CHAPTER 4

"DR. BARTLETT, I think I've done it!" Jared yelled across the lab excitedly. "We're receiving new information from Abbey's chip and the program's been able to interpret some of the data and correlate it to several of her actions."

Stacey hurried over to Jared's desk. Such a breakthrough would be monumental. As the Research Director, she would get the credit for the discovery. Looking at the screen displaying the program results, and then a halovid of Abbey in her cage, Stacey compared the dog's actions to the data.

"I think you're right. Look! The computer indicates she's thinking of water and now she's walking over to her water dish."

"Yeah, now she's going to go back and lay down. Wait, no she's thinking about scratching."

After quenching her thirst, Abbey sat down and scratched at her left ear.

"She did it! She really did it! Dr. Franklin's going to be thrilled. Good work, Jared. Wait, she just walked over to the cage door. Why didn't the program pick up on that?"

"It's not perfect, Dr. Bartlett. Right now, it's only about fifty percent accurate. That should change as the program continues to associate her actions with neuron activities."

"How long before we're at one-hundred percent?" Stacey asked, feeling disappointed.

"I don't think we'll ever get that high, but I wouldn't be surprised if we were at ninety within a couple of weeks. It's taken six months to get this far."

"Is there any way to speed the process up?"

Jared thought about it for a few seconds.

"Increasing her training should do it. We can have Bruce and Willie put her through more intensive exercises. Make her work harder, mentally and physically. The more difficult the task, the better. And she needs to be pushed until she fails at some things. The program needs to interpret negative results as well as positive if we're to fully understand what they see and do."

"Good thinking. Tell them to develop some new exercises for Abbey. I'm on my way to Dr. Franklin with the news. He's probably going to want a demonstration."

"If you can get him to wait a few days, I think I can get the percentage up a few more notches," Jared said. "Then he can't start giving us his fifty-fifty argument... You know, there's a fifty-fifty chance the computer is going to be right or going to be wrong."

"Well, he's right, technically, but it's not a very professional analysis. Anyone with half a brain knows that much," Stacey said. "I'll tell him we need until Friday to set up the demonstration. And Jared... Abbey had better not let me down, understand?"

Turning, Stacey rushed from the lab, completely oblivious to the seething hatred in Jared's eyes as he momentarily let his guard down.