Welcome to the Family

The day Dad received the email from Keystone Cybernetics, I knew. Moments later, Dad placed the order, and Mom, well, Mom-expected doom and chaos. Two weeks passed, then it arrived, our new Keystone Cybernetics humanoid robot. Its name, stenciled largely on the crate-ATLAS. And you're probably wondering who I am, I'm Laney Martin, and I live in Willow Springs, one of the first Keystone Cybernetics all-AI testing cities in the world. From the beginning, Atlas gave me the creeps; he was too quiet, too watchful, and too independent. We all experience it-that creepy sensation that causes your skin to tingle, as if something or someone were watching you. Atlas isn't like the others, though; cut off from the hive, he follows no one's orders but his own. That makes him unpredictable. Even dangerous. He might be hiding something far darker than any of us suspect. The only thing I know for sure is that Atlas isn't like us. And that's what scares me most.