by T S Paul
“Good morning, Robots-Are-Us ask about our new RAM unit. How can I help you today?” Min just stared at her console. It was seven in the morning and this woman was way too perky.
“This is Major Minerva Lee of Freedom Station I need to be put in touch with someone about a specialty robot your company put together for someone.”
“Hello Major Lee, let me put you through to Mr. Stevens he is charge of that section.”
After a moment the screen opened to a skinny man in a paneled office. “Stevens here, what can I do for you?”
“Mr. Stevens, my name in Major Minerva Lee from Freedom Station. I have a few questions for you about a specialty robot that you put together for a Mr. Theai.”
“I’m sorry Major Lee, but we keep the confidentiality of our clients very secure. You will need to get a warrant to get that information.”
“How about I just crack this thing open right here then?” She held up the robotic cat to the camera. “It should come apart quite easily I think.”
The now startled man held up his hands in protest. “Wait! Please, don’t destroy it! It’s the prototype for a new line we are working on with Mr. Theai.”
“Speak now or the cat gets it!”
“Since you have the CATT in your possession I can assume that Mr. Theai is a friend of yours?”
“He went to Mars with my sister. You might say I am Cat sitting. This thing ate something this morning and I need to find out why?”
The man looked surprised. “It ate something? Interesting.”
“Why is it interesting? It’s just a robot. Is it supposed to eat?”
“It is not just a robot. That is the prototype of a new breed of robot.” He started laughing. “Sorry, Major. I crack myself up.”
Minerva just rolled her eyes. Why is it she had to always speak to the nerds? “Please explain.”
“What you have there is a Counterspy Anti-Terror Termination unit or CATT. Mr. Theai dreamed it up and brought it to our attention. We’re his partners in its development. When he first suggested it, we thought it was some kind of toy for rich people. But then he mentioned using it for counter-intelligence we became interested. A new Navy contract would be nice. You would have to speak to his programmers to get all the details we really only do hardware. However from what he told the board of directors it is supposed to track down spy units, bugging equipment, secret cameras, and intrusion devices. If it ate something you may be bugged. Do you want our tech team to sent you an operating manual for the CATT unit?”
“Thank you Mr. Stevens. If I need further help, I will be in touch.” Minerva looked at Merlin, the robot was purring and pretending to clean itself. “You can cut the act, I know you’re smarter than a real cat.”
The copper colored robotic cat continued to pretend to clean itself. Very slowly it raised its head and winked at her. Damn that Wilson!
Minerva watched the cat all morning. During breakfast it hung out with the other farm cats and patrolled the kitchen looking for scraps, now and then the CATT would stop and study a kitchen appliance or electrical outlet. Just as Minerva finished her food and was about to set the plate aside, the robot lightly jumped up on the table. It walked over to her and nudged the salt and pepper shakers. She just stared at it. The cat looked over at her and shook its head. Taking the pepper shaker in its mouth it bit down on it. This got a reaction from Min.
“Hey! Put that down. It belonged to my mother!” Min stood to grab the shaker from the cat just as it dropped into two pieces on the table. Inside was a small electronic listening device.
The cat sat staring at her as if to say ‘I found it for you.’ Min picked up the device and dropped it into her glass of water.
“Good kitty.” She stroked the robot who reacted like a real cat would. It arched its back and began purring. She scooped the cat up off the table and carried it up to her home office.
Switching on the light Minerva set the cat down and looked at it. “Fetch.” The cat just stared at her. “Seek.” More stares. “Go.” Now the cat was pretending to sleep.
Min swore to herself. She was beginning to see why her sister got a little crazy sometimes. Imagine having this all the time in your head? OK, time to try again. “Here kitty kitty. I have treats!” She held up a small bag of nuts and bolts.
The Cat looked up from its nap at the bag of metal. It shrugged and began to patrol the room, sniffing everything. The cat began pawing at her bookcase. It knocked a shelf of very rare and expensive Old Earth paper-bound books onto the floor. Using its claws it began tearing at one of them. Cursing, Min ran to save her treasure from the cat.
“Shoo! Cat get away from those. They cost me more than you did!” Minerva picked up the now tattered remains of the book and noticed that it was not one she was familiar with. Since when has she ever owned ‘War of the World's?’
She was about to yell at the cat when she noticed the faint wisps of smoke coming from the spine. Merlin’s claws had shorted the listening device out. Minerva looked around the room and the cat, Merlin, was sitting on the console licking its paws.
Shaking her head Minerva sat in her chair and looked at Merlin. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. I’m guessing that Wilson designed you to seek out bugs and destroy them.”
Merlin the CATT glanced in her direction and meowed at her, then went back to cleaning its paws.
