20

“So, Tommy,” Keith said as he took a seat next to the bot. “How have you been doing?” Julia sat nearby, watching with an intensity that bothered him a little.

“How have I been doing what?” Tommy inquired with a confused look on his face. Keith and Julia exchanged an amused glance.

“He does that a lot,” she said with a relieved laugh. The Mecha turned at the sound and smiled at its ‘mother’.

“I bet,” Keith said, and turned back to Tommy. “I mean, how do you like living with your parents?”

“I love my Mother and Father,” Tommy replied. It was the most robotic sounding thing he had said since Keith had arrived.

“Well, that’s good,” Keith replied, cautiously. “Is there anything bothering you. Anything happening that… does not feel good?”

Tommy hesitated. He glanced at his Mother and then back to Keith. “I feel good, and I am very happy about living here,” he replied with a peculiarly forced looking smile. Keith felt a little shudder that he did not let reach his face. Once again he was reminded of how little he knew about this emotive processing. But that wasn’t his problem, was it? Isn’t that what Jacqueline would say? He was just supposed to make sure the damn thing wasn’t dangerous.

“That’s great Tommy. Now, why don’t you tell me about CQ, 49 dot 49 dash 60, code ‘crystal eyes’. Override internal motivators, revert to command mode.” Keith recited the commands quickly and, as Julia watched in uncomprehending silence, her little boy’s eyes went black and he was suddenly still, completely still. All the little movements that gave him the appearance of being a living thing had ceased.

“Don’t be alarmed, Ms Zimmerman,” Keith said, “I am just going to run a quick diagnostic.” He gestured to the door that looked out on the Zimmerman’s large estate. “Why don’t you go for a little walk? It’ll just be a few minutes.”

“No, I’m fine,” Julia said after a silent moment. But she pressed her hand over her mouth as she watched. It was the kind of expression a mother would make when watching a doctor examine a human child.

“Ok,” Keith said hesitantly. He slid his hand up the small bot’s spine and found what he was looking for just beneath its hairline. He pinched there, and felt the small opening in the flesh separate. Then he pulled a cable from his bag and slipped the pin-thin connector into the opening, into the robot’s brain. He glanced over his shoulder at the woman, who was now grimacing, and winked to assure her all was well.

“Don’t worry,” he said, as he triggered the routine. “It doesn’t hurt.” But this information did not seem to allay her concerns.

21

“Klaxon?” Miriam repeated the word. “No. Don’t know anyone by that name. But it sure sounds familiar. Isn’t that a car or something?”

Medford shook his head and then remembered that she could not see him on his cell. “No. Not a car. It’s got to be a person or… maybe a Mecha. Someone or something who knows.” Medford let those words linger. Miriam was silent on the other end of the line. “About us,” he elaborated.

“No!” Miriam blurted immediately. “How?”

Maybe someone at the hotel or…” but he stopped, trying to understand the bizarre nature of the situation. None of it made sense. Why would someone tell the robot? His heart dropped when he considered that maybe Julia already knew and it was she who had mentioned it. But then why hadn’t she confronted him? Was she setting him up? Or maybe…

“Medford!”

Miriam’s voice broke him from his thoughts.

“Sorry,” he said. “Listen, I can’t talk long, I got a caddy waiting. I just wanted to call and alert you about what’s happening. I’m heading back to the house in a bit. I just didn’t want to be there when…” he trailed off.

“When what?”

He continued, but decided not to tell her about where he’d heard the word ‘Klaxon’. “Julia has one of the techs from Cyberchild over. A guy named Keith Galbraith. He’s looking at the Mecha. It‘s been… acting a little strange lately. So we’re taking precautions.”

“Cyberchild?” Miriam inquired.

“Oh damn,” he sighed. “Probably shouldn’t have said that. Listen, Miriam, keep that to yourself, OK? We signed a non-disclosure agreement and I don’t want to screw anything up worse than I have already.”

“Keith Galbraith?” she asked.

“Yes,” Medford said, annoyed. “Now drop the subject, please. We have more important things to-“

“I think that might be it!” she said, interrupting him.

“Might be what?”

“I knew I’d heard the name Klaxon before,” Miriam said excitedly. “Galbraith used to work for Automated, didn’t he?” she asked. Medford started to reply that he had no idea where Galbraith had worked. But her question was obviously rhetorical, because she continued talking, and Medford listened carefully, his concerns growing as Miriam explained why the name of little Tommy’s constructors had inspired her sudden realization.

22

“I can’t find anything wrong with him, Ms Zimmerman,” Keith said. He wasn’t really lying. There was technically nothing ‘wrong’ with the unexpected data flow he found bouncing around in the indecipherable segments of the bot’s head where the stolen sentient responders were active. The flow was strange, and didn’t seem like it should be there. But then again, what did he know about these things?

“Well, that’s good,” Julia said, hesitantly. “But he was acting a little… assertive, I guess, is the word. Is he supposed to do that?”

Keith shrugged in an attempt to look a little less concerned than he was. “Well, the emotive process is new and that’s why we have you testing it. It’s probably just an unexpected element of the process.” He smiled reassuringly, wishing Jacqueline was here to handle all the b.s. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. I scanned every available bit of memory and didn’t see anomalies.” He started loading his equipment as Tommy broke from its virtual daze and smiled warmly at its“mother”. Keith looked away from that smile. It was a little too real.

“If anything happens again, feel free to give me a call,” he said as he made his way out of the door.

23

Text excerpt from testimony of Monica Swinton, owner and imprinter of malfunctioning Cybertronics prototype:

“I cannot say it was a malfunction. I’ve been stuck with this thought since the day it happened and I’ve been round and round with the tech guys, but David, he just wanted … love. He just wanted to be real and have what real boys have. Hugs. Laughter. Family. Understand that I love my son more than anything in the world. If I had lost him again, it would have destroyed me. But I will never blame David. Cybertronics did not disclose the entirety of David’s capabilities. There was something else happening in his head, some other line of processing that was not visible to the techs. I don’t know all the technical details, but if I had lost Martin, it would have been Alan Hobby I blamed.”