"W-well, don't feel too bad," said Heiji, since it seemed like Atsuro could possibly be beating himself up over this.

"I mean, it's not like we've been able to get many answers out of Zero, either. Hard to find out anything when one side holds all the cards. I just thought that... I dunno. That maybe the robot you talked to wasn't a part of the big plan, somehow. One of the things Zero told me was that in this big experiment of his, the possibility of failure was very high. 'Course, he coulda been lying through his teeth. But somehow, I don't think he was. He's arrogant as hell, from what I can tell, and types like that ain't really keen on acknowledging failure. Know what I mean?

"So... how about this? Do you think the robot was set to betray you all along? Or is it possible that he really did have some motive other than followin' Zero's orders? Not helping you guys, necessarily, but maybe something like 'screwing up Zero's plans'?"