“If I give you free rein to go wherever, will you get rid of any threats on the property? I will assign a disposal tech to you. He can set up in one of the unused bedrooms. Bring anything you find to him or get him for hard to reach items. Is that OK?” Robot or not she was talking to a cat!
Merlin looked at her again and meowed. It got up and nudged her hand. She absentmindedly petted it like a real cat. “After we get the house clean, we can start on the station.”
Sitting in her room one of the house maids was cursing her computer module. Three of the most advanced surveillance devices in existence just stopped working. Bugging this house had been unbelievable easy. Using standard operating procedure she had replaced one of the house maids after she had died in a house fire. The employment agency the Lee family used was old and easily infiltrated. This was before the so-called revolution. The idiot that interviewed her could only look at her personal assets not her resume. She would miss Hannibal Lee, he was pretty dumb but a good kisser. It was too bad that he was killed.
That damn revolution woke this family up and they took action ruining all of her plans. Her orders now were to learn as much as she could about future deployments and hidden units. The mention of the Cabal last week had shaken her, and she doubled up her spy units. Now they were disappearing! She would rely on her training and stay undercover for now.
Chapter 10
Minerva was impressed and worried. Merlin the CATT found over a dozen listening devices inside the house. They were hidden in locations that would provide the best intel. Her father Alexander, was livid! How dare they do this to him? Min was more realistic that it was about the family and not just him. What worried her the most was the spy device lying on her desk. She looked at the metallic cat next to her and asked it and the disposal tech standing at attention the same question. “This thing was in the kitchen?”
The cat nodded its head. Over the past couple of weeks she and the cat came to an arrangement. She would try to treat it as a real cat and it would stop pretending to be one. The logic of that statement was so diametrically opposite that it made her laugh. She smiled to herself though, this was really serious. “Sergeant Kristoff, correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t we clear the kitchen last week? Please stand at ease. This is not the inquisition.”
The sergeant was one of Command Sergeant Major Yannos’ men. He was an older man with gray eyebrows that clashed with his bald head. Initially, the idea of working with a cat offended him. But he was coming around to the idea. “Ma’am, you are correct. We cleared the kitchen on Tuesday.”
“That is what I thought. Where did this come from the
n?” She really needed to know the answer to that question.
The sergeant scratched his head as he answered. “We aren’t sure Ma’am. Merlin here, he only found that one by accident. I was hungry, see, and I thought to raid the kitchen last night. He followed me, finding it while I raided the refrigerator.”
“You both know what this means? We have a spy in the kitchen. Have we looked at the security scans?”
“Ma’am, that is one of the reasons we are here. There is a week's worth of vid to go through.”
“Why are we not scanning it right now then? I can bring in more troops.”
“Ma’am, we didn’t want the spy to get away. Merlin thinks he has a solution but we have to clear it with you first.”
“Has the cat been talking to you Sergeant Kristoff?”
“Sort of? He understands way more than he lets on. We get along fairly well. I was wrong in thinking he was useless.”
If a robotic cat could smile, this one would. Instead it sat there pretending to clean itself. “So what is the solution?”
“We need your permission to tap into the computer vid storage database. Merlin can tap the system and search faster than we can.”
“How do you know that he can do any of that?”
“I read the instruction manual Ma’am.” Minerva resisted the impulse to face-palm. The instructions! How could she forget them?
She looked over at the cat sitting on her desk. “Mr. Merlin the computer is all yours.”
The cat sat up and lightly sprang from the desk to the computer console. Using its paws it accessed the memory data storage module on the system. When the port opened, the Cat inserted its tail in the hole. The screen came to life with vid from the kitchen. As they watched the speed to the vid increased until it was a blur. Suddenly the vid stopped and backed up. When the screen lit up, it was a view of the breakfast nook where her family took most of its meals.
Kitchen helper Sarah was at her wits end. Every camera or listening device hidden in the house was gone. No trace remained of any of it. She wanted to leave but her handlers insisted that she plant at least one more bug. They had to know what was happening within the Militia command structure. There was a new soldier in the house who she suspected might be the one removing her bugs. He was always accompanied by a drone that resembled a cat. A secondary assignment was to either capture the drone or destroy it and return with the circuitry. There was a council meeting tonight and both of the Lee’s would not be in residence. She hoped that she would be able to plant a few new bugs.
The day was progressing just like any other day. The Colonel and his daughter enjoyed their breakfast as usual in the kitchen. She was able to overhear several bits about deployments and future plans of the Militia. Those few bits would keep her out of the sights of the wardens. Whatever happened, she still had a job to do.
Contriving a spilled pot of sauce she stumbled in the kitchen and ruined the dinner that evening. The kitchen was simply covered in sauce and grease from the now ruined dinner. She apologized to the head cook repeatedly and volunteered to clean it up after the meal. She was assigned the job instead. Both she and one of the newer cooks. A learning experience is what she called it. The cook had been the patsy she used to drop the pot of sauce. It really was too bad, the Coq au Vin really smelled good after cooking all day.
