Harry Peters

Saber Toothed Robots
By Sean Nelson

Harry Peters was a quiet elementary school kid. He wasn't neccessarily
shy but there was always a certain timidity in his shiny brown eyes. He
wore his wavy black hair neatly parted on the side. In school, Harry
was known as an extremely nice, gentle boy. I know that the public
image of Peters is anything but nice or gentle, but I have to describe
Peters the way that I knew him; as a smart, normal kid.

I must admit, Harry was always very interested in robotics. Heck, maybe
he was even obsessed. He usually brought a lap top to school and he
spent many recesses typing away on a robotic grid. Of course I,
although I was a rather gifted child, knew nothing of robotics and
Harry was in an absolute trance at these times. He would completely
ignore me and I would walk off and play with other kids.

I would play handball with a big red ball. I was very good at handball
and so I would have vicious handball matches with the other kids. I
would beat them and each loser would get in line to face me
again.

Meanwhile, quiet, stoic, Harry would sit alone on a big black tire and
program the robot in his computer.

On one of these recesses, though, I felt like watching Harry work. As I
looked at his screen, I was astonished to see a silver, gleaming,
robotic saber toothed tiger. The huge metal tusks hung out menacingly.
Knife-like metal fangs filled the monster's mouth. It was the most
vicious thing I had ever seen and as a young boy, I thought that was
great. How could I have imagined that later on, hundreds of innocent
people would be chewed to bits by the shining teeth I now saw on
Harry's screen?

"Wow! That's cool", I said.

"Yeah, the jaws are powered by a mechanical motor in the feet. This
thing is almost a self perpetuating machine. All it takes is a little
bit of solar power now and then", said Harry, happy that I was finally
showing some interest in his robot.

"But they can't really build robots, can they?", I said with a note of
superiority in my voice. "My dad says they've been trying to build
robots for over thirty years now and they can't do it."

Harry gave a meek shrug and went back to typing numbers into his
laptop.

Another recess we had a discussion about who would win in a fight, an
army commando or a saber toothed tiger. "It's obvious that an Army
Commando would win", I said. "He'd just shoot the tiger with his
missile launcher."

"No, a saber toothed tiger is very clever. Nature created the saber
toothed tiger to be man's predator. He knows that men are dangerous
because they have weapons. So he'd wait until the Army Commando fell
asleep and then he'd kill him."

I was stumped. "What about two army commandos, so they could take turns
sleeping?"

"I don't know how but the saber tooth would win. Just like a deer would
never hunt and kill a man, a man will never hunt and kill a saber
toothed tiger."

"You just know that two commandos would win."

"Not according to the theory of evolution."

"Don't use big words. You know you're wrong."

"Well, whatever, but I'll bet two Army commandos could beat
Superman."

"Superman?! You really think so?"

Ten years later, in downtown New York City, the mayor was giving an
important speech to a huge, supportive crowd. Mayor Armstrong had
served his two term limit and now he was here to help elect the man he
wanted to replace him, Neal Stuart. During his eight years, Mayor
Armstrong had cracked down on crime and restored a chaotic city to
order. He was a short, extremely stocky man with coal black hair combed
straight back, mafioso style.

"Over the past eight years", the mayor began with a boom, "I have
restored law and order to this city. Rape and robbery are at almost
half their levels when I took office. And better yet, murder is at a
mere fraction of the 2010 levels. I have accomplished this because you
helped me. I have accomplished this because the good citizens of New
York supported me while I fought for them. I accomplished this because
you voted for me. And now, I ask you to vote for the only man who can
fill my place, my former head of police, Neal Stuart."

Stuart was a thin, handsome man with a strong jaw line and a sense of
sharp agility about him. He had light brown hair, messily combed to the
side. Both men wore three piece tuxedoes.

In the audience, there was a thin, pale young man in a tuxedo just like
the one the mayor was wearing. In his hand, he held a complicated black
control with all sorts of buttons. The young man's wavy black hair was
parted neatly to the side.

"And now, if you'll vote for Neal Stuart, we'll keep this city safe for
everybody."

"And we'll keep the saber tiger tooth tigers fed,"muttered the boy with
the control to himself as he pressed a button on his control. Suddenly,
four trap doors opened on each side of the stage. In front of the news
cameras, in front of the roaring crowd, metal saber toothed tigers
closed in on the two politicians. The creatures glided with a
mechanical smoothness and their glass eyes glowed a menacing red.

"What a stunt," thought the crowd, almost in unison as the spectacular
robots walked onto the stage. "We love Mayor Armstrong,"thought the
crowd as they clapped even louder.

Then, to everybody's horror, one of the robotic tigers pounced, pinning
Mayor Armstrong to the ground. The mayor's suit was all torn and he was
screaming at the top of his lungs. He had dropped the microphone but
the crowd could still hear his frantic yells. He no longer sounded so
masculine and confident. Next, with one horrible bite, the tiger bit
off the Mayor's head, lifted its own head up for the crowd to see, and
crunched Armstrong's previously handsome head.

