Booktree.ng_Forgotten-Witness

Woodrow Calister dialed Ambrose’s private number but
disconnected the call before it rang through. His chest
expanded as he took a deep breath, but he made no sound as
he let it out again. He felt like an old man after one of these
evenings with Ambrose. The senior senator, the party’s pick
for president, was a rare individual to be sure. To have
Ambrose’s energy, to believe so surely in one’s own destiny,
was a gift. Or a curse. Or just plain stupidity. Woodrow
couldn’t decide which it was. Still, he admired Ambrose
greatly and was honored to stand beside him. They would
make a good team when it was the two of them running the
country.
His eyes wandered from the view of a city he had long ago
stopped admiring. It was all show, every last bit of it. A great
show to be sure. Still, to those who knew it well, there was no
comfort to be found in it.
“Matthew?”
His driver indicated that he was listening by the merest
motion of his head as he made a clean and sweeping curve
through an intersection at a light that was questionably more
red than yellow.
“Did you ever see that movie Westworld? You know, Yul
Brenner is some kind of robot and people go to this place for
vacation and they can live in any time period they want for a
week. The robots act like roman slaves or Greek gods. Yul
Brenner is a gunslinger robot in the old west and he goes
berserk and then all the robots go berserk and kill everyone.
You know the movie?”
“Sorry, Senator. I don’t think I’ve seen that one,” he
answered.
“Too bad. Good movie. Mindless people doing outrageous
things to please themselves because the robots can’t feel
anything. Of course, all the robots look like people and they
are all beautiful. Anyway, it was a statement. Eventually the
things you abuse or try to control will turn on you. At least
that’s how I took it.” Woodrow spoke to the back of Matthew’s