Pink Slip Prophet (17 page)

Ian shrugged.

Larry touched the gun to the back of Jack’s head. Jack screamed and huddled himself more deeply into a ball.

“You’re an asshole, Larry. You always have been. You had better back off of my son right now,” Ian said.

“Or what?” Larry asked in a tone reminiscent of a snotty little girl.

Ian narrowed his eyes at him. “Ronald! Persuade the man!”

Officer LeGrange spoke up. “The President says to let him do it. He says we got no other option. If he screws it up, you have permission to kill him, but not the boy. Got it, Kunkle?”

Larry nodded.

Ian sat down at his desk, arranged his keyboard and cracked his knuckles.

“Get to it!” Larry screamed.

“If you insist,” Ian said. He typed feverishly, then hit return. “It’s done.”

The Policebots and Ian’s own Marias each sounded a long, simultaneous beep, then acrid, black smoke rose from their heads. Ian and Larry looked outside from opposite ends of the picture window. The column of robots stopped and a puff of smoke rose from each Maria.

Ian turned to Larry, smiled and nodded. “There you go!” He suppressed a chuckle.

“What does this mean?” Larry asked.

“I burned out the circuits responsible for software update,” Ian said. He walked over, collected his son and walked back to his side of the room. He sat back down on his desk chair and hugged the boy tight. Jack hugged him back.

“What does that mean!” Larry yelled.

“It means,” Ian said with an impatient roll of his head, “that their current programming is set. It’s permanent. No one can update the software on these robots again, at least not remotely.”

“You screwed us, didn’t you?” Larry yelled. He raised the gun and fired a shot.

Officer LeGrange drew another firearm. It was so quick that it confused Ian. He fired off several shots at Larry. Larry fell to the floor.

Ian smiled at Officer LeGrange then his smile faded as a woozy feeling came over him. He looked down at Jack. Blood gushed from his lower back. Ian jammed his hand over the wound and applied pressure. Ian was bleeding, too. The bullet had pierced them both.

“Did we do it, Dad? Did we save the world?” Jack whispered. “Dad,” he said more loudly and with irritation turning to panic, “my tummy hurts. Bad!” His eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed against Ian’s chest.

“Jack? Jack!” Ian yelled. “No!”

“Please do not venture beyond the community perimeter,” a Maria said over the loudspeaker.

Ian stood up in the field and looked in the direction of the guard tower. His foot slid in the soft, tilled ground. He dug his foot in, set down his bag of seeds and walked around Stacy to get to the edge of the freshly-planted field.

“Dad, I need a break,” Stacy said. “I’m exhausted and I’m thirsty.”

Ian turned around and grinned. “If you need a break, just take it. This isn’t a prison. This is a community.” He turned back around and stomped up to the guard tower. “What’s going on here?”

A man turned around and dropped a cloth bag. It was Larry. He looked at the ground.

“Larry was attempting to take scrap metal out of the community,” said the Maria.

Ian rolled his eyes. “You’ll never learn, will you? Still trying to steal other people’s hard work?”

“I found it here and I need it, therefore it’s mine.” He looked up at Ian and his face turned red. “Now let me out of this prison!”

The Maria sounded the Bach-inspired melody and everyone moved out of the field and back towards the living area. Ian turned to watch children skip while holding hands with their parents. Adults smiled and laughed.
This. This is it, exactly what I had in mind.

Ian turned back to the Maria. “Is it 10 AM already? Quitting time comes fast these days! Maria, is the play today?”

“No, Ian,” the Maria said, “it’s a puppet show for the kids before lunch, then quiet study time and finally a trip to the zoo for the rest of the afternoon before free time.”

“Oh,” Ian said. He frowned in approval. “Works for me!”

“The play is next week.”

“Excellent. I need more time to practice my part as a robot.” Ian laughed and moved his arms stiffly while inclining his head from side to side. He looked at Larry and sighed. “What are we going to do with you, Larry? What is it going to take?”

“Just let me have the stuff and I’m out of your hair. Done deal,” Larry said.

“You’ll just be back for more. Why don’t you join a community? There are so many to choose from,” Ian said.

Larry sat down and blubbered. “None of them will have me. They blackballed me. I’ve got nowhere to go!”

“Maria, have the kitchen staff bring Larry here some breakfast,” Ian said.

“Can I stay here?” Larry looked up at him, his frown deep and his eyes sincerely plaintive. “I mean, my family is here: Stacy, Michael, Michael’s kids… Candy.” He shrugged.

Ian shook his head. “Let’s not get any delusions of grandeur.”

A small yellow robot buzzed around Ian’s head and hovered a half-meter from his face. “Please remember to read one hour today, Ian. Did you do your exercise routine when you woke up this morning?”

Ian rubbed the side of his face with one hand. He groaned. “Darn it!”

“Please remember to do it later, and have a wonderful day! I’m off to remind your children now!” The flying robot zipped off towards the living quarters.

“Good luck with that!” Ian yelled after it. He looked back at Larry and searched his memory. “Right, Larry, no. No, you can not stay and that is the final word.”

