“Now that you know the situation, Mr. Raines, Ms. Enslow, let’s make very certain you understand what you’ve done to your friend.” He pointed at Yuri. “He is a walking, talking backdoor into our system, one that I can’t close. I wasn’t able to force him out of the program, because he had a very powerful patron who wanted to make sure he stayed here. If we booted Sysevich out, General Marsh would’ve had a deluge of senators calling for him to be replaced. The kid wouldn’t even consider leaving himself, because a write-protected sector of his neural processor contained some preinstalled, operant-conditioning algorithms to compel him to stay here, no matter what.”

Wyatt’s eyes shot wide open.

Against his volition, Tom’s mind turned back to Yuri on the stairwell that day after everyone climbed the Spire. Yuri had outright told him the thought of leaving was like some terrible weight pressing in on his temples. Now Tom felt so angry at himself, because he hadn’t thought anything of it.

He knew that sensation, the sense like a vise was squeezing his skull. Dalton’s program used that exact sensation when it was controlling him. Tom knew it, he knew it, but he hadn’t even made the connection.

“So you see now why I installed that filtering program. It jumbled all Sysevich’s sensory data. He couldn’t transmit anything useful to the other end. By stripping my program away, you gave Obsidian Corp. full access not only to Sysevich but to our entire system and every neural processor within it. We’re lucky this wasn’t worse.”

Tom had this vague sense he needed to do something, but he couldn’t seem to make himself move.

“Now I think it’s been long enough,” Blackburn muttered, turning on Yuri. The daemon program snapped to alertness, jerking Yuri’s head up straight, his body shifting into a defensive stance. “I don’t care how sophisticated a computer interface might be, I want to deal with a human being. I’ve given ample time for a remote administrator to assume control over Sysevich’s actions. I assume I’m addressing a person now?”

Tom’s gaze swung over to Yuri, and he made out Yuri’s tiny nod.

“Good.” Blackburn folded his arms. “I suppose you’ve anticipated my next action?”

“You intend to neutralize this asset,” Yuri said tonelessly.