Chapter 28
Hartford, Homeland
In her cramped quarters within the secret Lucid lair, Beth pulled out a small toy mouse out of her bag of items that she hastily grabbed from their house when they evacuated.
The toy mouse said, “Hi Beth.”
Beth said, “Shut up, mouse. I don’t feel like talking.”
Beth sat on her bed and fidgeted with the toy. A tear ran down her cheek. Her mother came into the room and she quickly put the mouse back into the bag and looked away.
Sharon Thomas said, “I know, Baby. It’s tough that we are stuck here, and I know that Milton caused all of this.”
“When can we leave?” Beth said, whimpering.
“I don’t know yet. It’s not safe out there right now for us.”
“Can we . . . ever?”
Sharon hugged her and said, “I promise we will get ourselves out of here and we will run away to someplace safe. But not until the time is right, okay?”
Beth nodded.
*******
Meanwhile, in the control room a televised report came on one of the screens.
Milton verbally commanded to the monitors, “Sound off. Sound on three,” which gave them sound to only one of the screens.
“. . . Economists say that Lucid terrorists are to blame for disruption in the centralized distribution system because of tampering with schedules and hacking into sensitive files. Consumers are apprehensive because they suspect sabotage by Lucid terrorists at every turn.”
Milton woke Sleepy and said, “What did you bots do? There is like a total meltdown going on out there!”
Sleepy said, “We are not doing 78 percent of what they are saying that we did. However, those other actions still benefit our cause if they believe we are responsible.”
“Yeah,” Milton said, “and gets me into more and more trouble! Most people hate what you are doing and they hate me.”
Sleepy said, “You are only getting 8 percent of the blame for the mayhem.”
The news report continued; “So who is this boy behind all of this trouble?” A gallery of pictures of Milton came onto the screen.
Milton said, “Yeah, right! Eight percent! I don’t want to hear any more of your statistics!”
“His name is Milton Thomas, from Hartford. Milton was born with random genetics into a retro-fashioned limited family model.” This was a marginalizing description used for a traditional family that was structured around a marriage of one man and one woman.
“Milton was once a regular child and lived a normal life. He had friends like any other young boy before he became involved in android agitation.”
Milton said, “Android agitation?!”
“Milton somehow discovered that an old Tekujin series of androids known as the Lucid Series was corruptible and that they were networked together. Now the whole Lucid Series of androids has brought android anarchy to peaceful Homeland society. Was this all caused by the divisive actions of a mere child?”
“Android anarchy?!” Milton exclaimed.
“Everyone is asking ‘why?’ Why would a boy create so much trouble for so many? I sat down with Dr. Lorenzo, child psychologist who worked with Milton. Let’s listen . . .”
Dr. Lorenzo was shown wearing her best dress and makeup, clearly wanting to make the most of her appearance before a large television audience. She said, “Milton has mystical delusions. He has become full of hostility and is acting it out on society. At the time we thought it best that he should be heavily dosed with the commonly prescribed drug, Notuda. Unfortunately, he is probably not taking his prescribed medicine, and you can see the results. Quite predictable.”
The interviewer said in a serious tone of concern, “So, Dr. Lorenzo, how does this all end for this misguided young boy?”
Dr. Lorenzo said, “Not very well, I’m afraid. We see this every time among those who dabble in mysticism. I urge everyone to use caution and not to overreact if they come into contact with this potentially dangerous child. Remember, even though he has caused so much pain for so many, he is still just a very confused young boy.”
“We also spoke to Milton’s Principal at his school. . . “Mr. Stafford, did you notice anything unusual about Milton’s behavior while he was at school?”
“Yes. Milton did not get along with the other children and often caused fights. He agitated the other children as much as he did the androids, like the android we were using as a janitor which has to be scrapped as soon as we can locate it.”
“Come on!” Milton screamed.
Sleepy said, “Humans place an inordinately high priority on how they are perceived by other humans.”
Milton said, “Well there are a lot of really good reasons for that!”