The crowd screamed. Neal Stuart, who the robots ignored, jumped into
the crowd, screaming like a little girl. Quickly the robots walked off
the stage and dissappeared back into their trap doors, leaving a bloody
mess behind.

A thorough investigation revealed that a certain Harry Peters was
behind the murder. After all, this same robotic saber toothed tiger had
been Harry's high school mechanics project. The mechanics teacher, a
fat man whose hair was already gray from smoking, had told Harry time
and time again, "You'll never build that robot."

Nobody could find Harry. He had simply vanished without a trace. Always
solitary(I was his last close friend), Harry was in contact with nobody
and nobody gave him away. News magazines were often filled with
speculation about the motives and the whereabouts of the psychotic
Peters. But it was only a matter of time until Harry revealed his own
whereabouts, in the grisliest of ways.

This time it was a New Year's Parade in Tokyo. Millions packed the
crowded streets and a thousand parties were under way. Short, asian
businessmen reeled around with beautiful Japanese women, all drinking
Saki. But these wealthy people behind closed doors were safe from the
awful events outside, on the sidewalks, in the jammed streets.

Ten metal saber toothed tigers appeared out of nowhere.

A pretty Japanese woman in a black suit and high heels walked along the
sidewalk. Behind her, a small vicious robot quickly gained on her.
People screamed at her from their cars. She turned around and looked.
Her calm features transformed into twisted horror as she looked at her
metal death. She slipped out of her high heels and dropped her purse.
She ran as quickly as she could but it wasn't nearly fast enough. The
front claw of the robot caught the woman and shoved her facedown on the
pavement. She tried to push herself up but the claw pushed her down,
much harder. Now a gash in her eye was bleeding. The monster bit off
one of her arms at the elbow. It chewed the appendage loudly and spat
it back out. Harry had designed this purely for effect. Of course, the
robots didn't eat anything. Then the other arm. All the cars in the
street were emptying quickly as everybody got out and ran for his
life.

The machine left the woman for dead and chased after the crowd. It
wasn't necessary. There were ten robots spread out over the downtown
area. Neatly dressed people were quickly torn to shreds as the
efficient killing machines went about their work.

One handsome young college student in a white Nike polo tried to defend
himself with a golf club. It was of no use. The saber toothed tiger
knocked the club out of the way with his powerful pounce. For a
terrifying second, the boy was pinned to the cement by the powerful,
catlike paws. The robot stalled for a minute and the boy looked up into
the tiger's cold, mechanical face. The college boy's heart pounded in
terror. Then the long, sword-like claws came out of the metal paws.
They pierced the boys chest and stabbed his heart in two places. The
lethargic expression of death came over the boy's face. His head fell
back against the pavement with a thump.

The death toll undoubtedly would have reached thousands and thousands
as the killing machines roamed the streets but, fortunately, the police
were out in about five minutes. Armed with submachine guns, they flew
in in black helicopters. Once on the street, the cops tried to move
methodically but among the chaos, most got lost.

One officer named Raoul Hisatomi found himself on a mostly empty
street. Giving a quick look, he saw the silver tiger running down the
sidewalk straight at him. Raoul took his sub-machine gun off safety and
aimed it at the approaching robot. Raoul was a very good shot and a
euphoric calm took over him. Methodically, he shut one eye and
carefully held the sights in the path of the metal fiend sprinting
toward him. He squeezed the trigger and moved it along with the robot,
keeping the spray of fire in the center of the tiger. Raoul always felt
very happy when he was shooting things. To Raoul's amazement, the robot
tore apart like scrap metal and fell on its side, a piece of metallic
junk, in the middle of the sidewalk. Walking over to the metal corpse,
Raoul looked at the still menacing metallic tusks and the dead glass
eye. One eye was shattered by a bullet. Quietly, he ran his hand over
his dark shaved hair. Not far away, the bloody corpse of a young man
about Raoul's age lay strewn about in pieces. Raoul picked up his
walkie talkie and reported to mission control, "This is Raoul Hisatomi.
I killed one."

Less than five minutes later, a message came across Raoul's radio, "All
robots hunted down and destroyed. Report to the re-organization
location."

The city was completely searched for Harry but they didn't find him. A
couple of coffeeshop clerks reported having seen an American who
matched Harry's description. Sony Corp. payed the police a large sum of
money for one of the robotic corpses. Study of the specimen has greatly
improved Sony's robotic technologies.

Now, Harry Peters has entirely disappeared for two years. Police from
all around the world have investigated tirelessly but they've turned up
not a single clue as to where Harry Peters might be. As for me, I
received a very haunting e-mail the other night from a screen name
HarryPeterssavetheworld. It said simply,

"Dear James,
Wait till you see my new robot.
Your friend,
Harry Peters"