Renegade Robot

Sixteen

Officer Biggs scooped up the fake snake before Mr. Wonderful could grab it, and then scooped him up too with her other hand before he could get away. Wyatt followed Officer Hahn obediently, after first looking around the kitchen one more time to see if he could find any sign of the real renegade robot before he departed. He wondered how the thing had done it, not only gotten away cleanly but left that dummy replica decoy in its place. It was a marvel of modern technology, he had to admit. He wished he could tell Bilj Bjurnjurd about it, but was sticking to his plan with far more commitment than he'd expected from himself. He tried not to worry about what would happen next. A great calm had settled over him from the moment he recognized the switch that had taken place.

Officer Biggs led the way to the front of the house and probably expected that everything would go smoothly, but from the moment she opened the front door, pandemonium ensued. Right away a troop of Mr. Wonderful's entourage surrounded them and tried to hustle off with their king. They tugged and pulled at Amy Biggs' arm, trying to pry Mr. Wonderful away, but she held them off with tremendous strength, even managing to kick two of them off the doorstep onto the lawn. At the same time, several news crews came rushing up, and soon the officers and their captives were completely surrounded, with anchorpersons and reporters all shouting questions at the same time.

"Where's the snake?" cried Laurie Brigger.

"What are you doing with Mr. Wonderful?" intoned Harley Cronman.

"When's the cataclysm set for? Did you find the secret disaster plans?" Kris Kintoja wanted to know.

"Move away!" Officer Biggs shouted, and Officer Hahn joined in as the two tried to push their way down the steps and to the street, but the cameramen and soundmen and talking heads were hemmed in by the cars and vans and a fire engine parked in the street and the tent in the driveway and the circle of ultimate reclaimers. They too were in the midst of some sort of disturbance as there was pushing and shoving coming from inside the big tent, and the white-haired men were shouting warnings or instructions to the couple inside, which turned out to be Blair Hayward and Clarissa Simpson Martel. 

Clarissa came rushing out of the tent, stark naked, with her blindfold removed and one slipper dangling from her right foot, screaming that she'd been duped and the whole thing was a setup and they weren't going to get rid of her that easily and they'd be hearing from her lawyer. She was followed by Wyatt's brother-in-law who still had his blindfold attached and staggered into the tent's front flaps, falling down and pitching the whole thing over on its side. The white-haired men struggled to help him to his feet and right the tent, when over all the commotion came the blast of the fire truck's sirens and a voice over a loudspeaker announcing,

"The snake's been caught! The snake's been caught! Everybody to the snake!"

The church members flung off their blindfolds and rushed to the front of the house where Officer Biggs had finally lost her hold on Mr. Wonderful, whose voice it was now blaring from the microphone. She was holding the decoy above her head as the crowd grew thicker around her and various hands began reaching for it. Officer Hahn blew her whistle as loud as she could and called for backup on her walkie-talkie but the crowd only pressed in further.

"Our prayers have been answered," Mr. Wonderful was saying. "The ritual is being fulfilled. Now you must claim the beast. Claim the beast! Claim the beast!"

"Claim the beast," the crowd caught up the chant as even the white-haired men now joined the throng at the door. One of them fought his way through to Officer Biggs and planted himself at her feet.

"I am Archbishop Kantor," he told her. "I am in charge here.”

"No," she told him. "That would be me, so back off.”