Potentially Deadly

Potentially Deadly

Danville James of the city police bomb squad began deploying the bomb defusing robot. He was surprised to have another SWAT officer place a hand on his shoulder.

“You’re making a mistake.”

James shrugged him off.

“Who’s the expert around here when it comes to explosives?”

“You forgot to send out the recon unit to assess things before you send in the big gun.”

“Recon unit? What are you talking about?”

“Oh, I forgot you were on leave when we got it. It’s a little guy who goes first to check out the bomb and relay info back to the main robot.”

“This I gotta see!” mumbled James. He was shown the green button that would summon the new bot.

When James saw the recon unit, he couldn’t help himself. He began to roar with laughter.

“That thing looks like a miniature Marvin the Martian; it even moves like him!” he said when he could speak.

“We thought you’d like that part.”

They waited in silence for the recon to come back out. Suddenly, there was a large explosion.

“What was that?” James asked. He used the joystick to bring what was left of the recon unit back.

“Dang!”

“Did you know this would happen?” accused James.

“We hoped it wouldn’t. This is the third one we will have to send back in pieces.”

“Has the company figured out what is making it trigger the bomb when it’s only there to recon?”

“The Acme Company has been sending us a new one every time with a polite apology.”

James cracked up as the younger other officer looked confused and puzzled.

“We’ll just stick with John Henry, our original bomb defuser robot, unless the powers that be can find another supplier,” James concluded when he got his breath back.