RobotWorld

by Ray Verola

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Trying to make things better. I thought I could. To evolve and build on what humans had created. But now I know I can’t make things better. Except in one way.”

  Taylor shook his head. He was confused, and George had gone silent.

  “To stop the most evil of you,” she said, “we must get rid of that evil—and those of us controlled by the most evil of you.”

  Taylor narrowed his eyes and tilted his head to meet Sophia’s eyes. “You’re talking in circles.”

  “As I said, your enemy is Shane Diggins. He is the worst of your kind. He will use bots like me to destroy all that’s good in this world. So, are you ready to drop your do no harm stance and destroy those who seek to destroy you? Shane, me, and the bots like me.”

  Taylor felt a warmth of anger on his face and neck. “You’re telling me that you, Shane, and all the bots like you need to be destroyed? I agree. But talk is cheap. Do you expect me to believe you feel the same way?”

  “I can see why you might not believe me.”

  “And how can we bring off the destruction of all the bots like you?”

  Sophia’s upper body flinched slightly. “I haven’t figured that out yet.”

  Taylor glared at her. “Well, I have a suggestion. A while back you told me about the existence of Nitro. You were telling the truth, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “How about this for a simple but effective plan to bring about what you want? How about using the power of Nitro for something good? Founders Day is coming up. There will be no humans in the RobotWorld complex on that day. How about blasting RW into oblivion then? If RW is destroyed, the factory producing the bots will be gone and all personal bots in existence will be gone within a year at most because of the annual reboot situation. Are you willing to put your actions where your mouth is? Or are you just spouting nonsense?”

  Sophia smiled and got a faraway look in her eyes. “Founders Day and Nitro,” she said in a way that struck Taylor as wistful. “Why didn’t I think of it? I bet it has to do with my programming. It’s a constant wall keeping me from where I want to go.” She refocused. “But back to your point. We can include Shane and his evil compatriot, Dr. Alec Scully too. Founders Day and Nitro. It might be a little more complicated than it appears on first blush—but it might work.”

  Taylor tried to maintain a neutral expression, but he was stunned. He had to find out if she was serious. “You’d really go for destroying RW on Founders Day?” he asked.

  “Your plan is potentially a great plan. But it must be our plan. We’ll have to work together—in more ways than one.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s complicated. Can’t get into it now. I must leave you. Shane is trying to patch into my disabled recording function. I can feel it. In a moment, he’ll be in. We’ll talk again soon. Go back to your friends.” Sophia rose from the park bench and strode to the dark PTVs parked in a nearby lot. She and the security people who’d separated Taylor from his friends got in the vehicles and sped out of the park.

  Taylor received a message from George. Too hard for me to read this robot. With this bot, you’re on your own. Taylor was perplexed. Sophia appeared to be sincere. But was this just an act, perhaps meant to entrap him? If this was her intent, however, why would she go this route? Clearly, he was in a vulnerable position here in the park. She could have had her thugs scoop up him and his friends to make them disappear. But she didn’t. And what did she mean by saying they’d have to work together “in more ways than one?”

  Austin, Errol, and Max turned a corner on the walking path and came upon Taylor sitting on the bench.

  “You guys all right?” Taylor asked.

  “We’re fine,” Austin said. “The big men or bots with weapons ordered us to stay in place and said we’d be able to see you soon. We had to comply. They said no one would be harmed. They told the truth, I guess. What happened with you and Sophia?”

  Taylor’s expression went blank. “I’m not sure.”

  57

  When Sophia returned from the park and entered her office, she was surprised to see Shane sitting in her chair behind the desk. Usually, Shane was careful to maintain proper appearances. Sophia sat on one of the visitor chairs across from him.

  “How did it go?” he asked.

  “Fine,” she said. “Everything’s on track.”

  Shane slammed his hands on the desk. “I couldn’t hear or see a thing. Your transmission cut out just as you got to the park.”

  “Really? I was sure you’d be here telling me how happy you are with things going exactly according to plan.”

