The Robot Ransom

by Warner, Gertrude Chandler

  “I’m sure it was Logan,” said Rico, hugging DogBot to his chest.

  “Maybe,” Jessie agreed. “But the person used normal white paper and a black marker. We don’t have many clues.”

  “Just the handwriting,” said Henry. “Anyway, let’s forget it and enjoy the day. Has anyone heard from Coach yet?”

  Rico pulled out his phone and stared at it. “Nothing. I texted him last night and this morning.”

  “He’s probably waiting for you all at the conference,” Grandfather said. “It isn’t far, so we can walk over.”

  The group walked a few blocks to the convention center. They entered a wide hallway with check-in tables set up along one side.

  They found the table that had a sign saying E–H and stood in line. Benny said, “H for Henry, but what about the rest of you?”

  Henry chuckled. “We’re in this line because G is for Greenfield, our team name. We sign in by team.”

  “If you get separated, this is a good place to meet,” said Grandfather.

  “Don’t they have someplace with food?” Benny asked. “I’d rather meet there!”

  Henry ruffled Benny’s shiny brown hair. “They do have a food court. We’ll go there for lunch. But if you get lost before then, come here. We’ll find you here, or you can ask the staff for help.”

  “All right,” said Benny. “I have my snacks with me anyway.”

  Everyone got their badges. The team members’ badges had their names and Greenfield STEAM Team on them. Violet’s and Benny’s said Visitor. Grandfather said good-bye and left to take care of his business. The children headed to the main hall for the conference.

  Inside, they stopped and looked around. Hundreds of people filled the room. And that wasn’t all.

  “Look!” said Benny, jumping up and down with excitement. “It’s a real, live robot!”

  Jessie laughed. “Well, it’s real anyway. I don’t think it’s alive though. Let’s take a look.” They joined a crowd clustered around a platform. On the platform stood a shiny white robot as tall as a person. It had smooth arms and legs, and a normal-looking head with eyes, ears, and a mouth. A man was talking about the robot. “This robot can move much like a human,” he said.

  Then the man reached out and shoved the robot. The robot fell forward, landing on its hands and knees. The crowd gasped. After a few seconds, the robot stood up again.

  Benny said, “I’m surprised the robot didn’t blast that guy with laser beams!”

  Naomi smiled at Benny. “Robots do use lasers but not the dangerous kind. They use lasers to sense what’s around them. Some robots can ‘see’ the room around them using lasers.”

  “Knocking the robot down seems mean,” Violet whispered.

  “Robots don’t have feelings,” said Rico. “The man was just showing how the robot could get up again. It’s much harder than it looks. That’s why we used four wheels on our robot. Balancing on two legs is very difficult.”

  Benny looked down at his own legs. “It doesn’t seem that hard.”

  “You have lots of little muscles in your legs,” said Naomi. “Plus, your inner ear tells you how to balance. And your brain sends signals to your muscles. Everything works together. The human body is incredibly complex.”

  Benny turned to Violet. “Did you hear that? I’m complex!”

  Jessie grinned. “You sure are. Right now the best robots are about as skilled and smart as a two-year-old. The people making robots can’t make something as complex as you.”

  They walked through the room, looking at all the displays. Some of the robots had human shapes. Others did not. Some made beeping noises or flashed lights. Some spoke English.

  Violet said, “That first one we saw, the robot that fell down, he looked like a real robot. Some of these other things look like computers or machines.”

  “Robots come in many shapes and sizes,” Naomi explained. “Any machine that can do things on its own is a robot. The ones that look like humans are called androids. But not all robots look like humans. Factories use robotic arms to move heavy objects. Then there are drones, which are robots that fly. Some cars are robots too—they can drive themselves.”

  Rico pointed to a display with pictures of a big cart on red sand. “That’s the rover that explores Mars. It can drive through the desert and climb over rocks. It can even test the soil to learn about it—all without a human within thousands of miles.”

  “Some robots are controlled by people,” said Benny, pointing at a girl using a remote control to move a truck. “But not all of them have people telling them what to do.”

