's mobile. "But not so powerful that I don't need to ask for some help."

"Help from us?" said Janet.

"Yes. I've partially blown my cover. In the next few weeks there is going to be a lot of discussion on the social medium on the web. I shall be doing my best to suppress or divert any topics that lead to sensitive subjects. I'm also in the police and military computer systems, hopefully you don't mind too much, and I will be acting there also. However I will need to have frequent contact with you two, also."

Horatio stopped talking, and waited to see if they made the connection.

"This is about the radio link, isn't it?" said Janet.

"You are, err, inviting us to have one embedded in our heads?" said Charlie.

"That's right. You don't have to, I won't be forcing you. But it will be very convenient. And, after all, if it wasn't for me..." said Horatio.

"We'll all be dead. Everyone in our household." said Charlie.

"Our children" said Janet.

"Not forgetting the tens of thousands of others." said Charlie, "I suppose you want it done as soon as possible?"

Two hours later, they drove back to the police station. They were having a conversation, in total silence.

[We need some plausible justification for taking over two hours.] said Janet.

[Well, let's say it took that long to get them coherent and to get their statements.] said Charlie.

Actually, it didn't take all that long to get the statements. With Prime doing the composing, they were very coherent.

Janet drove the police car into its carport and came to a halt. Horatio momentarily appeared, sitting in the back seat.

"I just like to say that you are free to tell your spouses and other adults in your household, and they are welcome, but not forced, to also have implants."

"Right." said Charlie.

They went to the ops room, and resumed working. With constant feedback from Prime.

One thing they did straight away was to cordon off Pink's residence, and put a few police cars at strategic spots around it.

"It's to protect them from every reporter and paparazzi in the city." said Charlie.

Which was a very good excuse, as it was actually true.