Chapter 16

“Secretary?”

“What?”

“Where’s Otterly?”

“She’s located in the gymnasium at the high school.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Alex said, “The voice recognition program seems to be working pretty well.”

“I’d say so. The logs show that only two words were misunderstood this week,” Sherry said.

“Now that is getting better than human.”

“I’d agree.”

“So what do you want to work on next?”

“How about Minerva’s Owl?”

“We could work on that, but it is basically solved. Batteries are still the real problem.”

“You’re right. It’s just that I’d really like to have a bird.”

“Maybe one day we’ll find a battery that lasts for more than thirty minutes of flight.”

“Do you want to take a walk?”

“Sure.”

“Secretary?”

“What?”

“We’re going to take Rover and Digit for a walk. Tell us if Otterly leaves the school.”

“I will.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

As soon as Sherry picked up the dog leash, Rover and Digit were by the door. Rover was clearly excited and jumping up and down while scratching at the door. Digit just kind of stood there. It wasn’t that Digit was incapable of acting excited, but having a two hundred and fifty pound metal robotic dog jump up and down was just kind of frightening and destructive of ceramic tiles, carpets, and whatever else happened to be under the dog.

It was late evening when they left the house. The sun was getting ready to set, which gave the sky a nice tranquil appearance. The birds were flitting to and fro doing those last minute things that birds do before it got dark. Alex was holding the leash for Rover. Digit was walking beside Sherry. They gave the image of a happily married couple walking the family dogs.

“Otterly sure was excited about her date.”

“I guess the homecoming dance is a pretty big deal to some girls.”

“I never understood it,” Sherry said.

“Same here,” Alex said.

“There sure were a lot of people at the football game.”

“Otterly said it was because it was the homecoming game.”

“I still don’t get it.”

“Same here, but Otterly thought it was a pretty big deal.”

Their passage was often a topic of conversation among the neighbors. Very few tried to engage them in conversation. It wasn’t that people disliked them. They just found that trying to talk to them was always awkward. They were easily distracted, and would start talking to each other without being aware of anyone else around them.

Rover came to a stop. He lowered his nose to smell around for a bit in the manner that dogs all over the world tend to do. Digit sat down beside Sherry. He didn’t lower his nose to smell around.

While looking upwards, Sherry said, “Alex.”

“What?”

“Do you see that dove?”

He looked around for a second before spotting a dove sitting on a power line. “Yes. What about it?”

“Do you see what it is doing?”

“No,” he answered.

One of their neighbors turned to his wife and said, “Their dog is about crap in our yard, again.”

His wife said, “Go talk to them.”

He replied, “They’re talking to each other. They won’t notice that I’m even there.”

She said, “You can try.”

Unaware that they were a subject of conversation, Sherry said, “What do you think that dove is doing?”

“Nothing. It’s just a bird sitting on a power line.”

“Exactly,” Sherry said. “It’s sitting ... on ... a ... power ... line.”

“Birds do that all of the time,” Alex said dismissively.

“What if it wasn’t a regular bird. What if it was a robotic bird.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Inductive charging,” Sherry said.

“Clever,” Alex said seeing the implications immediately. “You don’t need a super battery, but a better battery charger.”

“Exactly.”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

“Only if you are stealing the power. If you make an arrangement with the power company, then it isn’t illegal.”

“What kind of arrangement?”

“How about if we develop robotic watch birds for some of the major power stations in exchange for the occasional sip of power from the power line?”

“I could sell them on that.”

“We could sell a lot of people on the concept of a mobile video security system.”

“Since the birds wouldn’t need a large battery, they could be made pretty small in size.”

“They would just flit from power line to power line continuously recharging their batteries.”

“We’re not talking kilowatts here.”

“Just little sips of power.”

“By looking like a bird, they become almost invisible.”

“Who notices every little bird flitting around?”

“You are going to get your Minerva’s Owl.”

“All we’ve got to do is design the charging circuit and fit it into the owl.”

“Let’s go home!”

The two walked off at a quick pace. One of the couples in the neighborhood had watched them discussing their idea. They couldn’t hear what was being said, but it was obvious that Sherry and Alex were pretty excited about it.

The husband said, “I wonder what got them so excited.”

His wife said, “With them, you never know.”

“It’s probably another machine.”

“Roberta was saying that one of their robot dogs saved her son’s life.”

“I hadn’t heard that. I did hear that the Marines are talking about adopting it as their mascot.”

“I don’t know how I feel about robot dogs.”

“At least it doesn’t poop on our yard like Rover just did.”

“I’ll get a plastic bag so that you can clean up the mess.”

“One of these days they’ll pick up after their dog.”

“They don’t even notice.”

“Maybe I can talk them into building a poop picking up robot.”

