“Oh, right. And I’m supposed to just take the word of two government agents and a crazy man?” He glanced apologetically at Zellerbach. “No offense.”

“None taken.”

“Even if it was technologically feasible,” de Galdiano continued. “Why would Christian want to kill his own customers? He created this technology to help the people using it—to make us see things the way they are and not how our minds filter them. Beyond being psychotic, it would be counter to everything he’s trying to accomplish.”

“I have to admit that your system’s ability to make subjective judgments about people is impressive,” Smith said, deciding to adjust his approach.

“They aren’t subjective,” de Galdiano protested. “Not in the same sense as yours and mine. That’s the point—to introduce reason and logic into…” His voice faded for a moment when he realized where Smith was leading him. “You think he’s going to kill the people the system judges negatively.”

“We spoke with him,” Zellerbach said. “He admitted it. I heard.”

“Maybe it wasn’t him.” De Galdiano indicated toward Randi and Smith. “Maybe they were tricking you.”

“They’re smart, Javier. But they’re not that smart—particularly where technology is concerned. I’m telling you that Dresner purposely built a system that can kill its user. I’m guaranteeing you that. All you have to do is find the right combination of signals. I know because it took me almost two weeks to hit on it.”

The Spaniard didn’t answer immediately, his supercharged mind collating and assessing what he’d heard.

“It was you,” he said finally. “You were the one pulling processing power from all over the world. You crashed Amazon.”

“Twice,” Zellerbach admitted. “With that many possibilities, I needed a lot of processing power.”

Some of the skepticism drained from De Galdiano’s expression and was replaced with confusion. He was slowly putting the pieces together and discovering that they all fit.

“I didn’t tell you my last name, Javier. It’s Smith. Colonel Jon Smith. Do you recognize it?”

He nodded numbly. “You’re in charge of military development. But if you’re telling the truth, where is everyone else? Why haven’t you contacted my government? Why didn’t you just kidnap me? Why aren’t there black helicopters and a hundred CIA agents?”

“Because Dresner’s watching every aspect of his system. He’d have early warning of anything out of the ordinary.”

His face went blank in the same way Marty’s did when he was working on a complex problem. Smith leaned back in his chair and watched the waitress approach with a tray full of coffee cups. He smiled politely as she doled them out but de Galdiano just stared straight ahead in what looked like the early stages of catatonia.