The man in question jumped up on the balcony railing and took a bow. He had tousled, mousy brown hair, with a dancing light in his green eyes. “So which one of you is Wells?”

Isaac raised his hand somewhat tentatively. Karol looked him up and down with an appraising eye. “Well, Wells,” he chuckled briefly at his own joke, “you ruined a class A prank. I haven’t gotten that close to getting Dr. Butler in three years. And let me tell you, it took some setting up. Cost me a week’s vacation to come home early and get this little rampage ready.”

As he spoke, he had jumped down from the railing and made his way down the stairs. He came to a stop in front of the tour group as he finished.

“You were able to set all this up in a week?” Octavia asked, sounding impressed.

“You better believe it.”

“Yes,” Dr. Butler interjected. “Mr. McCaffrey here is quite adept with robots. One of the best students I’ve ever worked with.” McCaffrey beamed under the praise. “It’s the only reason I tolerate his little hobby,” Butler continued archly, and McCaffrey appeared to deflate. But he caught Isaac’s eye and gave him a wink.

“Aw, shucks, Dr. B. You’re making me blush. But from the quick way this first year spotted the trick, either I’m badly slipping or I’ve got some competition.”

“I think it’s safe to say you’ve got some competition. Just not in the prank department, I hope,” Dr. Butler said.

Isaac quickly shook his head. He couldn’t help but feel some pride at the compliment Butler had just given him. Octavia was right. Setting up this elaborate a display in a week would take some crack programming skills, not to mention a deft hand with the hardware. Even causing the appearance of an attack on another robot was almost impossible with the ‘97b.

The unit was specifically designed to work in teams and thus was programmed not to harm its counterparts. This programming was extremely ingrained. Even under remote control, the unit should have shut itself down rather than attack a fellow robot. And to turn on a human…well, needless to say, ironclad protection for humans was the cornerstone of the robot revolution. People wouldn’t accept the existence of autonomous beings that were stronger and faster than them if there was even the slightest chance that power could be turned against them.

True, certain military applications lacked the safeguards, for obvious reasons. But those units were kept well sequestered from human population centers in friendly countries for that very reason. If Karol McCaffrey was telling the truth, the man was a genius. And as far as Isaac could tell, he wasn’t that much older than himself.

Clearly, Isaac told himself, this was someone to get to know.