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“With L.”

“Right. The high school boy who had a crush on a classmate and sent her a Christmas card signed ‘With L.’ A dangerous thing in the 1940s in the Deep South, when the boy is Black and the girl is white.”

“Willie James Howard. It was a true story.”

“And still relevant. That play deserved an audience.”

“It deserved tofindan audience. It didn’t deserve to have one bought and paid for by the playwright’s father.”

“I’m sorry for that. I went a little overboard.”

“Alittle?You rented a theater and hired a director and a team of actors. Thank God Mom stopped you.”

“Is that why you’ve kept this new play a secret?”

“Partly.”

“What’s this one about?”

It didn’t seem like the right moment to reveal her dramatic take on the dangers of Big Data. “It’s about player pianos,” she said.

“Well, then Patrick really pulled your leg. None of those around Buck.”

Twilight was turning to darkness. An attendant brought blankets, but it wasn’t nearly chilly enough to need them.

“Speaking of music to one’s ears,” her father said, though it took Kate a moment to connect the awkward segue from player pianos, “what did you think of my presentation to new employees this morning?”

“It made we want to run out and get a big dog.”

“They allow pets next door.”

“Stop,” she said with a roll of her eyes. She drank her champagne. “I did have a question that I didn’t dare ask in front of the group.”

“Ask it now.”

“What did you mean when you said Buck can’t control who’s driving the sled? I’ve heard you say a thousand times that you don’t do business with buyers unfriendly to the West.”

“That’s true.”

“Then what was the point of your analogy? Sometimes you get duped? You might sell to a ‘sled driver’ who’s actually just a front for the Chinese or Russian governments?”

“That would never happen.”

“How can you be sure?”

“We have people who vet that for us. Very talented people.”

“Like who?”

He smiled. “When you accept permanent employment in the Buck legal department, I’ll be glad to tell you.”

“Okay, that’s fair. But if your vetting process is that good, what did you mean when you said you don’t know who is driving the sled?”

He paused, then seemed to turn philosophical, almost professorial in his tone. “Even if you don’t do business directly with the enemy, it’s still a leap of faith as to how the technology will be used. There are bad apples everywhere. In every company. In every government. It’s impossible to know what’s in every customer’s heart.”

“That’s unsettling,” said Kate.

“Is it? You make a car, someone might drive drunk. You make a gun, someone might use it for something other than sport or self-defense. Technology is no different.”

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