“A little hectic. Archie, please run a hardware diagnostic.”
“Of course.”
“Less than four minutes,” Kendra whispered.
Archie finished the diagnostic. “Systems nominal. Foreign object located in quadrant six.”
Stevie bent over and inspected Archie’s lower torso. There was now a large rectangular panel that had been cut into its smooth surface and welded shut. Stevie looked at her tablet. “There’s an electromagnetic energy wave. They put a bomb in here.”
Kendra looked around. “We have to get him outside, far away from all these people.”
Stevie shook her head. “No time. There are people everywhere.” She leaned close to the robot. “Archie, you have an explosive device inside you. I need you to remove it quickly in such a way that does not cause harm to the people nearby. Please do thatnow.”
“Yes, Stevie.”
Archie paused for a moment, then flexed his steel alloy fingers. He struck his midsection several times with his steel fingertips.
“It’s not giving way,” Kendra said hoarsely.
“It’s reinforced steel,” Stevie said. “Archie, pleasehurry.”
Archie glanced around, scanning the faces of the ever-growing crowd. He finally stopped trying to pierce the armor plating at his midsection and peeled away the steel. He reached inside and pulled out the bomb’s triggering mechanism, still connected by a series of wires. He looked down at it, frozen for a long moment.
“Goodbye, Stevie.” He spoke quietly.
“What?” Stevie moved toward her creation. “Archie, no!”
Archie turned and ran through the crowd.
“Archie!”
The robot picked up speed as he moved through the busy concourse, taking the route that would lead outdoors in the shortest amount of time. He hurtled through a tall plate-glass window, barely breaking stride as it shattered, bringing down large chunks of glass. Alarms sounded in the concourse, and crowd members in the plaza scrambled to move out of Archie’s way as he bolted across the large circular driveway and past a valet parking garage.
Stevie and Kendra ran toward the broken window and watched as Archie leaped over a moving car and continued toward a grassy slope.
Stevie screamed. “No!” She tried to run after the robot, but Kendra held her back.
“He’s doing what you taught him to do,” Kendra said. “He’s solving the problem.”
Tears rolled down Stevie’s cheeks. She nodded as Kendra put her arm around her.
The robot disappeared over the hill beyond, and thirty seconds later a huge explosion rocked the area.
The crowd screamed. Car windows shattered up and down the entranceway, along with windows on the far end of the concourse.
A moment later, a ball of fire rose into the sky, followed by a plume of smoke.
“It’s just a big field over there,” Kendra said. “Archie saved everyone in this part of the stadium.”
Jessie and Brice ran up from behind them. Jessie pointed to the plume. “Was that . . .”
Kendra nodded. “Archie.”
They walked outside the stadium and followed Archie’s path toward the grassy slope and the hill beyond. A few curious onlookers joined them, but most stayed behind as police sirens wailed and security personnel blanketed the area.
Lynch joined them just before they reached the hill, and they climbed up together. The group stood still for a long moment, watching the now burning field.
Jessie turned toward Stevie. “Archie saved a lot of lives here today. You should be proud.”
