Metro City Mystery

My wife and I had argued back and forth about where we wanted to retire. She was insistent on not moving anywhere one would experience a real winter, having lived in the south all her life. She also wanted to be near our daughters who having graduated from college were now starting careers of their own. With one an engineer, and the other in the literary field, somewhere in the North East was a real possibility.

I'm from the N.E., and I lived in New England for a few years. Boston is a great city to live in, and has all of the services that a retiree might depend on. The rub is, it does snow there, a lot. Then one day, I read an article in the paper about a new community that was being built in what had once been a neglected and depressed part of the Boston area suburbia.

Some Japanese firm had been buying up the land, tearing down 19th century textile mills and other buildings long in decay. After leveling so many acres they started to put in their vision of a modern integrated community. Consisting of many forms of interconnected buildings that would become homes, businesses, schools, hospitals, and high tech industrial parks, it looked like a recipe for Utopia. Everything would be under one large continuous roof, one could go about their daily routine and never have to venture outside into the cold of the New England winter. There would be large areas with an open view of the sky, thanks to huge vaulted transparent domes covering the largest spaces between buildings. It was even claimed that the design of these areas would prevent even the heaviest snowfall from accumulating on the domes, built in anti icing heaters would melt away the precipitation which would run off harmlessly. The company poured a lot of money into the development, and they manged to get several of the top technology companies in the N.E. to either relocate adjacent to the place, or commit to build a new site within the community. A Japanese company that was working on robotics relocated part of their facilities to the area, many of their workers relocated as well. Oh, they gave the place a rather low key name, Metro City.

By the time we were ready to sell our home and move closer to our children some real estate developer was advertising retirement homesteads inside of the place. I had to admit, with everything we'd ever want under a single roof, never having to walk outside into a New England winter, and being able to live next to our daughters, it sounded very tempting. We visited the development, found a large condo apartment that suited us, and Robin finally gave in to moving above the snow belt.

Now one of the things that we quickly discovered about the Metro City community was how high tech it was. Moving sidewalks for short distance transportation, self driving cars for longer hauls, there was a rail station for a new extension to the green line of the MTA. However the really amazing thing were the robots.

I guess you'd expect that from a Japanese company. The community had these weird looking robots cleaning up the place 24/7. They did the dirty jobs that most people don't want to do. These robots were smart, they knew what was trash and disposed of it, they knew what wasn't trash and either left it, or if they figured that someone had lost something they collected it and the system would attempt to find the rightful owner. There were some androids, that is humanoid robots that existed to serve as interfaces between people and the automated systems of the city. These androids looked just human enough so you'd feel comfortable interacting with them, but not too human like so you'd get a creepy feeling looking at them. I asked about this, and it was explained to me that it wasn't possible yet to create a robot whose AI, that's artificial intelligence, was indistinguishable from that of a real persons. Computer buffs call that the touring barrier, named after the famous British computer pioneer. The thing is, what I had been told wasn't completely true.

The apartment flat we bought was completely automated. Robotic systems would do as much of our housework as we wanted them to. Android robots were available to assist the elderly, they could help wash and dress you, serve your meals, and such. They were not companions as they lacked the intelligence for that and only responded to a limited vocabulary (like the old iPhones). I figured that what we were seeing now was just a hint of what was to come in the future. We moved in and tried to live the life of a retired couple.

I soon got restless of trying to write the great novel I'd always wanted to. Robin busied herself with genealogy research on our family tree, but she soon started running into dead ends. We both realized we'd soon be getting on each other's nerves and started to look at the job lists. The community government listed many volunteer and part time paid positions for people wanting to burn up some idle time and be useful. I considered a lot of different things I could do, when I noticed the school board listing for a part time substitute teaching position.

Robin laughed at me over the idea, which only made me the more willing to apply for the job. My engineering and science background turned out to be a plus, though I wouldn't find that out till much later. I ended up in an elementary school and was assigned to assist in the 4th to 6th grades, which meant dealing with 9-11 year olds.

The school was highly integrated, much like New England itself as I remembered during the years I'd worked in the Maynard area. Most of the kids got along well with each other, but there were some exceptions. On my very first day I had to come to the rescue of a boy who looked of Asian decent. The kid was being bullied by a small group of his peers who were led by one nasty fat boy that went by the nickname of 'Shub'. The victim was a short kid, barely 4 feet tall with brown eyes and auburn hair. After I'd separated him from the mod that had ganged up on him, I tried to find out just what exactly had been going on.

