Page 138 - Just Deserts

Telepax

complete turnkey end-user support. Now, as I explained to you on
the telephone last week, Telepax is a spin-off of TTI’s military
technology. Its operating principles are not widely known because
they were classified until very recently.”
Drubble and Ness found themselves being guided by gentle prods
to the elbow toward a row of campaign chairs, next to which a small
group of technicians in white lab coats were clustered about some
electronic equipment.
“Please have a seat,” said Skinner smoothly. “The demo will start
in a moment. The heart of telepacification is TTI’s proprietary
package of scanning, recognition and targeting sensors and software.
Telepax is a modular device, easily disconnected and transferred from
one disabling generator to another; that feature makes it economical,
versatile and relatively impervious to changes in weapons technology.
This will not become obsolete: when a new type of ordnance
becomes available, all you will need to do is reprogram the host
computer, to which each Telepax is in constant communication by a
secure and encrypted radio channel.”
Darryl B. Drubble frowned. Unlike Ness, he had no fear of
modern technology and its application to police work. The
widespread availability of automatic weapons, self-defeatingly
encouraged by his own gun-toting constituency of law-abiding
citizens, had been tilting the balance against the police in recent years.
Many officers would not willingly show themselves as targets if a
situation were not totally and obviously in their favor. Action at a
distance without exposing his people had a strong appeal to the chief.
But he had some questions.
“It seems to me, Mr. Skinner, that any user of Telepax will
become totally dependent on TTI for the weapons it will control.”
The energetic young salesman, whose military crewcut could not
have been a millimeter longer than his prospective client’s, beamed
and nodded at the chief, as if at a student who had asked a
particularly apt and penetrating question.
“In the short run, perhaps, Chief Drubble. But, thanks to the
original DOD spec’s, TTI has designed Telepax with a completely
open architecture; we cannot prevent—and indeed will welcome—

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