Hugo Barnes was waiting for them at the company headquarters, where the trains departed.
They drove there in Jasper’s car. This time, he was behind the wheel. Their mood was slightly better, though they still weren’t sure what to expect.
The headquarters felt emptier this time, despite robots bustling around the building, frantically preparing for the park’s launch. Billboards and posters for the opening were already everywhere, yet the parking lot stood deserted. Most of the figures inside were robots.
“Hello, gentlemen. We’ve been expecting them,” a pleasant blonde woman greeted them. She was different from the one who’d welcomed them last time. “Follow me.”
She walked ahead with a confident stride, and they trailed behind. Daniel was glad to see Jasper’s smile creeping back—and that familiar look he gave every woman, including this one.
Daniel recalled that last time, they’d taken escalators to the lower floors for their tests. But now, they bypassed those and went behind them. There, hidden, were more escalators—also leading underground.
The “underground” here was an abstract concept. It wasn’t some dank basement but modern white corridors with glossy gray tiles so polished you could see your reflection. On either side, two actual robots—no human bodies—rolled along on spinning wheels, looking like oversized vacuum cleaners. Unlike vacuums, though, they didn’t bump into walls to change direction. Their sensors detected obstacles a millimeter away and glided along the edges.
This section had just one corridor, relatively long—likely dug out by Barnes’s robots ages ago. While people built aquariums for fish or plants, Hugo Barnes had crafted an entire world capable of anything.
They walked down the corridor: the blonde woman leading with her tablet, the two of them behind. Each door they passed had a name and title—some worked on robot behavior, others on motor functions, and plenty dealt with intellectual capacity. The deeper they went, the higher the ranks got, until they reached the far door—naturally, Barnes’s office.
The woman knocked and, without waiting for a reply, opened it.
“Mr. Barnes, they’re here.”
They didn’t hear his response, but she stood at the door, smiled, and they stepped inside.
Barnes’s room wasn’t what you’d expect from an inventor. It looked more like an accountant’s office—desk, chair, a computer that probably didn’t work. A couch stretched across one side, and under the windows sat pots overflowing with flowers.
Barnes was at his desk, leaning back in his chair, looking like he wasn’t doing a thing.
“Where do these windows face?” Jasper asked, the first thing that popped into his head.
“Oh, the windows? My lab. We’re underground, but I insisted on having windows.”
“Doesn’t look like a place an inventor would hang out.”
“Exactly,” Hugo said, still lounging in his chair with no intention of moving. “That was the point, Jasper. I come here to rest. I lean back like this and just do nothing.”
“I figured we’d walk in and find you hunched over some new robot, soldering wires.”
Barnes grinned and finally pushed himself up.
“No, boys. My team handles most of the robots now. I only step in for the robot projects.”
“So everyone here knows how to build robots?”
“Yes and no. Some know how to craft the metal plates, others how to solder the cables, a third group builds the circuits and systems. Making one robot takes over fifteen departments. When each one’s done their part perfectly, that’s when I show up.”
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“And no one sees how it all comes together?”
“They know. I think anyone’s smart enough to assemble a robot with ready parts. But I’ve got the experience to judge if a robot’s fit for its purpose.”
“And if it’s not?”
“Then we bump it down the hierarchy. Just like people. Take Billy from the park you were at—he was supposed to be the sheriff. But you saw how defective Billy was.”
“So you knew he was messed up?”
“Yeah. Instead of sheriff, he became the jail guard, where there weren’t supposed to be any stories. Then you two showed up.”
Hugo was beside them now. He was short—shorter than both of them—and patted their shoulders.
“Come on, I’ll show you something.”
The lab entrance was a door they hadn’t noticed coming in—so white it blended with the wall.
What they saw on the other side made them feel like they’d stepped into another reality. The space was massive, lined with glass cases. Each case held a pedestal, and on each pedestal sat a lifeless robot. Some twitched or waved, but most stayed still, only their eyes moving.
Hugo led the way like a proud owner. At the far end was his workspace—a huge area surrounded by cabinets and tools, with a tall pedestal in the center. On it stood a man—big, strong, with long black hair and burn marks across his body. He looked imposing.
“Can this one kill us?” Daniel couldn’t help but ask.
“Well, he’s still got no safeguards, so yeah, he could.”
Jasper took a step back.
“But don’t worry. Hotol’s peaceful. And I haven’t turned him on.”
“Hotol? You’re naming them already?”
“Depends. Sometimes a robot comes with its name. When I sketched him on paper, ‘Hotol’ popped into my head, and it stuck. If someone else suggests a name, we discuss it and decide. But that’s the dullest part. No one likes dealing with it. With the early robots, it was more exciting. The women on my team especially—they’d show up daily with lists of suggestions, drawings, names, clothes. Now I’ve got professionals. And professionals are like robots—they do their job without emotion.”
“Wait,” Jasper cut in, grabbing a stool and sitting down. “So there are real people on your team too?”
“Of course! What are you two? Robots? I want you on my team too. Robots can be perfect sometimes. I don’t want perfect people. I want people who can think outside logic, who can break perfection and head in a new direction.”
“So you hire people dumber than robots?”
“A human made the robot, so I don’t know who’s smarter. Look.”
Hugo Barnes opened a panel in the big man’s neck, fiddled with something inside, and closed it. He grabbed a tablet from his workbench and aimed its screen at the robot’s eyes. The two devices—the tablet and the human-shaped robot—synced somehow, and the tablet lit up. Barnes tapped two buttons, and the robot’s eyes started moving. Then its legs twitched.
“Didn’t you say there’s nothing to worry about?” Jasper asked.
“There isn’t. His intelligence isn’t installed.”
“I’ve seen people with no brains cause plenty of chaos.”
“When I say he’s got no mind, I mean it. He’s a newborn—blank slate, ready to be written.”
Jasper waved a hand in front of its eyes. The big man tracked it but did nothing. Barnes tapped the tablet again, making him move.
“You can control him?”
“The dumber they are, the easier it is. Once they start learning, it gets tricky. Take that Martin I sent to your viewing—if you hadn’t whacked him so hard, I couldn’t have jumped in. He was one of the smarter ones. Studied him for two years at university, by the way.”
“You sent him to school?”
“Oh, yeah. Even lived in a dorm with other students.”
“Isn’t that risky?”
“It is, but I wanted to see how far he’d go.”
“Didn’t learn much if I caught him.”
“He greeted you, Jasper. I made him do it. But that was supposed to happen later. Something glitched. Anyway, it wasn’t a disaster—for us. He’s in repair now.” Barnes chuckled.
“What are you trying to show us with this big guy, Barnes?” Jasper asked, lightly kicking the huge man, who jerked his leg like a fly had bitten him.
“That humans still command robots. That’s it. Speaking of which, enough robot talk.” Barnes shut off the giant Hotol and set the device down. “Let’s talk about you.”
His smile widened. Daniel found a stool and sat too. Barnes stayed standing.
“Since you’re here, I say we get moving.”
“Get moving with what?” Daniel asked, taking over Jasper’s role of questioning.
“Getting you back in the park.”