Black
Hat was now outside, watching this with the utmost amusement. He
laughed loudly, smirking widely. This was extremely entertaining!Wha – laughing? Carlos was hearing laughing. Another lap around the front gate of the mansion and Carlos could see a tall figure out of the corner of his eye. He recognized it as the top-hat man he met yesterday. And he was laughing at Carlos getting chased by a possibly malicious robot. That was so ill-mannered of him.
But Carlos had other things to focus on. Like the math problem in his head…
“Hey, robot! Can you do calculations?” he called back to the metal behemoth behind him.
But either the robot couldn’t, or he just didn’t want to talk, the robot didn’t answer him. But instead, he sped up, clawed hands reaching for the human he was trying to catch. Black Hat smirked wider and watched, eager to see the human be caught.
Carlos yelped and tried to go faster. He could practically
feel the inches between the tails of his labcoat and the thing’s claws. Ugh!
Okay – maybe something simpler?“This sentence is
false!” Carlos screeched.The paradox somehow worked. And, to Black Hat’s shock and horror, the sentinel froze and began glitch out before its circuits fried. Now Black Hat was beyond pissed off, shaking with rage.
Carlos slowed to a jog before finally stopping. He bent over with his hands on his knees as he gasped for breath. “Okay… gotta work out more,” he murmured to himself.
Still panting he stood up straight and looked back at the robot. He felt bad about breaking it. He checked his danger meter and found that it was in the orange zone. Not immediate danger, it seemed… he started walking toward the robot, keeping an eye on the meter. He wanted to see if he could reset it and send it back to its charging dock without hurting it any more.
The Perfect Scientist 