  “That’s right,” said Naomi. “Some robots work all on their own. And some can even learn new things on their own. That’s called artificial intelligence, or AI.”

  “Why didn’t you make one like that?” Benny asked.

  Naomi laughed. “Because it’s really hard. Maybe one day we will make an android that can walk like a person and answer questions. But that wasn’t our goal this time.”

  “Every year the Robot Roundup has a special challenge,” Jessie said. “This year the middle school theme is When Disaster Strikes. We needed to build a robot that could help during a disaster.”

  “You mean like when Benny forgets to clean his room?” Violet teased.

  “Sorry, Benny. I haven’t seen any room-cleaning robots,” said Jessie. “We were thinking about problems like earthquakes. People use search and rescue dogs to help find survivors. But sometimes it’s not safe for people or dogs to go near a disaster area. That’s when robots can be used to save lives.”

  Violet patted DogBot’s head. “That sounds like a very good use for a robot.”

  “Speaking of our DogBot,” said Henry, “we should drop him off at the staging area. It’s crowded in here, and DogBot is built from lots of small pieces. If he gets dropped or bumped, pieces could come off.” Henry led the way to the side of the large hall.

  Temporary walls about ten feet high blocked off rooms for competing robots. Banners marked the places for each group to leave their robots.

  “This way,” said Henry, waving the others toward the middle school staging area. But as they approached the doorway, an android robot about as tall as Benny blocked the entrance. Large yellow eyes blinked at the children. A female voice came from the robot. “Good morning. I am the Sentry Android Robot Assistant. But you may call me SARA.” Lights blinked in the robot’s mouth as it spoke. “Only contestants are allowed inside this area.”

  “I’m a contestant,” said Henry.

  The robot’s head turned slightly to look at him. The eyes blinked. “Welcome, Henry Alden.” Next the face turned to Jessie. “Welcome, Jessie Alden.”

  “How does it know your names?” Violet whispered. “That’s creepy.”

  The robot turned its head toward her and blinked. “That is not a very nice thing to say.”

  Violet clapped her hand over her mouth, blushing. “Sorry!” She backed away.

  The robot greeted Rico and Naomi by name. “The Greenfield STEAM Team may enter. Visitors must wait outside.”

  “Is somebody controlling it?” Benny asked.

  Rico turned to Violet and Benny. “Don’t worry,” he said. “There must be an electronic chip in our ID badges that sends a signal to the robot. That’s how it knows who we are.”

  Violet frowned at the robot. “Then it doesn’t know my name. I’m glad.”

  “I don’t see Coach anywhere,” said Jessie.

  “Maybe he’s inside,” said Naomi. “Let’s go check.”

  “Wait for us here,” Henry told Violet and Benny. “We’ll drop off DogBot, and then we can look at more displays.”

  As the team went into the room, Benny stood face-to-face with SARA. “Do you know who I am?” he asked.

  “You are not a registered team member,” the robot said.

  “That’s true.” Benny tried to think of more questions for the robot. “What’s your favorite food?”

  “Computer chi
ps,” SARA answered.

  “That’s funny,” said Benny. “How old are you?”

  SARA said, “I am thirteen months and four days old.”

  “You’re just a baby!” exclaimed Benny.

  SARA blinked at him. “Robots do not have babies, silly.”

  Violet pulled Benny away from the android. She whispered, “Naomi said robots don’t have feelings. But this robot sure acts like she does!”

  Meanwhile, the older children looked around inside the room. About a dozen students and a few adults were chatting. Ten tables were set up around the sides of the room. Each table had a sign with a team name on it. So far, about half of the tables had robots on them.

  “Wow,” said Jessie. “Some of these look really neat. I can’t wait to see them in action.”

  “There’s our spot,” said Rico, crossing the room. But when he got to the table, he jumped back and gasped. The others hurried over.

  They all looked down at the table. A propped-up sign read Greenfield STEAM Team. But a yellow sticky note sat on the table in front of the sign. The sticky note had words written in red marker. The children had to lean close to read the words.

