Chapter Seven

My cell phone pinged. Someone had sent a text. But I couldn’t get to my phone to check my messages. I was too busy trying to keep away from that menacing vacuum-hose arm the killer robot was waving at me.

My cell phone kept pinging. And then my phone started ringing.

Mama Eddy, I guessed.

“In-tru-der,” the robot said again in that flat, but chilling, metallic voice.

“No,” I repeated, tapping my chest some more, as if that would make a difference. “Librarian. I work here.”

It rolled closer, and I had nowhere to run. It had me cornered with a wall to one side and a table behind me. In a desperate attempt to avoid whatever it meant to do once it caught me, I climbed onto the table, pushed the tote bag containing Dewey until it was tucked behind my back, and then huddled next to one of the public computers.

By this time, my phone had stopped ringing. The call must have been sent to my voice mail. Another ping told me a text had arrived almost immediately after the ringing had stopped.

I hated to ignore whoever was desperately trying to get in touch with me. I worried it might be Jace with bad news about his mother. But I couldn’t take the call or reach for my phone. The robot swung its massive vacuum-sucking arm at me.

“Hello? Anne? Anybody? Help!” I shouted, not caring that I was breaking Mrs. Farnsworth’s cardinal rule of never raising my voice within her hallowed halls of literature. This was a life-and-death situation, after all!

“Tru? What in the world are you doing up on that table?” Anne asked when she found me. She scrunched up her nose as she peered in my direction. “And why are you shouting?”

“That . . . that . . . that . . .” I wagged my hand at the robot that was still trying to hit me with its vacuum-like arm.

Anne shook her head. In her hands was what looked like a game controller with a broken cord. She held it up as she walked closer.

“Anne, please, do something before I get chopped up by that oversized paper shredder.” My voice squeaked. “Help me.”

She hit a few buttons on her game controller. The robot’s menacing red eyes went dark, and the loud sucking sound stopped, but its creepy green grin remained.

“What is that thing?” I demanded, shaking my finger at it. “And what is it doing here?” Dewey meowed and peeked his nose out of my tote bag again. He took one look at the robot and shot back down to the bottom of the bag for a second time.

“That . . . is . . . a . . . robot,” Anne said slowly, as if she were speaking to a Neanderthal who had never witnessed the miracle of modern technology before. The IT tech, who was about a decade younger than me, often acted as if I grew up during the age of the dinosaurs. She loved her technology and was (sadly) one of the twenty-seven percent of Americans who hadn’t read a book in the past year. She preferred podcasts. I felt sorry for her. “Actually, it’s not simply a robot. It’s a technological marvel,” Anne said with a happy sigh. “It’s the librarian of the future.”

“The what?” I didn’t want to believe that I’d heard that correctly, but what else could it be?

“I’m not whispering. If you can’t hear me, I think you need to get your hearing checked. They say it starts to go once you reach a certain age.” She raised her voice. “I said, it’s the librarian of the future, or LIFU for short.”

“Shh. You don’t have to shout.” I’d done enough shouting for the both of us. I expected Mrs. Farnsworth to arrive to scold us in any moment. “It’s not that I can’t hear you. It’s that . . .” I waggled my finger at the robot again. “Why would a librarian of the future go around attacking people? That’s not proper librarian behavior.”

“It’s all very advanced. I’ll show you.” She tapped the screen on its chest. It lit up with Cypress Library’s catalog search page. “You can do your research right here. It’ll send the books directly to your tablet or to your phone if you press this button.” She pressed a red button next to the screen. The robot lurched forward. “Or perhaps this button.” She pressed a green button next to the screen. The robot toppled over backward. It then whirled and sputtered as it tried—unsuccessfully—to right itself.

Seeing it lying on the ground like a turtle teetering on its back, I felt safe enough to climb down from the tabletop.

“It shouldn’t have done that.” Anne frowned at the machine as it continued to flail around. “It also vacuums and mops the floors and carries supplies. Plus, it has an advanced AI capacity.”

When I continued to stare at her as if she’d lost her mind, she huffed. “AI means artificial intelligence, Tru, which means its programming acts like a human brain and can make decisions independent of its formal coding.”

“I know what AI means, thank you very much. What I don’t understand is why that thing was shouting ‘intruder’ at me. And why would a mechanical librarian chase me into a corner? What was it going to do to me?”

“Keven must have left it on night patrol duty. I just have to press this yellow button here.”

“No! For goodness’ sake, don’t press any more buttons!”

Anne ignored me. She pressed the button.

I jumped back.

The robot screamed “INTRUDER!” as it shot a stream of yellow dust into the air. The powdery dust rained down on Anne.

“That’s a theft deterrent measure,” Anne said, sounding surprisingly calm for having just been covered from head to toe with the bright yellow dust.

