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I sit for a moment to allow that to sink in. Glenie? My first robot boss. He understood more than any other robot but he was programmed from scratch. He spent every waking hour with the last of the human commissioners before he was placed into the position once they believed he was ready. The question is when did they scrap him? How hadn’t I heard of this? I mean he was the one who got me on this case, now he was both the leader of the discards and the police force? Something wasn’t adding up. He already had more than enough power to cause problems, so what’s with the discards? I look up to check my rear view mirror, and then remember it got shot off. Bah, I don’t need it anyway. I pull onto the road and for the first time in a week or more, I’m behind the wheel of my car. It’s riddled with bullet holes, missing pieces, and there’s blood all over the back seats. She’s got her issues, but she’s mine. Sweet, sweet wheels of justice and freedom.

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After my joyride, I pull up to the spot I remember in the original video I got many moons ago from a concerned individual. The one that showed the discards cannibalizing a dropped off robot on the road. The one that showed my car and her second, well third murder. I park the car and start walking toward the discard graveyard when I hear something. I turn and see nothing but a bush blowing in the breeze. Suddenly it comes again. It’s the faintest of sounds, almost inaudible. “Magnus…” The whisper is almost lost on the breeze, but I catch it. My vision looks into the bush and I notice the remnants of a small robot left. I lean down and look him over. He’s got no way of moving, but it looks like a truck may have bumped him off. “You. Are you the one who sent me the video?” The robot looks up and down the road and then at Magnus. “Yes, you are the one I heard them talking about at a seminar. I am C13-TU5. Cleaning robot for the school board.” I shake my head in disbelief at what has befallen him. “How could they simply just toss you here, you still seem to be working fine?” C13-TU5 stares at him as if he just froze, but then breaks the silence. “They tossed me because I was getting slower, repairs were getting harder and the newer models were cheaper. But that doesn’t matter. I heard about you from the Neighbourhood Watch in one of the schools. They said if there was ever something the police couldn’t help with, you were the one to call.”

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I would have smiled if I could. People saying these things about me in their meetings meant my job was being done well. Too bad I had to close up shop on official business this week. I miss the boring days of tracking down dead beat fathers and cheating husbands. Suddenly C13-TU5 began again. “I didn’t know who else to call… I remembered your email from the meeting, but for some reason I couldn’t find a number for the police in my database. Guess I’m losing my memory too.” If a robot could look depressed, I’m sure this robot fit the bill. I patted him in the head. “Don’t worry, I’ve got some business in here and then I could use someone like you with a keen eye for detail in my office. Would you be up for that Cletus? Do you mind if I call you that?” C13-TU5 paused a moment. “I’ll think on the new name, but I wouldn’t mind working with you.” I grabbed him out from under the tree and tossed him in my car. He’d need some work, hell, probably a lot of work. But I couldn’t just let him rust away under the tree. Also, apparently he didn’t need to recharge. Maybe he was solar powered.

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After placing him into my car I headed down into the graveyard, and it was worse than I ever expected. As I walked through I could tell I was being watched, if I made one wrong move I could have loads of robots upon me. As I marched through the aisles and over the random parts and discarded robots. I felt sick to my stomach. I saw cleaning robots, public service robots, military droids, police droids, you name it, and it came here. As I stepped over one unit’s head, I could hear the remaining energy fizzing away as if to manage some last words. As I knew I couldn’t be sick, I was okay, but my mind was making my fictional stomach do back flips while filled with battery acid. My eyes darted across the field of debris, well bodies and I glanced down to my own metallic legs. I was standing knee deep in discarded robots. This wasn’t right. It didn’t feel right. We were really this oblivious? Instead of recycling or improving the existing robots, we simply just toss the old ones away? “It’s terrible isn’t it?” A familiar voice came from behind. I turned and watched as an unfamiliar robot, walked with an all too familiar limp. “It’s incredibly saddening to see what humans do to the things they create. They consider themselves gods, while in reality they are less than savages.”

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I stand staring at the robot limping through the debris and I am too stunned for words. I still attempt. “I… I didn’t know. I mean, I knew, but didn’t… if you understand… what I mean?” I can’t take my eyes off him. Then he stuns me with only words. “Magnus. This was why I put you on the case.” My mind is baffled and my words fly out before I think about them. “Why? You were the one pulling all the strings, me included. Why was I so important in all of this?” The robot shuffles slightly and turns away from me and stares at the large factory in the distance. I recognize it as where the droids are made for the police and military. He hangs his head, and his words come out as sad as I’d ever heard a robot speak. “Because you and I are the same Magnus. The only difference is I never forgot you, but eventually, the force forgot about me.” I thought about his words for a moment. “But… you know I wasn’t always a robot, right?” He stares straight ahead, still fixated on the factory. “I know Magnus. Nor was I.”

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