IN CLASS, TEACHBOT PASSED along the lines of desks taking handprints. The four-foot high can stopped by Honey’s empty chair. Its arm and its eye were still and Joel knew it would be querying the records. He also knew it would be pointless to ask it anything about whatever information it did or didn’t get.

He wanted to slip a oneline to Honey, but teachbot would detect it. Then his tablet and all of his tech would get impounded for a week for connecting in class time. When the little can slid by his desk he tried saying that he wasn’t feeling too well and he should go home. He instantly wished he hadn’t.

Kier Mald and Ty Bannon shouted from the back,

“Aw, Joely got a upset tummy?”

“Maybe he needs early salvage, Miss.”

While it was teachbot, they were required to call teachbot ‘Miss.’ With only half a dozen independent bots in the whole village, out of school hours this one doubled as a cop. Nobody called it ‘Miss’ then. It was the bot that had helped out with the kite hoisting, too. At times like those it was supposed to be ‘supporting the community,’ so you could could call it whatever you liked.

Teachbot’s eye poked out on its long flexcord. An arm cantilevered out and a needle jabbed his thumb for a sample. The eye looked in each of Joel’s. ‘Miss’ told him, “Open your mouth, Joel.” And the eye went into his mouth. He had to keep his mouth wide open while the eye starred down his throat.

“I detect nothing needing treatment. Do you wish to sign risk exemption?”

Signing the insurance waver would mean taking a full medical examination, at his own expense. If test results showed he was ill, he would get treatment and half the cost of the exam would be covered. If not he would have to compensate the school for the juice of administrative and legal costs, and pay a fine. Unhappily, Joel declined.

Getting through the rest of the day was going to be hard.

At the first break he ran out to the yard, eager to call Honey. His tablet had a oneline from an ID he didn’t know. He assumed it would be spam. A huge inheritance from a juiced-up stranger, or a revolutionary way to enlarge is penis. He was going to delete it but just in time he spotted the label.

It said, ‘Honey. URGENT.’