* * * * *
Anand was smiling as Franklin related the details of his encounter with Ashley Van Houghten at Savant Organic Robotics. Anand’s teeth were not perfectly placed, nor were they Ivory in color, but the smile he received from Anand while he told this story warmed Franklin just the same. Franklin felt a connection with Anand, and now, during his last hours, Franklin wanted to understand him. Franklin wanted to know the end of the story that only Anand could tell. Not for the content feature that would bring him fame, or for a retro-pulp feature that would pay his bills. Franklin was beyond that now. He had returned Molly the Warmbot back to the dealership, and he was willing to face the wrath of Dolly. He did these things so he could understand more about the reality of his world from Anand’s perspective.
“You have done well,” Anand said.
Franklin felt warm pride in his chest and in his face.
“You are beginning to see the world around you,” Anand added.
“The people around me are stuck in repetitive cycles and Warmbots are watching me, I am not imagining these things?” Franklin asked.
“No, you are not imagining,” Anand said reassuringly, “But, you are not fully comprehending it either. We have much to do today. Today is our last day. Today is my last day. I must tell you the rest of the story.”
Franklin picked up the pen and began to take notes.
“This repetitive cycle of conversation and the Warmbots watching you from outside your window; these are both symptoms of the same root cause. The root cause is a small error, a mistake. A mistake that was introduced into the network when the WetWeb was very new. It was before we could anticipate that it might grow to envelope all of our society. This mistake, this error, it is called a loop. A loop is an error in programming. It is not a virus. It has no malicious intent. It was just a mistake, an oversight. It is a mistake that I made during the early days of the Warmbot wars.