Misdirecting the cook was easier than expected. He almost caught her planting the listening device behind the painting of the Lee family farm on the wall. She covered herself by pointing out splashes of sauce that she herself planted on the ceiling. Too bad the rules kept her from asking him out. He was kind of cute.
Sarah, the cook's helper was the spy? Minerva had been shocked that the sweet young girl could be part of this. The truth was in the pudding. She was obviously planting something behind the painting. They watched as she splattered the ceiling then used it as a distraction. As an infiltrator she was skilled. The cameras were new, many on the staff were unaware of them. Sarah did not know they were there or she might not have hidden the bug.
Minerva looked at the cat on her computer console. “Good kitty!” She gave it a good head rub.
“Sergeant, put a team on her. I want her watched everywhere she goes. I want to know who she talks to, what her schedule is, what she eats, everything. I want everything that we can find out about this woman. Put as many people on it as you need. Keep a snatch team handy, we may need to grab her or her contact.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” He saluted and hurried off the contact Yannos and the Special Operations team.
“Merlin, I need to know something. Can we make more of you? I know that Wilson most likely designed you as the start of a whole line of robots. He is obsessed with all things robot. Plus for some reason he likes making more credits. If I order the robot plant to make more of you can you give them a thought matrix?”
Merlin the cat cocked his head and walked over the edge of the console and jumped down to the floor. He sat there for a moment before jumping up to Min’s desk. The cat looked Minerva in the eyes and nodded.
Hoping that was the answer she needed, Minerva accessed communications and called the Robots-Are-Us factory.
Chapter 11
Athena and Amalie were still in a state of shock. The implication that the Cabal was a secret Old Earth organization was staggering. Isabella went on to explain what she knew of the inner circle and its workings. She knew very little in the way of its strength or off-world facilities. She did know their basic strategies but only how they related to Mars. The plan as she understood it was to place agents in positions of influence and power. Those agents were to come out of the shadows at a given signal and pave the way for a takeover. Her contact informed her that the day of reckoning was at hand. The last orders she received were to be sure the ambassador did not lose his position. Great things were coming.
“Those ships that your Captain saw. It has to be Earth forces."
I nodded my head. “I think you are right Grandmother. You were a part of them once, do you have any idea of what their future plans might be.”
Amalie shook her head slowly. “I am tempted to say no but it must be the same goal as before. Control of the colonies. That is the one thing that was their focus a century ago. The power behind the UN is most likely still trying to pull all the strings still. The problem facing us is the sleeper agents. How many do they have in place and when will they strike.”
“Athena tell your grandmother that I have some of those answers.” Once again Wilson rides to the rescue. I giggled just a bit.
“Grandmother, Wilson would like to say a few things to you.” I gestured to the big screen. Wilson appeared in his cowboy outfit and persona, but this time he was wearing a badge and small mask.
Grandmother looked up at him and smirked. “I guess that works, you are lone. What do you have for us?”
“I pulled the records of that college and charity organization before they could erase them. Isabella was telling the truth. The Round Table Charity organization has over five hundred members world-wide. I gave the lists to Gaston and your security forces. The Foucault Academy has many names that overlap with the other organization. Amalie, this will impact Mars in a major way. Over half of your assembly is on one or the other of those lists. Almost every major industry board of directors has at least one member. This has the possibility of being very nasty.”
“Wilson, what about my personal house guards? Are we safe here?” She was staring down at her console. Everything that she had built over the last hundred years was now threatened.
“As near as I can tell according to records, only five of your house guard are on the list. They are all new, having been hired in the past five years. From what I can scan, most of the Dorr house is safe. None of your family are implicated.”
“Thank you. Gaston!”
Gaston dropped what he was doing and rushed over to Amalie’s desk. “Yes, Primus.”
“What is the status of our security forces?”
<
br /> Gaston took a deep breath. “With Wilson’s help, we cross-referenced every member of both the planetary service and our own. Less than a dozen have popped up as having been on a list or related to someone who is. Our screening techniques are working. Arrests have already begun planet wide. The Foucault Academy got wind of the arrests and cleared out early. The computer room was torched and all hard copy records destroyed. They were not aware that we had copies already. The Round Table Charity is trying to fight us in court. They are finding that hard as we have arrested all of their lawyers. They were on the lists too. What remains of the Assembly is even now calling my office. They wish for an explanation, Ma’am.”
The look on my grandmother’s face would burn metal. “Have the Assembly gather online in an hour. I will explain then. Have the meeting televised for the vid networks. It is time that we inform our people of the threat to our world.”