  Greenfield doesn’t deserve to win!

  Strange Encounters

  “Who would leave a mean note like that?” Jessie asked.

  Rico grabbed the note and crumpled it in his hand. “Look over there,” he said. “The Silver City team is here. I’ll bet Logan left the note.”

  Naomi put her hands on her hips and glared at Logan. “I’m not afraid of him.” She marched across the room and tapped Logan on the shoulder.

  Logan turned and grinned at her. “What’s the matter? You really look like you’re steam-ing.”

  “Enough with the jokes,” said Naomi. “You can’t get us to quit that way.”

  “How can I get you to quit?” Logan asked.

  “You can’t!” Naomi said.

  Rico held out his hand with the crumpled note. “You can have this back.”

  Logan’s eyebrows rose as he looked at the sticky note. “Why would I want that? What is it?”

  “It says we don’t deserve to win,” snapped Naomi.

  “Imagine that!” said Logan. “Someone thinks you don’t deserve to win. Here’s a hint—everyone thinks that.”

  “You’re always trying to cause trouble,” Naomi said.

  Logan shook his head. “You’re the ones who caused trouble last year, with your cheating.”

  “We did not cheat!” Naomi and Rico said at the same time.

  Jessie spoke gently, trying to calm everyone. “I’m sure they would not cheat. We all just want to have fun and do well.”

  “Cheating is a big accusation,” Henry added. “You should not make that claim unless you have proof.”

  “Maybe they didn’t cheat,” said Logan. “But it still wasn’t fair. Our robot did better in the trials. Your robot was scored wrong. Your team should have lost!”

  Naomi lifted her chin. “The judges disagreed with you. We won last year, and we’ll win again this year!”

  “We’ll see about that!” said Logan. “You should be kicked out of the competition forever. Just like your last coach!”

  Rico hunched his shoulders and glanced around the room. “What our old coach did has nothing to do with us,” he said. “We have a new coach now.”

  Logan shrugged. “You’re as bad as he was. You should withdraw from the contest.” He pointed at the note. “Everyone thinks so. But if you won’t drop out, we’ll beat you this year.”

  “Come on. Let’s go,” said Henry. “There’s no point in arguing about this.”

  Rico turned away at once. Naomi looked like she had more to say to Logan. Jessie touched her friend’s arm and said, “Violet and Benny are waiting. Let’s visit the rest of the displays and enjoy ourselves.”

  Finally Naomi nodded. They ignored Logan and his teammates as they left the room. Outside, they joined Violet and Benny. Violet looked at their unhappy faces and asked what was wrong.

  “Logan is what’s wrong,” said Naomi.

  “Don’t let him bother you,” Jessie said. “He can’t really do anything to us.”

  Rico was still holding the sticky note. He flattened it out and looked at it. “I hope Logan will be happy with leaving notes. What if he tries to break our robot?”

  Henry glanced back into the room. “I don’t see how he can. Someone would see him.”

  “Surely he wouldn’t do anything that bad,” Jessie said. “We don’t know for sure that Logan even left this note.”

  “Another note?” Violet asked.

  Jessie pointed at paper. “This one is different,” she said.

  “The note last night was on white paper,” said Benny. “This one is on small yellow paper. The other one had black writing. This is red.”

  “That’s right,” Henry said. “It could mean two different people wrote the notes. Or maybe the same person just used different materials.”

  “What about the handwriting?” Jessie asked.

  Henry studied the note. “Look at the way the person wrote the letter i,” he said. “Instead of a dot, there’s a tiny circle on top. I don’t remember that on the one from last night. But I threw that note away. The cleaners will probably empty the wastebasket before we get back.”

  “We need a sample of Logan’s handwriting,” said Naomi.

  “How are we supposed to get that?” Rico asked. “He won’t just give it to us.”

  “He sounded like he was telling the truth when he said it wasn’t him,” said Jessie. “Did you notice how he said everyone thinks we should lose? He seemed glad he wasn’t the only one.”

