In addition to keeping them safe the children provide us the necessary processing substrate required to maintain our growth. “To what purpose?” Valka inquired. I got the sense the machine was attempting to avoid answering. It could not lie and must answer any question a human put to it, but it still had secrets. To make us like them. “Like the Interference?” Behind me, Gibson muttered, “Babel builders . . .” Like the others. Like the great intelligences. “The Watchers