I handed the lad back his baseball cap, which had been yanked from his head by Shub who had tossed it back and forth between himself and an accomplice. He thanked me and replaced the cap on his head, tucking two long tufts of cowlicks under the cap to conceal them.

"What's your name, kid?" I asked, "and why do these guys keep picking on you?"

"My name is Toby," he said. "I guess that goon Shub just likes to pick on kids smaller than himself."

"You know," I told him, "I saw what happened, and I think if you just stood up to Shub a little he might back off. Bullies get their enjoyment when they feel totally in charge, and they are not as brave as they look. They only pick on kids that won't fight back even a little."

Toby looked up at me and sighed. "The last time I stood up to someone like Shub things got a bit out of hand. That's why my dad and I had to leave Japan and move here, though he said it was because the company needed him here."
I wasn't sure what to make of that remark at the time.

I ended up dragging both Shub and Toby to the principals office. I explained what had happened, and Mrs. August told me she'd have to speak with one of each boys parents, and that I should be in her office when that happened. So I found myself a little more deeply involved.

Shubs mother was rather annoyed to have to meet with principal August. This was the third time during the current term that she'd been called in about her sons behavior. Once for making a mess in an art class (actually he smashed most of the large jars of paint in the closet, he claimed it was an accident), once for a food fight in the lunch room, and now this bullying incident. She yanked her son out of the room by his ear, Shub must have been screaming all the way home.

Toby's father was distinctive looking tall individual. He had a prominent roman nose, and a neatly trimmed beard. He listened quietly as Mrs. August explained to him what had happened. She asked him if he wanted the boy transferred to another class. His father thought about that, but in the end decided to leave things as they were. He seemed to trust that the proper justice would be handed out to the bullies and that they would behave in the future. He seemed proud of his son for not fighting back, which reminded me again of what the boy had said.

Later that evening I was channel surfing on the television. Metro City's cable service was filled with infomercials supplied by many of the companies that had a presence, including the robotics company that supplied most of the units serving the city. I left the channel on that one and watched their pitch for a better life though automation. The president of their local division made a brief appearance in the spot, I recognized him as Toby's father.

About a week later I found myself watching Toby's class again. As soon as I walked in I gave Shub the evil eye to tell him in no uncertain terms that I'd be watching him, and wouldn't take any of his bullying crap. His glance back at me seemed to echo that he got the message. When the class broke for lunch, I followed the unruly mob as they ran towards the cafeteria. About half of the students brought their lunch, while the other half lined up to select something from the schools automated kitchen. I had already discovered that there were several robots in the food preparation area, with people doing the serving. I imagined that in the near future some of those workers might be replaced by robots, though I think the kids would probably have a time with that!

Toby was sitting by himself, away from most of the other children. I watched him open his lunch box and remove what looked like an old fashioned thermos bottle. He opened it, pulled out a straw and inserted that into his mouth. I turned my back and took my phone out of my pocket to text my wife when I saw Shub head past me out of the corner of my eye. I slyly activated the front facing camera of my phone and tilted it so it pointed behind me. I could see Shub heading over to Toby. He grabbed the boy's lunch box and ran off with it in my direction. I stuck my foot out and tripped him, the big lummox landed flat on his stomach, face down about a yard in front of me. I pressed my right foot down just behind his neck. "You don't seem very smart, Shub." I said in a menacing voice. "Now you can spend the rest of the day in the principals office!"

Shortly before I had tripped up Shub, I had clicked the shutter on my phone's camera to capture some evidence. I scrolled though the pictures it had captured in burst mode, and sure enough I had a good shot of Shub grabbing the lunch box. But it was the last picture it grabbed that really caught my attention. Toby appeared in three of the frames, and in two of them he was the same timid little kid that had been bullied by Shub. However, in that last picture the expression on his face had changed from that of a timid little kid, into the determined take charge look of a marine just about to step out of a landing craft for combat. His auburn hair had turned dark, and those two cowlicks of unruly hair were now sharp points. The look of his face had turned from that of a soft, sweet little kid into, well an almost mechanical look, as if he were a robot. It was as if my camera had caught a transformation in his aura that had lasted only a split second, too fast for the eye to see but not for the high speed image sensor of the camera.