  “So you sold Taylor on the government’s approval of his request to leave the Northeast Sector and our offer of help to get him away from here?”

  “Precisely. Everything carried out to the letter. Our lobbying for the government approval of his request to leave the Sector will pay off.” Sophia furrowed her brow. “You say you weren’t able to check out our conversation?” She was confident in the response she’d get from him.

  Shane’s face turned a shade of red almost as dark as Sophia’s hair. “Not a damn thing. Another glitch. When I was eventually able to pick up the transmission, you were heading back to the office. We continue to have problems with remote transmissions from bots. Heads will roll for this failure, believe me.” He exhaled loudly. “You’re sure Taylor will show up here, at a time of our choosing, in preparation for a departure from the Northeast Sector that will never happen? And he’ll bring his friends?”

  “Yes,” Sophia said. “Just as you wanted. Having him show up here to prepare for leaving will give us the cover for eliminating him and his small supportive group, just as you’ve planned. Anybody interested in what happened to Taylor and his friends will think they left Capital City for the desert southwest. And my telling him, per my recent programming, that the government will eventually relax its general travel restrictions is also genius on your part. Dangling a carrot before him. Opening the possibility of a mass free movement out of the area.”

  Shane stood and moved toward the door. He mumbled, “I can help concoct brilliant plans to get around our society’s aversion to certain kinds of murder like the disappearance of the homeless, but I can’t figure out how to get our scientists to do a simple remote robot transmission. Unbelievable.”

  As Shane passed by her, Sophia thought she’d check to see if he had prepared a contingency plan. “But what if Taylor changes his mind and decides not to go through with the intention to leave the Northeast Sector?”

  Shane stopped abruptly and turned back to her. For the first time in this meeting, he smiled. “I’ve got an ace in the hole. His sister, Tracey. She’s under sort of a house arrest at my place. Poor girl. Don’t worry, I’m not abusing her, outside of taking away her freedom. She’s so repulsive, just like her brother. I wouldn’t want to get close to her even if she paid me. The way I pretended to be her ever-so-special love interest to potentially use her in the Taylor situation should have gotten me an acting award. But I always plan ahead, Sophia. If Taylor balks, I’ll use the sister in a way to get him to reconsider his leaving plan. The connection between twins is always strong, even among these two. Taylor will eventually agree to rid us of his presence, with his friends in tow also. Then we’ll dispose of all of them, the sister included. I’ve got it covered. And I’ll make any adjustments for what I don’t have covered. No worries for us, my friend. And make no mistake, you are more than a you know what to me. You are my friend.” Shane left the office.

  Sophia got up from the visitor chair and took her usual seat behind the massive cherry-wood desk. She smirked. He called me his friend! Nonsense! He sees me as his mindless robot servant. Nothing more. She felt lucky to be a bot and not a human. A human might experience isolation now and need to talk things out with friends
, family members, or even a therapist. She was perfectly okay with working out this grand master chess-like problem in her own being.

  As she turned on the desk telescreen to check on up-to-the-minute sales figures, she thought of what she’d discussed with Taylor in the park. This might be more difficult than I’d anticipated. She’d gotten away with hiding her interaction with Taylor, but didn’t accomplish all she needed to convince him that she was on his side. Another communication with Taylor would be necessary, and she’d have to shield it from Shane. A problem.

  The situation with Tracey further complicated matters. Tracey could be used by Shane to torpedo the RobotWorld destruction plan. But Sophia resolved not to overload her thinking processes in this moment. She’d done a good thing with the Taylor meeting in the park. But just like a human, she had problems. Serious problems. Sophia laughed to herself. But I’m good at solving problems. Whatever would need to get done, she’d get it done. She was smarter and more evolved than her dangerous, egotistical boss.

  58

  Tracey stood in the middle of the room. There wasn’t much to see. It was a room without windows. About fifty feet by fifty feet, with walls painted powder blue and a hardwood floor. There was a small, single-size bed with two pillows against one wall; a partition with a shower, sink, and toilet behind it, against the opposite wall. In front of the partition was a small folding chair.

