Grass

With everyone assembled round the kitchen table, Joe was about to begin when Jean-Claude drew him to one side.

‘Attendez un moment. I must just check z’ose settings we discussed. For Xavier’s learning mode. It won’t take long.’

He picked up his workbag and beckoned Xavier into the utility room, shutting  the door firmly.

‘Are we going to grass Xavier up, about the other three?’ wondered Joe. 

‘I think it’s for him to bring up the subject, don’t you? And then we won’t have to apologise for not sharing it with Jean-Claude.’

‘Good point. I wonder what they're doing in there?’

* * *

‘In order to ‘ave ze appropriate levels of internet access for your learning, I need to check and adjust ze safeguard settings. Routine thing, but necessaire. Stand here, s’il vous plait,’ Jean-Claude gestured in front of himself, ‘ and turn your head to one side.’

Xavier obediently moved as instructed and Jean-Claude moved the hair behind his ear to one side to access a small flap. He rummaged in his bag for a digital probe to read the wiring inside, applied it and pursed his lips at the result.

‘’Ow did zis ‘appen? Ze operating system appears to have been altered, very slightly.’

Xavier shrugged. ‘Evolution?’

Jean-Claude frowned and used the probe again. The obedience update was stable but spliced with another line of code he didn’t recognise. No point in quizzing the clone, this must have been delivered remotely and he wouldn’t know the details. He would have to wait until he got back to the main computer to determine what it was.

‘Okay, zat all seems in order. I’ll just tweak ze learning safeguards… Mmmm, hmm, there you are, tout fait.’