The Sentry

Suddenly a car came tearing down the dirt road and screeched to a halt in front of him sending sheets of dust up into the air. A middle aged woman threw herself out of the front seat, her eyes wild with fear as she stared straight at the policeman.

"Where’s Robby. Where’s my son. Was it one of those robots that got him?" said the woman, as she realised that his son was almost certainly dead. "What do I tell me husband?" she said, already wondering how to break the news that their child was never coming home.

"There’s nothing you can do for him now. Let me take care of the robot and then we will look after your son" said Blair awkwardly as he quickly climbed into his suit, trying hard not to look at the pain in the woman’s face.

"Stay here with her" said Blair to the farmer. "I don’t want anyone else getting hurt"

Within minutes he was fully prepared and was about to walk back up the ridge when he stopped and reached into the boot of his car and pulled out a shotgun.

"I’m going to fix you, you bastard" he said grimly and then turned and marched back up the hill.

The mother waited anxiously for over twenty minutes whilst Blair vanished from sight. All the time she wondered how and when she was going to explain to her husband what had happened to their only son. Only that morning they had been talking about going into town to see a show. The realisation of what had happened was only just beginning to sink in.

Blair walked over the ridge and started down the incline to the valley below . Slowly, surely he looked around him trying to find the robot when suddenly there was another "piffpt" and a dart bounced harmlessly off his plastic visor.

Blair spun to his left and saw the robot directly in front of him. Without thinking he blasted off the shotgun at almost point blank range and both barrels hit the robot head on. The machine was torn to bits and flew up into the air before landing heavily on its side. A thin trickle of smoke rising steadily into the air as what was left of its motor slowly burnt itself out.

"Fixed you, mate" he said, grimly, as he pulled the heavy duty visor off his face.

As he did so he turned to look at the child lying in the centre of the sand dune and nearly had a heart attack as the boy started to sit upright.

"What’s happening? What’s all the noise about?" said the boy as he yawned and started to scratch his head.

"Don’t you know?" said Blair incredulously, sure that the boy had been killed.

"Know what? I’ve been playing in the sand dunes and dozed off.

As he spoke the woman came running over the top of the hill, closely followed by the farmer. She had been unable to contain herself any longer, and desperately wanted to see if her son was still alive.

"God bless, you Inspector"

"Don’t thank me" said Blair "The sentry must have thought Robert was a friend"

"What do you mean?" asked the farmer, bewildered.

Blair smiled broadly, enormously relieved to find the boy was unharmed, not believing his incredible good fortune. He had to let the nervous tension out.

"Well, after all, they are both Ro-berts!"

THE END