Ro tore down the back hallway of the primate
center. It had been a normal day. Well, normal enough
if you traveled with an ex-killer robot. Zee ran next
to her, making sure to match her pace. "Are they still
chasing us?" Ro asked him.
Zee turned his head and focused
in with his optics. "Yes, we are still being pursued by
two NSA agents."
Ro sighed. It was always the same thing.
Help Zee to keep running from Agent Bennet, the obsessed
National Security Agency officer determined to track down
Zee and reprogram him. Find Dr Selig and have HIM convince
the NSA that Zee didn't mean any harm to anyone. Stop
Zee from showing the extent of his naiveté and have total
strangers think he's nuts. It was tough, but Rosalie Rowen
was up for the job.
They slammed around a corner into
another nondescript hallway. A janitor yelled something
about the area being off limits as they brushed by, but
the pair was beyond caring. Near the far end, a doorway
presented itself. Still running hard, Zee pressed Ro onward.
They burst into the room and slammed the door shut. A
light clicking sound was heard to indicate the door had
locked. The pair slumped to the floor.
"We should be safe
for now," whispered Zee, "the locking mechanism on the
door should keep them occupied for at least an hour."
Ro nodded, breathing hard. She examined her surroundings.
They seemed to be locked in someone's private office.
A single goldfish swam lazily in a glass bowl stacked
precariously on a pile marked "IN". A small bookshelf
held well-worn copy of 'Of Mice and Men', and a fan that
rocked gently back and forth to keep down the orangutan
smell.
Ro leaned back against the wall. "So, explain to
me how a nice, simple trip to look for Dr Selig at a small
town zoo turned into a giant chase with Bennet and everybody."
Zee pondered that. "Well, it most likely started when
that zoo security guard recognized me from the wanted
posters. And it probably didn't help that Agent Bennet
and his team were nearby, enjoying some time off. And
it certainly didn't help when zoo patrons began to scream
and run."
Ro glared at him. "That wasn't a question, Zee."
"Oh."
Zeta made a mental note to try to check for sarcasm
more often. There were so many things about human kind
he didn't understand. He could list any kind of statistic
listed in any encyclopedia, and yet he just couldn't seem
to grasp certain concepts. He found humor to be particularly
hard. He was lucky that Ro was there to help him out.
He looked up at her. She was staring at him with her arms
crossed. He replied with a questioning look. "What is
it, Ro?"
"I don't know if it's crossed your circuits yet,
but we're stuck in this room with two NSA agents just
outside struggling to find a way in. You **know** they're
gonna call for backup to bring in the Infiltration Unit
and his Accomplice, right?"
Zee nodded. "It had crossed
my mind. Can you see any way out?"
"Well," Ro mused, "there's
the door we came in, but with those two agents right outside
it's not the best option." She scanned the room. They
were trapped pretty deep inside the off limits building
of the zoo, so this room didn't see to have any windows.
She glanced up towards the roof. Set up in the high ceiling
was a single locked grate. "Bingo," she said out loud,
pointing out the vent. "Now all we have to do is get up
there."
Zee examined the vent. It was higher than he could
fully extend himself to, but if he utilized something
to give himself extra length he would be able to reach
it. "We need to move this desk to the center of the room
to get up there."
As they pushed it over, Zee paused and
looked over. "Ro?"
"Yeah?"
"What's the difference between
a fib and a lie?"
She stopped and looked up at him. "What?
Where did that come from?"
"It's something I've been wondering
for a bit now. When you come up with ways we can blend
in, you always say that's a fib instead of a lie. If they're
both untruths, aren't they the same thing?"
"Uh..." She
paused to think. "Well, a lie is something you tell when
you want to trick somebody. A fib is something you tell
when you don't want to hurt someone's feelings."
"Have
you ever fibbed to me?"
Ro crossed her fingers and smiled.
"Of course not, Zee."
Not understanding her gesture, Zee
simply smiled and nodded. Dropping his hologram, he stood
on the pile they had assembled. "This should be enough
height for me to reach the vent." Ro grabbed hold of him
as he fully extended him limbs and began to remove the
cover.
"Great," said Ro sarcastically, "now I can get
back to my stressed out life."
"Perhaps you should relax
more," Zee told her helpfully.
She shrugged. "I'll be
mellow when I'm dead."
Zee pulled her through the air vent, and they were off
running again.
::End::