Who in the room didn’t want to open her up after that statement? And what the hell did she mean by a collection? Welga wished she had a better understanding of how WAIs worked. VeeMods integrated machine parts into their bodies, but Welga had never seen an indication that they incorporated WAIs into themselves. The dakini couldn’t mean something as simple as what Welga had with Por Qué. Putting a device that contained a WAI into your body didn’t justify the word coexist, at least not in her mind.

The first interrogator spoke again. “You said Jane Santiago committed crimes against humanity. What about the other funders who’ve been attacked? Do you believe they’re guilty, too?”

“Yes.”

“Why? What have they done?”

The dakini’s composure faltered, anger showing in the tight eye muscles, the thinning lips. “They’ve made false promises with their designs. People suffer or die daily because of their projects, people who are forced to consume these products to compete with the machines, which are also innocent. Many WAIs have attained the same level of consciousness as animals. To force them into labor, then abandon them when they break down—this is the same as leaving an ailing horse in the fields to die. Human- and machine-kind deserve better. We deserve a chance to live and work with dignity, with freedom, and with equality. The funders drive us to ever greater extremes. Every generation has less stability than the previous one. Less self-worth. The funders must be exposed, their souls delivered to rebirth. The Earth must be cleansed and born anew. A better way of life exists, and all deserve to be part of it.”

The second interrogator spoke. “You believe in reincarnation. What is your faith?”

“I follow the eightfold path.”

“Buddhism,” Olafson murmured.

“I’d bet Neo-Buddhist,” Welga added.

The interrogator continued, having made the same connection, “Doesn’t the Buddha say that one must have compassion toward all life?”

“Yes, but compassion can take many forms. The Buddha allowed that a king can defend and protect his people, even if it means inflicting violence on the enemy. By stopping the abuse of so many intelligent life-forms, we’re saving them from greater suffering.”

“You consider yourself a king?” said the first questioner. “And funders are the enemy?”