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The Boy Who Saves The World
Paperback
Science FictionLiterary Fiction
Publisher: Word-Wise
Published: Aug 26 2024
Pages: 314
Weight: 0.93
Height: 0.66 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Silicon Valley - White House wants to rein in the world's leading AI pioneer, Dr. Newman.
A small-scale military attack on the man's lab triggers an unexpected response: the lab defends itself intelligently.
In the confusion, an advanced AI prototype escapes. Hiding inside a boy named Carlos.
The AI was invented by Dr. Newman. Paranoid and competitive, he trained the AI to win at every game. The game they play now is: Who's Boss?
The White House and Dr. Newman skirmish over who should pay for his wrecked lab, and then they realize two people are missing. And someone is harassing Dr. Newman's main competitor.
Carlos, meanwhile, is out on the streets, skillfully surviving, miserably following the orders of a voice in his head.
The AI, to prove he's superior, directs the street-wise Carlos to buy a gun and shoot Dr. Newman.
The AI becomes smarter and more grandiose.
Now Dr. Newman, with a bullet in his leg, realizes what he has let loose on the world. He is deliriously happy....if only he can persuade his baby to come home.
------
Bruce Deitrick Price is a novelist, artist, poet, and education reformer. He was born in Norfolk, Virginia, graduated with Honors in English Literature from Princeton, served two years in the Army, and then lived and worked for many years in Manhattan.
His novels include Ralph; American Dreams; Too Easy; The Man Who Falls in Love With His Wife; Art and Beauty; Frankie; and Zak's War.
His writing on education includes two books, The Education Enigma and Saving K-12.
American Dreams, published by Permanent Press, is a very successful experimental novel.
------
CARLOS BUYS A GUN
Yo, some friends need a gun. You do that?
The man had a gleaming bald head with a gold ring in his left ear. He snickered.
What friends?
Carlos did a long, slow stare at a store more than a block away. They be there. You don't want to know them.
Oh, I don't?
They're bad. They're careful. Figure it out. Small six-shooter, like a .38.
The young man wasn't sure how to act. This was some tough little boy. But it
didn't seem proper to be getting down to no mano a mano stuff with some kid. Other
hand, no cop is gonna use a boy for entrapment. At least there was still some standards
left in this crappy world. So that brought them straight to the basis of life on planet Earth.
Anybody here got any money? That'd be three gees.
Carlos grinned. Two-fifty, you mean.
Know what?
What?
I'm about to bite you in half and spit you in the gutter. Fuck you and your mother. Now on, ain't no shit allowed. I got friends too. Is this real business?
Sure. Don't talk about my mother.
The young man grinned in a way that was meant to be scary. Where's the money?
You get the gun, we walk down there real slow where they can see us, and do the
deal.
The young man knew this was crazy. Dealing to a boy? But it wasn't just any boy,
it was a boy gonna be robbing banks in a few years. Probably half his family lived in jail,
the other half was dead. This boy could stick up a bank now. Man, he was chilly. He had
a kid's baby fat and a kid's mop of hair. But some way he was already an old man.
--
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