With the target deactivated, RECO 1 calmly moved on to the next phase of his mission. He limped through the gravesite and began collecting every single robot part. He splashed into the shallows and returned with a foot. He shook the sand from a cracked torso. He pulled a head out from a tide pool. Each part was then piled around Roz’s lifeless body.
Brightbill watched in horror as his mother slowly disappeared under a pile of parts. Roz looked just like the dead robots. But she wasn’t dead—she had simply been shut down.
“Don’t do it, Brightbill!” The flock tried to stop their leader. “It’s too dangerous!”
But the goose was determined to bring his poor mother back to life. Brightbill crouched low to the ground and slowly moved toward the pile of robots. And when RECO 1 limped away to collect another part, Brightbill sprinted over the rocks, pushed past arms and legs, and squeezed into the pile.
Click.
A muffled voice echoed across the shore. “Hello, I am ROZZUM unit 7134, but you may call me Roz.”
Brightbill hugged his mother’s face as her computer brain rebooted. “Mama, wake up!”
“What happened?” she said finally. “Where is the RECO?”
“He’s coming this way!”
“What were you thinking, Brightbill? You must leave now before he kills us both!”
“I was scared, Mama!” cried the goose. “I didn’t know what to do!”
Heavy footsteps stomped toward them. Robot parts were knocked aside. And then RECO 1 looked down with his glowing eyes. Brightbill tried to squirm away, but thick fingers locked around him like a cage.
“Mama, help!” cried Brightbill as he was pulled up from the pile.
“Please do not hurt my son!” begged Roz. “He is harmless!”
RECO 1 paid no attention to Roz. He just held up the goose in his giant hand, ready to crush the life out of him.
Mist swirled in the breeze.
Waves sloshed against the rocks.
Seagulls circled above.
No, not seagulls. Vultures. And one of them clutched something silver in his talons. The vultures spiraled down, and RECO 3’s rifle clattered onto the shore. Geese and otters quickly surrounded the rifle. They squawked and squeaked and fumbled with the weapon, trying to aim the clunky thing.
The hunter was confused. How had those animals gotten a rifle? And could they possibly know how to fire it?
They did know.
The geese had seen a trigger pressed before.
A beam of light briefly flashed through the gloom. At first it seemed as if nothing had happened. But a moment later, RECO 1’s chest began glowing a brilliant orange, and then it was melting and oozing down his front, and soon there was a wide, gaping hole in the middle of his torso. His hand suddenly unclenched, and Brightbill fluttered away. Seawater sprayed over the gravesite, and steam hissed up from the RECO’s scorching-hot guts. He shook and twitched and
collapsed
beside
Roz.