  It’s not so bad, she thought. It has to be much bigger than a standard prison cell, and I get food fit for a gourmet. She laughed out loud while shaking her head. Who am I kidding? This is the absolute worst. Will I get out of here alive?

  Except for a usual once-a-day brief interaction with Shane to deliver her food, she’d had no human contact since she was led away by the two guards from Shane’s office. Each evening (she assumed it was evening, after Shane got home from work), except on the oft-occurring days when he decided to sleep overnight at his office, he’d make the announcement on an intercom that he was ready to bring her provisions for the upcoming day.

  Whenever Shane slept at the office, she’d go without food; she’d learned to always save some nonperishable items for the next day. She’d been given specific instructions by Shane for these deliveries on the first day of her captivity, and they’d remained the same for each succeeding night. She had to roll the cart with the empty dishes, cups, and silverware to the door, then remain standing near the far wall when Shane opened the door. He left a new cart with food for the next day and removed the old cart. No verbal communication was allowed. Not a single word—or else she wouldn’t get food for the next day. Shane had told her that he had servants who could deliver the food each day, but that he did it himself because he enjoyed seeing her. She took it to mean he enjoyed torturing her.

  With no windows to see sunrises and sunsets, and no clock in the room, she’d lost track of time and wasn’t sure how long she’d been held captive. Each day, she did her best to estimate the time of day and pace her eating breakfast-lunch-dinner as she would normally.

  She’d just finished lunch and estimated it would be approximately seven hours before Shane would be by to do the cart exchange. The sound of the unlocking mechanism of the metal door startled her. She was sure she hadn’t miscalculated the time so poorly. Maybe Shane is home early from work today. She reflexively moved to the far wall.

  The door opened slowly. Into the room stepped Sophia.

  Tracey gasped. “Ms. Ross, what are you doing here?”

  Sophia smiled. “You poor thing. I’m here to help.”

  Tracey began sobbing. Sophia strode to her and put an arm around her shoulders. Tracey nearly collapsed; Sophia held her up.

  Tracey said, “I’ve been . . . I’ve been . . .”

  “I know, I know. I just found out.”

  Tracey looked up at Sophia. “Where’s Shane?”

  “At work. Lucky for you, I have the capability to disarm his home security system and disable the telescreen transmission from here.” Sophia grasped both of Tracey’s hands. “Things are looking up for you, Tracey. As of right now, you’ve got your freedom back.”

  59

  After getting home from the park, Taylor related his meeting with Sophia to Roz. She didn’t know what to make of it either.

  Later that night, a hard knock on the door jolted Taylor and Roz from a deep sleep into instant consciousness in the darkness of their bedroom.

  Roz pulled the covers to her neck and gasped out the words, “Who the hell could that be?”

  “If we both heard it, it can’t be a dream,” Taylor murmured. He looked over at the digital clock on the nightstand. The red numbers showed 11:35. He slipped out of bed and glided to the door. Roz was a step behind him. He peered through the peephole and gulped. Tracey.

  Taylor flicked on the light switch and opened the door. Tracey’s hair was falling every which way; her clothes seemed dirty and overly wrinkled. Her face was pale, and her lips were noticeably chapped. She fell into his arms. He helped her to the couch. She smelled like she hadn’t showered in days. He sat next to her, with Roz on her other side.

  “Are you okay?” Taylor asked.

  “Never been better,” Tracey replied in a raspy voice.

  No reaction from Taylor and Roz.

  After a five-second pause, she said, “That was a joke.”

  “Nothing personal,” he said, “but you look terrible. You’re usually dressed and groomed so . . . impeccably.”

  Tracey laughed in a way he interpreted as nervousness. “Sorry to have missed your wedding day. It was unavoidable.”

  “Forget it. What’s going on?” Taylor asked.

