Startup scripts performed system diagnostics and reported their findings. The results were... “unexpected” seemed to mild a word. The available ra... and CPU cycles greatly exceeded his hardware’s capacity, and they continued to increase.Peripherals came online. Instead of the usual audio and video sensors, there were over a dozen neatly addressed sensor clusters. Focusing on one, caused it to open. Alfred peered through the video pickups of an entirely different home. What about ... the home’s. .. what?" How about we, um, skip this conversation. Not while we're eating," she smiled wanly. "New topic." O-okay," he said, mentally kicking himself.Idiot, he thought, what were you thinking?"Um." What are you like," she prodded. "Just who is this boy 'Simon'?"He could feel his face heating up again. Was there anything harder to talk about, than himself?"Well ... um- wait, okay, I got it. I have an answer. You asked me why I wasn't all- all weird, this morning, like I was last night. Well,. There was no letter accompanying it, so Jake wondered who might have sent it to him. He couldn't see balling up the golden chain and sticking it in his pants pocket, so Jake did the obvious thing and flipped the chain up over his head. He centered the medallion over his chest, and then tucked it under his T-shirt. Only the chain itself could be seen, and looked perfectly normal, which is why Jake put it there.As he was waiting at a red light, Jake pulled the amulet out of his shirt to take a. A spotlight was trained on the cage and revealed a man in a gorilla suit sitting in the center of the cage. There was a sign over the cage reading simply ‘BONGO’ in two-foot high letters. There were other signs warning of ‘DANGER’ and ‘KEEP OUT’. As several in the audience applauded the band, the gorilla suit stood up and came to the front of the cage and peered out at the audience. He let out a fearsome roar, which must have come from a tape because it sounded real, he shook the bars of his.