Intruder Alert: Part 10

With a mighty, “Hi, Ho”, and another whoosh, Alice transported them back to the store into the hardware department. Hours had passed since departure. The restocking robots had finished their nightly ritual of replenishing the shelves, and were just reentering their storage closets. As the hardware robot storage closet door was closing, Alice waved her hand and it stopped moving, and opened instead. She waved her hand again and parts of the robot began to glow with an orange light.
“Parts have been exchanged for the originals,” Alice said. Coming up closer to the large machine, she pressed her palms together, then pulled them apart, a large panel covering the robot’s internal parts, became transparent, revealing more glowing parts.
“Blake, we must have one of your robot technicians examine this machine, and identify these replaced parts.
“Hmmm, well that could take weeks. Can’t you make a determination. You seem to have some interesting skills,” said Nellie.
“I could. I’ll have to give it much, more effort, and a few hours, but just to get it over with, I’ll do what I can, ” Alice replied.
“I may be able to help. I do have access to repair manuals. Let me pull those up on the computer, “ Blake said, as he marched off to his office on the other side of the building.
The morning crew had just started to come in, and they were surprised to see Blake so early. Several of them stopped him, to ask a question or requested help in solving a problem that they had held over since the day before. Nellie was following for a while, until she had to peel off and help solve other problems.
Once back in his office, Blake, after spending over an hour perusing the robot tech manuals, downloaded them to his handheld device, and headed back to the department. Of course, without his mother there, how could he tell which parts were new. Then he realized he had instant photographic recall. Then why did he have go back to hardware if he could remember the parts? He could just as well do the research at his office. But there was some other reason to go back to hardware. He didn’t know what it was, but he would find out when he got there, maybe.
As he turned the corner into the main hardware aisle, he could sense something different. There was a strange ambiance or vibe that he hadn’t noticed before. He almost had the sense that the robot was alive or conscious. The big door was now closed. One of the other employees may have closed it or maybe his mother closed it before she disappeared again. He knew she wouldn’t be here. She was often transferred from one place to another at the spur of the moment. He remembered that much about their relationship, it survived frequent and prolonged separations.
He continued to walk toward the robot’s closet, feeling an even stronger sense of some presence hiding there. Was there an invisible entity hovering over the machine, left to keep an eye on it to make sure that it performed the way they wanted it to. He experienced an increased intuitive sensitivity that was more characteristic of his mental make up as Broj than of his acquired identity as Blake.
His mind was working very fast now, to understand the situation and stay ahead of the game. The presence was inside the closet, inside the robot. Whoever borrowed the machine needed to install possessed parts, to take over its functioning. He surmised that the perpetrator was probably aware of him now and could activate the robot at will, and use it to crush him and leave the building, if that’s what its game was. But, Blake reasoned, the robot was restricted to this building, and its re-stocking function, therefore it couldn’t be of much value in any other context. Unless, he realized, its stabilizer and shelving arms could be detached. Even then it still wouldn’t be able to get out of the building, it was too tall. Of course, he recalled, that wheels had been added to its two upper arms. Theoretically it could be made to hinge in the middle, enabling the top half to fall forward onto the wheels, then it could roll out of the store, through the double doors. So apparently it could and probably would be used outside of the building. I’ll have to examine it more closely for signs of weaponry, Blake thought.

To be continued…