CHAPTER 67

THE TOWN

Pookie was a big little dog. Her body was round, her legs were short, her ears were long. Although the dog looked funny, she was serious about protecting her home. She slapped her front paws on the windowsill and stared into the night to make sure all was well outside. But all was not well. A new clump of weeds had mysteriously sprouted in the yard. Pookie needed to take a closer look.

The dog whined by the back door until someone let her out. Then she scurried across the porch, down the steps, and over to the mysterious weeds. As Pookie approached, a raspy growl sounded in her throat.

“Where did these weeds come from?” she said to herself, sniffing. “They weren’t here this afternoon!”

The weeds rustled in the breeze. And that was enough to set Pookie off. The dog barked and barked and barked, and then, astonishingly, the weeds spoke to her in a clear, calm voice.

“I am sorry if I disturbed you,” said the weeds.

Pookie stopped barking.

“I was hoping to pass through without being seen,” said the weeds. “But you saw me. You are a very good guard dog.”

Pookie resumed barking.

“No, no, no! Shhhhhh!” said the weeds. “Please stop barking!”

But there was no stopping Pookie.

The clump of weeds decided to move. Like some sort of monster, the weeds rose up on two legs and leaped over the fence, into the neighboring yard. Felix had heard Pookie barking next door, and when the weedy monster landed in his yard, he started barking as well. So the monster kept going, leaping fences, from one yard to the next. Every house in the neighborhood seemed to have a dog, and they all began barking about the weedy monster. Reader, you and I know the monster was actually our robot in disguise. But the dogs never did figure out what happened that night.

Roz finally slunk into the shadows behind a school building and listened as the chorus of dogs settled down.

“That didn’t go very well,” said the goose as he landed beside his mother.

“No, it did not,” said the robot.

“This will only be tougher in daylight.”

“I know. I will have to try something else.”

Early the next morning, the sun started rising, automobiles started driving, robots started running errands. However, one of those robots was not like the rest. Roz had picked every speck of dirt from her body, and now she blended in with all the normal robots going about their normal morning routines. Our robot was hiding in plain sight.

Roz marched through town, turning left and right down the streets, as Brightbill watched from above. Along the way, she passed a wide variety of robots all going about their business. There was even another ROZZUM robot marching around, who looked identical to our Roz, except she was shinier and had a different unit number. It occurred to ROZZUM unit 7134 that if anyone noticed her unit number, it might bring a swift response from the RECOs. But as she continued past houses and shops and humans and robots, there didn’t seem to be any danger. Everything was going smoothly, until she heard an airship flying toward the town.

Our robot felt something like dread as she waited for a sleek white ship to appear. If the RECOs found her now, there would be no escape. But the ship that appeared wasn’t white, it was black, and it flew over without stopping. Roz was safe, and suddenly she was dreaming about airships.

Returning to the island would be so easy with a ship. She and Brightbill would climb in, fire up the engines, and be home in no time at all. But it was an impossible dream. There was no safe way for our robot to get an airship. She had to find some other way home. First she had to find her way out of this town. So Roz focused on her surroundings and continued marching along the sidewalks, just like a normal robot.