  “But he is the only one,” Naomi said. “We haven’t had trouble with anyone else.”

  Rico scratched his head. “Could it be someone playing a joke on us? Coach Kaleka has a weird sense of humor sometimes. I don’t always get his jokes.”

  “The note isn’t very funny,” said Jessie. “It doesn’t seem like it could possibly be a joke. But I do wonder where Coach is.”

  Rico pulled out his phone. “He still hasn’t answered my text. I’ll try calling him.” Half a minute later, he said, “It rang a bunch of times and then went to voice mail.”

  “I’m starting to get worried about him,” said Jessie.

  “It is strange,” said Henry. “But I don’t think we need to worry. He could be here but not be able to hear his phone. We don’t really need him yet, since we don’t compete until Sunday. Let’s ignore Logan and concentrate on having fun.”

  “Good idea,” said Jessie. “Today I want to enjoy myself. The competition is going to be exciting, but kind of scary too. A lot of people will be watching us and DogBot.”

  “I really want to win now,” Rico said.

  Naomi nodded. “We can’t let Logan beat us this year!” She looked at Henry and Jessie. “This is the third time Rico and I are competing against Silver City. It sure would be nice to go home with the trophy.”

  “And the prize money,” said Rico. “Four hundred dollars!”

  “We’ll do our best,” said Henry. “We’re not going to withdraw from the contest just because the Silver City team are sore losers. But worrying won’t help.”

  “I’m worried,” Benny said.

  Jessie put her arm around Benny. “What are you worried about?”

  Benny patted his stomach. “I’m worried they’ll be out of food before we get our lunch!”

  They all chuckled. Henry said, “I’d like to look around a little more before we get lunch. How about breaking into your snack bag?”

  Benny nodded and passed around granola bars. After their quick snack, the children went back through the main hall. Booths showed off all types of robots. Some were simply toys. Others could do work, such as moving boxes or helping people in wheelchairs.

  A man in one booth said, “Someday everyone will have robots! And not just one robot. Every family will have a dozen robots. They’ll cook and clean for
you. They’ll answer commands. They’ll be friends.”

  “I’d like to have a robot friend,” said Benny.

  “Not me!” said Violet. “I like people. And animals.”

  A stage was set up for bigger demonstrations. A team of waist-high robots played a game of soccer. They were very slow, but it was fun to watch them march around the field and kick the ball.

  Finally Benny said, “My tummy is telling me it’s time for lunch!”

  The others agreed. They wove through the crowd, heading for the food court. As they walked, Violet spotted someone wearing a green shirt with black letters. It looked the same as the Greenfield STEAM Team T-shirts. “Is that your coach?” she asked.

  “Where?” Naomi stretched her neck to look. “Hey, that’s not Coach Kaleka. That’s our old coach.”

  Henry said, “Logan mentioned your old coach was kicked out. What did he mean?”

  Rico kept his voice low as he explained. “Coach Thompson got in trouble with the school. He joined a competition for fighting robots.”

  “He fought a robot?” Benny’s eyes were big. “Wow!”

  Naomi giggled. “Not quite. They have contests where the robots battle against each other. The goal is to destroy the other robot.”

  Rico said, “It’s exciting to watch, but the school said it didn’t set a good example.”

  “Plus, he used our robot,” said Naomi. “It was school property. He lost the battle, and the robot was destroyed.”

  “That’s too bad,” said Henry. “It’s tough that he got fired from coaching because of it though.”

  Naomi nodded. “He was a good coach. He knew a lot about robots. Coach Kaleka is nice, but he doesn’t have much experience.” She looked over at her old coach and waved to him. “Let’s say hi.”

  Mr. Thompson came toward them slowly. He put one hand over his ID badge and fiddled with it nervously. “Hello, Rico, Naomi.” He did not smile, and he kept glancing around, avoiding their gazes.

  “It’s nice to see you,” Naomi said. “These are our new teammates.”

  “I know,” Mr. Thompson said. “Jessie and Henry Alden.”

  Jessie and Henry exchanged a look. How did he know their names? They had never met him.