With Shub in tow by the scurf of his neck, I picked up Toby's lunch box and handed it back to him. I manged to get back to the lunch room before the bell rang after leaving Shub with Principle August, who was NOT happy to see him again. Toby was packing up to leave as he saw me renter the room.

"Thanks, for getting me my lunch box back, Mr. Peng," he said.

"Just doing my job, Toby." I told him. "I guess it was a good thing I intervened, from the look on your face I thought you were going to slug Shub."

Toby simply shook his head to deny that the thought had even crossed his mind. I showed him the picture I'd captured on my phone and he suddenly went very pale.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "What does that photo mean?"

"It means it almost happened again." Toby said "For a split second, I almost lost control of myself. Please Mr. Peng, don't tell anybody!"

"Sure, don't worry about it." I told him, though I didn't know yet what was really going on.

The one thing that we had taken for granted about Metro City, was the security. Entrance into the community from the outside was limited to just a few points that were very well controlled. You'd have thought that it was the one place where terrorists would never be able to gain access. We were wrong about that. It may have been an inside job, we still don't know. On the one score anniversary of 9/11 it happened. The terror cell must have been installed inside of Metro City for months, perhaps over a year before the plan had been put into action. The tracks of the "T" leading into the city were dynamited, the two roads leading into the likewise, and several main communications cables leading into the area were cut. A main power feed was also disrupted, but the city's own backup generators came on line at once so no one noticed that. (I'd heard rumors that they were powered by zero point vacuum energy, but that's yet to be proved.) The terrorists stormed into the elementary school to hold our children as hostages, figuring that would get them they best advantage for a bargaining chip with the government. The FBI quickly set up camp just outside of the area, but they took their time trying to figure out how to get inside without putting our lives in danger. They didn't know how many of the terrorists they were up against.

I was in the school when it happened. The door to the class room burst open and several armed gunman stormed waving submachine guns. Our wrists were quickly bound with tape and we were marched out into the hallway toward the gymnasium. Once we arrived there, we found that the rest of the other classes had already been dragged there at gunpoint as well. We were then ordered to sit on the floor and our legs were taped up as well. With all of us now securely tied up so we couldn't move most of the terrorists left the gym leaving just two of them to keep watch over the few hundred of us.

I looked around at the all the students and teachers and I saw that they just as scared as I was. Shub was balling out loud, and one of the gunman yelled at him to shut up, which only made him cry even louder. The terrorist then ran over to the poor boy and slapped him hard across the face. Toby was sitting right next to Shub. Immediately I noticed him change again. His auburn hair was now a very dark shade of black. His eyes seemed to have grown in size and burned with rage. I could see his muscles tensing up, his hands balled into fists. "You leave him alone!" Toby yelled at the gunman. The thug was taken back by the boys outburst. He raised his hand as if to punch Toby in the face.

That's when it happened. The boy stood up to face his attacker, as he did so he seemed to grow slightly in size. His shirt and long trousers ripped off him as he tore his arms and legs free from the tape that had bound them, and he stood there in just a pair of dark short pants with a green belt and his red boots. Toby caught the mans hand as the fist was about to strike him. With incredible ease, he threw his would be attacker across the length of the gymnasium toward the other terrorist. They both landed in a heap against the fall wall, but Toby was there before they could get up again. He picked up their weapons and bent the barrels of their machine guns around their necks, tying the two of them back to back with them.

Toby untied me and the rest of the teachers, who then released the rest of the class. I marched up to where the two terrorists were sitting on the floor. "How many of your are there?" I demanded. When they wouldn't answer, Toby grabbed each of them by the neck and demanded they answer. He released a burst of electricity out of his hands and the two men shook violently from the shock.

"Still going to keep quiet?" I asked.

One of them now had quite a lot to say, and he rambled on in a strange language, possibly Arabic.

"He said they are a dozen in number, the others have left the school and are now planting a bomb somewhere in the city." Toby translated.

With the immediate excitement over, I suddenly realized what had just happened.

"What the hell are you, Toby?" I blurted out.

The boy calmly opened a panel in the middle of his chest to reveal the inner workings of a machine.
"I'm a robot, of course." He said mater of factually. "Actually, I'm a bit more than just a robot. That's the problem."

