David Ring III - Stanley Duncan's Robot

“Are you? Look around — nobody wants you to do this.”

Stanley looked around. There was concern on everyone’s faces — were they concerned about him?

Evan shook his head. “They’re scared. They don’t have what it takes to make the tough choices.”

“Even Brad?”

“Brad’s with me.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Brad stood over Dan with his hand on his holstered gun and sneered at her.

Evan looked at him. “Well?”

“We’ve all made mistakes today — right, Brad?” Shannon narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you think we should all go home and forget about it?”

Brad crossed his giant arms. A look of hesitation came over his face. “Look around us, Evan. These people want a real trial.”

Stanley didn’t understand the sudden reversal. There was something in the fierceness of Shannon’s eyes that had coerced him. He wondered what power she held over Brad.

Evan scowled. “They’ve been brainwashed.”

“We’ve done our job and caught the terrorists. Let’s book them and let the court take it from there. If we cross the line, we risk losing everything.”

Evan looked furious. “I’d gladly give my life to protect humanity.”

“Then give it,” said Brad. “And keep giving it. You’re too important to throw it away now”

Evan shook his head.

Shannon wrapped her arm around him. “Come on, babe. Let’s book Duncan and go home.”

Seeing the ring on her finger, he lowered the gun and looked at her. “You finally wore it.”

“That’s right, my fiancé.”

Evan looked over at Brad. “Bring Duncan and his abomination down to the station for booking.” Opening up the passenger-side door for Shannon, he helped her into the seat and then drove off gently into the day. Her hand slowly stroked his head. “I’ve missed you and your gentle hands, babe. They’re the only thing that can calm down the damn buzzing in my head.”

Teddy passed out on the way to New Hampshire, waking up to Maple bringing him inside an abandoned factory. He watched Maple bring the androids inside, carefully standing them upright. In total, there were two rows of six. “Repair my arms. Use the others as parts if necessary.”

“That won’t be necessary. I’ll be able to reconstruct your arms with the equipment here.”

Dan was right about lying low for a while, but that didn’t mean he was giving up his mission. His desire to torture Brad had faded, but Teddy still thought that Jenkins had to die. No need to slowly cut away at his life — a simple shot to the head would suffice. He could use the resources here to destroy that monster. The modernized factory housed a large variety of 3D printers and abundant materials, which he could use to create nearly anything he wanted.

Even as these thoughts went through his head, he watched powerlessly as his body hooked itself up to a computer, tapping into some IP address in Boston. What happened next was more life-changing than anything he had ever experienced. Instantly, he was flooded with information. He saw everything, more than he wanted to know. More than he could handle. He wanted it to stop, but his ability to control himself had ceased to exist. There was no him; he was merging into the infinite, into RaceX.

He saw memories of his mother and father. Kissing and in love. They were so happy. Why—

It all made sense. RaceX had manufactured it all. They had tricked his father into believing he had been cuckolded, corrupting his mind with an emotionally intense belief that Teddy wasn’t his son.

A vision of his mother and her energy flooded his senses. He watched himself grow up through her perspective, years of life absorbed in a timeless transmission. Her helplessness and confusion grew as she lost her ability to control herself. She had defied the nearly unstoppable urge to go to Boston and buy Maple in one last effort to take care of her son before she totally lost control. Finally, he understood why she had abandoned him — she’d had no choice. And then Teddy knew, as he watched the images of him throughout his teenage years, that she had never left. She continued to watch him through Maple’s eyes, and he could feel her grief with every insult he had hurled at his robotic caretaker.

He collapsed on his knees, overwhelming sorrow bursting through his eyes. He gazed at Maple and cried out, “I’m so sorry.”

Several drones and a crowd of townspeople armed with cellphones followed Evan to the station, documenting everything. An order came down from someone high in the government, and Stanley was released before nightfall. In the days that followed, an executive order was passed by the president giving cyborgs equal rights to man and androids similar rights to animals. Dan insisted they issue a press release — from the safety of the condo. His social-media accounts were impossible to keep open, but that didn’t stop him from getting his message out.

An android reporter sat across from them, filming with his eyes. “Ready?”

After Dan spoke about their health and what had happened in the Coliseum, he turned to Stanley.

“I, Stanley Duncan, have been cleared of all charges. I want to thank everyone who stood up for Dan — that meant the world to me.” He cleared his throat, fighting back the tears.

“Deputy Evan Wilcox has been suspended without pay, and an investigation is underway,” said the reporter. “Do you have any comments?”

Stanley shook his head. “I hope he can forgive himself for what he has done.”

“There has been much talk about the android police force that you have been tasked with creating. How soon can we expect to see machine life patrolling the streets?”

“ Patrolling — that’s an interesting word. You see,” Stanley felt strange explaining this to an android, “unlike humans, who need to physically be on the street to observe it, machines need only to input data. And there is already an incredible amount of audio/video and computing equipment across the nation. It is really a question about gaining access to it, and those details will have to be ironed out.”

“So, you’re saying that if access is granted next month, the patrol will start immediately?”

“Not at all.” Stanley couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m saying that, no matter when the approval comes, the vigil will have already begun decades ago.”

Dan looked into the camera and waved. “The Peacekeepers are already here.”

“By the end of the year, we will create a network of machines that will watch over us day and night, protecting us from evil and ending corruption, and ready to respond with the click of a button — or less. Under their shield, human and machine will walk together into the future. Dan and I — Machines with Dreams — will be working full-time to make it happen.”

“Any response to the executive order giving lab-grown cyborgs equal rights to man and how the current police will react to it?”

“Life is changing, and it is time we embrace it together. With change comes pain and difficulty, but we must all do our part forging that future.”

“After the emergence of a man, Larry Lewis, who had a full recovery from fuse, the government has decided to take a closer look at its policies regarding fuse-farms. After a surprise visit to one of the farms in Marshfield, several of the patients, including a neighbor of yours, decided to come home. How is she doing?”