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Call it what it is Murder

"I think I’l try self-help first," he said "Cold showers, long runs, inspiring literature That kind of thing"

Parangosky winked "Talk to her If Serin’s okay with that"

Phil ips had never spoken to Halsey He had that curious look on his face, that go-on-please-invite-ht over it "Go see her if you need to, BB"

"You know she wiped part of Cortana’s etable, you’l knoho to blame"

Sometimes BB wanted to flounce out, but he couldn’t He couldn’t leave when he was already everywhere, and he needed to create a gap in hishis sensors were aware of That was the whole problem in a nutshelGaps They hurt Memory was his body; he couldn’t just lose chunks of it without consequences, without thoselike an amputee’s phantom limb

Sometimes he had to partition data so that he had to actively seek out round, but that wasabout Osman’s family history was to firewal the data so that it wasn’t on his mind every time he talked to her

Osman took the radio out of her pocket "What do I do with this?"

"Give it to Phil ips, because he’s got hands Then he can accompany me to a secure terminal"

There He’d done it He couldn’t back out now Osave him a sad little s trip to the engineering section Neither of them said a word until they were in the elevator

"It’l be al right, BB" Phil ips pressed the radio’s case "You knohat the awful thing is? That I could switch off this BB and he didn’t ot he was stil here He doesn’t interrupt He doesn’t join in I told hih Because he’s stil you"

"You’re real y quite sentimental, aren’t you?"

Phil ips looked hurt for a moment "Yeah, I think I am"

Asection It was probably to etting in She was three coe, her back to the door and her head bent over a desk

"Dr Halsey," BB said "Have you got five ave Phil ips a long, appraising stare, then glanced at BB’s avatar She had one of those half-s to do with hu your lips"

"Yes, I’m just the help, Doctor," Phil ips said "That’s BB I’et to heili analyst But at the man"

BB noted that he didn’t mention the university at alNow that was a sure barometer of his sense of identity Halsey looked over BB, not softening one bit

"I didn’t meet you, either, did I?" she said "BB "

"Black-Box, Dr Halsey"

"So which ship or Spartan are you assigned to?"

"I work for Captain Osman"

"Oh Is she here?"

"Yes"

Halsey didn’t quite flinch but her pupils dilated a fraction "Wel , I don’t suppose I deserve a box of chocolates How about Nao cards with the ODSTs" He listened in via the alar, but then "

"So … what can I do for you?"

"I ed as wel , so is there so time baseline discontinuity? I know you wiped a chunk of Cortana and she didn’t realize it, so how about tel ing orith her elbow, eyes narrowed "I’d love to knoho built you That’s quite ined to be completely fabulous So is there a way around it?"

"If you hacked h I can obviously fool an AI into not knowing data’s been deleted" She looked up at Phil ips "Do you knohat this is about? The time baseline’s a little like the system clock on a dumb computer It’s the AI’s sense of reality, for want of a better word If there’s a gap, it’s like staring at yourself in thepart of your face Or that naue that you can never recal even though you know your life depends on it Or a ets it, Doctor," BB said "Never en" See, I can be a bitch too, dear "You’ve been out of the field a long tieneration"

"Yes An AI built by AIs"

That made her blink "I’ve been kept out of quite a few loops, haven’t I?"

"God, yes" BB twirled around to face the door "Thanks, anyway"

Phil ips was very good at taking cues as wel as carrying things He fol owed BB down the passage into one of the server co the radio like it was an anesthetized scorpion that was about to wake up any second

"Is that true?" he asked "That you werethe radio in to that dock, wil you? Thanks No, I just lobbed that in to see if she’d bite She’s upset that they kept Infinity from her, and the Spartan-Threes, and the Spartan-Fours, and even the monthly menu plans She’s rather like an AI, you see She has to know things or she’l burst If she knew anything that could fix the tiained with ot a personality disorder?"

"No, she’s just a nasty bitch An unpleasant personality isn’t aslapped around the head enough"

"Wel , thank you, Dr Freud We’l be in touch"

Phil ips forced a smile and pressed the radio down into the dock with a soft click Now BB could see hilimpse in a mirror that was his precise reflection but not the three-dimensional reality of hie like a coat It usual y took a fraction of a second This ties He’d check it out, integrate it, and see how suffocatingly eht stil come across," Phil ips said "Give her some time"

"She doesn’t know the anse could be running out of time on the Halos, and we real y need to crack on with Venezia" BB would deal with it

If Cortana had coped, then so could he "She can ram it, as Mal would say I’l fix myself, thanks"