“There should be a group decision. Or are you the king here?” Larry asked. He stood up and poked Ian in the chest. “That’s what you wanted all along, to deny everyone their fun so you can be in charge and control everything. You’re a sadist! A control freak! And a psychopath!”

Ian grabbed the bag from Larry and opened it. It was full of fresh bread, cheeses and even bottles of milk. Ian shook his head. “You are taking the food out of our mouths and yet you think you have a place here? Maria, see him out.”

Two Marias came from shacks at the sides of the gate entrance, took Larry by the arms and guided him out the front gate. Larry screamed, his eyes wild. He dragged his feet behind him. The Marias gently laid him down outside, re-entered and closed the gate behind them.

Larry lay face down in the dirt, pounding the ground with his fists and kicking it with his feet.

Ian took a moment to consider his old nemesis. He remembered back to when he blamed Larry for all of his problems and shook his head at himself.
I was weak. I just needed to be strong.

***

Ian walked back towards the living center and admired the new field they’d just planted. Beyond it was a larger field and to the sides of it more fields and greenhouses. The community was industrious and it was prospering.

The white, one-story living areas were arranged in a long rectangle with the play areas in the middle, complete with swing sets and soccer goals. The baseball diamond was pending.

Beyond the living complex was forest. It was a dark forest. The children enjoyed exploring it but Ian didn’t like it. It was a good hiding place for thieves and other ill-intentioned people. He had to do something about it but he didn’t have the resources to tackle it anytime soon.

He found himself at the door to the clinic.
Lost in deep thought again.
He rolled his eyes at himself.

A young boy in denim overalls sat near the door, a blade of grass hanging from his mouth. He stared up into the clouds.

“What are you up to?” Ian asked him.

The boy eyed him suspiciously. “Just looking at the clouds, finding shapes and stuff. Is that okay?”

Ian gave him a thumbs up. “Keep it up!”

He pushed through the swinging doors and turned left, then right. He entered the small, sunny office and smiled.

Qasim looked up from his workstation and grinned.

“How is the new monitoring system coming along?” Ian asked.

Qasim stood up and bowed. “Very good, Mr. Blake, very good. Doctor Corali now receives a prompt notification of any unexpected vital signs from our elders. We’ve tested it thoroughly.” He bowed again.

Ian nodded. “And what about the other team members?”

“Each one is very happily and gratefully placed in a nearby community. We are very grateful, each and every one of us.”

“I’m so sorry about my screwup,” Ian said. He looked at the floor.
Sending champagne to Muslims? In a Sharia law country?
He shook his head at himself.

“No, Mr. Blake, we are all very happy to leave. We are glad to be here, with you.”

“Perhaps some day you can all have a community of your own. Anyway, keep up the good work.”

Qasim bowed and Ian inclined his head.

Ian walked back past the entrance and found his way to room 23, where he sat down next to a bed and looked out towards the planted fields.

Jack sat up and smiled at him. “Doctor Corali says I can get up and go outside today. Can I?”

The young woman doctor stepped into the room and beamed at Ian.

She looked at the boy and nodded, her clipboard hugged to her chest. “He can go outside but he has to take it easy. I don’t want any stitches pulled or wounds opened, okay Jack?” she said. She looked back at Ian. “He’s healing up nicely. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Jack got up, grabbed some clothes from a small chest next to his bed and headed for the bathroom to change.

I got lucky this time. What a fool I was to put him in harm’s way. I won’t do that again.

Doctor Corali walked over and stood close to Ian. She leaned in and whispered. “I remember seeing your engineering diaries online from when you were making the Marias. It was really impressive.” She giggled.

Jack came out of the bathroom. He gestured toward the door.

“Would you like to go for a little walk with us, Doctor Corali?” Ian asked.

She giggled. “Okay, sure. But call me Lois, please.” She set her clipboard down, took off her white coat and the three of them headed towards the forest. Jack grabbed his dad’s hand. Ian looked at Lois and she offered her hand to him.

Jack looked up at his father. “You were right, Dad. I’m glad you did it. This life is better. I get more time with you.” He looked over at Lois, then at his father. He stepped in between them and placed each of his hands in one of theirs.

“I guess principles are practical after all.” Ian smiled, looked at Lois and shrugged.
Kids. The only reason to try and save the world.

Author of dystopian, conspiracy and space opera science fiction novels that shatter the page-turning limits of freedom and the heart-thrilling cavitations of love, George Donnelly terraforms his topopolis-to-be at 22,000 KPH in near-Earth orbit, in his spare time.

Former altar boy turned truancy fugitive, George is an expat vagabond who prefers zombies to aliens but is primed for any meatspace apocalypse minus grey goo.

Relieve the solitude of his forlorn cryostatic exile by emailing
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A special thanks to fellow author and friend
Jake Antares
for his assistance with generating ideas for this novella.

Thanks to the early readers who gave me feedback on
Pink Slip Prophet
.

Much love and appreciation to my son
Clark
for his patience while I worked on this.