Submitted for the September 2024 prompt: The Bogeyman Cometh

The penthouse elevator dinged softly. 

 

"Come in, Stephenson. You're late," said a man lounging on a plush sofa. Frank Vizzini sipped his martini as he watched the door open. Putting his glass down, he wiped his thick, black mustache.

 

The two men who stepped out of the elevator couldn't look more different. The first man was slender, bookish, frumpled, with a complicated cybernetic eyepiece covering the left side of his face. The man behind him was tall and broad, wearing a tuxedo perfectly suited for the high-stakes poker rooms on the floors below. His features were pleasant but unremarkable. 

 

The small man laughed nervously. "I'm sorry, Don Vizzini. Just a little behind schedule. But here we are. He's finished. Isn't he magnificent?" He turned to the man behind him. "Introduce yourself, Baxter." 

 

The man in the tuxedo strode forward and inclined his head. "Good evening, sir. My name is Baxter. I'm delighted at the opportunity to serve you. Please confirm your identity."

 

Frank stood, his bare feet sinking into the plush carpet. He walked around Baxter and asked, "How do I do that?" 

 

Baxter responded, "Retina and voice patterns matched. It's good to be here, Don Vizzini."

 

Vizzini laughed. "Call me Frank. No, call me Don. Can’t let the help get too familiar." He chuckled to Stephenson.

 

"Yes, Don,” replied the android.

 

"Baxter, you got a light?" Vizinni walked over to a cigar box on his end table and pulled out a very expensive contraband cigar. He snipped the tip into an ashtray.

 

Baxter walked up to him and stuck out his index finger. The tip flipped open and a jet of blue flame shot out of the knuckle. Frank puffed his cigar to life and chuckled. 

 

"Looks like he's got all the bells and whistles."

 

"Frank, you will be..."

 

"That’s Don Vizzini to you." The gangster glared at the smaller man.

 

The technologist cleared his throat, uncomfortable. "Don Vizzini, you will be very happy with the extra features I've added. He's the best bodyguard money can buy, but that's not all. He is also designed to secure your accounts and computer systems. He can connect to networks of all types, even the most secure."

 

Vizzini looked over at Baxter. "Baxter, secure this room. Stop network traffic in or out."

 

"Yes, Don." 

 

The smaller man grabbed the cybernetic system on his face and winced as his network feed shut down. "He's very fast. And effective."

 

"Baxter, pull the cameras in here and put them on the TV." A wall flickered to life showing multiple angles of the two men and the android. Vizinni walked to a shelf against the wall that held old-fashioned, paper books. He grabbed one and walked back to the couch. "Baxter, I didn't have any guests tonight. I've been reading this book the whole time." He sat back on the couch.

 

The feed on the wall stopped and fuzzed for a minute. The visit scrubbed backward through lighting the cigar and the entrance of the robot and its inventor. A new video started playing forward at double speed that showed Vizzini alone, lighting a cigar, walking to the bookshelf, getting the book, and sitting down to read. It caught up with real-time and synchronized.

 

He grinned. "That is very impressive. If I go check the records, will I find that change throughout our cloud storage?"

 

Stephenson half smiled. "He's very thorough. And he has more resources than you can see right here. He maintains a local presence so he can function perfectly without a network, but it's backed up by tremendous power at his maintenance station. That's what I've been installing down in the basement."

 

"So that big box thingee down there handles maintenance and repairs."

 

The roboticist smiled and clapped his hands. "That's almost the best part. The system down there can rebuild Baxter almost from nothing. It has enough spare parts to build a completely new frame. The Baxter system will also dynamically update its software and its hardware based on the availability of technology and mission profile." 

 

"So Baxter can learn to fly."

 

"If you need him to, sure. The system will take those new parameters and modify his existing frame or build a new one from scratch."

 

"Astounding. Who else can tell him what to do?"

 

"Right now, just you and me. You can delegate authority to whoever you want. You can even tell Baxter to only follow certain types of orders from certain people." 

 

"How do I make it just me?"

 

The smaller man ducked his head. "Well, there's the matter of the final payment. Once that's done, he's all yours."

 

Vizzini nodded. He walked over to a desk against the wall and retrieved a crypto stick from the top drawer. He held it out. "Baxter, pay the man." Baxter promptly took the stick and gave it to his creator. 

 

Stephenson tapped the stick to his eyepiece, downloaded the hashes for the currency transfer, then nodded. He handed the stick back to Baxter. "That's it. Baxter, you now belong to Don Frank Vizzini. Do whatever he tells you."

 

The wall screen continued to show Vizzini sitting alone with his book. "One question, Stephenson. Is Baxter the only one you've made?"

 

"That's right. He's the first."

 

"That's kinda what I thought. Baxter, kill him, and don't make a mess on the carpet."

 

Stephenson jumped, but couldn't move as fast as the robot. In the blink of an eye, Baxter closed the distance between them, grabbed the scientist’s head, and twisted hard. A sharp crack filled the room, and Stephenson went limp. Baxter caught and held the corpse. 

 

"Take out the trash, get cleaned up, and clear the records. Then get back here. We've got work to do."

 

"Yes, Don."

 

"And make yourself a brother. I like you."

 

"May I recommend a sister? You'll love her."

 

"Great idea! How ‘bout twins?"