I covered my mouth with my hand to hide my smile. I really shouldn’t find any of this funny. But poor Anne suddenly looked like Big Bird, which was kind of funny. “We need a robot to patrol the halls to stop all those thieves who prey on our library? Yep. That makes sense.” No, it didn’t, but who was I to argue with Big Bird?

“Obviously, there are still some bugs that need to be worked out,” said my yellow friend.

I handed Anne a couple of tissues. “If it’s buggy, what in the world is it doing here? We open to the public soon.”

She wiped her face with the tissue, which only smeared the yellow dust around without taking any off. “LIFU is a prototype for Tech Bros. You remember Keven and Trey, don’t you? They’re the company CEOs?”

“Yes, Anne, I remember who they are.” Did she think I was becoming forgetful along with losing my hearing?

“Well then, you must understand that those two men need to give LIFU some real-world testing. And Cypress, with its state-of-the-art library, is the perfect place to test the machine. You would know all of this if you’d been on time this morning. Anyhow, Keven is the brains of the operation. He can make this robot sing. And I mean literally. You should hear LIFU sing.”

“Please, I’m begging you, don’t push any more buttons.” I didn’t want to see what else it could do. “I don’t want to hear it do anything. How in the world did you get Mrs. Farnsworth to agree to let this . . . this . . . ?” I waggled my hands in its direction.

“It’s not my doing.” Anne frowned down at the robot again. “The mayor and the town manager were the ones who agreed. They’re all in my office with Keven and Trey discussing the arrangement.”

“Why don’t you go back to your office? I’m sure how you look right now will convince Mrs. Farnsworth to send this metal monster and everyone else away,” I said with a smile.

“But I don’t want LIFU to go away.”

“Really? Even after what it did to you?” I couldn’t believe that. “It looks like that yellow stuff got on your computers too.”

Anne whirled around in alarm and gasped when she saw how the row of public computers to the right of her was all tinged a bright yellow hue. “I bet it got onto the motherboard.” She breathed loudly for a few moments before pasting on a fake smile. “It’ll be okay. It’s worth the inconvenience. It’s not every day I get the chance to work with a genius like Keven. And LIFU is a marvel. You should hear Keven talk about the technology that’s being used in it.”

“Uh-huh.” Dewey started wiggling around again. “I have to get to the basement.”

“Wait. But I wanted to tell you—”

“Can’t talk now,” I said. Dewey stuck his head out of the bag. He looked ready to jump out and make himself at home upstairs, which I couldn’t let happen. If Mrs. Farnsworth discovered I’d been sneaking a cat into her library . . . Well, I shuddered to imagine what she might do!

“I heard what happened at the book club last night,” Anne said as she followed me toward the basement, leaving a trail that looked like pine pollen. “It’s a shock, isn’t it? Jace’s mom? And Rebecca? The Star of Cypress will be sorely missed, won’t she?”

Dewey looked at Anne and meowed as if he could understand her and was trying to provide kitty comfort, which I’d discovered sometimes involved a nip to the hand.

Anne smiled and scratched Dewey’s head. “It’s fitting that you adopted a kitty with a skull on his head seeing how death trails you around like it does. You found Rebecca’s body, didn’t you?”

“Death doesn’t follow me around. And I don’t know why everyone says Dewey has a skull on his head. He has tabby markings just like any other run-of-the-mill tabby cat. You know, stripes?” I kept heading toward the basement.

Anne ran in front of me and blocked my way with her bright yellow body. “Yes, his markings are stripes. But they also form what looks like a skull, and one of these days all this rule-breaking you’re doing around the library will catch up to you, Tru.”

I cringed. I’d long prided myself as a rule follower. Breaking the rules, even for a good cause, bothered me like a sore tooth. Anne knew all about my secret bookroom in the library’s basement, a bookroom where I let Dewey stay when I was at work during the day.

She enjoyed teasing me about it, telling me she would expose my secrets if I didn’t do her bidding. For a while I had lived in fear, thinking she would say something to Mrs. Farnsworth that would get me fired. But just a few months ago, Anne had gone out of her way to protect the secret bookroom, proving her teasing had been just that—teasing.

Anne looked down at my little kitty and cooed softly as she wiggled her bright yellow fingers in front of Dewey’s face. His eyes darkened, and he lifted a paw to bat at her.

“Please, don’t encourage him,” I said, gently pushing him back into the tote bag. “Was Mrs. Farnsworth upset that I was late this morning?”

“What do you think? Whoops, you can ask her yourself.”

Like a demon conjured by speaking her name, Mrs. Farnsworth rounded the corner.

Anne, bless her, put herself between Mrs. Farnsworth and the tote bag where Dewey wiggled impatiently.

