Emily blinked. “You gotta be kidding me. What are you? A flea-bitten Siri?”
I do not have fleas.
“Okay, sorry, didn’t mean to offend you,” Emily said. “All right, what’s the capital of Rhode Island?”
Providence.
“Hmm,” Emily said. “Maybe that was too easy. Let me think. Okay, I got it. Here’s a great trivia question. What do you call this?” She touched her finger to the small indentation under her nose and above the middle of her upper lip.
Philtrum.
Emily stared at Chipper. “You’re freaking me out.”
Need help?
“Back to that, are we?”
Just asking.
“Fine, how do I do this?”
Go into Settings and click on Synching Auxiliary Device.
“Okay, I’m there. Now what?”
Chipper led her through several steps. Finally, holding her phone and looking at the screen, she said, “I think I’ve got it. Say something.”
I like to chase squirrels.
“Yes!” she said, grinning as the words appeared on the phone. “It works!” But her grin quickly faded. “So I get this working and you just want to talk about squirrels?”
No. I have other things on my mind. But it is true that I like to chase squirrels. Are there squirrels in these woods?
“Yes,” Emily said matter-of-factly. “There are a lot of squirrels in these woods. There are hundreds of them. Thousands of them. They’re all over the place.”
Okay.
“Do you think that’s the most important thing we have to deal with right now?” Emily asked.
No.
Emily shook her head. “This is like something out of a science fiction movie. Mixing up a dog and a computer. I mean, why would anyone even do that? What’s the point? It must have cost millions to do what they did to you. Why? So you can open your own can of dog food?”
I would have been sent on missions.
“Missions? What do you mean, missions?”
To see things. Hear things. No one notices a dog.
“So, like, you’re a spy? A dog spy?”
I get information. Does that make me a spy?
“I think so. I mean, how could a dog actually do what a spy does?”
I watch and record. I was going to be sent to foreign countries. Everything I saw and heard would be sent back.
“Who would you send it back to?” Emily said.
The White Coats. At The Institute.
“Yeah, right, okay. And they’re part of the government?”
It took several seconds before Chipper came up with an answer, which turned out to be very short.
I do not know. I think I smell a raccoon on the roof!
“Focus, okay?” Emily was shaking her head. “Why are you on the run?”
I was a failure.
“What do you mean, a failure?”
I like being a dog more than I like being a computer. I want to stop being a computer. I want to just be a dog.
Emily said, “Really? I would think, if you’re a half-dog, half-computer thingie, you have all these kinds of powers other dogs don’t have. I think that would be cool. You’re, like, a million times smarter than the other dogs. But here’s the part I can’t get my head around. You seem to have feelings. Like, when the stuff you say comes up on the screen, it sounds like you care about stuff.”
I do have feelings. All dogs have feelings.
“Well, sure, I guess,” Emily said. “But yours seem more... I don’t know how to explain it. They seem more kind of grown up.”
Chipper had nothing to say for a couple of minutes, so Emily continued with her technical efforts. There was something that was very much on his mind, even more than the prospect of getting out of the station and looking for animals. Finally, he asked a question.
Is Jeff a good friend?
Emily shrugged. “I haven’t really known him very long. But he seems okay. Why do you ask?”
Chipper did not answer. He was still thinking.
“What’s the deal?” Emily asked. “Are you rebooting or something? Why do you want to know if he’s my friend?”
I have things to tell him.
“What?”
Things that may upset him.
“But you don’t even know him.”
I know things about him. I knew I had to find him. I knew he would be kind to me.
“Okay, this is completely nuts. I mean, it’s crazy enough, some robot dog that works for the government, but when you broke out you decided you had to find Jeff? Some kid who runs a fishing camp with his aunt? That’s, like, pretty ridiculous.”
There are other things I need you to do.
“Like what? You mean, in your settings?”
Yes. I need more control over my defensive and logistical operations.
“Your who? I mean, your what?”
Chipper explained what he needed her to do. Emily searched through the various settings and made what changes she could.
“I hope that’ll do it,” Emily said. “What the heck is a ‘decibel distraction mode’?”
Something I might need. I have never used it before.
“Well, whatever it is, I think it’s set to go. So, anyway, what’s all this stuff you have to tell Jeff?”
He needs to know that.
Chipper stopped mid-sentence.
There was the sound of an engine, and seconds later, a big bang from down below. Someone had burst through the door to the train station and was bounding up the stairs.
Screaming: “They’ve found us! We have to get out of here!”
It was Jeff.
Twenty-Six
Only thirty minutes earlier, Aunt Flo had been standing in the middle of the driveway, out front of her house, fists on her hips, when Jeff arrived back into the camp from the dump. She looked like laser beams were about to come out of her eyes.
Jeff had a choice of hitting the brakes or running her down. He decided, with some reluctance, to slam on the brakes for the second time that day. The truck slid to a stop on the gravel. Aunt Flo’s face was quickly at his open window, and she was angry.
“Where have you been? You’ve been gone nearly two hours! It doesn’t take two hours to get to the dump and back! Where were you? What in blazes have you been up to?”
“I got held up,” Jeff said, hands gripped around the wheel.
“Held up? Held up? What’s that supposed to mean? By bandits? Stagecoach robbers? There’s all kinds of things that need doing around here and they’re not getting done when you’re goofing off.”
Jeff killed the ignition and slowly pushed open the door, giving his aunt time to back out of the way. He walked right past her and headed for the house.
“I’m talking to you!” she said.
“Aunt Flo, there’s something I really have to deal with right now,” Jeff said. “I’m sorry.”
He walked briskly and Aunt Flo struggled to keep up with him.
“What do you have to deal with that’s more important than making sure my business runs efficiently?”
Jeff stopped and turned. “I don’t care about your business. I don’t care about your stupid camp or your stupid cabins or your stupid boats and most of all I don’t care about you!”