CHAPTER FOUR — THE MISSING ROBOT

Oliver entered with his usual smile, but his eyes found Carol immediately.
“Mrs. Briggs,” he said.
“You two know each other?” Ethan asked.
“We met at an orientation session,” Oliver replied.
“My granddaughter attended that session,” Carol said.
Oliver tilted his head.
“Of course. Nell. An impressive young engineer.”
“She isn’t an engineer yet,” Carol said.
“She could be.”
Oliver set his laptop on a workbench.
“I hope we’re not discussing the unfortunate incident at the pool.”
“We are,” Ethan said.
Oliver looked toward the open garage door.
“Someone contaminated our competition site.”
“It’s my pool,” Ethan replied.
“And I agreed to a contest, not to let you decide who gets near it.”
Oliver held up both hands.
“I don’t want an argument.”
“Then tell me why an orange propeller guard is caught under the drain.

”
Oliver went still for a moment.
“A test unit must have shed a piece,” he said.
“Which test unit?”
“We’re cataloguing them.”
“Was it yours or a student’s?”
“That’s a technical question.”
“It has a simple answer.”
Oliver closed the laptop.
“I can arrange for a private pool technician to retrieve it.”
“My pool company is coming on Monday.”
“Monday will be too late.”
“For what?”
Oliver glanced at Carol.
“For the competition.”
“The competition can move,” Ethan said.
“Not easily.”
Oliver leaned closer.
“Families are traveling. Sponsors paid for signage. Several students need Saturday’s result for their scholarship applications.”
Ethan felt the weight of those consequences.
He had promised the children a public demonstration.
He had also been careless about reading the agreements Oliver had distributed.
“What is your plan?” Ethan asked.


“We’ll skim the water, use a clarifier, and resume tomorrow.”
“You want to run robots with that piece trapped under the drain?”
“It isn’t dangerous.”
“Then you won’t mind explaining why you told Nell she could be accused of stealing technology.”
Oliver turned toward Carol.
“She told you that?”
“She told me,” Carol answered.
Oliver smiled with no warmth.
“Teenagers misunderstand serious conversations.”
“Then have the serious conversation with her parents,” Ethan said.
“Gladly.”
Oliver reopened his laptop and began tapping.
A few seconds later, a message arrived on Ethan’s phone.
It was a proposed statement for every parent to sign, confirming that Blue Current owned all competition footage, test data, designs, and derivative inventions.
Ethan read it twice.
“This wasn’t in the permission form we gave them,” he said.
“It’s a clarification.”
“It changes ownership.”
“It protects the organization from future misunderstandings.”
Ethan looked at Carol.
She had been right about the agreement, if not about how to handle the problem.
“I’m suspending the event,” he said.
Oliver stopped typing.
“You cannot do that.”
“I can close my own backyard.”
“The scholarship funding will disappear.”
“Then we’ll find another way.”
Oliver’s smile finally vanished.
“You don’t understand the pressure I’m under.”
“Explain it.”
Oliver closed his laptop again.
“Our investors are coming tomorrow.”
“You said sponsors.”
“They are both.”
“Investors in what?”
Oliver looked toward the orange robot chassis on the workbench.
“In the future of underwater inspection.”
Carol whispered, “The children’s designs.”
Oliver ignored her.
“Ethan, we can all benefit if you stop making this emotional.”
“I want the students here with their parents in one hour,” Ethan replied.
“We’ll discuss what belongs to whom before anyone touches another machine.”
Oliver picked up his laptop.
“That is a mistake.”
He walked toward the house.
Carol watched him leave.
“He’s going to take the machines,” she said.
Ethan looked at the locked equipment crates.
“Not before we count them.”