When the wiggling didn’t get him the attention he’d been hoping for, he let out a long, unhappy meow. Clearly, I was taking too long to get him down to the bookroom. He loved walking through the stacks and sniffing the books. Apparently, he enjoyed sniffing some books more than others, going by his odd behavior around those historical romances last night.

“Good morning, Mrs. Farnsworth,” I said loudly to cover up my feisty kitty’s complaints. “Another sunny day. And much warmer than it was last night, don’t you think?” I knew I sounded like a ninny, but my sleep-addled brain couldn’t think of anything clever to say. There really were two thoughts in my head at that moment—get my noisy kitty settled in his favorite place and prove that Hazel didn’t kill Rebecca White. Neither of which were proper topics of conversation for my boss. “The forecast calls for rain, but I think they’re wrong. Don’t you agree? Gracious, when walking here this morning I didn’t spot even one cloud in the sky.”

Mrs. Farnsworth, dressed in conservative black, didn’t say anything. She simply looked at me as if I’d lost my mind.

Anne poked me in the side hard enough to make me yelp.

“What in blue blazes has happened to you, Anne?” Thank goodness for Anne and her new bright yellow tint. Mrs. Farnsworth’s attention had only stayed on me for that one very awkward moment.

Anne looked down at herself and acted as if she hadn’t noticed that she looked like a giant banana until that very moment. “The LIFU glitched.”

“That oversized robot thought I was an intruder,” I said, rushing to Anne’s defense. “Anne saved me when it tried to attack me.”

“Attacked? Where’s Keven?” Mrs. Farnsworth whirled around and started back toward Anne’s office.

“Now, Mrs. Farnsworth.” Gretchen Clark, the town manager as well as a member of the Arete Society, rounded the corner and blocked the head librarian’s path back to Anne’s office. “Just a moment ago, we all agreed that allowing LIFU to work at the library would provide good press for the town. Plus, it would be fun for the kids to interact with a robot.”

“Did you see the mess it made?” My boss pointed at Anne. “And it attacked my librarians. Attacked them! This is unacceptable. What if it had attacked a patron? A child, even? Playing with the robot before the library opens is one thing. I cannot have these disruptions during operating hours. Just look at Ms. Lowery. She’s yellow! Yellow! She’s going to have to go home and change, taking time that she could have used to do her work.”

“I understand, but—” Gretchen started to say.

“Oh, my stars!” a man with a thin mustache and wearing a tan porkpie hat exclaimed as he approached us. “It worked!”

“Shhh!” Mrs. Farnsworth hissed. “Please, don’t forget you are in a library, Mr. Verner.”

“How many times do I have to tell you to call me Keven, dear?” the man said in a near whisper. “It’s just my excitement. It bubbles over. I’ve never seen the theft deterrent system deployed. It is amazing, don’t you agree?”

“I don’t know why you insist on having us whisper, Lida. The library isn’t even open,” Mayor Possey said as he joined the group.

His wife Annabelle had her arm looped through his. “Gracious sakes, Lida, what happened to your assistant?”

“Your husband’s miracle of technology happened,” Mrs. Farnsworth said in her whispery yet forceful voice. “And we keep our voices down inside these walls out of respect for the institution. This place deserves at least that much, especially after what y’all over at town hall have done to it. Removing all of the books and turning it into a glorified cybercafé, indeed.” She clicked her tongue.

I looked at Mrs. Farnsworth, then at Gretchen, and finally at Annabelle. All three had been at Hazel’s house last night. And yet none of them looked as if they’d lost any sleep over Rebecca’s death. It was as if last night hadn’t happened. Did life truly move forward so quickly for everyone?

It seemed as if they were more concerned about a robot that barely worked than they were about the murder of a neighbor. Granted, that robot had just turned one of us yellow, which was quite impossible to overlook. But still . . .

Weren’t they upset that the president of their book club was dead? Hadn’t they considered Rebecca their friend?

“Keven, dear,” Annabelle said. “Perhaps if you made it look softer, more feminine, the robot wouldn’t be so intimidating. You could put a big pink bow on its head.”

“A bow? That is something we had not considered,” Keven said.

“Well, you should,” Annabelle pressed. “It would make a world of difference, I believe.”

At the same time Gretchen turned to Mrs. Farnsworth. “You must agree that using LIFU suits the forward-thinking, technology-minded image Cypress is trying to project. Plus, we’re supporting one of our first start-up businesses by letting our library be used as a proving ground. It’s a win-win for Tech Bros and the town.” Gretchen glanced in my direction. “Good morning, Tru. You missed the presentation.” She then looked over at Keven and blushed. “It was spectacular. It’s amazing what these young men have done.”

None of the women were even talking about Rebecca or the shock they’d suffered last night. Shouldn’t they be talking about her?

I could barely think of anything else.

