Coastal Flash Fiction

The Runaway

     It was just before he left for the continent, he was on a panel of scientists, some strange meeting about the future of planet earth, just a group of rhetorical scientists and economic theorists. espousing the latest dubious economic eclectic modules(D.E.E.M.), and after Cooper had reached his limit, he hopped a flight and got back to the outpost. It didn't take him any time at all.

     "I'm sure I don't want to know what you talked about at the meeting," Suzi says.

     "No, it's not so bad. new theories, as you might suspect, somebody put in a new submission, which adds to the bureaucratic layers, like a cake, but they still do it."

     "Is that a fact," Suzi says.

     They don't say anything for a while. It has gotten worse than it was, and Suzi can sense it.

     Suzi says, "I should go out soon and seek safe harbor. I'd want to smell some fresh air."

     "If you think that is best for you."

     Suzi wants, abruptly now, to show her entire program to Cooper. She wants to tell him everything she has ever coded for, lay it out all on the table, all the encryptions, hacks, and embeds that ComTrax would never be able to figure out in a million years. She wants so much just to sit with Cooper and spend the time.

     "No," she says. "They won't delete a runaway killer wolf robot that has the capability to eliminate every man, woman, and child on this planet."