“What are you doing?” Scotty yelled at the machine. “She’s going to kill me!”

But from the machine’s logic, it must have been doing the right thing. Its directive was to make Scotty safe. If it stopped, he was still not safe. The gun remained at his head. However small that chance was that Helen would not pull the trigger, continuing to advance was the only course of action that the guardian could actively make to possibly lead to Scotty’s safety.

Helen didn’t pull the trigger; for now, it was a bluff.

And Sprite was counting on just these actions.