“They are bringing the future to Cypress. It’s exciting,” Annabelle said. She too looked over at Keven and blushed. “Gretchen, are you available for lunch today? Maybe we could entice this young man to spend some time with us if we promise him a free lunch. I also think he would be a wonderful speaker for next month’s Arete Society meeting.”

“Oh, that’s a splendid idea,” Gretchen said. “Can we take you to lunch today, Keven?”

“I’ll have to—” He looked over at the fallen robot and sighed. “I should say no, but for you two lovely ladies, I’ll make an exception. You can buy my lunch.”

Dewey wiggled impatiently in his tote.

Sorry, Dewey, I’ve not forgotten about you.

Keven turned to Mrs. Farnsworth. “My partner and I thank you from the bottoms of our hearts for letting us test out LIFU in your library,” he said, with a tip of his hat.

Mrs. Farnsworth looked ready to object. But then Keven smiled at her. He was rather handsome.

“You are kind and wise.” His smile grew. “I would not ask you to do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. I am only asking that you give LIFU a chance. I will do anything you ask to make you feel assured of its safety, my dear Lida.”

“I’m not saying you cannot test its operations here,” Mrs. Farnsworth said, blushing a bit. “But the machine needs to be safe. Our patrons—”

“It will be. I promise. I will make the adjustments personally.” He bowed with the flourish of a knight-errant, which made Mrs. Farnsworth smile in a funny way I’d never seen before. He then rushed over to Anne. “My dear girl.” He took her bright-yellow-stained hands in his. “This is wonderful. You’ll have to tell me exactly what happened and how it felt to be blasted by LIFU’s theft detection powder.”

Anne’s cheeks turned deep red, or rather, a deep orange given the combination of red and yellow. Like Mrs. Farnsworth, Anne smiled stupidly up at the maker of that killer robot. “I . . . I . . .” she stammered. “It was amazing. How do I wash this off?”

“I’m afraid it is impossible. The yellow will stay for several days. That is the point of the dust. It stains the villain.”

“What if it had stained one of our patrons?” I demanded, surprised I was being the voice of reason while Mrs. Farnsworth continued to smile and nod at Keven. “The library could have a lawsuit on our hands if that thing glitches and hurts someone.”

“Naturally, Keven will turn off the patrol feature, won’t you, Keven?” Gretchen said. She, too, wore an idiotic smile for the inventor.

Keven nodded somewhat absently and then squatted down next to the now lifeless LIFU. “It shouldn’t have fallen over like this. Its gyroscope must have stopped working.” He opened a panel and started fussing with the robot’s insides.

“Can it be fixed?” Gretchen asked as she peered over his shoulder. Mrs. Farnsworth, Anne, and Annabelle were all hovering over the handsome inventor.

“Ladies, back up and let the boy do his work,” Mayor Possey said sharply.

“I do have some adjustments to make,” Keven said without looking up from the robot. “I am going to have to take it back to the factory.”

“Good,” I grumbled. I hoped he kept it at his factory forever.

Keven looked up at me. “Are you afraid of new things?” His voice had a patronizing note to it. He smiled at me in a way that made me feel like I was a silly backwoods ninny.

“No,” I protested. “No, I’m not afraid of new things.” Which might have been a lie. I was rather partial to the comfortable and known. “I am, however, afraid of large mechanical creatures that attack me in my own workplace.”

“It mistook Tru for an intruder,” Anne explained needlessly. LIFU still had the word intruder emblazoned across its screen in red block letters. “It wouldn’t have happened if she had been here when the rest of us had our pictures scanned into LIFU’s database.”

I wished she hadn’t reminded everyone that I was late to work. But there was a bigger issue. “That robot attacked me, even after I showed it that I posed no threat. Is that really what we want roaming the halls of our library? An armed Robocop?”

Mrs. Farnsworth seemed to seriously consider my question. “I’m not—” she started to say.

“I’ll retool patrol mode,” Keven said, his blazing smile back in full force. “I promise it will work better than ever when I bring it back.”

Annabelle sighed loud enough that I could hear her from across the room. “Isn’t he the best?”

The mayor helped Keven get the robot back onto its wheels. Together, the two men pushed the now deactivated robot toward the entrance. “Let me get the door for you,” Mrs. Farnsworth offered as she ran after them.

“I can get the door. I’m closer,” Gretchen said as she ran ahead of Mrs. Farnsworth.

“Oh, for gracious sake,” Annabelle said as she tried to match the other ladies’ speed. “I’m the one who should go. It is my husband who is helping Keven. And don’t you ladies have jobs to do?”

I looked over at Anne.

“Aren’t you going to join the race?” I asked her.

She shook her head. She was staring down at her bright yellow hands. “It’s not going to come off?” she whimpered.

Dewey peeked his head out of his tote bag, looked at poor Anne, and meowed sympathetically.