Alex and Sherry were four houses away from home when Alex’s cell phone started ringing. Almost at the same time, Digit took off running, and three drones flew overhead. These weren’t small drones that one could find in a toy store, but the large quad-copters used by the military to support defensive operations.

“That’s not good,” Sherry said watching Digit jump over a fence.

Alex was busy pulling his cell phone out of his pants pocket. He was unaware that Digit had taken off. He finally liberated the cell phone from his pocket. He answered the call with the speakerphone engaged.

“This is Ares.”

“Uh, oh,” Sherry said feeling a tendril of fear creep through her stomach.

The guardian program had two personalities. One was the original guardian program which basically monitored the area around the house. It warned when visitors dropped by the house and sounded an alarm when some activity that could be considered suspicious occurred. One of Otterly’s young admirers had set off the alarm, when he had come calling after dark. It also had been responsible for the arrest of more than one pedophile.

The second personality was Ares. This was a program that had been developed for the military. It only activated when there was a real threat. The only time that personality had been activated in the past was when a kid, trying to run away from some bullies, ran onto the property yelling for help.

Worried, Alex asked, “What’s the matter?”

“One minute twelve seconds ago Otterly left the gymnasium. Secretary is on the phone with Sally. According to Sally, Otterly’s boyfriend has been assaulted. I’ve dispatched Digit and three drones to Otterly’s location.”

“We’re returning to the house.”

Sherry and Alex took off at a good jogging pace to return to the house. Rover thought running like that was the best idea since sliced bread. The garage door was open by the time they reached the house. Alex took the fifteen seconds required to put Rover in the house and remove the leash. They were soon on the way to the school.

Ares gave them constant feedback via Alex’s cell phone, as to what was occurring at the school. They were still more than two blocks away from the school when Ares announced, “Otterly has been found. Two males are pulling her across a large field.”

Sherry said, “Protect Otterly.”

“Civilian or military response?”

Alex answered, “Civilian for now.”

“Military,” Sherry said. “Teach those fuckers never to grab my little girl.”

“Belay that. Civilian response only,” Alex said.

“The police are on their way.”

There are very few things that are scarier than a metal dog the size of a very large German Shepard with huge fangs, sharp claws, long spikes sticking out from its body, and glowing red eyes. There were some who would say that a quad-copter drone four feet across flying overhead while firing very loud bursts of gunfire into the ground was perhaps a bit more frightening than a robotic dog. The combination of Digit and three drones was terrifying.

Upon seeing Digit bearing down on them, the two boys who had grabbed Otterly attempted to flee. Each found the way blocked by a drone hovering at eye level firing into the ground in front of them. The drones were broadcasting that the boys were to get on the ground and not move. With visions of The Terminator in mind, the boys dropped to the ground convinced that someone had opened the gates of hell.

“Otterly has been released. Digit is protecting her.”

“Thank God,” Sherry said.

“Is the situation under control?”

Ares replied, “People are beginning to gather. I am dispatching four more drones for crowd control.”

The teachers ... who had been alerted to a problem by Sally and Rick, Otterly’s date for the evening ... had not taken the situation as seriously as was warranted. That changed when Digit’s growl and the drones’ sirens announced to anyone within two hundred yards, that something very bad was happening. Several of the teachers converged on the spot to find two boys on the ground begging for their lives. Otterly was nearby; protected by a huge robotic dog. The sudden appearance of more drones, kept anyone from approaching Otterly or the two boys.

The coach was not happy when a car came careening across the football field and screeched to a stop. Sherry was out of the car in a flash. She ran over to Otterly and hugged her. Digit stood guard over the two women, growling at anyone else who attempted to get close to them.

Otterly sobbed, “They wanted to rape me.”

“You’re safe now,” Sherry said holding her tightly.

Alex stepped out of the car and shouted, “Drones! Form up on me!”

The drones immediately moved into a formation with two in front of Alex, two to each side, and one behind him. They hovered fifteen feet in the air. As the light started to fade, the drones lit up the area with flood lights. It was suddenly as bright as day. Alex walked up to the boys.

“You two boys are in a lot of trouble.”

“Get those things away from us.”

“We didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You attacked my little girl!”

Sally and her date accompanied Rick as he approached Otterly. The young man was walking gingerly, as if any sudden movement would cause him pain. He was holding a bloody cloth to his nose. He stopped when Digit growled. He knew better than to approach any closer. He had accepted that dating Otterly, meant getting along with her mother. That required learning how to live with Digit watching every move he made, whenever he was around Otterly.

“Otterly! Are you okay?” Rick called out.

Otterly’s head spun around to look at him. She ran over to him and threw her arms around his chest hugging him tightly. He grimaced at the sudden wave of pain. Despite seeing stars, he didn’t say anything to her.

She cried, “I was so worried about you.”

“I was worried about you,” he said.

Digit had followed Otterly, keeping between her and her assailants. Everyone around Rick, with the exception of Sally and her date, quickly moved away from him.