we can not do this. Morally, there’s an argument to say that if users expect us to do the minimum required by law, then that’s what we do. Granted. But I think this thing trumps that. If anyone assisted Hodgkin and Buckett and we can help identify them, through whatever we can do, we should. In the second place, if we can help prevent someone who’s setting up do this in the future, we should. And finally, for our reputation, we can’t be seen to be obstructive. We have to be seen to be leading.’
‘This is leading in the wrong direction,’ said Chris.
Andrei shrugged. He knew by now what James, Chris and Kevin thought. ‘Ben?’ he said.
At first Ben didn’t respond, intrigued by the fact that Andrei hadn’t been persuaded by James’s argument that if he did this, he would have to do it in the case of any crime. That was normally the kind of logic that Andrei would have fallen for. In fact, he would have expected Andrei to be the one articulating it.
‘Ben?’
‘What I want to know,’ said Ben, looking at the others, ‘is what happens if there’s another bomb in another couple of weeks, and because we didn’t provide everything we could, because we dragged our heels, the FBI wasn’t able to stop someone they would have found out about? What happens, James, to our reputation then? More than that, what happens to the way we get held accountable?’
Andrei’s phone rang. It was Sandy, who was on a field trip with her anthropology class. He went into his bedroom to answer it.
Sandy had just heard about Fishbowl’s involvement and asked what Andrei was going to do. He told her about the discussion that was taking place at the house. She asked him if he wanted her to come home. He didn’t see the need.
‘It’s a tough choice,’ said Sandy.
‘What would you do?’ he asked.
‘I’d …. I’d probably go with James and Chris,’ said Sandy. ‘But I haven’t heard all the arguments. You know I’ll support you if you go the other way.’
He came back.
‘James was just saying,’ said Ben, ‘that in the case of the example I gave, we say we were doing what was required by law. It’s the same as cops not going into a place without a search warrant, even if that means they don’t find out about a terrorist plan that gets carried out the next day.’
‘Even if another three hundred people die?’ said Andrei.
James shifted uncomfortably. ‘That’s the price we pay for our constitutional freedoms.’
‘Go tell that to the dead.’
‘They’re not dead, Andrei. Ben posed a hypothetical case. Hard cases make bad law.’
Andrei didn’t find that persuasive. James didn’t back down. Where would it end if they committed to give the government anything they asked for? At how many degrees of separation would they agree to stop? Andrei said they could impose their own limits on that when they spoke to the FBI agents. Chris argued they would be branded as obstructionist if they did that, and they may as well stick with the letter of the law.
The argument kept going, and they didn’t find any way to bridge the difference. At around midnight James called it to a stop.
‘We’ve said everything there is to say. Andrei, where are you now?’
‘I’m where I was.’
‘OK, sleep on it.’
‘I don’t think that’s going to change anything.’
‘We’re not doing anything until the morning. We told the FBI guys we’d be ready for them at eleven. We’re meant to be at the lawyer’s office at ten. Whatever happens, Andrei, we don’t do anything until we talk to him. No statement from anyone, right?’ He looked meaningfully around the room. ‘And I mean anything.’
Andrei glanced at his watch.
‘OK,’ said James. ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’
James left. Ben went shortly afterwards. Kevin and Andrei still lived at the house, and Chris often stayed there when he was in Palo Alto. They talked for another half-hour or so and then went to bed.
Andrei had never felt more powerfully the burden of being the leader of this company. It was in the global spotlight now, he knew, at the very centre of the biggest thing that was happening in the world. The decision on how the company should act was his. Others could advise but he had to decide.
At around two, unable to sleep, he called Ben. Ben answered the phone quickly. He didn’t sound as if he had been asleep, either. It had been a long time