RoboNomics

Chapter 17 - 2016

The next morning, I enter the school by the front entrance and immediately see a long plastic table beside the glass doors. It's been set out for the I.I.U. and I to stand behind and welcome the press conference guests.

We'll hand out the electronic nametags and direct everyone towards the school library. And I'll wonder whether any of them will be able to tell which of one of us is human.

Moments later, I stand behind the table and anxiously wait as people flow through the school doors. There are members of the press with plaid button downs and investors in suits.

After about a half hour, Shari walks through the doors. She's dressed in a flouncy, gray skirt suit with a purple button-down. All of her long, thin braids are neatly arranged and shiny.

She doesn't give any indication that she knows me, just like we talked about. She looks very different than when I've seen her before.

Her broad shoulders and her impressive, muscular arms are camouflaged by the shoulder pads and tailoring of the suit jacket. I hand her an electronic name card. I try to give her the same smile that I give everyone else as they stream through the school's main entrance.

Shortly after Shari enters the school library, there's a big commotion at the end of the hallway. A group of people comes in through the doors that lead to the playground.

At the center of the little clutch of people is a man with white hair and a bent back. He wears a tweed blazer.

"Do we have name tags for those people?" I ask the I.I.U. "It looks like we don't have enough left."

"They don't need name tags," she states flatly. "That is the Chief Executive Officer of RoboNomics and his group."

When they slip into the library, the android and I give out the last nametags to the few stragglers who were invited to the press conference.

"That looks like the end of it," I say when all the nametags are gone.

"Is it time to go in?"

"Yes. We have to go." I grab her cold, smooth wrist and guide her down the hall.

When we enter the school's library, it looks completely different from what I'm used to. The shabby, square circulation desk is still just right of the entrance.

But the circular tables that usually take up the center of the room are gone. Instead, the room is stuffed with rows and rows of rented chairs.

They all face away from the doors, towards a lectern and a set of chairs. Behind the lectern is a backdrop with the circular, orange RoboNomics logo repeated all over it.

All of the invitees are seated and chatter with each other. The room is full of the din of human conversation.

Like much of the school, the library has undergone many changes in recent years. Classes still have a weekly "library time," although this is used mainly to come and look through eBooks on FlexScreens.

There is little left of the school's physical book collection. The old books rest on sets of shelves that span three of the library's walls. They give off a pungent, musty scent that's not present in the rest of the school.

The CEO of RoboNomics sits in a chair next to a black lectern. Beside him is Principal Goodman, a few people from the school district or maybe the Ministry of Education, and Jay.

Beside Jay are two empty seats. Those are the chairs for the I.I.U. and I. We schuttle to the back of the room and sit down.

Jay stands up and approaches the podium. He waits for silence to fall over the crowd.

I'm surprised at how fast it happens. Unlike a crowd of children, the people sitting before us quickly stop talking as soon as they see someone standing in front of them. Jay launches into a formal introduction.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I want to welcome you to Crescent Street Public School. It has been my pleasure, these past four months, to get to know the staff at Crescent Street and to work closely with them."

He doesn't know us. I can't help thinking.

I try not to scowl. 

He was barely here this term. He can't know us – he can't know me. He doesn't know me at all.

"...And I'd like to be able to introduce you to the fine staff here as well as to our star, whom the students and staff have taken to calling 'Teacher'."

There's a laugh from the crowd.

"But first, it is my pleasure to introduce, in Canada for the first time, I believe..." He looks over at the old man a few seats down from me, "the Chief Executive Officer of RoboNomics, Robert Newhouse."

The man in tweed slowly stands up. On his way to the lectern that Jay had just vacated, the old and the young man shake hands.

Then, amid the noise of applause, Robert Newhouse – the head of one of the biggest robotics and automation companies in the world – pulls a wad of folded papers from his inner breast pocket.

He looks out over the crowd.

"You'll excuse the irony." They laugh generously. "I'm an old man."

He then peers through the bottom of his glasses at the first page.

The speech is dry and my mind wanders. I'd rather think about what's going to happen here than listen to the recitation of financial data.

I'm aware that he is trying to prove to the audience that RoboNomics is flourishing and making gobs of money. But I'm too nervous to care. 

What if something goes wrong? I wonder. What if we all get caught?

"But that is nothing," he continues, "compared to our current initiative. And it's this initiative that we're here to talk about today. So, without further ado from me I'd like to pass it back to Mr. Tharanga, our pilot project liaison, to introduce you to our innovative and cutting edge new project which we call the Interactive Instructional Units."

Robert Newhouse folds up his papers and turns away from the little podium.

My stomach begins to churn. This is it. Jay is about to introduce the robot and I to the press.

I'm supposed to give a statement. There's only one problem with that: I haven't prepared a statement.

I didn't see a point. When Jay introduces me, that's the cue. That's when it will happen.

I see Shari slip out the library doors and into the school's main hallway. Rather than making me less nervous, the sight of her leaving the library sets my nerves on edge.

"...a former teacher and now the person who keeps 'Teacher' filling those little minds with knowledge, Andrea Anderson."

I start at the sound of my name. I've been straining to see the hallway through the windows of the library doors. I haven't been listening.

The crowd of journalists, executives and bureaucrats applauds and Jay moves back towards his seat.

For a second, I don't move. I just watch him as he smiles at me. He raises his eyebrows as he sits down beside me.

"Andrea?"

"Yeah. Sorry."

I walk to the lectern. I swallow hard and look out over the crowd as the applause dies down.

Even when it's over, I can't see Shari and the others. They were supposed to be here by now. But there's nothing else I can do.

I open my mouth to say something -- to say anything that will buy some time.

They slam the doors open and everyone turns to find the source of the commotion.

(What is Chris' plan? Read Chapter 18 to find out what happens next...)

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