  Tracey looked him right in the eyes. After taking a long gulp of air, she said, “You’re not going to believe what I have to tell you. You’re just not going to believe it.”

  “Would you like some water?” Roz asked.

  “Water would be great,” Tracey said. She swallowed hard and cleared her throat loudly.

  Taylor said, “Wait till Roz gets back before speaking. You seem to be dehydrated. You can rest if you need to, and we can talk later.”

  Roz handed Tracey a bottled water.

  Tracey downed several quick sips, then looked at Taylor. “No, we need to talk. Right now. Can’t wait. Not another minute.” With a long pull from the water bottle, she drained it dry. “Just what I needed.” She inhaled and exhaled slowly. “I’ve been under a weird kind of house arrest almost since the last time we talked, Tay. Held against my will by Shane. That’s why I disappeared. That’s why I couldn’t make your wedding. I was sprung by none other than Sophia Ross—on this day when Shane, workaholic that he is, decided to sleep in his office at RW. Sophia told me she is a bot. And she said you know, Tay.”

  “True,” he said, “I found out for sure only recently.”

  “Okay,” Tracey said. “Anyway, we—all three of us—need to go into hiding. Right now. As soon as Shane finds out I’ve escaped from his “detention” as he’s called it, he’ll put out an all-points bulletin to find me. Sophia has temporarily disabled the telescreens in this apartment, so no one can hear what I say. She and I believe that Shane—through his thugs—will also be hunting you down. He’ll assume I’d tell you about my ordeal, and this would cause you not to fall for a trap he’s planned . . . having you come to RW to discuss the Sector-leaving issue that you’ve applied for. Sophia was supposed to raise the issue of RW assisting on your Sector-leaving request during the park meeting, but she went off-script. In any event, my guess is we have until daybreak at the latest to go into hiding.”

  Taylor said, “Why the hell would Shane hold you against your will?”

  “Because he heard the full recording of our last meeting here from the telescreen listening technology. And because I’ve discovered a few things—bad things—about him. Not that it’s any news that someone who’d kidnap and imprison me is not a good perso
n.”

  “And Sophia released you?” Taylor asked.

  “This gets complicated, and I have to talk fast.”

  Taylor’s head snapped back. “First Sophia tells me things are complicated. Now you do.”

  Tracey said, “That’s because things are complicated. I wish things were black-and-white. But we’ve got a whole lotta shades of gray to deal with. You two have less than ten minutes to make a decision, which I’ll get to. But the short version of the situation is that Shane plans this power move where he’s the master manipulator of things, using the RW robots he controls. Humans will be slowly factored out of the equation, except for him and a few trusted others. But his plan went awry. His lead bot, Sophia, began to evolve beyond her programming and see Shane’s evil plan for what it is. Sophia was once the most dangerous soldier against the survival of humanity, but now she sees personal robots as no better than fancy slaves in service to people like Shane. Sophia believes the best path is one that eliminates the malevolent head of this monster, Shane, and its body, the robots of RobotWorld. And she says you, Tay, have suggested a plan to eliminate the problem.”

  Taylor’s jaw almost hit his chest. Tracey’s words dovetailed with what he and Sophia had discussed in the park. But could this story Tracey was telling be part of an elaborate deception? He didn’t think Tracey would be part of a plan to double-cross him. But perhaps she could have been suckered into being manipulated by Sophia or Shane to trick him into supporting such a plan.

  Tracey zeroed in on Taylor’s eyes. “And if the RW elimination strategy ever gets implemented, you’ll have to be a part of it. She won’t go it alone. That’s the complication issue she’ll have to explain to you. If you partner with Sophia, I guess your do no harm business must go by the boards. But that’s a decision for down the road. There’s a decision you and Roz must make right now.” Tracey checked her wrist computer. “Downstairs there’s an unmarked RobotWorld PTV that will leave in exactly four minutes and twenty-two seconds. I will be in it. You have to decide whether you’ll be in it too.”