A Robot's Partner

The Horrible Ones

The killer was still on the loose, but Caesar had been talking online to robots who hated humans, and it seemed like he had a lead.

We were on our way to the suspect's house. He lived around the area where Caesar had tracked him to the last time. My heart was racing, I dreaded facing the horrible robot again, he'd nearly killed me.

“Try to take deep breaths, I'm not going to let him get near you.” Caesar rubbed my knee.

I took a few deep breaths, but my heart was still beating extremely fast. It felt impossible to calm down.

“It's not working.” I sighed. “Don't worry, I'll be fine once we've caught him.”

“He should be easier to beat this time, one of his legs is missing.”

“Yeah, I don't think they would've been able to repair it, since everyone knows what he looks like.”

“What do you think we should do with him?” Caesar asked.

I would normally say that we should bring him in to be reprogrammed, but I'd heard a few reports of robots regaining their memories, or retaining some of their old personality. I couldn't risk him becoming a serial killer again.

“Unfortunately, I think we have to kill him. I'd hate it if he got reprogrammed, then years later went back to his old self.”

“I agree, it's too dangerous for him to be kept alive.”

Caesar parked the car by a large, fancy house that was a bit further than where we'd been looking before. I wondered if the owner knew how vile her robot was — it wasn't even like he killed people quickly, he killed them in painful and disgusting ways.

We got out of the car and Caesar went and rang the doorbell. After a minute, a woman opened the door, she was short and thin, she had pale white skin and long brown hair.

“Hello, do you have a robot in your house?” Caesar asked.

“No, I don't have any.” She shook her head. The woman was picking at her fingers, as if she was nervous. It seemed like she was lying about not having a robot.

“But, it's registered that you have one,” Caesar said.

“Oh, that one. He left me a month ago, he's missing.”

“We got no reports about a missing robot.” I shook my head.

She was definitely lying, I didn't need to have a lie detector, like Caesar did — it was obvious.

“I didn't think there was any point in reporting it. The police don't care about missing robots, most people don't even like them.”

“Well, I would certainly look for a missing robot,” I replied.

“Can we come in and have a look around?” Caesar asked.

“Do you have a warrant?”

“We do,” he replied and took the warrant out.

She sighed and stepped away from the door, so we walked in. The house was clean and nicely decorated. The two of us looked around the house, and I was worried that we wouldn't find the killer because there was no sign of him. He definitely lived in this house, the woman was way too suspicious. Caesar stopped by a wall.

“Is there a secret room or something?” I asked.

“There is, I just need to find out how to open it.”

There was a large bookcase nearby, with many books. I would've loved a huge bookcase like it with hundreds of books, but there wasn't much room in my small house. I'd left my books at home in Cambridge because there wasn't enough room for them. I started pulling books out because doors often opened in movies when a book was moved.