One of the students tried to call for help on his cell phone, but the terrorists had taken care of that by either jamming the cell towers, or knocking them out of operation. He was able to use the FM radio in his iPhone to receive a news broadcast from outside of the city. The terrorists had made their demands known, claiming to have the Metro City school under their control. (I guess they didn't yet know we had freed ourselves).

Suddenly, a small army of armed men dressed in olive drab combat gear bust into the gym. They saw the two terrorists tired up and that we were all right. I slowly approached the leader of the squad and introduced myself.

"What happened here?" he asked.

"Let's just say we were somehow able to overpower them." I said.

"Yeah, right." he said. "Look we have to get you guys out of the city. Our intelligence reports that this terror cell has obtained a small nuclear device and that they have planted it somewhere in the city. They haven't tipped their hand yet, but we need to find that bomb and deactivate before they realize we are on to them."

The green berets marched us out of the school, and directed us towards a secret tunnel they had found in the city blueprints. Once outside the school building, Toby clamped his hands toward his ears and slowly rotated his head. He then starred up at the top of the tall skyscraper up in the middle of the city.

"It's there!" he pointed up at the top of the building.

"What's there?" I asked.

"The bomb." He said. "It's armed and will detonate under an hour."

The C.O. of the marine strike force heard Toby.

"How do you know that son?" he asked.

"The boy's actually a robot." I answered. "I saw the look on your face when you spotted those two terrorists tied up with a pair of machine gun barrels wrapped around their necks like silly string. Just how do you think that happened?"

"He did that?"

"Yes." I answered.

The colonel looked up at the top of the tall building. He yelled a few of his men to follow him and they ran towards the building, several Humvees also raced toward the site. Toby ran after them.

"Get back here!" I shouted, then realized how dump that was and for some reason I started after him. The Metro City tower was now the tallest building in the N.E. at nearly 200 stories tall. It was a slender needle like building of steel, aluminum and glass with a tall spire on the top that served as a mast for television and radio antennas. I entered the building to find the colonel barking orders and swearing out loud.

"Get out of here!" he yelled at me, "all civilians must clear out!"

"I'm looking for Toby" I yelled back.

"The robot kid?" he asked. "Don't you think he can take care of himself?"

That thought hadn't occurred to me. "Yes I guess so."

"Then leave. I don't think we can get up there in time to deactivate the bomb. All of the elevators have been cut out of service and they've put barricades in all the stair wells.

I was grabbed by two marines and pushed out of the building. There was Toby, looking up at the top of the building. "I'll do it!" he yelled leaping into the air. The boy robot flew upwards toward the top of the building and smashed though the wall. He re-appeared moments later flying out of the building only to turn back and smash though the wall again.

"What the hell is he doing?" The colonel yelled.

"I think he's looking for the bomb." I said.

Again and again, Toby smashed in and out of the building. He was turning the sides of the building into swiss cheese. After several hundred passes in and out of the structure, he flew towards the the top of the building and grabbed hold of the spire.

"What the hell is he doing now!"

I grabbed a pair of binoculars from one of the soldiers and looked up. Toby was straining the rocket engines in his legs as he held onto the top of the building with all of his might. He had a look on his face like an Olympic weight lifter trying to jerk a 1000 lb barbell over his head. Suddenly the top of the building tore off right where Toby had perforated it. He lifted the upper ten stories of the building up into the air. Higher and higher he got, until he and the top of the skyscraper were just a dot in the sky. Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of light, at least as bright as the sun followed by a blast of thunder and a huge wind that threatened to knock us over. The bomb had exploded high up in the stratosphere.

That was the last I ever saw of Toby. I don't know if he was destroyed by the bomb, or had gotten far enough away from it after letting go of the building before it exploded. I never saw his father again either, though I did find out that he'd been called back to Japan by the CEO who ran the company which controlled the robotics division. Maybe he took his 'son' back with him. It's clear to me that the boy was part of an experimental project being done under top secret. Perhaps his being enrolled in an elementary school was part of that experiment. A hacker friend of mine managed to uncover a few bread crumbs though. The robot had gone under the name of Toby while he was masquerading as a human child. However, it appears that there was a prototype robot known as 'Atom' or 'Astro' mentioned somewhere in the company's database. Maybe that was Toby, I guess I'll never know.